Experience Management Resources

Accounting firms – like other professional service providers – rely heavily on client satisfaction and service quality to retain accounts and differentiate from the competition. Service quality and client satisfaction grow even more essential to business success during economic lulls and industry challenges. This may partially explain why business leaders across sectors prioritized customer experience (CX) in 2023. To understand how your service measures up year over year, you need a feedback tool that gathers insights and simplifies tracking—and gives you a metric that you can easily compare to your competition’s performance. Enter the Net Promoter Score® (NPS®), a service quality and customer satisfaction metric that serves as a leading indicator of revenue retention and growth, not to mention brand differentiation.

What is NPS?

Your NPS starts with a single survey question that asks clients how likely they are to recommend your firm to a friend or colleague. The most forward-thinking firms are also asking their employees, hoping to boost their employee experience (EX) too. Responses land on a scale of 0–10, ten being extremely likely and zero being not at all likely. From there, people have the option to offer more specific feedback.To calculate NPS, we subtract the % of detractors (those who respond with a 6 or lower) from the % of promoters (those who respond with 9 or 10).

Why is NPS Uniquely Useful?

NPS offers a standardized measurement to track and report on client satisfaction and service quality—one that can be applied across every level, from the industry as a whole to the brand level. Each company can also drill down within their organization, including by lines of business, department, or account manager. This means that you can compare your firm to others while also pinpointing the shining stars and any areas to improve within your organization. Learn more about how NPS can help drive business growth.

Accounting Industry NPS in 2023

ClearlyRated’s annual NPS Benchmark Study includes an industry focus on accounting firm NPS—and it’s good news. The 2023 accounting industry NPS has bumped up 2 points from 2022, landing at 41%. This NPS is the highest level recorded in the accounting industry going back to 2011, the first year that ClearlyRated measured industry satisfaction. Many drivers of accounting client satisfaction, such as responsiveness to calls/emails and delivering results within established timelines, are also at record highs in the industry. After a low point in the late 2010s, the industry’s average NPS picked up significantly, increasing by 15% in just one year, from 2020 to 2021. After a 1% increase in 2022, this year’s 2% increase marks the accounting industry’s third straight NPS rise, suggesting a trending improvement in the industry’s service levels.

Accounting Client Satisfaction – measured as NPS

Year-Over-Year Accounting Industry NPS (Client Ratings)

Insights on 2023 Ratings

We’re glad to see our accounting clients increase their NPS for the third consecutive year, especially within an industry that lags compared to global NPS standards. For reference those wider standards only classify organizations as excellent once they’ve earned a 50% NPS. A 70% NPS would classify them as world-class. What does it look like to have a 70%+ NPS? Consider Starbucks and USAA, recognizable service leaders with an NPS of 77% and 75%, respectively. Then compare them to Comcast, a notorious service laggard, whose clients give them a -25% NPS. While the accounting industry seems to be improving overall, it is still ripe for further progress. And as firms achieve better service levels, clients’ expectations will rightfully get higher, meaning any firms that don’t keep are likely to flounder. Click here to learn more about the NPS methodology.On the other hand, this presents a huge opportunity for accounting firms that capitalize on their NPS momentum, continuing to improve their customer satisfaction and service. Firms that manage to deliver an outstanding CX and earn a high NPS as a result will more easily outshine their competition. Get tips on how to improve your CX based on customer feedback.

A Note on EX in the Accounting Industry

Our NPS survey programs can help our clients in every industry measure both their CX and their employee experience (EX). In fact, we believe so much in the importance of EX that we use NPS surveys for our own employees and have even shared what we learned. Unfortunately, in our experience accounting firms are typically more hesitant than other types of organizations to measure and improve their EX.Thankfully, we’ve already seen some wise accounting firms like Perkins & Co use their NPS survey program to not only improve their CX but also boost their EX by celebrating their wins. When employees receive recognition for providing good service, they are happier and more likely to continue providing high levels of customer care. Keep in mind that a better EX helps you retain your employees and builds a foundation for an improved CX.

How does your firm stack up?

If you’re not already leveraging NPS at your firm, we hope you consider this article a call-to-action. Not only do client satisfaction and service quality represent opportunities to differentiate in an increasingly commodified service industry, they are fuel for firm growth. Remember the adage: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” – and you certainly won’t be able to improve it either. Up against a reluctant firm culture? Get some tips on how to overcome common objections to survey programs to help build buy-in and get started.

Next Steps

• Ready to get started with NPS? Contact the ClearlyRated team for insights, best practices, and a tour of our survey platform (designed specifically to support professional services firms).
• Considering a survey program? Our veteran team of survey experts has compiled a Satisfaction Survey Checklist for accounting Firms to help you avoid common pitfalls and build a road map for a successful client survey initiative.

On their own, fake online reviews are nothing new but what is new is a powerful tool – AI – that can write them more convincingly and more quickly — and it’d be short-sighted not to admit the temptation that many businesses will face. In 2022, alone, Tripadvisor detected 1.3 million and Google identified 115 million fake reviews. The importance of online reviews and ratings to business success can’t be understated. Unfortunately, this has incentivized companies of all types and sizes to push for reviews that are anything but genuine. Until recently, most fake reviews were generated by online review farms – often in third-world locations – paid to improve businesses’ online ratings. If you’ve read any of those reviews, you likely recognized them for what they were thanks to canned, overused phrases and imperfect English. But today’s AI changes everything with its command of multiple languages, its lightning speed, and the fact that it’s a low-cost tool. Already a Guardian journalist has demonstrated ChatGPT’s ability to crank out differentiated, well-written fake reviews. It may not be long before bad actors use tools like these to publish fake reviews at a rate in which today’s detection procedures simply can’t keep up.

The Current (and Ever-Evolving) State of AI-Generated Content

Scroll through popular social media outlets, and you’re likely to see AI-generated images— some comically obvious and others harder to perceive. In fact, experts have issued warnings such as: “Detecting deepfakes and AI-generated content is an ongoing challenge as the technology continues to evolve. As AI models improve and become more sophisticated, identifying disinformation becomes increasingly complex.”For the purposes of AI’s effects on online reviews, let’s focus on AI-generated text. AI-generated copy has proliferated since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, a powerful and commonly used generative AI tool. Already AI-penned content can be found in product listings on eCommerce websites, in marketing copy, and as entire eBooks published in Amazon’s Kindle store. But will the public remain comfortable with AI’s growing uses? Forbes Advisor published survey results in July 2023 that show mixed public sentiment. On one hand, more than 75% of consumers are concerned about AI’s potential to spread misinformation and a majority aren’t completely comfortable with businesses using AI. That said, 65% say they would personally use ChatGPT over search engines to find information online. And as more people interact with AI, it will get even better at appearing to write as a real person—which takes us back to its potential for fake online reviews.

AI’s Infiltration of Online Reviews

As early as April 2023, there were reports of AI-generated reviews on Amazon. How could the world be sure? Well, it’s a dead giveaway when a review begins: “As an AI language model…” But we all learn from our mistakes, right?Plus, as NBC News points out, “AI-generated reviews aren't entirely against Amazon's rules. An Amazon spokesperson said the company allows customers to post AI-generated reviews as long as they are authentic and don’t violate policy guidelines.” But how can platforms be certain the review is based on an authentic experience? While Amazon is allowing users to post reviews written with help from AI, it’s been cracking down on fake review providers, filing a lawsuit and requesting assistance from social media platforms where businesses connect with review brokers and where these brokers create fake accounts from which to publish fake reviews.As mainstream review sites strategize, review farms can get ever savvier with the help of AI tools—and we mere mortals may have a harder time detecting the fakes. In fact, one study found that humans can only identify fake reviews 55% of the time. Will that number go down as AI-generated reviews get sneakier?

The Federal Trade Commission’s Response

In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took a stand for protecting online transparency by making an example of companies that cherry-picked reviews (by only publishing positive ones), gated reviews (by filtering rating results and only asking happy customers to write a review), and encouraged entirely fake reviews. This year, the FTC issued a warning about “the widespread emergence of generative AI, which is likely to make it easier for bad actors to write fake reviews."To deter companies in its war against fake reviews, the FTC has sought a new weapon for its arsenal: a fine of up to $50,000per infraction aimed at companies that either sell, buy, or promote fake reviews and ratings. The question here is: How easy is it to detect fake reviews—and will FTC enforcement be able to keep up with perpetrators?

