Use Twitter as a Vendor Selection Tool???
Many people lament the time-sucking qualities of social media. People can get so engrossed in Facebook and Twitter that, before you know it, minutes melt into hours and hours into days. Hey – where did my productivity go? That is one reason why many skeptics think that Twittering is really just, well, frittering. It is also a reason why many businesses restrict employee use of social media while using company computers.
What has been less explored and acknowledged, though, is use of Twitter and social media as a time-saving tool for vendor selection.
Farfetched, you think?
Let’s see what some other companies are doing, especially in the realm of litigation management.
Some companies are using social media tools such as Twitter to help pick outside legal counsel. For example, Jeffrey Carr, General Counsel for FMC Technologies, launched a selection process requiring that candidate firms send Tweets on why he should pick their law firm. Fitting a compelling rationale within the confines of 140 characters was a challenge that taxed outside counsel’s creativity.
It is interesting to see what themes the various firms selected to fit into the size constraint.
Some firms touted their recent verdicts and settlements. Others mentioned the great wine they serve at celebratory dinners. (I cannot see a client choosing one law firm over another because of a preference for Pinot over a Cabernet.) One firm boasted, “We save you money – or die trying.”
Let’s be clear here. No one suggests that claim professionals or insurance companies select vendors based solely on the superficiality of Twitter, but the vignette illustrates the creative purposes to which businesses can use social media.
A broader application might have claim professionals use Twitter as one among many vendor selection tools. Vendors selected using social media tools could include outside law firms but also include rehab vendors, safety consultants, actuaries and surveillance firms. There may be little wisdom in picking vendors based solely upon the functional equivalent of a corporate haiku. Superficiality looms as an obvious downside.
Nevertheless, claim staffs could use this as one factor – among others — in evaluating vendors and their ability to articulate concisely differentiating features and advantages.
To get your candidate defense counsel – or other vendors – to “think outside the box” and to exhibit their resourcefulness, consider adding this feature to your Request for Proposal.
Reprinted with Permission from: February 2010 CLAIMS CAFFEINE
STRATEGIES FOR BETTER PRODUCTIVITY, MOTIVATION AND INSIGHT
Kevin Quinley CPCU, AIC, ARM is a claims consultant, trainer, speaker and expert witness. He is the author of ten books on various aspects of claims management. He is a contributing author to the IIA textbook for the Associate in Claims courses, Principles of Workers Compensation Claims (Second Edition) 1998. You can reach Kevin at kquinley@cox.net. or 703-239-1694.
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