The Reference Call Is a Test You Run Yourself: Ask the Questions the Agency Will Not Write Down

A reference is one of the few places where an agency lets you hear from a family directly. Not every agency offers one, and the ones that do will choose the families they want you to hear from. That is why the call needs a plan. Ask the same questions of every reference, write the answers in a grid, and treat the blank spots as findings.

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Ask for references that match your need

Tell the agency what kind of help you need, and ask for references from families with a similar need. Ask how many references it can give you and whether you can call them yourself. If the agency will only pass along a letter, record that. A letter is a sales piece, not a reference.

Use the same questions every time

Ask each reference how quickly the agency answered calls. Ask whether the same workers came back. Ask how schedule changes were handled, and what happened on a day a visit fell through. Ask whether the first bill matched the quote. Ask what the agency explained plainly about money at the start, and what it left out. Ask how the family was told about problems, and whether they were told at all.

Ask about the families who left

Ask the agency how it handles a family who stopped using its service. Then ask whether one of those families would take your call, with their permission. A reference list full of satisfied clients is a sample, not a picture. Ask what the agency does when a family is unhappy, and how that case was closed. The answer will tell you more than the praise.

Grade the call, not the warmth

A warm reference is not a pattern. Look for specifics. A reference who names the kind of problem, how it was raised, and how it was settled is giving you usable information. A reference who says everything was fine and cannot name a single example is giving you much less. Score each agency on the same grid, marking which answers were plain, which were vague, and which were not given at all.

Where the desk's method fits

The desk ranks agencies on how plainly they talk about money on their websites and on the first call. The public side of that work is explained on the page How We Rate. Your reference grid applies the same test to the private side: a plain answer, a vague answer, or no answer at all.