Mark Hobson |
Business development is essential to all recruitment agencies, so as the economic recovery builds momentum, now is the ideal opportunity for recruiters to look for new opportunities, win new business and further expand their market share by utilising the latest technically driven CRM systems.
Fundamentally a CRM system allows you to make the best all round use of your data from a marketing communications and business point of view - it enables you to be pro-active and targeted, and adds a more personal approach to your communications for added business credibility.
Chris Bogh, the Technical Director of eploy® confirms that recruitment software can now play a huge role in facilitating company growth by working as an integral business management, communication and sales tool. So how do you know if your software is up for the job?
"Arguably, one of an agency's most valuable assets is its database," says Chris. "Therefore its use needs to be managed and maximised to the full, and this is where technology can help. However, in reality, most recruitment packages simply can't cater for the amount of data your consultants should be storing. A comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is the answer, it will enable your organisation to work together as a team, share knowledge and maintain regular proactive contact with your database prospects."
Implementing a technologically driven CRM recruitment solution is very simple and cost-effective to set-up, with the potential benefits being significant. From a business point of view, the major benefit is the development of better relations with your existing customers and the contacts on your database, which in turn can lead to increased sales. "Fundamentally a CRM system allows you to make the best all round use of your data from a marketing communications and business point of view - it enables you to be pro-active and targeted, and adds a more personal approach to your communications for added business credibility," Mark Hobson, Business Development Director, eploy®.
"Critically a recruitment focussed CRM system is a valuable management tool that can be used to constantly monitor the success of your campaigns, consultants and placements. It will enable you to forecast trends and identify problem areas for successful business planning. From a staffing perspective you can also use it as an incentive tool and monitor consultants that are underperforming or that may simply need further training."
From the very beginning eploy®'s recruitment software was developed as a CRM business tool for recruiters, and today agencies large and small are benefitting from its unrivalled features. In more detail, these features include:
Marketing / Business Promotion
E-communications provide an effective and targeted means of communication with clients and candidates on your database. With eploy® you can conduct sophisticated email and e-newsletter campaigns, and monitor the response rate for evaluation purposes. eploy®'s CRM system automatically logs all the respondents that have opened your correspondence and those that have actually clicked any links, with a history of the URLs clicked too. From a lead generation perspective, recruiters can analyse the reports, identity interest from prospective clients and follow-up accordingly. This works equally well for Promoting your Best Candidates, and e-invites to webinars, seminars and events.
This simple means of pro-active communication enables your business to always be 'forefront of mind' with prospective clients. It's a common rule in sales that it takes at least 'seven touches' to convert a cold customer to a sale. Basically the more 'touches' or contact you can have with a prospective customer in as many ways as possible, the more likely you are to build strong relationships and in turn sell your service. Therefore by utilising eploy®'s automated contact system, whether it is a newsletter, webinar, press release or invitation to an event, you can apply the seven touch rule very easily and win new business more effectively.
The system is also set-up with an automated unsubscribe functionality to ensure users adhere with Data Protection Law.
Web Based Technology
As a true web based browser system, eploy® users also benefit by being able to access all of this information whilst on the move from a web-enabled mobile phone or computer device. This is useful for consultants who want to check last minute details remotely, i.e. terms of business and agreements, prior to a client meeting for example.
Management Reporting
This is possibly the most important element of eploy®'s CRM system from a management perspective. By automating all reporting systems through the software to analyse KPI's, training needs, bottlenecks, cost per hire, time to hire, managers can make informed decisions that will help to shape the future effectiveness of their company.
"Clients are also using this functionality as a means of measuring and delivering staff incentive programmes against KPIs," continues Chris. "The live web reports are transmitted onto a huge screen displayed in the office as a means to encourage staff to become more active by showing the results of individual consultants, for example which consultants have closed the most business or sent the most CV's, won the most business or met their own targets"
Audit trail for contact history
Monitoring and keeping track of client calls, appointments, meeting notes, contracts and files is an essential part of a recruiter's role. eploy®'s CRM system enables this information to be easily recorded on a central database so that all users can tap into the system at any time and be fully up to speed with a client's history. The system can also be configured to automatically alert users about key prospects that they haven't contacted for a while and need follow-up. All in all this ensures transparency and negates any potential for missed business opportunities if a consultant is absent from their post.
It also has the functionality for agencies to build a complete client hierarchy tree in terms of the organisation structure and contacts within each site, to ensure that consultants are speaking to key decision makers. This feature is especially useful for executive recruiters to identify potential candidates within an organisation.
Communication with Candidates
CRM also applies to your candidates - keeping them informed about your company and current opportunities is essential in making sure you attract and keep the 'best talent'. In the same way as marketing your business to clients, you can now create candidate e-newsletters via eploy®'s system that promote the latest opportunities and successes for your company. These communications can be used to make sure they are still happy to be on your books and to invite them to update their details. Again, this helps to ensure you adhere to data protection policies.
SMS promotion of vacancies is equally very effective, and responses are generally much quicker from candidates as they always have their phone on them - SMS to Email is a feature of eploy®, allowing users to send an SMS and receive a reply straight into their inbox.
In conclusion, technology now makes it easier for agencies to find out more about customers and ensures that everyone in an organisation can successfully exploit this information for business gain.