Via this tip, you and I are going to look at the overall picture of customer service within our industry – the recruitment industry.

The recruitment industry, even if you take the lowest figures around, is valued at a massive £20 billion per year. Now that means that, as a recruiter, you are potentially sitting on an absolute goldmine. Our industry is changing dramatically, however, and during this age of corporate uncertainty it is no longer acceptable to give your client just a decent service. If you are really going to move your business forward with confidence then you need to view your clients as partners in business. As in any good partnership, you need to attract partners you can trust, that you can be open and frank with, and partners that will go out of their way to help you and you them. You should be looking for clients who offer you this and they, in turn, want a recruitment organisation that offers the very best service around and the very best candidates available.

There is no better way to obtain quality candidates than head-hunting. Head-hunting allows you to directly approach and recruit the A1 candidates that you are looking for and not second rate candidates looking for you. A survey carried out amongst Human Resource Managers asked for a list of all the top complaints they had against recruitment firms. Although the results were not surprising when we look at them in the cold light of day, they are certainly worth going through together now so that you can evaluate your own operation and plan for the future. There were seven areas of concern that arose from the survey:

1. Consultant’s conduct
2. Failure to complete assignments
3. Price
4. Client management
5. Time scale required to complete the assignment
6. Service
7. Arrogance

Which do you think were top as far as the complaints were concerned? One interesting figure that did come out was price, with only 11 percent of HR Managers complaining about price. That becomes all the more relevant when I tell you that client management and service, combined together accounted for 45 percent. Simply put, people do not mind paying a little extra if they are getting the very best of service. Now that is good news for you, and it is great news if you already head-hunt or intend head-hunting in the future.

I mentioned earlier that you should be looking for partnership relationships - preferred supplier agreements, management fees and retainer contracts are the way forward for you and your clients. Believe me when I tell you, the terms of business you agree with your clients is all the evidence you need to evaluate whether the client sees you as a partner in whom they have the utmost confidence, or simply just one of several suppliers they utilise from time to time.

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