How To Develop Loyal Clients And Candidates
There’s nothing worse for a recruiter than working hard to create a strong stable of clients and a high quality talent pool…only for them to turn to another recruiter when it comes time for placement. All that effort wasted!
If this is happening all too regularly, it’s eating away at your billing numbers and creating ineffective work habits that have you working longer, for less return. As a recruiter, this is genuinely bad for business- not to mention bad for your self esteem.
Longstanding customers tend to spend more than new customers, who want to wait and see what you deliver before sending more placements your way. It’s also a huge outlay of time to find and pitch new leads, and trawl LinkedIn to build your candidate pool from scratch again.
Time is money, and it is overwhelmingly best practice to do everything you can to retain your existing clients, and maintain excellent relationships with candidates so that they return to you throughout their career, or recommend your services to their network.
It’s always better to keep your old clients and keep adding more, than lose the ones you have and start again. You know this! But how?
You must build loyalty. Loyalty is what stops a client moving to a cheaper recruiter who’s offering cut price payment fees. Loyalty is what makes the candidate call you first, trust your judgement and career advice, and refer their friends to you.
How to develop loyal clients and candidates
1. Bounce back from mistakes.
When something goes wrong, such as a placement that ends terribly or a candidate feels you didn’t listen to their wishes when putting them forward, you need to respond with something that not only solves the problem, but also wipes away the bad feeling they have about you. Whether that’s reducing the fee on finding a replacement, or offering a free coaching session with the candidate so you can really tailor the next job to them perfectly, you need to do something that makes the person walk away thinking feeling good things towards you.
2. Know where you’re losing business, and why.
Ask candidates or clients for feedback on why they used another recruiter: was it because you weren’t offering a particular service, or something they were unhappy with? This gives you an opportunity to retain that client, but also gives you valuable data about where you can improve your offering. Keep track of where you’re losing clients and candidates to rivals- track this data over time so you know what percentages you’re retaining.
3. Communicate (and be brave).
You may be stalling calling a client because you are struggling to find them the quality candidates they’ve requested, and you may have been too busy to let the candidate know they were unsuccessful at their interview. They’re both completely understandable, but both of these sins (and they are grave sins in the eyes of a client and candidate, even if you and I understand how easily it happens to a busy recruiter), are kryptonite to your reputation. Communicate quickly and always be upfront about what’s going on. By fronting up to any issues, you have more control over how the person perceives the news. For example, if you say to the client:
Hi, just calling to let you know I’ve spoken to 5 candidates, but given what you’ve told me about the role, they’re just not quite up to scratch. I’ve got some new leads, and will get back to you the minute I find some well-suited matches .‘
How much better is that that allowing the client to sit waiting for a phone call, worried or irritated that you’ve forgotten about them? People just want to know that they matter to you. Sometimes that means giving them ‘bad’ news- but be brave, positive, and honest, and you’ll retain their loyalty.
4. Show Respect.
Even if you don’t have much hope that the candidate is going to get the job they want, or your smallest client has a history of wasting your time, it is imperative that you show them respect. Always. No matter how ‘difficult’ you think they might be being. Nothing will kill client and candidate loyalty faster than feeling like you’re somehow looking down on them or dismissing their importance- and even if you don’t care about this particular individual leaving your pool, remember that they’ll almost certainly go off and tell others about your treatment of them too!
5. Build Expertise.
Your name needs to be everywhere in your field. You need to be writing blogs, attending/speaking at networking events, commenting on recruiter forums, and building your social media presence. Study up on your niche field to become a subject matter expert, read recruiter magazines, and keep a weather eye on political/economic/social events that might impact your industry. Before long, your clients and candidates will be viewing you as an expert. In this vein, when you see something in the news that might impact or benefit your client or candidate, give them a quick call to let them know, or include relevant info in a monthly newsletter.
6. Advertise your successes.
Where you get happy feedback or referrals from clients or candidates, you need to shout it from the rooftops- or at the very least, post it on social media and company website if possible. This kind of social proof is what we all seek as consumers. How many times have you gone with one company over another because of their reviews, client lists, or testimonials page?
In the same vein, create some strong case studies about the results you’ve achieved for a client or candidate, and feature them on your LinkedIn page etc. You don’t need to boast, you just need to show what you’ve done for others so that your clients and candidates are reassured that you’re highly competent and the best person for them.
7. Be personal
Send personalised, handwritten notes, congratulating them on their success, or thanking for their business. (You may like to include sweets.) In this age of computer communication, little human touches go a long way.
Building loyalty is about treating people well, while reassuring them that you are the best person for the job. Which one of these steps will you start on today?
Until next time
Cheryl