The (social) world of work

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY RANDSTAD The (social) world of work Outsourcing is accelerating social media success for the Netherlands biggest international recruitment agency

2 2 CX Company Randstad Solution Randstad is a big player in the world of work a recruitment agency with operations in 39 countries. In the Netherlands it is the market leader, with almost 891,000 workers deployed in client companies across the country on any average working day. Country Netherlands Challenge To accelerate the adoption of social media as a marketing channel, supporting the recruitment of both job candidates and clients to employ them. An outsourced team within CX Company s Amsterdam-based Digital Customer Engagement Centre, deployed at high speed in May Today that team manages all of Randstad s social media interactions with response times of less than 30 minutes, which has allowed Randstad to double its campaign activity. Results Operation go-live in only 6 weeks Within less than one year: - Average response times reduced from 24 hours to under 30 minutes - Brand reach on Facebook and Twitter doubled - Campaign activity doubled

3 Outsourcing is accelerating social media success for the Netherlands biggest international recruitment agency. CASE STUDY RANDSTAD 3

4 4 CX Company Since it was founded in the Netherlands in 1960, Randstad has been shaping the world of work. Over the years, it has expanded to 39 countries and, today, provides work for over half a million people. In that time it has used a wide range of marketing channels in its mission to bring employers and job candidates together, successfully moving with the times to build its brand and its business. In 2013, in its home market of the Netherlands, it introduced social media to the marketing mix for the first time, recognising its potential as a mainstream channel for both B2C and B2B customer engagement. We started small, explains Randstad s E Commerce & Online Manager, Martine Barbier-Westhuis, with members of our marketing team managing social responses. It very soon became evident that this wouldn t be enough. By the beginning of 2014 rising volumes of social traffic and an appetite to take on more made it obvious to Martine and her Social Media Manager, Edo Zwaan, that additional resources would be needed quickly. They began to consider their options Flexible and focused Their first thought, to increase the size of the inhouse team, was quickly dismissed. With the rate of growth we felt was likely, we knew we needed a team that was equipped and experienced at managing social customer interactions at scale, says Martine. This was a capability we didn t possess and that would take time and money to build. Outsourcing was an obvious answer because it would allow Randstad to move quickly, start small and grow progressively as its activity gathered pace. Outsourcing meant we could plan flexibly for our future without having to make a big capital investment at an early stage. But it would be important that the outsourcer chosen would have the specialist skills and rare experience needed to manage the social channel effectively. Randstad recognised it needed a social media specialist and turned to CX Company. When we saw the work that CX Company was doing for other Dutch multinationals we knew we had found the right partner. CX Company s social focus meant that, once an agreement was reached, things moved very quickly. We were operational within just six weeks and achieving target service levels very rapidly after that. When we saw the work CX Company was doing for other Dutch multinationals, we knew we had found the right partner Martine Barbier-Westhuis, Randstad

5 CASE STUDY RANDSTAD 5 With CX Company s dedicated team and longer operating hours, we ve seen average response times decrease from 24 hours to just 30 minutes. Edo Zwaan, Social Media Manager, Randstad Fast and growing As the CX Company team got into stride, the most obvious benefit was the extended hours of operation and a dramatic reduction in response times. While the Randstad inhouse team had been restricted to weekday office hours, the WebCare team operates from 7am to 10pm on weekdays and from 7am to 6pm at weekends. A significant amount of our social traffic takes place outside of office hours, says Randstad s Social Media Manager, Edo Zwaan. With CX Company s dedicated team and longer operating hours we ve seen average response times decrease from 24 hours to just 30 minutes. With this reliable resource on hand, Randstad had the confidence to increase its campaign activity on social media. We doubled our social campaigning activity in 2014, says Edo, something we couldn t have done without CX Company s support. That increased activity is delivering dividends. We saw our brand reach on Facebook double over the course of 2014 and, during our key candidate recruitment campaign, saw the same increase on Twitter. For the business Increasing activity and growing reach is only the first of Randstad s objectives for social media. Our real aim is to use social to attract both candidates and clients to work with Randstad, says Martine. We are already seeing CX Company create business leads on the back of campaign responses and we expect to see this grow. CX Company s agents are all educated to degree level, which makes them much more resourceful and responsive than you might expect of a typical contact centre agent. It also means they can do more for us, says Martine. During one of its candidate recruitment campaigns Randstad offered a free CV review service to help potential candidates polish up their profiles. We were able to train CX Company s agents quickly to provide this service and, in all, they completed more than 1,500 in a six-week period. There s no question that this is a competent and flexible team it s also a team that s excited about social and passionate about Randstad s business.

6 6 CX Company Virtual Assistant Vera Randstad s website also features a Virtual Assistant, Vera, also provided by CX Company. Vera is particularly valuable in the My Randstad area of the site that is accessed by clients. By answering questions and requests for help, Vera has reduced calls to our contact centre by around 10% overall calls about the log-in process itself are down 60%, says Martine. More importantly, Vera allows clients to get the information they need without having to leave the contact channel they ve chosen. With online self-service and social service working in tandem, Randstad is making sure that its clients and candidates have access to the services they want in the channels they prefer. It is also making sure that operational budgets are wisely spent. With simple customer enquiries dealt with by self-service, Randstad is able to invest to develop effective customer engagement when direct human interaction delivers value for both the company and its customers. The CX Company team is excited about social and passionate about Randstad s business. Martine Barbier-Westhuis, E-Commerce & Online Manager, Randstad

7 CASE STUDY RANDSTAD 7 CX Company is also supporting Randstad s business objectives beyond social. As well as handling social media contact, CX Company s Digital Customer Engagement Centre supports customer contacts that escalate from self-service digital channels. Randstad s website features a Call Me button. Those call me requests are now handled by CX Company. Around 40% of those Call Me button calls are from applicants looking for work and a further 30% are from clients looking to hire leads that CX Company is able to quality and pass on to Randstad to close. We can t be sure that those leads wouldn t have come to us by some other means; candidates or clients could have called one of our 300 offices for example, says Martine, But the Call Me button allows them to act in the moment and CX Company makes sure they get a fast and efficient response. It s all part of Randstad s plan to make it as easy as it can be for candidates and clients to contact Randstad on the digital channels they most want to use. The fact that CX Company is able to manage contacts that escalate from self-service channels as well as social makes it easier for us to develop our online and social activities in parallel, says Martine. And because we want to deliver a consistent customer experience across all channels, that s really important to us.

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