Out to Impress!

By Terri Roeslmeier

July 22, 2011

“Make a good impression”.  How many times have we heard that commanding line?  The key word in the phrase is “make” as in you have complete control over this.

What do all “impressive” companies have in common?  They differentiate themselves.  It’s great to say your company is different; but the only way you can truly impress that upon others is if you “act different”.  Actions will allow your company to stand out from others.

The best way to start is to make a list of “action items” that are easily attainable.  This will bring you into a state of accomplishment as you complete the list, rather than disappoint as you complete little.  What do we do when we have success?  We crave for more.  It’s like a runner completing a short marathon.  Next time they set the bar a little higher.

Assess what you have available in your staffing software.  What can your software do that can help you with a small customer service item?  Maybe you can email invoices?  This may be convenient for some of your clients and the bonus is it will reduce your invoicing costs and facilitate payment.  Can your software email invoices in batch effortlessly?  How about offering clients access to a portal that contains client billing reports by department?  Can your main competitor do this?  Can you solidify more business by offering this service?  It’s easy to focus on “good impressions”.

Do you offer direct deposit to your temps?  Will you get higher quality employees by offering this service?  Can better candidates lead to more placements?  Maybe you can text message employees their start times with directions.  Would temps be impressed?

Make it a point to add one new service item per month that will benefit a client or a candidate, yet cost you little or nothing to implement. There may be tons of features in your staffing software that will allow you to do this, simply for the cost of learning the new tool and implementing.

Join social media client groups.  Take advantage of free software webinars and training sessions offered by your vendor.  Buy some refresher or advanced training for your group.  Benefits will far outweigh the cost.  In just one year you can have 12 or more new customer service offerings.  What an impression!

Terri Roeslmeier is President of Automated Business Designs, Inc., software developer of Ultra-Staff staffing software for the staffing and direct hire industry.  Ultra-Staff is a staffing software business solution with components for front office, back office and the web.  Terri’s email address is TAR@abd.net or for more information on Ultra-Staff go to www.abd.net