The old ways of staffing and recruiting aren’t fast enough to keep up with today’s candidates and their expectation of immediacy.
As we’ve increased the speed of our communication, we’ve stopped relying exclusively on the phone and email to get everything done. We still need the phone and email, but what’s really driving the on-demand experience today is real-time messaging.
It’s all about the short, instant messages to create a better experience using the 4 primary real-time messaging channels: webchat messaging, text messaging, social messaging, and internal team messaging.
Let’s dive into real-time messaging and how it can help you accelerate your recruiting and sales processes.
#1. Website Bots and Live Chat Messaging
Your staffing firm’s website today needs to be a place to actively engage with visitors and generate business.
But when a candidate or client lands on your website and their only option is to submit a form and wait for someone to follow up, you’re missing out on that opportunity.
That’s where smart chatbots and live chat come in. When visitors come to your site, you can have a second option to connect in real-time and actively engage visitors.
Chatbots can operate 24/7 to personally greet visitors, asking them qualifying questions that route them to book time on a recruiter’s calendar, or can disqualify them to keep your team focused on the right conversations.
If the candidate would like to chat with a real person, they can open a live-chat conversation during normal business hours.
For after-hours visitors, which is when the majority of applies are coming in now, the bot can get all of their information to ensure that a follow-up can happen as soon as a recruiter or salesperson is back to work.
#2. Text Messaging to Connect On-the-Go
What is the way we most frequently communicate throughout the day? We text one another. Because it is such a large part of our everyday life, text messaging has emerged as a powerful form of communication you can use to connect with candidates.
Candidates should be able to text your business phone number and be greeted by their first name (if they’re in your database or are a previous contact). They should also be easily connected with a recruiter.
Text Messaging bots can also be used to create options like “Text-to-Apply” where you can enable candidates to quickly convert by texting “apply” to 303-555-5555.
The most powerful way to use texting messaging is with targeted outreach to small groups. You can pull tearsheets of candidates and use a personalized text message to quickly get a response from on-the-go candidates.
Instead of spending the time calling each person on the list you can just shoot a text and get a quick response.
#3. Social Messaging to Connect with Followers
You’re likely spending time and money to create content and promote your staffing firm on social media. But when a candidate or client decides to send you a quick question as a direct message, many companies aren’t sure if they are being followed up with.
Many staffing firms have a social point person, but their job is usually to promote content rather than capture and engage with direct messages.
When a candidate messages your business on social media, they should get an instant response and be given some quick automated options to help them.
That’s where social messaging bots can enable your firm to be available 24/7 to respond to incoming messages, help with quick questions, and even convert candidates into new contacts in your database.
#4. Internal Messaging to Work Faster
We all know the frustration that comes from too many meetings that could’ve been emails. Now, we’ve moved into an era of too many emails that could’ve been simple messages. And now with many teams working remotely, it can be hard to stay connected and be on the same page.
Tools like MS Teams and Slack bring real-time messaging to your internal communication, getting your team out of messy email inboxes.
Internal messaging helps boost productivity, cutting unnecessary back and forth, reducing communication bottlenecks, and enabling your team to react in real-time to notifications to place candidates faster.
Bonus: QR Codes to Start Conversations
QR Codes have exploded in popularity since mid-2020, and are an easy way for candidates or clients to start a conversation. All of the real-time messaging channels listed above can be launched via a QR code.
Whether you use QR codes to launch a quick apply experience, check people in for appointments, or drive traffic to your website, they are a powerful tool that you can add to your toolkit.
Get Started with Real-Time Messaging
Relying on the old ways of hammering the phone and email alone to grow your staffing firm is an uphill battle. By simply messaging with your candidates and clients you can exponentially speed up your process and place more candidates.
Here at Staffing Engine, we’re working to bring all 4 of these real-time messaging channels together to help accelerate recruiting and sales. You can schedule a demo here to learn more.