Proactive vs. Reactive Approaches: How ClearlyRated Blocks Fake Reviews

To promote online transparency, we don’t rely on a reactive detection and removal process for fake reviews. While admirable in its aims, a reactive approach just won’t cut it, especially with the threat of AI-generated content. Our strategy positions us to be proactive instead, verifying reviews as they are collected and before any are published. With this process in place, we prevent fake reviews from being sought and published in the first place. From the beginning, we designed our platform to make it extremely difficult for any company to collect fake reviews. Our customer intake process screens for potential bad actors, and our platform only allows reviews from contacts in our customers’ data sets. This means that only real, vetted customers can rate or review companies with a ClearlyRated profile. Not one review or rating can appear on any of our customers’ profiles without the reviewer receiving a personal invitation as a member of their customer data set.Finally, we employ a proprietary system that automatically searches for and flags various signals. This system helps us identify potential issues that may otherwise slip through the cracks, such as companies answering surveys for customers who didn’t respond. In fact, we do catch two to three rogue actors each year who try to submit fake reviews for their companies—and we have a process for remediation depending on the severity. Our goal has always been to help our customers improve their customer experience (CX) by getting a full understanding of their CX, and to recognize those that earn positive customer feedback. By cheating the system, everyone loses.Unfortunately, most review platforms don’t have a way to verify whether each reviewer actually interacted with the company they’re rating. Therefore, it falls to consumers to keep the source in mind when reading reviews. Look into and recognize the differences between review platforms before deciding whether you trust them. You may decide that not all review platforms hold the same weight, and you’ll be wiser for it. While we sincerely hope this isn’t the case, it may not be long before having verified ratings, reviews, and testimonials will become a true differentiator. Why not start promoting that now—on your website, in proposals, and during conversations with your customers? Demonstrate your commitment to transparency and your goal of delivering a great CX. Learn more about how ClearlyRated can help you achieve that goal today.

At ClearlyRated we believe it's good business for B2B service providers to place the client experience (CX) at the heart of their growth strategy. That’s why we’ve made it our mission since 2003 to help B2B firms get honest feedback about their service. Doing so helps them both to improve their CX and to credibility differentiate themselves based on it. However, in order for businesses to get the most out of their survey feedback, they need to focus on their response rates. Helping B2B firms get honest feedback has not only positioned us to guide firms on improving their CX, but also to gather proprietary data from decades’ of surveys across multiple industries. Knowledge is power, so we’ve decided to draw new insights from our vast data set—and to share them with you, specifically our data on response rates.

How We’ve Used Our Data to Unlock Insights and Define Best Practices

We’ve harnessed the information in our data sets to both create a new tool and publish a deep study. Now we offer our new Response Rate Calculator to any B2B firm that wants to predict their client survey response rate based on day one of their survey launch. Also, after compiling and analyzing data from the NPS® surveys in our Best of Staffing® survey program, we completed a comprehensive study focused on improving client survey response rates. The insights from this analysis can help organizations yield higher response rates with more meaningful feedback. In this way, we hope to help our clients improve their survey programs and ultimately, their customer experience. Get a sneak peek into some of the best practices below.

3 Ways to Improve Your Survey Response Rates

Set up your client satisfaction survey for early success with these three three survey design tips.

Make the survey invitation personal.

While addressing the recipient by name is a good start, this tip goes beyond that. When communicating about your survey program, keep it personal by sending emails from someone the recipient will know rather than a generic company email address.* You can also ditch the fancy-looking HTML email in favor of plain text emails to achieve a higher response rate. * This doesn’t apply to survey invitations when you employ an objective third-party survey partner that sends the survey. In this case, your staff can still communicate personally about the survey program ahead of its launch.

Keep your survey short and sweet.

Longer surveys often yield incomplete responses and abandoned surveys. Remember: your respondents have busy schedules and many other tasks on their plate. Respect their time and get better response rates by carefully selecting your survey questions and writing them in simple language. Keep the full survey under 10 questions and make answering easy with multiple choice or sliding scale answers. You can include an optional comments field for those who want to add more detail to their responses.

Create an accessible survey experience.

Make it easy for clients to answer your survey whenever they find a free moment. This may mean responding to your survey on their phone while waiting for the dentist or on their tablet while taking the train home, so ensure your survey is mobile-friendly. Finally, you should also consider adding a “preview” option that allows respondents to see all questions (hopefully a short list!) before they respond, so they can assess how long it will take them. Keep in mind that they’re more likely to complete your survey if it’s short and to the point. Get more best practices to maximize the response rate to your client satisfaction survey, including when and how to communicate with clients about your survey program as well as how to ensure they receive your survey invitations. After all, if they don’t get your survey, how can they respond to it?

What Else Can You Find in Our Response Rate Report?

Download our response rate analysis report to learn more about managing successful client survey programs that help you deliver your best service, creating strong relationships with your customers and using their positive feedback to grow your client base. Our report includes information on:

• Response rate trends and benchmarks
• Additional best practices for getting higher survey response rates
• And more takeaways about the types of client respondents you may have and how to encourage their feedback

These days it goes without saying: The pandemic and simultaneous social movements gave people a new perspective and reordered their priorities. For many people, work and career got knocked down a few rungs while flexibility, fulfillment, and inclusion moved up. Hence, the Great Resignation (or the Great Reshuffle, depending on how we look at it). Thankfully, the record-high quit rates we saw in 2021 and 2022 have slowed, as noted in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report. But as the dust settles, we’re still faced with increasingly high employee disengagement. Believe it or not, you can unlock powerful data by conducting an employee survey. To engage and hold onto your employees, you must nurture an atmosphere that fosters true inclusion and a sense of belonging for all. As our CEO Eric Gregg suggested early in the pandemic, leaders must show their employees that they care about their experience and want to support them—not just with words, but with tangible action. He noted that, for those who don’t, “It might not lead to a talent flight today, [but] it’s going to lead to a talent flight tomorrow.” As the COVID-19 began to spread across the globe, we at ClearlyRated were busy creating an employee-facing survey program for our clients. Little did we know how essential it would be to meet such a timely need. We launched our internal employee satisfaction survey program in June of 2020. Not long after, we started receiving many thoughtful questions from our clients and partners about the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) aspect of the program. Here’s a peek behind the curtain with Eric’s take on how and why we ensured that:

1. DEI insights are baked into our employee surveys.
2. Employees will feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.

Q: How did ClearlyRated decide to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations into the internal employee survey product?

Eric: The idea to include DEI in our employee surveys came from one of the newer members of our team at the time who asked an important question: “Is it enough to impact just within our four figurative walls, or is there an opportunity to impact a wider audience?” The question struck a chord. Why wouldn’t we utilize our skills and experience to help our clients take action on something they likely already care about but don’t always know how to address? We serve multiple industries that employ millions of people directly and many more millions of people in a temporary capacity. Helping to positively influence the entire industries and improve EX across the board made a ton of sense. We already knew as we watched the pandemic cross the ocean that it’d be important to get feedback from employees. There was so much anxiety, change and social unrest. And we could give firm leaders an opportunity to assess where they were on their DEI path and give them the tools to improve.

Q: What are the questions in the survey that ask about DEI, and how did ClearlyRated select them?

Eric: This was a challenge. When planning a survey, what you aim to do is balance its depth, the number of questions, and its accessibility so that people who have many different things going on will take it to deliver a high response rate. Our existing survey had important questions for overall employee experience—one’s we’d been leveraging for over a decade—so we started with that. Then we did our homework and pulled three additional DEI-focused questions around the sense of belonging; leadership actions; and the opportunity for advancement regardless of race, gender and any other aspect other than performance. What’s even more important than those questions, and those questions are vitally important, is understanding how on all of the other questions—on fairness of compensation, flexibility, overall willingness to recommend the firm—differ spending on whether respondents are a white male versus a non-white male, a female, or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. We’re uniquely positioned to gather and use those demographics to help firms identify if they’re inadvertently leaving people behind. The only way you create a place where people can bring their best and full selves to work every single day is by understanding where those differences lie.

Q: How can business leaders ensure that employees feel comfortable answering survey questions?

Eric: The question is: How do you make sure your employees feel comfortable and confident answering the questions openly and honestly, especially the more personal survey questions? It’s one thing to answer, “What does this company do well?” and “What does this company need to improve?” It’s another thing to ask respondents to identify themselves in a particular way that may make them feel vulnerable. The key is to consider how your survey process can build trust. One of the things we do for clients at ClearlyRated is send the survey ourselves. This way, the surveys are coming from an objective third party (me, actually) rather than appearing to come from HR or even the CEO of the firm. And we coach our teams to explain that from the beginning—that an outside party is conducting the survey and that their employer won’t have direct access to it. When it comes to segmenting data – drilling down to specific groups of people – wel also help to make sure there are parameters in place that minimize the ability for somebody to drill down deep enough to identify individuals. A lot of that comes down to managing sample sizes. If the number of a particular group of people is below the sample size threshold, then we help clients build safeties into their system that prevent people from segementing too far, even inadvertently.

