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June 14, 2024

The Introductory Guide to the Client Experience Playbook

Jan Jedlinski

Co-Founder & CEO, Candidate.ly

Running a staffing firm these days can be an overwhelming task. It not only requires market experience, a solid tech stack, great candidate attraction strategies but also an excellent client experience. For an effective, personalized, and automated client experience and to maintain a loyal client community, you need to have access to the right technology, tools, and services. We have assembled the most important considerations in the “Client Experience Playbook” to help you navigate and implement the right processes early on and help you to create a solid client experience strategy to make 2023 your most successful year.

What is the Client Experience Playbook

We have developed a comprehensive playbook that includes all the  important considerations from the Client Experience Framework,  best practices, resources, and services that will help you give your customers an outstanding experience at every touchpoint. From acquiring new clients to re-engaging existing ones. The playbook can be used by anyone on your team who wants to become a client experience evangelist and drive your client experience strategy forward.

The 4 stages of the Client Experience Framework

The Client Experience Framework is a process that begins with the client’s first contact with your agency. It ends with re-engaging the clients to assist them for continued success. The four phases of this cycle are as follows:

  1. Attract
  2. Convert
  3. Collaborate
  4. Re-engage

Attract

First impressions are everything, and it’s crucial to always stay attractive as a company, and that starts with branding, messaging, a solid offering, and state of the art content strategy.

Key considerations:

  • Positioning. Do you have strong positioning and a highlighted focus on your key verticals?
  • Messaging. Do you have clear and strong messaging on all your communication channels?
  • Brand. How attractive is your brand to your target audience?
  • Website. Is your website optimized for mobile and SEO?
  • Social proof. Do you have a strategy to capture social proof and reviews?
  • Content Strategy. Are you leading the way with targeted and thoughtful content on all your channels?
  • CRM. Do you have a strong and supportive technology/CRM workflow to engage with your audience?
  • Talent Showcase. Do you have a self-service offering that enables your clients to identify available talent and interact with your team?
  • Marketing. Are your marketing strategies designed to grow your audience?

Convert

The second phase of the framework is the “conversion phase." This phase starts once a client confirms their interest in your services. It includes everything from identifying the right solution,  negotiating contracts and pricing options to onboarding a new client, communicating the next steps, and managing expectations.

Key considerations:

  • Compelling offering. Is your offering compelling enough for your target audience?
  • Pricing strategy. Do you offer a transparent pricing overview?
  • Contracts. Do you have a simple and fast way to get the client signed up for your services?
  • Order Intake. Do you have a clear understanding of the client's needs, and can you assure the quality of your service?

Collaborate

The third component is the “collaboration phase”. This phase starts when you submit the first candidates and includes the process of scheduling interviews and selecting the right candidate for the client.

Key considerations:

  • Submissions. Do you have a streamlined process to present candidates and all relevant data to clients?
  • Email vs. Slack vs. Client Portal. Do you offer alternative ways to collaborate with clients outside the traditional email workflow?
  • Reference and Background Checks: Do you offer additional data sources like Reference Checks and Background Checks to strengthen your candidate presentation?
  • Interview scheduling. Do you have a streamlined approach to quickly schedule interviews for your clients and candidates?
  • Hiring Strategies. Do you have strategies in place to help your customers welcome their new candidates?

Re-engage

The final component is about how you can re-engage clients and improve consultant redeployment. This phase starts once you made placements with your client and a consultant has been successfully deployed. You will want to focus on how the client's experience can be enhanced to ensure that they stay engaged with their new company and remain invested.

Key considerations:

  • Post placement. Do you offer enough post-placement support and a replacement guarantee?
  • Referrals. Do you leverage happy clients to receive referrals?
  • Reviews. Do you capture positive and negative client feedback to measure your client experience?
  • Upselling. Do you have a way to upsell clients with your available talent pipeline? Can you offer your clients fresh candidates who have recently completed projects or candidates who might be of interest to them?

“Client experience is my passion. Listen, there is only one place (where) revenue comes from. The client. Period. End of story. I recognize that our candidates must be well cared for, but having a great client sales and engagement process is so valuable.”, Mark Winter, CEO, WinSource Group

 

Join the waitlist and be the first to receive a copy of the Client Experience Playbook in January 2023.