Customer Service is Suffering and so is Your Brand

Have you noticed anything when you’ve been out and about lately? Yes, everyone is hiring. Those signs have been up for a long time, evidenced by the fraying edges of every whipping flag on the edge of every retail area and the fading colors on the sea of “NOW HIRING” banners. But if you pay attention when you’re out spending money in your hometown, there’s a sign of something more damaging as well.

Customer service is suffering.

And so are the brands.

When you see record unemployment levels around the nation, there’s an undercurrent of scarcity hiring happening. We’ve heard of company leaders pushing their HR teams to hire anyone with a pulse, because if they can’t provide the workforce, they’ll lose the business. So what do businesses end up with? If you aren’t choosing from the cream of the crop, you’re getting the bottom of the barrel in terms of talent. Is that person manning your phone? Your front desk? Are they at the counter greeting your customers? If that employee isn’t your first choice, because the “good ones” got snatched up by companies willing to pay more and do more for that talent pool, you’ll end up damaging your customer experience. Pay attention the next time you’re out and about. What’s happening with the service? Is it what it once was?

When it comes to morale, your employees are potentially witnessing turnover, apathy, and lack of consequences for poor performers. What message are you sending your rock stars if you settle for less when assembling the team around them? What we’re seeing is today’s great employees won’t only be lured away by wages, they will be lured away by culture and the promise of working somewhere with other like-minded people.

So what can you do about it? We know it’s getting to be a dire hiring situation, where most people who want to work, are working. That’s where telling your story, putting your best foot forward, and finding your target demographic comes in. If you rely on the same old methods to get applicants in your funnel, you’ll wind up with more of the same. If you put your company out there in new ways, in the right places to reach today’s applicants, and tell the world about your unique hiring proposition, you’ll be choosing from the cream of the crop, instead of finding just a heartbeat.

To read more about target demographic for hiring, click here.

To read more about traditional versus today’s hiring ads, click here.

Stokes and her husband Chris Herzog, who are both former WEAU television news anchors, started Stokes+HERZOG, an advertising and public relations agency in 2014. The agency assists both local and global clients with all of their corporate business consulting, advertising, public relations, and marketing needs including video production, website management, graphic design, social media management and overall marketing and advertising strategy.