Q: In what ways will the DEI insights generated from the ClearlyRated employee survey empower business leaders to take action?

Eric: The most important thing following a survey program is to take action on the feedback you receive, especially around DEI. With the data that a good survey program provides, you’ll get a view of how your entire organization views the state of your DEI and any progress you’ve may. You’ll also have the ability to highlight how perceptions may differ by various demographic groups. Finally, you’ll gain context by gaining the option to compare your data with your industry peers’ to see how your journey measures up. With that knowledge, leaders can consider logical next steps. We recommend focusing on a gap analysis. Are there areas where the perceptions vary by demographic? We understand that somebody who’s new to an organization may have a different perspective than a colleague who’s been with you for 10 years, but we should all aim to eliminate cases where somebody feels like their opportunities are different because of how they identify. The only way that that happens is taking real action based on strong data insights.

Do you have questions about DEI or ClearlyRated’s Employee Satisfaction Survey Program?

We’d be more than happy to connect with you on this topic and others related to EX. Feel free to contact the ClearlyRated team or chat with a real person now to learn more about our employee satisfaction survey program. Want to learn more before chatting with us? No problem. Click here for a self-guided demo of our employee survey program. You can also watch the full video here with Eric’s perspective on how B2B service firms can leverage the ClearlyRated employee satisfaction survey to measure and improve their DEI outcomes. This video was recorded in 2020 around the initial launch of our employee survey program.

Recently, we had the pleasure of announcing our inaugural list of Best Staffing Firms for Women. This designation recognizes firms that deliberately foster work environments in which women can thrive and are more likely to receive parity in career growth and compensation.

Why Are We Shining a Light on Women in Staffing?

As our CEO, Eric Gregg, shared in a recent webinar, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Strategies from the Best Staffing Firms for Women,” women represent 68% of the staffing workforce, yet are:

• 62% less likely than men to feel they’re compensated fairly
• 26% less likely to feel they “always belong” at their firm
• 42% less likely to to believe that their firm operates a meritocracy

And their perceptions are not wrong. The fact is: Women in staffing are underrepresented in higher-level roles and compensated at lower rates than men at every level. When we look at the numbers, we see that women in staffing are below the “equity line” in both director-level (-13.5%) and executive-level roles (-35%). On the flip side, women are overrepresented in support roles. This imbalance doesn’t stop at representation. Overall, women in staffing earn $0.77 for every dollar their male counterparts are paid. In fact, there isn’t a single staffing role in which women match their male peers in compensation. In many cases the higher women rise, the less money they make in comparison. Female branch managers, for instance, make $0.82 for every $1.00 their male peers get paid. And while women have gained ground since the 1970s in terms of compensation, the additional loads they bore during the pandemic led to a severe setback in their collective compensation as compared to men’s. Despite being undervalued, women offer many benefits to their employers—especially when in leadership roles. An article published by the American Psychological Association notes, “Decades of studies show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational dedication, and improve fairness.” So, how can you attract more women to your organization and better support your female employees to prepare them for leadership roles? Eric explored this with Tammi Heaton, the co-CEO of Pridestaff, and Kim Whiteley, SVP of MeeDerby. Tammi and Kim have spent 26 years and 16 years at their companies, respectively, and each of their organizations made the list of Best Staffing Firms for Women.

Ways to Support Women in Staffing From Best Staffing Firms for Women Winners

During the webinar, Eric, Tammi, and Kim explored the ‘whys’ behind women’s leadership gap as well as what their own organizations do to actively support and promote women in their workforces. Below are some actionable takeaways. 1. Give women opportunities to expand their capabilities and experience—and encourage them to broaden their perceptions around their own potential.Tammi suggests offering women opportunities to grow by exposing them to things they wouldn’t normally do via sub-committees or customer advisory boards. Not only will they gain experience, but they’ll also build their network. She noted that this practice spurred her own career beginning in 2002 when she shared an idea with leaders and was empowered to put a plan together and run with it. “Half of what we know isn’t taught in school,” Tammi says, so it’s essential to create a work atmosphere where women feel empowered to grow. Supporting their ideas and encouraging them to pursue their plans can retain women over time and improve their readiness for leadership roles. Progress can be made by nudging women toward leadership roles. Tammi and Kim both acknowledged that everyone is always slightly underqualified for their next job. But women, they noted, tend to feel this more acutely than men. We noticed this at ClearlyRated too. Often, women candidates were disqualifying themselves before they’d even applied for our open roles. To remedy that, we’ve added language to our job descriptions explaining that we consider applicants who don’t meet all the criteria. 2. Promote mentorship and leadership development.“Ask women about their challenges and how they perceive their skills and potential, especially because women have a tendency to be harder on themselves,” says Tammi, who encourages active career pathing conversations. She also recommends connecting female employees with women mentors who are already in leadership positions. Connecting women with formal mentor relationships and leadership programs can help talented women who wouldn’t normally advocate for themselves. Kim noted that several MeeDerby clients earned a spot on the Best Staffing Firms for Women list. One such firm is Adecco which recruits female employees into Engage 2022, its formal leadership development program for women. Adecco’s CEO has committed to fill 50% of its VP-level roles with women leaders by 2030.3. Foster flexibility.Kim pointed out that the years in which most people advance their careers often coincide with typical childbearing years. Many women get passed over because they’re pregnant, on leave or caring for young children. This issue has been exacerbated as an increasing number of women also begin to care for their parents along with their children.“These women get overlooked rather than included in conversations,” she says, yet they’re still more than capable of taking on challenges and excelling. “Ask them what they can handle and manage. When we do, we learn that they can manage a lot more than we think as long as we give them the opportunity to do it—and the flexibility to do it in a way that works for them.”After she had her son, Kim left a former job herself. She had also been managing care for her parents and wanted to work at an organization that allowed her to be performance-driven while also having more control over her schedule. Fortunately, she landed at MeeDerby where employees are given the flexibility to handle personal responsibilities with a schedule that works for them while still gaining opportunities to rise in the organization.“We just ask that if you’re going to be away from your desk, you give a heads up to your team so people will know not to expect an immediate response. You don’t even need to explain why,” she says.She and Tammi both recommend thinking outside the box about how a job can get done. Tammi shared that PrideStaff supports women returning to work by allowing them to ease back in, sometimes with a three-day schedule. Some women who returned to work via this option, she says, are now top performers. “Empathy doesn’t mean there’s a lack of accountability,” Tammi says.When an employee needs extra flexibility due to outside circumstances, she recommends that managers offer support and several options while setting expectations and timelines to prevent surprises on either side. 4. Actively recruit women who’ve felt sidelined or left behind at past roles. YUPRO is another of MeeDerby’s clients that qualified for a spot on the Best Staffing Firms for Women list. Its CEO Michelle Sims encourages employees to refer to anyone who felt they didn’t have a voice at another organization. Her current head of recruiting came into the company this way.Tammi echoed the importance of reaching out to people who’ve felt sidelined, adding that PrideStaff’s first franchise owners were women who felt left out in their organizations. Now she affirms that they are PrideStaff’s strongest performing branches. To hear more details from their discussion as well as Tammi and Kim’s answers to the following attendee questions, watch the full webinar.

1. “What advice do you have for male-dominated organizations that have so far failed to consider women for leadership roles?”
2. “As we look forward to the next five years, do you see it getting better in the industry? Is there any real change happening?”
3. “What are some things you can do in your recruiting process to hire the next generation of female leaders?”
4. “Are there programs you’d recommend women participate in within the industry to further their career and grow their network?”

Originally published May 2022, updated June 2023 Throughout the early 2020s, the pandemic paired with social upheavals and shifting worker priorities led to climbing turnover rates. As companies across all industries struggled with retention, more were forced to care about their employee experience. While many organizations have long understood the importance of their client and customer experience (CX), less realize how essential their employee experience is to success—and slacking on employee experience is growing riskier.Why? Unengaged employees can harm your ability to deliver positive CX. And declining retention rates can lead to low morale and instability among your workforce. Winning at EX stabilizes and engages your workforce while increasing your chances of scoring a great CX. To begin, get a solid understanding of where your employee experience currently stands. Identify what you’re doing right, where you have space to improve, and where your biggest risks lie. By capitalizing on what you do well and learning how you can improve from your employees, you can improve engagement, boost employee wellbeing, and better support DEI initiatives. Do this by gathering both objective quantitative data (rating numbers) and subjective qualitative employee feedback (comments). One of the simplest, fastest and most sustainable ways to obtain essential employee experience data is an employee survey program.

