Have you ever closed one window to keep the warm air in and then later realize that the warm air keeps escaping because someone opened up another window? The same principle applies when marketing departments don’t fully understand where the reputational harm is occurring in their company and they lose potential clients as a result.
Businesses spend countless hours working on their reputations, and they spend thousands of dollars trying to show you why you should be their customer. Individuals – if not teams – are assembled to ensure that customers are happy and that they leave positive reviews to gain the trust of other potential customers. Little does the marketing department realize however is that their single sales-minded approach to reputation could be causing them to miss out on addressing significant reputational harm from another department.
Depending on the size of a company, other than the sales department, the HR department (or the equivalent in smaller companies), may have a significant amount of contact with third parties who apply for jobs within the company. However, if HR decides to all of a sudden stop responding to a job applicant, the harm to the company becomes real and starts to silently grow.
Customers these days have more resources than ever at their fingertips to investigate a company prior to making a purchase. Sure, a customer may read Google reviews, but what are the job applicants saying about the company. How did the business treat the applicant during the process?
Job applications take time. Resumes and cover letters take time. Interviews take time. Far too many times these days, a business makes a hiring decision and then just decides to never communicate with the other applicants ever again. Just as in the dating world, people get irritated when the other person refuses to communicate with them again, the same principle applies in the business world.
Simply stated, ghosting!
It doesn’t matter how you spin it; potential customers notice themes in how people are treated. The old saying rings true here – “character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.” A job applicant who has spent hours on the job process and then is ghosted by the business will surely be expressing the disgust with others.
Just think, how much time does it take for HR to respond to a job applicant to let the applicant know that the job is not being offered to that applicant. Now ask, how much profit is lost if just one potential customer decides to go elsewhere. That simple email or phone call that was replaced for ghosting just turned out to be very expensive.
So as the marketing plan is being evaluated to ensure that happy customers leave good reviews, be sure to also evaluate how applicants are being treated. Remember, just as you can only keep the warm air in the room if you work together to keep all the windows closed, work together with other departments to ensure that potential customers are not getting away.
At Northwest Corporate Counsel, we always work with our business clients to keep their costs down, to establish a budget, and to give them the best service without the billable hour quotas of larger law firms. If we can help your business, just let us know. Give us a call at 509-710-1914 or email us at David@NWCorporateCounsel.com and let us know how we can help.
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