Think Differently: Think Like a Customer Service Rep
How can you disrupt the recruiting industry? Take your cues from other industries that have been solving the issues we face for years.
Today we talk about how applying the fundamentals of good customer service will help you get ahead.
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Oh my goodness I'm so excited to be able to do one of these again. Welcome back. Everyone to the transform recruiting podcast I am your host Brad Owens and I say excited to be able to do this ginks had a little. Ah. I mishap here recently and now I can actually see again which is fantastic. Having 2 working eyes is fun but I'm back to be able to share all of this goodness with you all and share what's going on in my crazy little recruiting brain so where we last left off is we were talking a little bit about how to think differently. In the recruiting space I say think differently because I believe that the recruiting industry is dealing with problems that other industries have had to solve years and years ago case in point we started off by saying hey what if you were to experience things through your candidate's eyes. What would they want. But they want to see what would they want from you. Well today, let's think about the last time that you were impressed by customer service. So when give a little bit of time here for everyone to let their brains run through that question. Last time you were ever impressed by customer service. So I could tell you what typically comes up when I have these conversations with others so there might be a ah let's see eating out at a restaurant if you were eating out in a restaurant and you walked away from that saying that was fantastic. Service.
01:31.37
Brad Owens
What happened during that interaction. Well they likely were very attentive. They were very clear on what they were doing. You had confidence that they were bringing you the right stuff they were very clear on when things were going to happen. They were very timely. They were always seemed to be there when you needed them right? Like. Oh my goodness we're out of bread whoa. There's a new basket of bread or man my wine glass is getting kind of empty whoa there. They are to fill it up like those types of things are fantastic. When you're at a restaurant I've had people who talk about the last time they had to return something or had a product issue. So think about returning something on Amazon you just recently I got a refurbished Apple watch for my son for his birthday and it showed up and it was clearly not the same glass that came with the with the Apple watch so much so that it got. Ah, chipped like a huge scratch on the front of it when it landed on the carpet. So not the same glass could even pick it off of my fingernail so we wanted to return it. We were thinking aw man this is refurbished. It's kind of ah you know what you're getting into kind of thing. There's no chance and they just took it back. No questions asked and we were able to get a brand new one. No problem.
02:44.20
Brad Owens
That type of thing is what you expect from customer service right? You expect the people who are supposed to be taking care of you to have those responses so how does that relate to recruiting well who are you taking care of who are you serving as a customer service rep. You're serving typically in the recruiting space. 2 different areas. You're either serving your customer your client or your hiring manager if this is internal recruiting. You're serving that person. They gave you a job to do and you are now going out and dealing with your other customer the talent. Right? Whether it's a candidate and applicant whatever you want to call it the talent you are serving them as well. They have come to you trusting you in their job search what in their life is based off of the quality of their job. Oh everything are a lot of it I won't say everything I hope. Your job isn't everything in your life but a lot of it right? Puts food on our table. It allows us to you know, have the time off that we have or lack thereof if we're working twenty four seven ah it that is your customer right? Your customer is talent. Your customer is your hiring rep your. Ah, client your hiring manager whoever it might be so think about those interactions you are an an and trusted advisor trusted shepherd a trusted individual to.
04:17.42
Brad Owens
Fulfill both of those needs you are fulfilling the job opening and you're fulfilling the person needing the job. Both of them are having experiences in their daily life where they say wow that was great customer service and they're having experiences like we discussed earlier the server that was fantastic and attentive. The return process that was just incredibly easy yet if you were to think about the recruiting space. How many of our processes. Can we confidently say are as easy to endure and I use that word on purpose endure. Has those 2 customer experience examples that I came up with probably not a lot There's not a ton but that's what they expect That's what they're getting from their daily life That's what you needed to deliver to them. So how are you going to do that. What are some of the key themes that keep coming across during those types of interactions. Well. They are all transparent how many times do we hear about the plague of the black hole in recruiting. You're either a person who's trying to get a job filled and you reach out to the recruiter. The recruiter says absolutely I'll get I'm working on that right now month goes by 3 2 weeks go by and you hear nothing. That's not okay, that's not being transparent and then the same thing on the candidate side you apply to a job and what's everyone complaining about they get no response. You need talent. You're not going to respond to these people. Even if they're not a fantastic fit. They might be a fit for something else. We have a plague of not dealing with right people that apply.
05:51.41
Brad Owens
Yes I know a lot of what we get is garbage but blah blah. That's the people who are posting on on glass door just destroying your company so I won't go down that rabbit hole. So it's transparent right? We want to know where we're at in the process and then being timely you have to give updates in a timely manner if you're. four days for the first update and then two weeks for the second and then the next day for the other one. They can't rely on you. They don't know when this is going to happen. You haven't told them when the next update's going to happen. You haven't followed through on that it has to be timely now 2 places where I think recruiting companies and internal recruiters and hr departments period. Can expand the horizons is by thinking about their representation to those 2 interveder individuals those 2 customers the hiring manager side and the talent side as a company. As a whole as a group rather than the individual for too long I think we've been focused on individuals as recruiters when we are not tied to the individuals that do our recruiting we are the company. When you do your return to Amazon you don't do your return to beth you do your return to Amazon when you went out and had a fantastic experience at a restaurant you didn't have a fantastic experience with Casey at that restaurant.
07:22.50
Brad Owens
You had an and fantastic experience with that restaurant the company. Not the individual and to expand on that even further how you interact with these customers has to be done in an omni channel manner. So. It's not only over the phone. Or it's not only through your chat bots and email it is through every single channel that they want to interact on if they're texting all day you better text them if they're out on Facebook Messenger all day with their friends. You better, be there if they're on Whatsapp because they're using that as their um. Daily conversation medium you better be there. It's wherever they want to be interacted on interacted with interacted on interacted with so you better be where they are omni general. That's what it's called as a company. If they show up and text me and say hey I need an update on my job but I'm not working that day someone better be able to get that text and reply back. So there's all sorts of different ways that you can take advantage of that. But let's let's wrap this all up if we're thinking differently towards the recruiting industry. We're thinking today like a customer service rep if you think about all your experiences the main themes that keep coming away are they were transparent they were timely they were about the company and not the individual and they interacted via Omni channel.
08:47.37
Brad Owens
Wherever you want it to be That's where they were and that's where they gave you the service. So if you can in your recruiting environments add more transparency be much more timely act as a company and not as your individual recruiters and be Omni Channel I think you stand again a whole Lot. Of space within this recruiting industry because not a lot of people are doing that. So if you're curious to find out more ways about how I'm thinking differently about recruiting feel free hit up bradowins Dot Com All of this podcast content. All of my articles are there. There is plenty more where that came From. There's more of these think differently episodes to come soon hope to be able to do this a lot more frequently now that I'm on the mend and all' back and ready to roll. Please send me an email hello at bradowins.com and again all of this can be found at either transform recruiting dot Com or Bradowewins.com hint. They're the same site. So go to braowwins.com Ah, see all next time and hopefully be able to just actually see you. We'll talk soon.