Use these three tips to execute an employee survey that maximizes its positive impact on your firm:

1. Don’t go too general. Do get specific with your questions.

Vanilla questions yield vanilla feedback. Go deeper. Invite feedback on specific aspects of your EX, including opportunities for growth, benefits and perks, and your firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. DEI plays a major role in EX and engagement. Research shows that inclusive companies are more likely to coach people for improved performance and to identify and build leaders—both factors contribute to better retention rates. So include questions that help assess your firm’s DEI performance and ask for specific feedback on how you can improve these efforts. Then be prepared to act on your employees’ feedback.

2. Don’t ask for names. Do keep things anonymous.

When you launch an employee survey, you want real, honest feedback—right? Well, you’ll be more likely to get it if you keep responses anonymous. This gives your employees the freedom to give candid feedback without fear of retaliation. In fact, studies have shown that anonymous surveys “promote greater disclosure of sensitive… information compared to non-anonymous methods.” Plus, employees who typically don’t like to draw attention to themselves are more likely to share, generating higher overall disclosure rates and more accurate results. When you give your staff peace of mind that their feedback is anonymous, you’ll likely see an increased response rate and more honest feedback—two elements that go a long way in transforming your EX efforts. Working with third-party survey providers can both ensure that anonymity is protected and help your employees feel more comfortable sharing their feedback.

3. Don’t overcomplicate EX reports. Enable ongoing tracking and unlock clear comparisons by keeping it simple.

Implement an employee satisfaction metric like Employee Net Promoter® Score (eNPS) that can be tracked over time and compared across teams within your firm. Keep in mind that a simple metric doesn’t keep you from segmenting data to gain valuable insights. On the contrary, it makes slicing and dicing data easier, giving you the ability to compare eNPS scores by department, office location, or demographics like gender, race, and age. Segmenting data groups can help you identify and learn from bright spots as well as draw out insights on exactly where you need to make improvements. It also unlocks the ability to more easily compare your organization’s EX against industry benchmarks to see how you measure up and why you might be leaking talent to competitors. If ever there was a time to invest in EX, it’s now. Internal employee engagement and retention are more essential than ever in maintaining stability within your organization and delivering an outstanding CX that keeps you competitive for the long term.

ClearlyRated is thrilled to announce the trailblazing staffing firms that have earned the inaugural designation of being the Best Staffing Firms for Women. Join us in celebrating the staffing and recruiting firms that have gone above and beyond to cultivate a workplace culture that champions gender equality, professional growth, and opportunities for women!

2023 Best Staffing Firms for Women

• ACS Professional Staffing
• Acclivity Healthcare
• Accountable Healthcare Staffing
• Adecco
• Advantage xPO
• American Health Staffing Group (AHSG)
• ALKU
• AREVO Management Group
• AREVO/ Workforce Unlimited
• Atlas Staffing, Inc.
• Brilliant
• Cross Country Healthcare
• GDH
• Genesis10
• GLC On-The-Go
• Horizontal Talent
• IDR
• Luttrell Staffing Group
• Malone Workforce Solutions
• Medicus Healthcare Solutions
• Medstaff National Medical Staffing
• MeeDerby
• PrideStaff
• PrideStaff Financial
• Roth Staffing Companies
• Sparks Group
• Staffmark
• SyncX
• TempStaff
• Titan Medical Group
• TRC Staffing Services, Inc.
• YUPRO Placement

How Firms Earn Inclusion on the List

Staffing and recruiting firms that conducted internal employee surveys with ClearlyRated are eligible to earn the Best of Staffing® award in the Employee Satisfaction category. Within this category, firms that included identity-based demographic survey questions and met additional criteria related to female employee Net Promoter® Score (eNPS) and representation earned the prestigious designation as a member of the Best Staffing Firms for Women list. Fewer than 0.2% of staffing firms in the United States and Canada qualified to earn the Best Staffing Firms for Women designation, making this a prestigious recognition for staffing firms seeking to hire and retain top internal talent.Think your firm does an exceptional job of supporting and championing its female employees? If you’d like to see your firm on the 2024 Best Staffing Firms for Women list, complete this registration form now to get started!

We’ll come right out with it – Digital surveys beat paper surveys. The '90s have made a comeback, but that doesn’t extend to old-school survey techniques. The only time it’s better to use a paper survey is when the majority of your survey pool can’t be reached online. The fact is; paper surveys are time consuming and more expensive. Plus, they risk data loss. Digital surveys, on the other hand, save money and require less labor. Online surveys don’t require two-way postage, multiple mailings, or costly replacement questionnaires. You also don’t need to spend time manually entering responses into a database. Instead, your response data gets captured and cataloged automatically for near real-time analysis. This enables you to use the extra time that would have been spent inputting the data to review the responses and develop your CX strategy. So you may think this debate is an obvious one (favoring digital surveys) but believe it or not, from our experience traditional leaders are typically more comfortable with paper surveys. You might also hear them say the common (and often dreaded) phrase "We've always done it this way", but you're in luck to help fuel your case for modernization, we've compiled 6 advantages of digital surveys that show why they win this debate.

6 Advantages of Digital Surveys Over Paper Surveys

Digital surveys do more than save time and money. They also create a more efficient process, more accurate databases, and a more convenient experience. Here are six ways online surveys do it better than paper surveys.

1. They generate more data.

Response rates for mailed surveys have been declining for years. These days, online surveys get higher response rates than paper surveys. Higher response rates translate to more data and more accurate insights. Why do online surveys yield better response rates? It may be due in part to convenience (we’ll get to that), but it’s also the fact that your team has more control from start to finish. For instance, you can track responses and easily retarget anyone who hasn’t yet responded. Plus, your surveys and the responses can’t get lost in transit. Digital responses get captured immediately and safely stored in databases. Depending on the software you use, you may even get instant data analysis.

2. They enable a more efficient process.

Online surveys can be set up and launched more easily than paper surveys—and your responses roll in almost instantly. This means your team spends less time creating the survey and entering data, and more time analyzing feedback to make timely improvements. Following the 80/20 rule is key to survey success. 80% of your time should be spent responding to feedback and only 20% should be focused on the survey design. When you get immediate access to survey feedback, you can take action sooner and improve your service recovery

3. They create less room for error.

When you mail paper surveys, your staff must read individual responses then manually enter each survey’s data—hopefully correctly. Unfortunately, human error tends to creep in, especially when a task gets tedious, and muddy data will lead to incorrect insights. But when you launch an online survey, no one gets tasked with logging the response data. Instead your respondents enter their answers directly into your system, leaving less room for error and yielding more accurate results. Plus, if you make an error when creating your digital survey, you can make live updates. Incorrect email addresses are more easily rectified than physical addresses, and typos in your answer options can be immediately corrected when your survey is hosted online.

4. They’re more convenient.

You should always look for ways to improve your customer experience, and streamlining their survey experience by offering it online does just that. People are simply used to doing things digitally now. Plus, digital surveys can be done more quickly than paper ones, so people are more likely to respond. Also, online surveys make it easier for your clients to take the survey in their own time, especially when your online survey is mobile responsive. This means they can respond on their phones while riding the train into work or waiting in the school car line to pick up their child. They also won’t have to keep track of a physical envelope and make sure to place it in a mailbox. Instead, they simply tap a link, answer the survey on their chosen device, and get immediate confirmation that their feedback has been captured.

5. They improve flexibility.

Digital surveys unlock the ability to employ survey logic that just wouldn’t work with a printed survey. This means you can tailor question paths based on respondents’ answers. Let’s say someone indicates that they only use one of your two solutions. You can program your survey to automatically skip any following questions that relate to the unused solution—and add one to assess their interest in and need for the additional solution. This customization, only possible with online surveys, is yet another way digital surveys improve the experience for survey takers.

6. They offer more ways to collect and use positive feedback.

Some online survey partners go a step beyond surveying. They also:

• • Make it easier to gather a library of client testimonials
  • Generate client satisfaction scores that you can use to track your progress and illustrate your reputation for great service
  • Offer ways to qualify for and earn third-party awards which you can use in your marketing efforts to prove credibility and a positive track record

Our research shows that every generation, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, takes validated ratings, client satisfaction scores, and third-party awards into account when selecting B2B service providers. So, yes, we may be biased. But, as our customer success gurus Ryen and Bridget say in their recent podcast episode, “Digital surveys are the way of the future.” If you want to hear their thoughts about paper versus online surveys (and whether to put marshmallows in your hot chocolate), listen to this Survey Says podcast episode: The Debate: Paper vs. Digital Surveys.

