According to Wikipedia, public relations is the management of internal and external communications to create a positive image.

Accounts Payable organizations have done a lousy job of public relations, and it is a major reason why the contributions of AP have gone unrecognized over the years. There I said it. Who out there will challenge my statement.

INTERNAL CUSTOMER RELATIONS

AP treats their internal customers as "fellow employees", and honestly believes they know what their internal customers require from the AP process.

When I conduct the AP Certification Review I ask the group three questions:

1. Do you have a strategy in place to obtain customer requirements?
2. How are customer requirements used to drive your process improvement priorities?
3. Do you share your performance improvement measurements with your customers?

The answers to all three of these questions is an overwhelming NO.

Today Internal Customer Satisfaction barely makes the process improvement priority list. This has not always been true. Up until 2003, customer satisfaction was always in the top five priorities for AP process improvements.

There is some good news. The Hackett Group reports that "Best-in-Class" AP organizations report a 47 percent higher Internal Customer Satisfaction rate than their peer group.

I've said this many times, "Take care of your customers or someone else will."

EXTERNAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONS

When I review the section "Master Vendor File and Vendor Relations" in the Certification Manual, I ask four basic questions of the attendees:

1. Do you team with Purchasing and issue a "Welcome Letter" to your new suppliers?
2. Do you issue your own "Welcome Letter" independent from Purchasing?
3. Do you periodically request a statement from your suppliers that reflect the overall volume of invoices received from that vendor along with any credits or overpayments you have made during that period?
4. Do you request a "Supplier Satisfaction Report Card".

Unfortunately, overwhelming the answer to all four of these questions is NO.

Today, a companies overall performance and efficiency is more dependent on the capability of their suppliers, as many activities are being transferred to suppliers that were previously done "In-house".

Suppliers need to be viewed as business partners and we in AP need to be viewed as easy to do business with.

Communications is the key to successful supplier relations and will result in a Win-Win for both parties.

Tom Nichols, president of Process Management Improvement, Inc., provides research, AP process improvement consulting, training and seminars to large companies and financial associations. Email Tom Nichols