877-770-2345

Recently, a frustrating customer service experience with a national rental car company at the Atlanta Airport, which will remain unnamed; and an incredibly smooth experience with the California beverage chain, Beverages & more! (www.bevmo.com) compelled me to take the time to post two reviews on Yelp.com.  Yelp.com is one of the fastest growing websites for people to read and post reviews about local businesses.

As I was typing these reviews and selecting the number of stars to rate these experiences, I realized how everyone at every level in a staffing agency should be striving to make their candidates and customers feel genuinely good about their relationship. This applies to all businesses, but even more so to the staffing industry because of the people-centric nature of the business on every side.

In the spirit of staying positive, I’ll avoid the temptation to vent. But for a good laugh, watch the following Seinfeld clip, which prophetically depicted my experience with this rental car company.

On the other hand, I had one of the smoothest experiences ordering a bottle of wine through Bevmo.com for a business associate of mine who had recently helped me out. After ordering online the exact bottle I was looking for, I realized that I had forgotten to send it as a gift. I frantically called the customer service number listed on the website. A live voice immediately answered and transferred me to someone who was able to log into their tracking system, change my order to be shipped as a gift, and hand-type the message I dictated to be sent with the bottle.

Mediocre service just doesn’t cut it anymore. The main thing regional staffing agencies have going for them is the ability to make a personal emotional impression on each candidate and client. The question is, “What type of emotional impression are you and your staff going to make?” Here are some action steps you can take to raise your candidate/customer service game:

• Have people at “every touch point” within your staffing company ask, “How can I make our candidate and customer feel especially good about our relationship today?”
• Setup a Google Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) for your staffing company’s name to be emailed to you everyday, this will help you monitor what’s being said about you online.
•  Ask candidates and customers, who have positive experiences with you, to write reviews for your staffing agency on sites like Yelp.com.
• Create a candidate and client-centric culture within your company by celebrating positive reviews on a regular basis.

Everett Reiss
Business Relationship Development
The Staffing Cooperative
Check me out on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/evreiss
Check us out on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/StaffingCo_op