Referrals are the best—right? Not only are they the least expensive way to generate leads but they’re often the highest quality leads. Plus, B2B buyers hold high trust for referrals while looking for new vendors. In fact, 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral. But before you can reap the benefits of a robust referral program or simply ask your business development team to begin requesting them, you need to make sure your company is truly referable.

What does it mean to be referable?

When you achieve true referability, it means your clients both:

• Feel comfortable referring others to your business and
• Want to refer others to you

The key is to give clients confidence that they won’t be steering someone in the wrong direction. Even then they’ll only want to refer people to your business if they experience one or all of the following:

1. They feel that you’ve made a noticeable impact on their success
2. They care about you and your success
3. They receive an incentive to refer others to your business

This means that to increase your referability you should focus on:

1. Giving clients long-term confidence in your business.
2. Earning their advocacy through an outstanding client experience (CX)—and maybe even give them some skin in the game (if referral programs are allowed in your industry)

4 Ways to Be More Referable

Boost your referability with these four tips. They’ll help you demonstrate value and earn your clients’ trust so they’ll be happy to give you referrals.

1. Invest in your CX at every stage.

Your CX starts before you’ve even earned a paying customer. That’s right, how you treat your prospects is the first stage of your CX. It’s when you win them over and likely make some brand promises about what you’ll deliver and how. The next stage is onboarding new clients. This is ultimately when you want to make sure they feel good about their decision to work with you. From there your CX continues indefinitely but never grows less important. This is why it’s essential to consistently and continually request feedback from your clients. Only then can you identify weak points in your CX and capitalize on your strengths. As you do, your clients see you demonstrate care by asking for their feedback and responding to it with positive changes, they’ll be more likely to trust your company both now and in the future. And once you’ve earned their trust, they’re more likely to give you referrals.

2. Formalize and communicate your unique process.

Think about how you deliver your product or service. Is there a clearly defined process? Maybe it starts with which questions you ask prospects and how you educate them on potential solutions. Next consider your onboarding period. As you welcome new clients, do you use unique checklists or assign an onboarding specialist to guide them through onboarding and early training? For existing clients, what are your communication standards, check-in frequencies, and service level agreements (SLAs)? Finally, how often do you check on your SLAs? Each step of your process should enhance your CX, adding value for every stage of your relationship. Record your process, making sure every person and team is trained on it and knows their part. Once you do, you can share it with current and prospective clients so they know what to expect and can see you delivering what you promised.

3. Prepare to welcome and wow referrals.

Referrals are valuable leads. Not only are you more likely to close deals that start with referrals, but referred clients often have a higher lifetime value. So don’t waste them. Make sure your teams know how important it is to respond to referrals quickly. You may even consider creating an accelerated process for responding to referred leads. Roll out the red carpet and make every referred prospect glad they found you. Plus, when you treat these leads well, the person who referred them to you will be more likely to send others your way.

4. Always thank clients for their referrals.

Whether or not a client’s referral results in a closed sale, always thank them. They went out on a limb for your business, and that’s not something to take lightly. It’s something to share gratitude for and encourage. Consider including this as a step in your process for responding to referrals. While a quick email is nice, consider going the extra mile with a handwritten card or even a small gift.

Learn How to Identify the Right CX Goals and Generate More Referrals

If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your CX, you can start with your current clients. Ask them for feedback on your service, processes and team. One of the best ways to do so is with a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. NPS surveys require little time from your clients, and the right program will not only capture client feedback data but also help you analyze it for actionable insights. As your work to foster a positive CX, you’ll be ready to make the most of any and all referrals that come your way. You may even launch a successful referral program. To learn more about our NPS survey solutions, including how to integrate referral programs, chat with a live person now or click to see how it works.

People like to talk—about experiences, about other people, and about businesses. And they don’t always keep their thoughts to in-person conversations. People often share their ideas, opinions, and experiences online where they reach a much wider audience and this can shape your online reputation. Some favorite outlets for airing their thoughts include social media, review sites, in forums, and on blogs to name a few. If you don’t think people are talking about your business, well, you just might be an ostrich with your head in the sand. They are. And you can take the opportunity to listen, learn, and use it to your advantage. In fact, this wise and strategic behavior has a very scientific name: Online reputation management.

What is Online Reputation Management?

Online reputation management is more than monitoring social media, though that does have its place. Your online reputation is built on all the ways your brand appears online. This includes ratings and reviews, blog posts, your website, forums, social media (psst! This includes relevant hashtags and conversations, not just your company’s claimed profiles) and more. Together, these channels mold what your prospects and customers think of your brand.Managing your online reputation includes paying attention to what people are saying online, responding when you can, and actively asking for feedback and reviews.

Why Does Your Online Reputation Matter?

We’re glad you asked! Your online reputation affects your prospects’ buying decisions and your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts—for better or worse. How does online reputation affect buying decisions? Let’s say a potential customer decides to read up on your company before signing on the dotted line. After some tapping and a few clicks, they’re perusing online reviews. What will they see? The answer to that question can make or break your sale. Research shows that 86% of people shopping for B2B services read third-party online reviews prior to making buying decisions—and they give them a lot of weight. In fact, prospective clients of B2B service providers trust online ratings and reviews twice as much as they do your website when trying to determine the quality of your firm. And that’s not all.How you handle your online reputation management can even win over current unsatisfied customers who would otherwise leave your company by contract end. How? By proactively asking for and responding to feedback and reviews, you’ll get a chance to hear them out and smooth over any issues before they decide to leave you. Nearly eight in 10 people say they will forgive a company for a mistake after receiving excellent service, and a majority are more likely to feel good about companies that respond to reviews in general. << Learn more about the service recovery paradox>>Okay, what about boosting SEO? While determining which webpages to display, search engines’ algorithms give priority to validated star ratings (which typically come from online reputation management efforts). This is especially true for local search rankings. Even if ratings don’t boost your rankings, those stars are more likely to grab a user’s eye, enhance your credibility, and ultimately bring them to your website.

3 Steps to Begin Managing Your Reputation

Sold on the benefits of managing your online reputation? We hope so! Now you may be wondering how to get started. We recommend these three steps.Step 1: Actively manage your brand’s presence on major rating sitesTo begin managing your online reputation, you must first know where to look. We recommend claiming your business profiles where possible and monitoring the following categories:

• Major search engines with ratings (Google, Yelp and Glassdoor)
• Popular job sites, like Indeed and Glassdoor)
• Relevant B2B rating sites, like ClearlyRated and G2
• Social media, including your owned channels plus related hashtags and the comments on competitors’ pages
• Your website, including areas where users can leave reviews and commentsA note: Your site doesn’t and shouldn’t remain static. User-generated content like reviews and ratings make it alive with fresh new content, signaling to search engines that it’s valuable online real estate users would want to visit.

Step #2: Create a process for responding to reviews—both positive and negative ones.Your business likely has customer reviews whether you’ve begun to actively request them or not. But once you start a formal process, you’ll likely both increase your number of reviews and your ability to use them to your benefit. To do so, you need a clear process that includes ownership and autonomy. Once you determine who will respond to feedback, help this person set up notifications and monitor reviews. Set goals for their response time and provide prepared templates they can use as guidelines for responding to both positive and negative reviews. Finally, train your teams on a clear process to communicate feedback internally.Step #3: Ask for online reviews.Request feedback regularly on official and personal levels. Make it easy for people to review your company, and always thank them for their honest feedback. For more on the importance of online reviews, click here to listen to our webinar with ClearlyRated founders Eric Gregg and Nathan Goff as they address this very topic. BONUS STEPS: Improve Your Online ReputationTo foster a stellar customer experience, take your online reputation management two steps further.Step #4: Invest in the client experience (CX).When you take feedback from your reviews and use it to improve, you’ll create a better CX which will likely result in more positive ratings.Step #5: Address issues that arise before they become negative reviews.Learn from your mistakes. As you do, consider how to better maintain open communication with your clients (hint: proactive customer survey programs are a huge help here!). This will help you identify and address issues before they manifest as a bad public review. If you are using the Net Promoter® Score metric play close attention to passives. While your passives are presumably “satisfied”, they shouldn’t be discounted altogether. They may not be outright referring your firm to others, but they’re also not exclusively loyal to your firm either. By focusing your efforts here, you could save your firm some future detractors.

