When a prospect searches online for information about your staffing or recruiting firm, what will he find?
A link to your company website?
A recent blog post?
A scathing review from an upset client?
Ouch – hope it’s not the third.
Customers are becoming more vocal than ever about the service they receive from your staffing agency. As I mentioned in an earlier shareworthy service post:
- 17% of clients who have a positive experience will share their opinions on social media and 15% will write an online review;
- 25% of clients who have a negative service experience will express their opinions on social media and 19% will write an online review;
- 49% of consumers are “very unlikely” to do business with a company, based on a bad recommendation from someone they trust.
Again, ouch.
So what should you do – sit around and wring your hands, hoping that happy clients will digitally sing your company’s praises – and that disgruntled customers will somehow permanently lose their internet access?
Of course not.
You should take action, proactively acquiring and managing great company reviews. Use these tips to identify satisfied clients and encourage them to positively review your services, quality and support:
- Enlist your team’s help. Train employees who interact directly with clients (in sales, recruiting, support, and even accounting) to ask those clients for positive reviews after they’ve received great service. Provide a simple mechanism, such as an email link to a review site, for clients to provide feedback immediately, while favorable impressions are still fresh in their minds.
- Email your current clients. Add a review request (again, a direct link to a review site is best) at the bottom of your email marketing messages to existing customers.
- Survey current clients. Some of your most satisfied customers may not want to review your staffing service online, so provide them with another option. Create and email a simple staffing satisfaction survey to gather positive feedback from these clients.
- Follow-up with everyone who provides reviews. Thank clients who give you positive reviews and ask if you could interview them to develop case studies. For customers whose reviews indicate problems, contact them directly to address those issues as soon as possible.
- Don’t worry about perfection. Potential buyers read reviews to learn about your company’s strengths and weaknesses. And quite frankly, “perfect” ratings are less credible than honest ones. So if you occasionally receive a less-than-stellar review, put your service recovery plan into effect and don’t let the review bother you too much. Once you’ve resolved the client’s issue, ask him to remove or amend the negative review.
Is all this work worth the effort? Absolutely. Online staffing customer reviews and ratings have a huge impact on new leads. Customer proof of your staffing firm’s value and service helps attract and persuade new customers to give your agency a shot – and that’s all you need!