What Makes PACE Such a Great Partner!
We don’t like to brag, but one of the things we think is really special about PACE Staffing Network, is our track record of success when it comes to retaining clients. In an industry where client relationships are historically fickle with client turnover across the board exceeding 50% a year, the fact that so many PACE clients have been with us 20 years or longer is something we think is worth talking about.
How do we do it?
I think it starts with how we view ourselves – as partners not vendors – avoiding all those mistakes we see our competitors making that can’t help but believe causes their clients to look elsewhere for more or better.Here are 6 things we do (that most of our competitors don't) that we know makes us a great partner....
- We work in teams which creates the consistency in service and outcomes our clients can rely on! At PACE how you experience our services is not dependent on you being assigned to work with one of our staffing superstars! When someone on one of our client teams is absent or, god forbid, gets hit by a truck, there is always another member of the team who can slip into their spot, assuring our clients that their service from PACE doesn't miss a beat. PACE clients never get one of those “Hi – Im your new Account Manager and would like to get to know you” e mails – first of all because we have very low levels of internal staff turnover, but more importantly our clients already know their team, people already familiar with who they are and what they do. Our team approach purposefully creates a better and more consistent service for PACE clients!
- Our mindset is not on selling our clients anything, but helping them solve their staffing problems. And there is a big difference. Our interactions with clients are all about uncovering what's unique about them - their pain points, finding the solution that fits them, not us. If that solution happens to be one of the services we offer, we’re all in. But even if it isn't, we don't stop until we know there's a solution in place. That's why we built the network in PACE Staffing Network, which refers to the partnerships we’ve formed with other staffing agencies and companies, who, in aggregate can offer our client’s specialized solutions in all facets of their business that PACE doesn’t personally provide. We’re serious about providing solutions even if those solutions aren't something we can personally deliver!
- We’re really good with feedback. While a lot of vendors ask for feedback, very few actually make changes based on that feedback. It’s a big deal for us to get a suggestion from a client and turn that suggestion into a change in process that works better not just for the client who made the suggestion, but other clients as well. Many of our best partnerships started with a problem that our vendor level competitors wouldn’t or couldn’t solve because they couldn't move out of their "cookie cutter" mindset. It was not by mistake that we made it one of our key differentiators to be “world class” at customization.
- We are always transparent – particularly when it comes to pricing. Our pricing models are rationalized based on one thing – the costs we incur to deliver something our client’s value compared to the costs of alternative solutions. And for us transparency is all about at least once a year laying out all the costs we incur to deliver our services and asking our client’s if we are delivering the value we promised or they expected. One of our most popular blogs was created to help potential clients understand all the elements that get factored into a temporary staffing bill rate. We followed that up with a blog to help employers negotiate more effectively with their staffing vendor.
- We do our homework. When we help a client find that “just right” employee for either a temporary, direct hire, or temp to hire staffing model, our conversations with clients are anything but one and done. We go in depth into any facet of your work environment or needs that we know from experience that will impact the success of the person you hire! While many vendors in the staffing industry sound like “do you want fries with that burger”, when you ask us to find your an employee our order taking process is more like a discovery, a peeling back of the onion so to speak, to reveal what matters really. Yes, it takes longer, but that’s an investment in a partnership we know has big payoffs both short and long term.
- We keep a diary. Yep, we’re like the FBI when it comes to taking careful notes and turning those notes into something actionable…either now or in the future. Every conversation we have with a customer or candidate gets captured; every nuance about how a recruiting project is being organized gets documented. When we say “we keep an up to date profile” of each client, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.