We are very pleased to announce the 2023 winners of ClearlyRated's Employee Satisfaction award. We can't speak highly enough of the firms on this list who dedicated time, energy, and resources to asking their internal staff for feedback and ensuring their employees felt supported. In a year marked by high turnover and labor market volatility, high marks of employee satisfaction are truly something to be proud of. Congratulations to these winners!

2023 Best of Staffing® Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Abacus Group
• Accountable Healthcare Staffing
• ALKU
• American Medical Staffing
• APT Staffs
• AREVO Management Group
• Atlas Staffing, Inc.
• Brilliant
• Cross Country Healthcare
• Engauge Workforce Solutions
• GDH
• Genesis 10
• GLC On-The-Go
• Horizontal Talent
• Luttrell Staffing Group
• Medicus Healthcare Solutions
• Medix
• Medstaff National Medical Staffing
• Motus
• PrideStaff
• PrideStaff Financial
• RPC Staffing
• Rx relief
• Sparks Group
• Sterling
• Talon Professional Services
• TempStaff
• The DAVIS Companies
• The HT Group
• The Reserves Network Inc.
• The Squires Group
• V-Soft Consulting Group, Inc
• Workforce Unlimited
• YUPRO

2023 Best of Accounting Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Aldrich Advisors
• BergerCPAFirst
• Chazin & Company
• Porte Brown
• Stern Cohen

2023 Best of HR Services Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Questco
• TotalHR

Think your firm belongs on ClearlyRated's Best of Employee winner list? Contact us today!

Editor's Note: This Service Recovery Paradox post was originally published in January 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.Here at ClearlyRated we spend a significant amount of time studying, practicing, and discussing the art of service recovery - both internally and with our business clients. After all, identifying service issues is only half the battle when it comes to maximizing the value of your client satisfaction survey program.The fact is, what you do once a service issue has been identified is far more indicative of the ROI of your client satisfaction initiative. And there are few theories that demonstrate this quite as well as the Service Recovery Paradox.

What is the Service Recovery Paradox?

The "Service Recovery Paradox" (or SRP) is a behavioral model which suggests you can win more loyalty from your clients after they've experienced a service failure with your firm."Malarkey!" "Shenanigans!" "No way!"We'll be the first to admit that this dynamic seems bass-ackwards. But here's the twist: the Service Recovery Paradox has nothing to do with the service failure itself - instead, it has EVERYTHING to do with how your firm recovers from that service failure.[caption id="attachment_221" align="aligncenter" width="650"]

The "Service Recovery Paradox" (or SRP) is a behavioral model which suggests you can win more loyalty from your clients after they've experienced a service failure with your firm.[/caption]

What SRP means for your firm?

In the world of B2B service, "customers" are really clients and accounts you fought hard to win and have worked even harder to build trust with over time. And because you rely on these clients for recurring revenue and referrals, a service failure is high stakes. Fortunately, this means your clients have skin in the game too - they won't be excited about leaving you for a competitor, even in the face of a service failure.But try to consider a service failure as an opportunity - a rare chance to demonstrate more intimately what it means to work with your firm, how committed you are to that client relationship, and the lengths you'll go to in order to fix a problem - all things you don't necessarily get to do when things are going seamlessly right.With that in mind, you'll start to realize that SRP means you have the opportunity to go beyond "resolving" a service failure or "fixing" an issue to "keep" clients happy. With the right approach, you can create a remarkable experience - one that elevates your clients' perception of your firm, and goes beyond keeping them happy. When executed well, you have the opportunity to leverage service failures to create impassioned and vocal client advocates for your firm.

3 rules for capitalizing on the Service Recovery Paradox

1. Accept that you're not perfect. Put differently - accept that you, your team, and your organization will have service failures. That doesn't mean you should stop striving to provide great service 100% of the time, rather - by accepting (even expecting) that you will encounter issues will help create an organizational ethos that supports and normalizes the practice of service recovery.
2. Create, preach, and execute a company-wide plan for service recovery. It's essential that everyone in your organization understands what's expected of them when handling a service issue or interacting with an unhappy client. Remember, "how" you handle the situation is just as important as "what" you do to resolve it. Check out our 10 step framework for flawless service recovery for additional inspiration.
3. Actively work to identify any and all service issues. When's the last time you asked your clients whether they are satisfied with your service offering? Did you ask them in a way that encourages candid feedback? How many of them did you ask? At ClearlyRated we believe that every service quality and reputation initiative starts with a well-designed client satisfaction survey - one that is sent to EVERY one of your client contacts*. Keep in mind that your beliefs about your firm's service quality won't always line up with your clients' perceptions. The latter are far more important when it comes to capitalizing on the Service Recovery Paradox.

*72% of B2B clients are more willing to give feedback via online survey than in-person, and 63% say they are more candid when providing feedback online.

Want more service recovery tips?

• Read our "10 step mantra for flawless service recovery" (and share it with your team). This is your chance to elevate to "service recovery ninja" status.
• Revel in our CEO's shameless transparency about the pitfalls of not taking action (FitBits and fitness fails involved). I promise there's a business lesson in there.
• Contact our team to learn how ClearlyRated can help your firm boost reputation and differentiate on remarkable service through the power of NPS® (we swear it's possible). Or to just chat - we love meeting new folks who are passionate about service excellence!

Recent labor shortages seem to have touched every business in America, from large corporations to small-town, family-run businesses. And these companies are leaning heavily on staffing firms to find talent thanks to a job market tilted in candidates’ favor. But staffing firms are dealing with the same challenging circumstances. As firms struggle to find, recruit, and hire workers of all kinds for companies of all types, they must look for additional ways to serve and guide their clients. But what do staffing buyers most need right now? What are their frustrations? What would make them leave one firm to try another?We surveyed 620+ hiring managers in the course of 3 weeks to understand what drives their buying decisions. The survey results make up the most robust and diverse buyer study in the marketplace. The respondent data consists of a good mix of strategy utilizers who spend more versus those who are opportunistic who need support temporarily or for a specific aspect of their business. More of the respondent data includes:

• 68% are at organizations with 250 employees or more
• 54% are the lead contact at their company for their staffing firm
• Average age: 42
• Top industries represented: professional services, manufacturing, software/technology, healthcare, and retail

2022 Staffing Buyer Trends

To explore and share our survey findings, our CEO Eric Gregg hosted a webinar with guest Dave Kollmorgen, Sales Director for CareerBuilder’s staffing and recruiting group. They discussed today’s employment market and the state of the staffing industry before getting into the survey results. Below are some highlights of what they covered.

Key takeaways from our staffing buyer survey:

• More than 60% of companies expect to increase their spend with staffing firms over the next 12 months. They also plan to hire more freelancers and independent contractors (48%) and increase spend with agencies (40%). Here are the top reasons as to why they plan to increase their spend.

• Beyond continuing to trust staffing firms for finding talent, many buyers expressed the desire to receive guidance and advice from their staffing firms on how to be competitive while hiring. Nearly 9 in 10 clients believe firms are good at keeping up with new workforce trends but then only 50% of staffing firm detractors say this is true. (Watch the webinar to get more details on exactly how clients want help and which topics they feel firms know better than they do.)
• In terms of staffing credibility, buyers perceive staffing firms to have more credibility in the following areas:
  • Access to candidates with specialized skills
  • Speed to source potential candidates
  • Recruiting expertise
• They perceive staffing firms to have less credibility when it comes to cost effectiveness and finding the ideal fit for their culture.
• Staffing firms can stand out to their clients by bringing educated information and data on pay wages, flexibility, etc. and by being consultative.
• Buyers want help hiring diverse candidates. Overall, buyer perception of DEI in the staffing industry is good and this matters to hiring managers. Most agree that staffing firms should prioritize DEI initiatives and help them hire more diverse candidates, and many think that large staffing firms are more likely to be ahead of others in terms of implementing DEI initiatives in recruiting practices.
• Hiring managers who feel their primary firm is ahead of others in DEI have a 65% NPS, yet those who feel their primary firm is behind in DEI have a 9% NPS.

• Most staffing clients stick with a firm for around three years. When they switch, it’s typically due to high turnover numbers.
• The most important factor to staffing buyers during the vetting process is a firm’s responsiveness to their questions and the overall experience they have with the firm. They also care about information that demonstrates low risk in hiring the firm. Think testimonials and case studies from similar clients, referrals that tout service quality, and positive online ratings and reviews.
• More than 80% of staffing buyers believe that hiring remote workers through staffing firms gives them access to a larger talent pool. But they want and need help from their staffing partners to make these successful hires, including assimilating and training temporary remote talent.
• When buyers can’t offer remote roles, they want guidance on how to offer other flexible work options and which ones tend to attract and retain more candidates in their field.
• Overall, how satisfied are hiring managers? In 2022, staffing firm client NPS is at 31% (46% promoters and 15% detractors). In 2019, the NPS dropped to -2% (which probably isn’t too surprising) and has dramatically increased in the last 3 years.

