What Clients love and hate about us

Clients are a recruiters lifeblood, after all we wouldn't be in business without them! But how much do you actually know about them? What makes them happy, and conversely what annoys them?  Don't you think you should invest a little more time in getting to understand them a little better? Craig Harrison from Expressions of Excellence shows us four areas that we all should be focused on:

What Clients love

- When you know them, remember them by name and remember their preferences
- To be treated with respect
- To feel special
- To know you're accountable when problems arise
- The ability to reach a live voice or person when problems arise
- To receive a little something extra, ..above and beyond value for money

What Clients hate

- The runaround — and having to repeat one's problem repeatedly
- Complex and lengthy voice mail systems
- Ignorant salespeople
- Apathetic employees
- Being put on hold
- Being left on hold
- Being disconnected after holding
- Poor routing of their phone call to the incorrect person
- Repeatedly hearing how important their business is while on hold indefinitely
- Pre-prepared e-mail responses that miss the particulars of the problem
- Sales people with surly or superior attitudes who are condescending
- Lack of empathy
- Taking customers for granted

How can we score points with Clients

- Exceed their expectations!
- Anticipate client needs even before they do
- Proactively head off problems before they occur
- Provide a full service
- Make doing business with you fun and easy
- Grow with your customers
- Treat them like royalty and employ a touch of class in your interactions

What to do next

- Audit your sales and  customer service process; look for ways to your customer's experience
- Make sure your sales people know your product lines inside and out.
- Poll your customers to uncover new ways to better serve them.
- Create a marketing plan for keeping in front of your customers: newsletters, adverts, invites, demos, sales and courtesy calls, focus groups and other mechanisms.
- Seek to reward devoted, long-term customers for their loyalty.
- Meet and better acquaint yourself with your customers so they're more than a customer number or account name.

The better you treat your clients, the longer you will work with them!