Stop Pitching Destination Services – Start Sharing Employee Experiences
When angling for new human resources (HR) clients, standing out from the crowd can be difficult, especially in high traffic countries and cities where there any many options for destination service providers (DSPs) and arrival support. Even using past relocations as examples of your previous success and smooth delivery for clients may not push you much further in front of the pack.
Instead, take the time to re-align your approach to highlight the experience you provide for your assignees. The employee experience becomes the centre of your conversation with prospective clients, bringing the exchange from a transactional one to one placing you as an expert, an expert in employee experience. The key is to prove that you give individuals the right experience, and put them in the right frame of mind, to become immediately focused on their new role and not worry about outside matters.
Form the Foundation
To better understand your clients and their relocations your first step should be to assess the current position, satisfaction and success of their relocations. How happy are those on assignment? What would they change about their new home and role? Do they have any regrets? Do their assignees leave the organisation after they have finished their assignment contract? The answers to all of these essential questions will provide the information necessary to move forward and give a better and more accurate service to their employees.
At ReloTalent, we provide our clients with a toolkit to better approach this initial call and understand their customers’ needs regarding the improvement of employee experience. Think about the essential areas for you to need and understand to provide the best possible service for your clients and their assignees, not just the more general points of the job at hand. Knowing where your client stands, and how that compares with where they want to be, is vital.
Shift your conversation form one about transactional service delivery, an area in which the HR may not have much interest or expertise, to one about employee experience. This change brings the interaction into an area that is currently very fashionable in the HR world and highlights a point which is now a key focus for many businesses handling global mobility.
Make Technology the Heart of Sales
As a DSP, you provide an array of services beyond the traditional thoughts of what a service provider should do for their clients. Introducing technology as a crucial part of your portfolio will better allow integration both throughout your services and with your customers. Demo your management system for prospective HRs to showcase what workflows go into the experience you provide and evolve your sales pitches. Stop charging for individual services and begin invoicing for the whole package deal that is your business even introducing recurring charges for more fluid client segments such as interns, or lump sums.
Remember that although your technology infrastructure might do most of its work behind the scenes, it all informs the eventual client and assignee experience. This also allows you to moves the conversation with clients from service transactions to new areas of expertise, which you can share and use to improve the overall relocation for the client. A slick management platform with smart integrations projects modernity; no one wants to work with someone perceived to be well behind the times.
Provide Immediate Satisfaction
When working with HRs and relocation management companies which may become repeat clients, it’s essential that you continue to provide measurable benefits over your competition. When these relationships are just starting out, focus on what satisfaction you can provide for them immediately.
When you visibly add value to a project or workflow in the immediate term, you not only put to rest any worries that may have been circulating following the awarding of the contract but encourage more responsibility in the relationship. Getting the client experience off to a positive and quick start can make all the difference; first impression matter.
Reclaim Control
As we move into the future, it is vital that DSPs, as the actual service providers on the ground, reclaim control of their relationships with both larger companies and the assignees themselves. Employee relocation experiences have been all hugely varied, and generally poor over the last few decades do to a multitude of reasons but improving this is now a constant focus for HR professionals.
Taking control of your side of the relocation allows a more professional and fluid experience for the candidate, and lets you focus your talents and expertise where they can be best used for your clients.
At the time of writing, the ReloTalent Partner Network has over 50 partners on 4 continents. For more information please contact CEO and Co-Founder of ReloTalent, Sebastien Deschamps - seb@relotalent.com