As a staffing firm, you can’t escape the labor shortage. Yet, finding workers is your bread and butter. But there’s a silver lining: This also makes staffing companies the foremost experts on helping clients with more than just hiring. As you can see from the above takeaways, staffing buyers want guidance from their staffing partners as much as they want talent. And this is where your company can find insights on how to both market your services and make up for any current challenges in finding talent for your clients.

Want to learn more about buyer loyalty, the difference between buyer preferences by generation, or what buyers want to know about offering flexible work? Watch our full webinar on demand to learn from Eric and Dave as they dive deeper into each portion of the survey findings.

Our goal at ClearlyRated has always been to help you build credible proof of the exceptional experiences you deliver to your clients and internal staff, and to leverage that proof to grow your business. Which is why we're so excited to announce a suite of new tools designed to make achieving that goal easier and more automated, all while allowing you greater control and customization.

Welcome to Amplify & Amplify Pro

~NEW~ Amplify Recruiters

Amplify Recruiters is a dynamic, customizable tool for recruiting professionals. Recruiter pages help nurture relationships with high-quality talent by highlighting their careers, personalities, specializations, job openings, accolades, and awards. But it's so much more than a profile page. Built on ClearlyRated’s industry-leading satisfaction survey program, Amplify Recruiters gives recruiters and their firms the unmatched ability to manage their candidate, client, and employee experience, as well as their brand's online reputation, all on one platform. Watch our video then click here to learn more!

Enhanced Testimonial Capture

Capturing social proof of your service excellence is more important than ever. 84% of B2B buyers say they trust testimonials, and more than 9 in 10 say that seeing testimonials from businesses similar to their own impacts their decision to work with a provider. Further, consistently adding fresh and unique testimonials on your ClearlyRated profile page is key to improving your Google search results.We've long made testimonial capture and sharing a key part of the ClearlyRated survey experience, and this new release takes getting quality, consistently quotable testimonials for use in your marketing to a new level. It promises to increase the ROI of your satisfaction survey program and build even more credible evidence of your incredible customer service. To learn more, watch our video about the upgrades we've made to this feature.

Referrals

We've also fielded a lot of requests over the years to find a way to integrate our customers' referral programs into our survey platform. Now with Amplify Pro Referrals, you can, and we couldn't be more excited! We've made it simple to encourage your survey takers to contribute to your referral program. If you are a staffing firm that uses Staffing Referrals, we also have a brand new integration that makes it easy for your candidates to make a referral through that platform as well. With Amplify Pro Referrals, you can even configure a 'soft referral,' to promote events, webinars, publications - whatever you want! We provide customizable templates for multiple use cases, and you can even create your own from scratch. Learn more about Amplify Pro Referrals in our explainer video!

External Reviews

Online reviews for B2B buying are here to stay. The world of online reviews can be a murky place, and consumers are right to be skeptical if they see a brand or product with thousands of 5-star reviews and nothing less. The flip side of this is that consumers are also increasingly savvy, and have learned to spot authenticity. Increasing the number of reviews on third-party sites such as Google and Indeed builds trust in, and awareness of, your brand.The feedback that ClearlyRated's clients collect from our Net Promoter® Survey program is completely authentic, and we want to help make sure that feedback is visible in as many places as possible. That's why Amplify Pro Reviews makes it easy for your survey takers to share their experience across many reputable review sites. To learn more about how this works, watch our explainer video!

Amplify Pro Widgets

Let your excellence do the talking with Amplify Pro Widgets. Transform any of your webpages into a showcase of your dedication to being the best for your customers. Amplify Pro Widgets are fully customizable, update automatically, and are designed to help you attract business and grow your bottom line.

Harness Your Service Excellence

If you've been curious about how a ClearlyRated satisfaction survey program can enhance your brand's reputation, build trust, deliver unrivaled business insights, improve your customer service, and grow your bottom line, there's literally never been a better time to find out. Our new Amplify and Amplify Pro features set the stage for the future of our platform and provide immediate results for your business.Interested in learning more? Want to know about pricing for your firm? Contact us below for a free consultation!

In late 2020, nearly every organization was trying to regain its footing while the world navigated COVID-19. The pandemic caused both predictable outcomes (think remote work) and unexpected effects (hello, Great Resignation). To help our clients understand what their employees were going through and how they were doing as an employer, we launched employee surveys. With this tool, our clients could get real-time employee feedback. They also got our expert guidance on how to review and analyze results, segment data without compromising employee privacy, and strategize their next steps.Early in 2021, we used this data to launch staffing industry benchmarks related to the employee experience (EX). Our staffing clients could now compare their EX scores with others in the industry, giving them a better idea as to whether they were doing relatively well or had work to do. Imagine having an internal Glassdoor that gives you the first peek at employee feedback so you can identify and fix any issues, or celebrate your wins. Once we’d successfully helped current clients use the employee survey tool and generated industry benchmarks, we figured it was our turn to take a look in the mirror. Once we could take a breath after sprinting to create, test, release and help clients with this new tool, we thought, “Uh, duh. We should take this ourselves.” And that’s just what we did. During Q2 of 2022, we launched our own employee survey with a 90% response rate. To be fully transparent, we had two main reasons:

1. We wanted to walk our talk.

We’ve surveyed our clients for a long time, but we hadn’t yet used our tool on the employee side — and it was time. Plus, we could then confidently serve as an example of how the tool works to future and current clients. First-hand experience is best, right? We now have our own public example of employee ratings on our Directory page.

See ClearlyRated ratings and testimonials on ClearlyRated.

2. Like many others, our turnover rate spiked during 2021.

We wanted to understand what was going on with our employee experience and how we could do better. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we made big adjustments to when, where, and how we all work. Our workforce is now fully dispersed and working from anywhere. While this seemed like what people wanted, we couldn’t be sure whether people still felt connected to our mission and in tune with their teams. Plus, we’ve onboarded new people who weren’t here when we still worked in close physical proximity to one another. Were they still feeling included, though they joined after we’d gone fully remote? Clearly we had a lot of questions about the health of our workforce, and we didn’t want to wait for the next turnover report to find out whether our changes were helpful or hurtful. By then, it’d be too late. What better way to find out than using our own employee survey tool?

What We Learned By Surveying Our Employees

You know that exciting-trepidation feeling you get before learning whether you’ve made the team, gotten hired, or achieved anything you worked really hard for? Yeah. That’s how we felt awaiting our results. In the end, it was fun, inspiring, and incredibly beneficial. While reviewing our results, we saw some commonalities with our clients. For instance, compensation is nearly always one of the lower-ranked factors. We realized we could get more competitive with our salaries.We also saw some bright spots. Our employees reported that we’d managed to maintain a great work environment and positive team cultures despite having lost the in-person element. They also celebrated our flexibility, confirming we were on the right path.

What We Did With Our New EX Insights

First we focused internally, using what we’d learned from our results to develop and share a roadmap for improving employee satisfaction. We’d do this by capitalizing on what we’ve done well and by working on compensation, including being more transparent about why compensation is the way it is. Hey, we get it: Portland (where we’re HQ’d) is an expensive city! We also recognized our responsibility to use this experience externally. Our employee ratings now show on our public ClearlyRated directory page along with our client ratings. So, our clients and potential clients can see a transparent example of how this works (not to mention how we treat our people and our clients).

Why We Believe Every Organization Should Survey Its Employees

Following the workforce upheaval of the past two years, it’s clear that lengthy annual surveys just aren’t going to cut it anymore if you want to hold onto your employees. While those tools still serve a purpose, you need to know in real-time whether your employer brand is beginning to wilt on the vine. Plus, you can get instant feedback on whether employees feel they’re benefiting from any updates or changes you make in response to their suggestions. Our employee survey worked for us. We plan to continue surveying our employees on a regular basis—and we can help you do it too. Learn more about ClearlyRated’s Employee Satisfaction Survey.

For more than 10 years, ClearlyRated has helped staffing and recruiting firms in the U.S. and Canada measure the experience they provide to their clients and placed talent. And I’m very proud to share that we practice what we preach.On a monthly basis, we utilize our own ClearlyRated survey platform to ask our staffing firm clients for feedback about the caliber of the survey experience we provide. After every survey that we launch on behalf of a client, we ask them to rate us on the Net Promoter^® scale (i.e. how likely are they to refer us to a friend or colleague?), and we invite feedback about the key benefits that they receive as a part of the ClearlyRated survey program.Below are the results of feedback from staffing and recruiting firms that participated in Best of Staffing 2021.

