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How are Staffing Customers Like Elephants?

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staffing-customers-like-elephants It’s simple:

Whether their service experience is exceptionally good or bad, THEY NEVER FORGET.

Consider this scenario:

A client calls you with a “needle in a haystack” hiring challenge. Your best recruiter jumps on the project – I mean, he really hustles. Within a week, he miraculously finds not just one, but TWO motivated job-seekers with the right mix of skills, experience and personality for the role.

The client interviews both, and quickly rules one out. After a problem-free background check, the client asks you to extend a generous offer to the candidate of choice.

You’re in the home stretch, right?

Then something goes very wrong. Instead of accepting the offer, your candidate flatly rejects it – no counter-offer, no explanation, no further contact.

What do you think your client is going to remember:

all of the hard work that went into the placement…

…or the fact that you have nothing to show for it?

It’s unfair, but true: though you may work your butt off to create exceptional experiences, forces outside your control can taint them in your clients’ eyes. And instead of forgetting and moving forward, they behave like elephants (angry ones) – holding onto bad memories and trumpeting their dissatisfaction all over the internet, damaging your company’s reputation in the process.

Memory plays an undeniably important role in customer service. Though 90% of what you do for clients may be outstanding, the 10% that’s less-than-stellar can have a disproportionately negative impact on their recall of the experience.

The best way to tip the scales in your favor? Intentionally shape the emotional associations with key service experiences.

Sound like a mouthful (or a trunkful)? Let me explain:

Any customer service memory is a collection of experiences. During times of high emotion, our brain radically simplifies these experiences when filing them away for storage – retaining only the most salient aspects of the situation and letting go of what it deems extraneous. By saying and doing the right things during the most vivid, emotionally crucial points in your conversations with clients, you can shape their experiences – and ultimately create better memories.

Shaping the Service Experience

Using the example above, this client’s “high emotion” point occurs when he realizes that stellar candidate will not be joining his team. What can you do to in a situation like this to create a better memory for the client – and a better outcome for your firm?

These earlier shareworthy service posts explain:

 

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