It’s confidence, baby!
If your reps and recruiters don’t believe:
- In themselves – and their ability to do a great job
- In the service your team will provide – both internally and externally
- In your “product” – the quality of your candidates, and the solutions your firm provides
…how can you expect clients and candidates to???
You can’t.
If your customer-facing employees are stumbling for words, unable to provide accurate information, and looking like proverbial deer in the headlights, clients and candidates will question their competence. And that’s definitely not good for business.
Your mission?
Give your team the support and training they need to get – and stay – confident:
Educate them.
Industry terminology. Strategic staffing and workforce management concepts. Employment law. HR principles. Learning about the staffing industry – and keeping up with changes – is a monumental task. And if your reps and recruiters don’t have a strong, working knowledge of relevant principles, trends and best practices, you can’t expect them to become trusted resources for your clients.
If you don’t have one already, create a formal program for educating new hires and giving everyone on your team the ongoing training they need to stay informed. Knowledge isn’t just power; it’s a powerful confidence-booster.
Shameless Plug: Our Lunch with Haley webinar series is a great free training resource: www.lunchwithhaley.com
Train them on your services and solutions.
Beyond learning about our industry as a whole, your staff also needs an in-depth understanding of the services your firm offers:
- nuts-and-bolts stuff, like pricing, margins, guarantees, recruiting and processes, etc.;
- details on how your services stack up against competitors’;
- the business value your solutions deliver.
Give your employees time and training to explore your offerings in-depth. Then:
- Put their knowledge to the test (in a supportive way) by challenging them with real customer-service issues you’ve encountered.
- Have team members shadow employees in other departments to better understand how your staffing firm operates as a unit. The big-picture knowledge they gain will allow them to provide more complete information – and better solutions – to customers when issues arise.
- Provide scenario-based training to help employees do a better job addressing clients’ and candidates’ concerns in the field.
…and on delivering shareworthy service, too.
Too often, staffing firms focus solely on “product” and industry knowledge, overlooking the training employees need to deliver an amazing service experience for clients and candidates. Thankfully, I’ve written over 150 post on virtually every aspect of customer service for staffing and recruiting firms. If you do nothing else, encourage your account managers and recruiter to read my blog. I write it just for you and your team!
And if there’s ever a topic you’d like me to explore in a post, just ask.
Empower them.
When your team members have training, authority and resources to resolve problems – and know that you’ll back them up – they’ll handle every service interaction with greater confidence and better results. In this earlier post, I share practical tips for empowering your staff to consistently deliver shareworthy service.
How do you build confidence in your staffing team?
I’d love to know – leave your comments below.