65% of staffing firms that survey through ClearlyRated have identified one or more at-risk accounts.

Client churn is a major pain point for staffing and recruiting firms, and can be fatal in times of disruption. While it can be tempting to assume that you have a tight pulse on the satisfaction of every account, our industry research finds that hiring managers are more likely to be Detractors than Promoters of their primary firm. What’s more, more than 65% of the staffing firms who survey their clients with ClearlyRated identify at-risk revenue. It would be a mistake to underestimate the potential value of surveying your clients.A proactive approach to gathering client feedback allows you to quickly identify, and more importantly, follow up with any service issues or unhappy clients you might have otherwise been blind to, ultimately preventing client churn or lost revenue.

98% of our staffing firm clients say that ClearlyRated helps them differentiate from the competition.

In staffing and recruiting, the promise of excellent service and a world-class client and talent experience only goes so far. With 88% of staffing professionals claiming that their firm “differentiates” on service, it can be difficult to rise above the noise and truly stand out in a crowded market. The staffing brands that successfully differentiate themselves today are those that provide credible proof of the service experience they deliver to clients and job seekers, and they leverage the voices of those stakeholders to help tell their story of service excellence.That’s where ClearlyRated comes in. Our survey tool is designed to capture as many testimonials from clients and placed candidates as possible. In fact, staffing firms who surveyed their clients with ClearlyRated in the last 12 months earned, on average, 95 client testimonials through their survey program! That number is even higher for firms who have surveyed their placed talent through ClearlyRated in the last 12 months—those firms are averaging 602 testimonials from their placed talent!

Similarly, because our survey program translates client and talent feedback into searchable online ratings on ClearlyRated.com, staffing and recruiting firms that survey their clients and talent have the unique ability to publicly—and credibly—prove the quality of service they provide to their prospective buyers and job seekers.In fact, among the top 150 staffing firms in the United States, the average ClearlyRated client generates 276 online ratings per location on ClearlyRated.com. That’s more than 4x more than those firms earn on Indeed, Glassdoor, and Google COMBINED. In addition, these firms average a ClearlyRated overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, versus 3.5 stars on Google, 3.2 stars on Glassdoor, and 3.1 stars on Indeed.

98% of staffing firms that survey their clients and/or talent with ClearlyRated report a positive ROI.

This metric of success means the world to us. We work hard every day to meaningfully invest in our program so that ClearlyRated not only helps staffing firms measure the client and talent experience they provide, but also empowers them to leverage their survey results to differentiate on service quality and fuel online reputation.

Our efforts to continue adding value for our clients include:

• Rolling out new features to extend the value of our survey platform, including our clients’ ability to credibly prove their quality of service through online ratings (check out our Star Ratings Widget!).
• Building integrations with key ATS and CRM platforms to make survey feedback more accessible, actionable, and impactful to your firm.
• Continuously investing in the user experience within our survey dashboards to make reporting and monitoring the client experience a breeze.
• Providing dedicated Account Managers who are committed to finding opportunities to help our clients feel supported and empowered in reaching their client survey objectives.

Still not convinced?

We'd love the opportunity to provide even more proof points and examples of how the ClearlyRated survey platform helps staffing and recruiting firms retain critical revenue and differentiate from the competition. Please give us a call at 1-800-921-2640 or fill out our contact form to speak with a member of our Business Development team.

Here at ClearlyRated, we practice what we preach. Which means that we ask our own clients for feedback on the experience we provide after every survey we launch for them. Not only do we ask the NPS question (I’m thrilled to report that we have a world-class lifetime Net Promoter Score of 86%) – but we also ask our clients other critical questions to ensure we’re delivering on our brand promise.We want to be sure that our clients systematically see a return on their ClearlyRated investment. More specifically, we want to learn if the ClearlyRated survey program has helped our clients identify any at-risk revenue, as well as if we’ve helped our clients differentiate their firm from the competition.Below are the results of our lifetime feedback from accounting firm clients of ours.

82% of accounting firms that work with ClearlyRated have identified one or more at-risk clients through their survey program.

Retention of key accounts is one of the main reasons that professional service providers invest in surveying their clients. It can be tempting to assume that you have a tight pulse on the satisfaction of every account, but with 82% of accounting firms we serve identifying at-risk revenue, it would be a mistake to underestimate the value that surveying your clients can have.

A proactive approach to gathering client feedback allows you to quickly identify, and more importantly, follow up with any service issues or unhappy clients you might have otherwise been blind to, ultimately preventing client churn or lost revenue. Jack Kolmansberger, Chief Marketing Officer at Herbein, directly experienced the immense value client feedback can have on bottom line when they saved an at-risk client through their ClearlyRated survey - “When you’re able to say that we saved a Top 50 client in the first year as a direct result of this NPS survey process, it quickly became logical to utilize this platform not only for the macro level of how we are doing across the board, but also for the micro level of how we are perceived by specific clients.”

92% of our accounting firm clients say their ClearlyRated survey program helps them differentiate their firm in the market.

In professional services trades, the promise of excellent service and a great client experience has become a table stakes game. The firms that stand out today are the ones that can provide credible proof of their service experience from the clients who work directly with them, and leverage those voices to tell their story.

The ClearlyRated program is designed to do just that. Thanks to our built-in testimonials feature, the average accounting firm who surveyed their clients with ClearlyRated in 2021 generated over 140 client-approved testimonials – providing them social proof at scale and hundreds of reference accounts.Similarly, because our survey program translates client feedback into searchable online ratings on ClearlyRated.com, accounting firms who survey their clients with ClearlyRated have the unique ability to publicly, and credibly, prove the quality of service they provide to their prospective buyers.In a recent analysis of the 100 largest accounting firms in the United States, we found that even the nation’s largest accounting firms average fewer than 5 client ratings on sites such as Google and Yelp. In sharp contrast, accounting firms who survey with ClearlyRated average more than 200 ratings from their clients on their ClearlyRated.com profile page.

98% of accounting firms that survey their clients with ClearlyRated report a positive ROI

This metric of success means the world to us. We work hard every day to meaningfully invest in our program so that ClearlyRated not only helps accounting firms measure the client experience, but also empowers them leverage their survey results to differentiate on service quality and fuel online reputation.Our efforts to continue adding value for our clients include:

• Rolling out new features to extend the value of our survey platform - including our clients’ ability to credibly prove their quality of service through online ratings (check out our Star Ratings Widget!).
• Building integrations with key CRM platforms to make survey feedback more accessible, actionable, and powerful to your firm.
• Continuously investing in the user experience within our survey dashboards to make reporting and monitoring the client experience a breeze.
• Dedicated Account Managers who are committed to finding opportunities to help our clients feel supported and empowered in reaching their client survey objectives.

Still not convinced?

We'd love the opportunity to offer up more proof points and examples of how the ClearlyRated survey platform helps accounting firms accelerate growth. Please give us a call at 1-800-921-2640 or fill out our contact form to speak with a member of our Business Development team.

Net Promoter® Score (NPS) is a powerful metric for business service firms. It is one of the most effective metrics because it directly asks the customer how likely they are to refer the company to a friend or colleague.NPS surveys help answer the following questions:

• How satisfied are our clients?
• Are there issues we don’t know about?
• Where do we need to improve?
• Which accounts are at risk?
• What are we doing right?
• Which customers are Promoters, Passives, and Detractors?

If your business takes the NPS metric seriously, listens to the responses, and is proactive with with taking action - business growth will follow. Here are the top 5 ways NPS surveys can drive business growth:

1. Boost Internal Morale — Happy Employees = Improved CX = Revenue Growth
2. Collect and Tell Good Stories — 62% of customers believe they’ve read fake online reviews. It’s time to gather trustworthy, credible testimonials
3. Visually Display Credibility — Earning and displaying awards for customer experience can deliver free PR opportunities and positive brand recognition, increase credibility and employee morale, and attract talent and customers
4. Convert Passives to Promoters — Promoters tend to increase their spend 10% a year, while passives are 50% less likely than Promoters to refer to or repurchase from you
5. Expand Accounts That Already Love You — 2% increase of total annual revenue thanks to account expansion alone

Infographic sources:Proprietary ClearlyRated data."The Business Case for Service Excellence." ClearlyRated. March 23, 2021.“The Key to Happy Customers? Happy Employees.” The Harvard Business Review. August, 19, 2019.