What to Look For In a Rebate Management Company

No matter how big your business is, we’re willing to bet you’re always looking for the next big thing that helps to focus your company, drive up sales, and help to put you on the map like never before. Rebates are a great way to take your marketing tactics to the next level, and finding a strong rebate management company is the best way to dominate in this area.

However, many businesses aren’t sure where to start with this. What makes for a good rebate management company? What should they even be looking for?

Don’t worry, though. We’re here to help with a comprehensive guide on what to look for when hiring rebate management companies!

Excellent Hands-On Service

This one might be obvious, but we think it’s such a good point that it’s worth shouting. Your client, as well as your client’s customers, deserve a flexible, collaborative customer service team. And any good rebate management company is going to have very solid customer service.

Just to be clear, this is meant to extend in both directions. You want this company to offer amazing support to your customers, as this ties directly into increasing loyalty and building your brand, but you also want them to provide excellent client service for your company, especially in regards to setup and any customer or technical difficulties you encounter.

A Dedicated Team

Whenever you consider outsourcing any kind of service, there’s always someone who asks a simple question. “Why don’t we do it ourselves?” However, anyone who has been in the business long enough knows that this “simple” question has some pretty complex answers.

Every task your business takes on spreads your time and resources that much further. Eventually, something has to give, and some aspect of your business (customer service, sales, or some other crucial department) is going to suffer.

A good rebate management company is going to have a dedicated team with a specific body of knowledge and experience regarding rebates. This means they provide expert service and advice while freeing your team up to do what they do best!

Easy Setup

If you mention that you’re taking on some new technology or integrating some new service, you’ll typically hear veteran workers begin to groan. This is because they have a horror story (or two, or three) regarding the difficulty of trying to set something like that up.

That means the best rebate management companies are going to offer a very nice feature: easy setup! The company does all the hard work, all the client has to do is provide information and files and the experts will compile that information and complete the setup process for you.

It really is that easy. Find a rebate management company that offers easy setup for new clients and you can save you and your workers a lot of headaches down the line!

Solid Turnaround

Once you’ve narrowed down your top three choices of rebate management companies, you need to research other companies they have worked with before. Try to obtain client references that you can call up directly.

What are you looking for? It’s simple: check to see if these companies experienced an increased processing turnaround. This is proof of the results you are looking for, that this company will help your teams focus on other projects and to complete them in a timely manner!

Tangible Savings

Let’s be real for a moment: when you think about hiring a rebate management company, part of you seizes up with stress, right? That’s not uncommon, you’re probably just worried about the cost.

Obviously, outsourcing any kind of service is going to add to your annual costs. Therefore, those responsible for the company budget are going to worry how this impacts their bottom line.

Remember when we talked about calling those companies that have used this rebate manager before? Try to ask them how they were able to cut the costs of their in-house projects and teams once outsourcing began.

If you’re lucky, then the rebate processing is going to help pay for itself. Think of it this way. You’re already paying to do this yourself, all while cutting into your own productivity. Just imagine when you can start to get so much more done!

Cutting-Edge Tech

Imagine going over to a tech guru’s house. He seems like a charming and smooth talker, and then over his shoulder, you glimpse the unthinkable: a computer running Windows 95! Be honest. Would you trust anything this guy has to say about tech after that?

That example is a little extreme, but it shows you what to look for in a good rebate manager. You want a company that is actually using leading industry tech. After all, you want a company to help keep your own business on the cutting edge. That means they need to be thought leaders themselves!

Trustworthy Analytics

Of course, having all the technology in the world won’t do any good if the company doesn’t know what to do with it. That’s why you want the rebate manager to be a thought leader when it comes to data collection and analytics.

“Analytics” is more than just a buzzword people won’t stop saying. Instead, it’s a way of improving your company every month, quarter, and year. With good analytics, you can see what is a hit and what is a miss with the customers who received a rebate and then make the changes they crave!

Really, the only downside of analytics is that it takes some people some time to get really good at it. By hiring a company that is already good at analytics, you get to have your cake and eat it too!

Final Thoughts

Now you know what qualities to focus on when you are trying to decide among rebate management companies that might otherwise look similar. And it’s an important choice: this will influence your business and your customers for years to come!

Remember, you’re not just choosing a company. You’re choosing a way to revolutionize your business. And with our help, we know you’ll make the right choice!