interbiznet.com
E R N I E
Electronic Recruiting News In Email
Our Rate Card
Find out more
About IBN
Got a news tip?
Tell us at
news@
interbiznet.com
Our Rate Card
Articles
Presentations
Trends Reports
Archives
Resume
Databases
(Over 60)
Company Job
Listings
(Over 4000)
Suggestions?
OUR
HOME
|
To subscribe or unsubscribe from
ERNIE, please use the form on the
linked page.
 Customer
Service
(April 09, 2001) Built on the tremendous benchmarks set by Restrac
and Resumix in the late 90s, the only thing that is worse than the
cesspool of duplicate technical development is the miserable customer
service in our industry. Known forever as "the people who bring the
donuts", account managers and customer service reps alike maintain the
standards set by those pioneering companies. Unfortunately, we've run out
of adjectives that are both adequate and publishable. Without hyperbole,
let's just say that it's pretty dismal.
At its very best, technical support of complex systems is a thankless
job. Extremely billable and profitable for enterprise software companies,
our industry understaffs with the wrong people because it's a part of
overhead.
On the one hand, you could argue "Who could expect decent customer
service on a $100 job posting?" Blaming the customer, which is one of the
contact sports at trade shows, stems in part from extreme mispricing. We
routinely talk with entrepreneurs who lack the experience necessary to
forecast their customer service expenditures and, as a result, find
themselves in a bind.
On the other hand, pricing seems to vary with the level of embedded
service. As we mentioned in an earlier article, it is no longer possible
to tell the difference between an employment agency of any type and a job
board. Differing price points and customer service, maybe. The basic
product is the same, however.
Don't misunderstand. The service levels of typical search and placement
firms are nothing to aspire to. Unable to fill huge percentages of their
orders, notoriously unethical, uniformly disliked by their customers,
understood as the "last resort", the only thing that makes these players
look good is the comparison with their new peers. For the price
differential, you'd expect much more.
In spite of the possibility for gaining a competitive edge, search
firms often offer moronic ideas like this one:
For further information you can contact a real
person @brilliantpeople.com. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thanks, and good luck! Clicking on this
link opens a piece of email addressed to the webmaster. Yippee!
Oversimplifications aside, the industry has the customer service
reputation of a matchmaker in a society with a high divorce rate. Job
Boards offer little in the way of meaningful quality control. Applicant
Tracking systems, which are, after all, fancied up databases, really can
only add limited value to the hiring process. On stop shopping services
are so young that they don't have the capacity to deliver customer
service.
It's worse than that. In mature industries, it is well understood that
everyone in the organization has an impact on customer satisfaction. Here,
the customer service people are relegated to the organizational back
waters. While there are tried and true solutions to the customer service
problem, it's as if no one ever heard of them in our industry.
- John Sumser
Contacting Us:
Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to
talk about your project.
All material on this site is © 1995 - 2001 by IBN:
interbiznet.com
(The Internet Business Network), 346 Starling Rd., Mill
Valley, CA 94941
415.380.8244
staff@interbiznet.com
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe From the ERNIE...
|
FEATURES:
Interbiznet
Trends (New)
Email
Newsletters
- Daily
Industry News
- ERN in Email
ANNUAL REPORTS:
- 2001
- 2000
- 1999
- 1997
- 1996
- Report Pricing
RESOURCES:
Top 100
E-Recruiters
Presentations
Recruiter's Toolkit
Seminar In A
Box
ERN
Archives
1st Steps In The
Hunt
ADVERTISING:
Our Rate Card
Demographics
Recently Archived Articles
Think
About the Market
Recruiter
Returns
Funjobs.com
What Is
A Layoff?
Who Is
Losing?
Walks On
Water
Chicken
Little
ERNIE Archives
All material on
this
website is the
property
of IBN
(The Internet
Business
Network:
interbiznet.com)
You
may download
a copy for personal
use. Redistribution
without
permission
is strictly prohibited.
All material on
this site is
© 1995 - 2001 by IBN
|
