We're partnering with California Fuels and Convenience Alliance to help businesses protect themselves against financial, legal and compliance risks.
Helping businesses, big and small, to protect themselves against financial, legal and compliance risks is at the heart of everything we do here at Creditsafe. And with the current economy and energy crisis, businesses – big and small – are feeling the financial pressure so much more. So, when the opportunity came to partner with the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance (CFCA), we jumped on it. Founded in 1952, CFCA serves independent wholesale and retail marketers of gasoline, diesel, lubricating oils and other petroleum products; transporters of those products and retail convenience store operators.
Rather than go on and on about the partnership myself, I sat down for a chat with Elizabeth Graham, Executive Director at the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance as well as Dustin Weiss, Enterprise Accounts Manager (US) at Creditsafe.
Both have worked tremendously hard to bring this partnership to fruition. We're excited to see where this takes us.
What was the impetus behind forming the partnership with Creditsafe? Were there certain things you were looking for out of the partnership that Creditsafe could deliver compared to other credit risk intelligence platforms?
Elizabeth Graham: Our members have been using another credit risk intelligence provider for a number of years. But this provider experienced a data breach, which affected some of the CFCA’s members. With consumer privacy laws shifting in California and our ongoing commitment to keeping our members’ data confidential and safe, we didn’t feel our previous credit risk intelligence provider could meet our needs any longer. So, we began the conversation with Creditsafe and feel much more confident that our members’ data is protected and that the credit risk data provided by Creditsafe gives our members another level of protection against financial, legal and compliance risks.
What do you hope both sides will get out of this partnership?
Elizabeth Graham: On top of having peace of mind that CFCA and its members will get the best quality credit risk data from over 365 million businesses in over 160 countries, we’ll also be able to improve our trust and credibility with our members knowing that Creditsafe uses the most stringent data security practices. Plus, we’ll be able to rely on their team to act as the sole point of contact to answer our members’ questions about credit risk. Being able to spend our time where it’s most needed is tremendously valuable for our members, while also helping our team be more productive.
The types of businesses that make up our members are the ones feeling the biggest pinch from the impending recession and energy crisis. With their supply chains going through all sorts of disruptions over the last three years, particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re keen to help them save money and grow their businesses long-term.
This partnership will also allow us to reinvest resources and funding into the CFCA. As a non-profit, these types of partnerships are vital in helping us raise awareness and generate sources of income that we can then reinvest back into our organization so we can continue to help protect and grow small businesses.
Dustin Weiss: Working with a reputable trade organization like CFCA makes perfect sense for us. The energy industry is going through a very difficult time and has long been constrained by supply chain disruptions. So, being able to bring our data to the forefront to help their members make more informed business decisions is very important to us – it ties back to our own mission of empowering businesses to protect themselves against financial risks and grow their businesses long-term. We’ll also be working to share educational content with CFCA’s members – the content will be focused on helping them solve key problems in their businesses and will be backed up by hard data, unique insights and best practices.
What was it about Creditsafe that drew you into this partnership?
Elizabeth Graham: One of the biggest things that drew us into partnering with Creditsafe was their processes on handling affiliate partnerships. We wanted to make sure we offered an efficient, safe and controlled experience without having too much of our staff’s time spent on signing up members. We wanted to let the experts at Creditsafe do their jobs the best way they can. And it’s made a huge difference in our own team’s productivity and effectiveness. The less time we spend on day-to-day monotonous tasks, the more time we can spend serving the needs of our members. It’s a win-win.