“You have to be remarkable every day,” said Eric Gregg, CEO and Founder of Inavero, at the recent Staffing & Recruiting Executive Summit in Chicago.

Gregg was presenting the results of the recent Opportunities in Staffing survey, which found a gap in perceptions between what staffing firms say they are doing to serve their clients and candidates, and what clients and candidates actually say they experience from their staffing firms. For instance…

• 56 percent of staffing firms say they return client calls within two hours; however, only 25 percent of clients say they receive a response within two hours.
• When it comes to responding to candidates, roughly 66 percent of staffing firms say they get back to job candidates within a day, but only 40 percent of candidates say they receive a response in that time frame.

The above statistics are just a snapshot of the findings that underscore the need for staffing firms to create – and adhere to – a process that meets the needs of clients, candidates and internal staff. Given today’s competitive environment, it is crucial that staffing firms differentiate themselves from the competition, and that means being nothing short of remarkable. In order to help with that effort, Gregg offered the following tips:

Five Steps to Building a Remarkable Staffing Firm Experience

1. Keep it simple. While surveys are a great resource for information, it’s important to start small. No one’s going to take the time to answer a long, complicated 800-question survey, Gregg reasons, so keep it simple and keep it targeted: pick a handful of questions that are really valuable and start there. “You can get some really useful information in just 15 questions or less,” Gregg says.
2. Leverage the assets you already have. Chances are you already have a sizable database of job candidates, prospects and clients, so reach out to those contacts before reaching out externally. “It’s really valuable for you to go to a client and say, ‘We surveyed you and people like you and found that these were the biggest issues they were facing are, here’s what they think is going to happen in the next six months, here’s how they’re overcoming their challenges, and here are some of the best practices we’ve seen,” Gregg say.
3. Leverage social media to recruit. Go beyond learning how to do it yourself, and teach others in your firm how to do it. The survey found that 61 percent of staffing firms are using social media to find applicants, and 56 percent are using it to research candidates. Don’t just blast out positions and openings, either; that turns off your audience. You really need to learn how to engage your audience to get the most out of your social recruiting efforts.
4. Monitor the social media channels your clients and candidates are using. Another reason to utilize social media is to gain a pulse of what others are saying about their experience with you. It’s common knowledge that dissatisfied customers are more likely to talk about their experience than satisfied customers; thanks to the power of social media, however, that negative experience can reach a lot more people. “You’re not worried about the 18 people that person tells [regarding their experience with your firm]; you’re worried about the post that they put that reaches a million people,” says Gregg, who has personally seen the brand damage that can result from such a situation. “Whether what’s said is fair or not, we have to manage that experience.”
5. Don’t play roulette with your brand. Create a process that creates that ‘wow’ experience. For clients, that means proving to them how your staffing firm is different and how it provides value. For candidates, this means keeping the lines of communication open. “No news for a job candidate is far worse than bad news,” says Gregg. According to the survey, staffing firms that deliver bad news have a higher NPS than those that do not get back to candidates at all. For internal staff, feedback is key to employee satisfaction. Staffing firms that offered regular feedback have a higher NPS on average then staffing firms that don’t.

You can see Gregg’s full presentation in the video below, or visit www.opportunitiesinstaffing.com  to download the full 2012 survey results.