Just like businesses in other sectors, recruitment firms should survey their clients to gauge sentiment and identify anything that needs to be addressed – whether that’s a potential new opportunity or a possible threat. When you buy something online from eBay or Amazon, use an online help desk or even when you get your car serviced, you will, more likely than not, be sent a questionnaire asking you to rate your experience.
I never tire of these questionnaires because, after years of evaluating customer/ client satisfaction surveys, I am always pleased to see a company that understands the value of feedback on its service delivery and performance.
However, client/customer satisfaction surveys should not be the exclusive domain of the online or B2C community. The feedback these surveys can provide is just as essential for owners and managers of any service provider who want to stay ahead of the competition.
In fact, recruitment firms can benefit enormously from conducting surveys amongst their current clients and candidates. Questionnaires can help recruiters gain even more information in addition to all of the data that they are already sitting on, which can be used for press releases, articles and blogs to attract new business. And it gives your audience another reason to engage with you beyond the sales conversation.
Gathering data is always a great thing. Whether it’s for content creation or finding out about new trends in the sectors you are hiring for, picking the brains of the people in your industry is going to benefit you and your business.
And if you are wondering what your clients or the individuals you interact with think of your agency and the service it provides, then you should consider investing in a satisfaction survey. If you still need convincing, here are eight compelling reasons why recruitment firms should survey their clients and candidates.
Whether or not you receive positive or constructive feedback, your clients will appreciate the fact that you asked them and value the commitment you’re making to improve your service. By taking the time to find out what their thoughts and opinions are, they’ll know that your business values their views and having them as a customer. Acknowledging or implementing change in light of any criticism can also help you to build on the relationship and will hopefully increase client loyalty for the future.
“They will just say our fees are too high!” Not necessarily. Anonymous online or telephone questionnaires allow your clients the opportunity to give a full and frank appraisal of your service. You get the information you need and the clients have been saved any potential embarrassment during the process. Today, there is no need to use the trial and error method repeatedly until you get things right. Instead, you can use social media and online surveys to quickly and efficiently generate a two-way dialogue with your clients and candidates.
Reaching out to your clients and candidates can provide you with insight into important features that might be missing from your service. Your clients may even make you aware of new value–adds or service concepts that you might not have previously contemplated. Having access to unfiltered opinions of your company is an invaluable and cost-effective way of improving your business offering.
Quality customer service can mean the difference between retaining key clients and losing them to competitors who appear to value their custom more simply because they have approached them to initiate a discussion about their satisfaction with their current agency. You can also send a friendly survey to past clients. This will reveal more insight into your partnership, allowing you to reflect on the positives and the negatives - which may have resulted in the end of the contract. Once you have this information, you can straighten out any problems which were highlighted and work towards winning them back. Taking the time to survey candidates which have successfully secured placements will also allow you to replicate this success with other team members in the future.
Surveying your clients and candidates can make for excellent PR. Recruitment firms can ask their clients to rate their service in different areas and then publicise their high scores in marketing materials or across social media. It gives weight and credibility to your statements about your service quality. It also allows you to benchmark your services with others in the industry.
As mentioned previously, reliable data helps create great content and gives your comments credibility. Why just talk about how great you are when you can back this up with statistics? Also, while surveying your recruitment clients and candidates, you may find out some interesting views, which could form the basis of a press release or feature. Better yet, it might inspire a new topic for a whitepaper, which can benefit your clientele. The more content you have available, the higher your chances are of being seen by you target audience.
Surveying your clients and candidates about the latest trends happening in the industries you hire for can help you develop your bank of data, which positions you as a thought leader. Knowing where skills shortages are present, which roles are in highest demand and having information on salaries will help you stand out amongst your competition.
As you’ll be responsible for creating the questions and collecting the data, you’ll know that you can trust the statistics you receive and that they haven’t been framed in a particular way to fit an agenda. If you survey clients and candidates on a regular basis too, you’ll also have access to a back catalogue of information which will allow you to spot any trends, increases or decreases. Again – this is strong information which can form the premise of a successful press release.
Luckily, surveying your clients and candidates is quick and simple. You can send surveys to them directly, or encourage people to get involved through social media. If you need any help on getting started or putting together a survey which will result in meaningful response, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the BlueSky PR team.
Author: Fahida Begum