When dealing with personal data, you need to maintain trustworthy relationships with vendors and partners and be sure they are doing exactly what they tell you they are with the data. Using Know Your Customer practices to find partners that align with your company’s values, quality standards and operational needs should be a big part of assessing who you’re working with. Are the partners you are selling or transferring data to, would you be comfortable giving your or your mother’s data? Are they disclosing the correct things, such as that the call is being recorded or that this is AI or a prerecorded message? If you’re unsure, you need to be vetting that partner and all of them, frankly. There’s always a chance they might be re-selling the data behind your back or spamming the leads you provide. This is where the concept of vetting comes into play—a thorough process to evaluate potential partners and vendors to ensure they meet your security, reliability and ethical conduct criteria. Assumed is the way to get this vetting process in motion.
Vetting your business partners and vendors is not just about risk mitigation; it’s a strategic move to protect your company’s reputation, ensure regulatory compliance, and boost operational efficiency. By conducting a comprehensive vetting process, you’re not only safeguarding your organization but also laying the groundwork for sustainable growth and partnership. It’s a chess move that can sometimes make or break your business, and Assumed is your strategic partner in this game.
Utilizing Assumed in your vetting process
Here’s how you can incorporate Assumed into your vetting process:
- Seeded Contacts: To start vetting, you will need contacts to submit on landing pages or put into your lists. If calls or texts are sent to the leads, you will need to get contacts with a phone number; otherwise, email-only contacts start at $1.
- Setup: For each contact, set up a label for what it is being used for. If it’s for a specific partner’s landing page, mark it as such. If it’s a vendor’s list, mark it as such. This will help you keep track of what’s going on with each contact and know where it is. Also for better filtering when using the dashboard. Use the whitelist tab to mark which emails, domains or numbers you expect these contacts to hear from. When an email, call or text that isn’t on the whitelist comes in, you will be alerted daily via email.
- Seeding: Once you have your contacts, sew them into your list, which you will send to your partner or vendor, or head to their landing page and submit the lead. When doing either of these, when it comes to a vendor, they should know you are doing this. If they object to it, they’re hiding something and probably aren’t great to work with. For your partners, you should include that you will be vetting in your agreement with them. You could do this behind their backs, but they could come back and be upset about the wasted sales time on leads that aren’t real, and being transparent both ways garners more trust.
- Monitoring: As stated previously, if something phishy or fishy is going on and your contacts are being contacted by numbers or emails that they shouldn’t be, you’ll know. Also, when using Assumed, you’ll have a dashboard to see the amount of communications the contacts receive over time. You can read the emails and texts from the Assumed inbox and see where they came from.
- Bonus: Do you use security questionnaires to vet your partners or vendors? The Minimum Viable Secure Product (MVSP) checklist can be a useful tool for evaluating partners’ security posture or even conducting a self-assessment. Check out Assumed Secure.
The importance of carefully selecting vendors and partners and continuously vetting cannot be overstated. Leveraging platforms like Assumed can significantly streamline the vetting process. However, it’s equally important to approach this process with respect, transparency and collaboration. Remember, the goal of vetting is to protect your business from potential risks and build strong, enduring relationships that support mutual growth and success. Ultimately, the lead wins by having an experience where they aren’t spammed or contacted by irrelevant or, in some cases, malicious parties.