Are Staffing Firms Meeting or Missing the Mark on Customer Expectations?
Ever wonder if you’re on the same page as your customers? I mean really on the same page.
Of course you aim to provide the best service possible. You talk to your customers and meet with them regularly. You get to know their needs and understand how you can best help them achieve their goals. You may even survey them and get Net Promoter (NPS) scores to understand customer satisfaction.
Everything may seem like it’s coming up roses. But have you ever paused and compared your own perceptions of the service you deliver with your customers’ perceptions of the service they receive?
Turns out, doing so may be more eye-opening than you think.
We recently teamed up with CareerBuilder to take a look at how effectively staffing firms are managing customer relationships and expectations. The result? There’s a pretty notable gap between how staffing firms’ service stacks up with customer expectations.
SEE HOW STAFFING FIRM SERVICE COMPARES WITH CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. DOWNLOAD THE NEW EBOOK.
Here’s what’s happening: According to our survey, staffing firms think they’re providing really great service to their customers. In fact, respondents gave their firms an average score of 8.81 (out of 10). Staffing firm customers, on the other hand, see things differently. When asked to rate their satisfaction with the staffing services they use, respondents gave their providers an average score of 5.98 (out of 10).
Clearly, there’s a disconnect. What’s wrong?
It seems as though staffing customers aren’t exactly thrilled with the performance of the hires their firm delivers or with how well their firms anticipate their needs as customers. In fact, customers gave their staffing firms a score of 4.98 (out of 10) on this front, but firms gave themselves a score of 8.14 (out of 10).
And speaking of NPS earlier, we asked staffing customers how likely they are to recommend their staffing suppliers to a colleague or a friend. Only 11 percent answered with either a 9 or 10 (these are promoters on the NPS scale). Fifty-eight percent responded with a 6 or lower.
Based on that rating, more than half of respondents are considered detractors. Why’s that important? Because detractors are much less likely to make repeat purchases or refer additional customers. If more than 50 percent of people said they weren’t likely to recommend your company or buy from you again, that’s something you’d want to be attuned to – right?
Staffing firms are truly doing great things – you’re putting people to work after all! But customers who use staffing services say there’s some room for improvement when it comes to the service they receive. And in the spirit of creating incredible customer experiences, staffing firms can leverage this data and use it while developing growth strategies and plans for 2017.
Dig into what’s driving the disconnect, and learn how you can be sure your firm doesn’t fall into this perception gap.
