Creative Customer Care

RISE Entrepreneurial Twist
  Creative customer care Part I

Good morning,

Well!  We're fullspeed ahead into 2002!  And one of the
most common question I find I'm now asked is, where
are the clients who actually have job reqs?

Personally, I think that's a rather shortsited question.
I could ask, where's the buried treasure?  But *knowing*
that is useless unless I also possess the ability to
*recover* it.  What kinds of tools would be required?
How much time is necessary?  Once I do acquire the treasure,
do I need some continual maintenance to keep it shining?

Quality clients or low-turn-over customers (ie, job seekers
who remain long-term actual employees) are the treasure you
want to discover.  Lots of recruiters and employers
are already pounding the tried-and-true means of finding
customers...cold-calling, emailing and the like.  

But what happens when you actually locate *where* your
desired treasure lies?  How can you better your chances
at achieving the ultimate goal (job reqs from clients
who pay)?

Enter creative client management.  Remember, clients
aren't just companies.  I have yet to see a recruiter
visit, say, the Bell Labs Great Big Mirror Building
(based in Holmdel, I might add) and stand there, engaging
the bricks in conversation!  

Clients are people like you and me.  They have their
own agenda.  Their own personal goals.  Their own
humanity.  Put yourself in their position.  What
would make you buy your own marketed services?

Thus begins my RISE Ezine series on techniques
to help you achieve the above.  I recently received
email from two rather brilliant individuals,
Tina Duccini and David Perry, who sent to me
their own viewpoints on how they achieve the
above goals.  Today I'll reveal Tina's comments,
and followup with David in Part II later this week.

Tina from tduccini at email.msn.com wrote to me:

=======================================
Back in the day when I was a third party recruiter-
I actually bucked the order from my boss to make 100
calls a day.  I made the 100 calls, but took
the personal route.  I was honest, and told them who
I was- and then didn't pitch them anything but
proceeded to get to know them.  I would ask for
help- from a market question, a technical
differentiating question or whatever was actually
appropriate to enlist the person into the beginning of
a reciprocal relationship as far away from the sales
pitch as I could get.  

When trust was built, they would welcome
the call and recommend someone call me-
it was very common for a new contact to test me
out by giving me the name of a friend who was looking
for a position- I would always handle it personally-
and from that the relationships would grow further-
when there was a recruitment need I would be who
they recommended, then it spanned out
from there.

Not the typical response I know but it generally worked
and to this day I still work with many of the people I
formed relationships with.  I know it sounds simplistic-
but it really isn't as it does require some good
adaptation skills when calling someone cold.

I tried to make sure each call was a warm call-
as in doing research on the company- as much as
possible on the person I was calling- so I would
have something intelligent to say.    
(Barbara Ling note - brilliant technique!)

I get calls
still about once a week from the manager/directors
and VPs who really are responsible for making my
career a success still call me and play the
voicemails from the recruiters who call them- simply
because the approach is canned and clearly a sales
pitch.  I generally work in-house now- the people I
formed the strongest relationships with started wanting me
in-house with their companies- or recommending me to fix
problems in companies of friends- and my approach
hasn't changed.  So- I don't know if it is helpful
to pass this information along since I know it is not
the standard power hitting cold call approach.  So
for what its worth- there is
my .02
=======================================

The way Tina approaches above is awesome
in its simplicity.  She gets to know the clients
*first* as people with real human needs, and doesn't
hit them first with the underlying "here are my
services!"  She first delivers and builds the
trust.  Truly, it's an exceptional technique.

Apply the above to your own needs!  Can you
incorporate this into your own approach?
Why not take a chance and try only one
new customer this way...you might be pleasantly
surpised at the benefits you create.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Thank you for visiting and enjoy your time!

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