Make vendor reference checks answer the question that matters

A useful vendor reference check begins with a question the proposal has not answered well enough. If your agency needs dependable service within a fixed window, a reference's general satisfaction may tell you little about how the supplier handled a missed visit. Decide what you need to verify before preparing the call or written request.

For government buyers, that work belongs within the procurement's authorized evaluation process. Establish who may contact references, which questions apply and how responses will be retained. Maryland's Procurement Manual illustrates this division of responsibility: evaluation committees may conduct reference checks as needed, while the procurement officer controls communication with offerors.

Choose someone who observed comparable work

A reference is useful when the person knows the work you need to understand. Check the relationship between the named supplier and the project, the period of performance, and the reference's role. Someone who approved invoices may have different knowledge from the person who dealt with service interruptions.

Maryland's Attachment L, effective April 2024, asks for comparable goods or services, performance dates and project value. Its instructions call for reachable contacts who know the bidder's performance. Those fields give a buyer a practical way to assess relevance before asking for an opinion.

Use G2X Directory to check supplier identity and research context, following the company research guide. Match the organization carefully when names are similar. Directory information can help you prepare; it does not establish how well the supplier performed. Community offers limited free Directory access, and you can also work directly from the bidder's submitted reference information and your agency's permitted public sources.

Keep the core questions consistent

Write a short set of questions tied to the requirements being evaluated. Ask comparable references the same core questions, then use follow-ups to understand the facts behind an answer. NASPO's guidance on responsiveness and responsibility recommends standardized reference questions and retained responses.

For a service-window requirement, an illustrative question might be: “When a scheduled service visit was missed, how did the supplier notify you and arrange recovery?” First establish whether the reference experienced that situation. A person who never saw a missed visit cannot describe the recovery process from experience.

If the answer identifies an incident, ask about its timing, the supplier's response and what the reference personally observed. Record any difference between the referenced work and your requirement. A smaller site or different service frequency may still be informative, but the comparison needs that context.

Keep the questions neutral. Asking how a problem was handled gives the reference room to describe an uneventful resolution, an unresolved issue or limited knowledge. A leading question can make the answer harder to interpret later.

Preserve the answer and its limits

Record the response in the agency's approved system, alongside the question and relevant project context. Distinguish the reference's account from the evaluator's interpretation. If an answer is incomplete, identify the missing information instead of filling it with an assumption.

The Montgomery County Public Schools Procurement Manual, on printed page 9, includes problems and their resolution in its reference process and provides for finalists to clarify unfavorable references. Follow your own procurement's process for handling such information. A negative comment needs enough context to be evaluated fairly.

You can prepare the question plan manually using the public requirements and an ordinary document. If authorized, Lumen can help identify passages in public requirement documents through Add > Add documents. That uploads selected files to Company Library. Keep confidential reference answers and restricted evaluation details in the approved agency system. Lumen preview access is subject to fair use.

Before the check proceeds, have the responsible procurement official review the questions and permitted follow-ups. The useful output is a plan for collecting relevant evidence, followed by a record that makes clear what was learned and what still needs clarification.