How to Effectively Recruit from Your Client List.
Recruiting from a client supplied list is quite different from recruiting from our database. Generally, most people on these lists don’t know what market research is and can be quite sceptical about our phone call.
On occasions we have been supplied with a client list of over 2,000 people but found that many phone numbers are disconnected or incorrect OR email addresses are incorrect so this list can very quickly reduce down by half. We hope this isn’t the case with the list you are providing!
There are several ways to handle these projects and we have listed below the different options that clients in the past have used with client list projects.
Option A – the client sends an email / some type of notification to their customers letting them know that they are conducting some research. A survey link is provided so that anyone interested can fill this out to provide their contact details to us if they are interested in taking part. This is an effective way to recruit people who are interested in taking part (without getting our phone call).
Option B – the client provides a client list to Focus People and we send them an email with details of the research asking them to respond if they are interested in taking part. We strongly suggest that we mention the client’s name in this email and you will need to approve the wording of this email before we send it out. You may also choose for a letter from your client to be attached to this email.
Option C – the client provides a client list to Focus People and send them a text message with details of the research asking them to respond if they are interested in taking part. We strongly suggest that we mention the client’s name in this text message and you will need to approve the wording of this text message before we send it out. This is a good option if the client list does not have email addresses.
Option D – Obviously not all projects are suited to emailing or sending text messages – we realise in some instances we simply need to get on the phone and call everyone. This method is time consuming so we just need to be sure we have been given enough time to recruit the project for you. The cost of this method of recruiting is also much higher than other methods.
With this method of calling people we make thorough notes on the spreadsheet of when we call people. We are conscious of the fact that we don’t want to be seen to be hassling these people. We have a policy that we don’t call any more than twice and leave a message. We are very careful to be professional at all times when calling people from your client’s lists, and don’t want to be seen as harassing these people.
When our recruiting team works from your client list they add in an extra column and add in notes about the conversation they have had with that customer ie: weren’t interested, wrong number, was no longer a customer, won’t be available to attend the group etc, etc. We will send these notes back to you during the course of the project.
We also realise that the information you are supplying to us is highly confidential and there are occasions where your client isn’t keen on giving us the personal details of their customers or clients. We have dealt with this situation in the past and we can prepare a survey link with screener questions which your client can then send out directly to their customers or clients. If their clients or customers are interested in taking part we will get their responses and then make contact with them to book them in for the research.
Focus People have had over 20 years of experience with working with customer lists. We understand that the information you provide to us will only be used for the recruitment of this particular project. Once the project is completed we delete this list from our system. We will certainly email it back to you (as a password protected file) so you can see our notes and then we will delete this from our system.
All of our staff are trained on how to treat this confidential information and we abide by The Research Society Code of Professional Behaviours and the Australian Privacy Principles 2014, particularly the requirement that the information only be used for research purposes.
Any respondents booked into research off a client list will NOT be entered into the Focus People Database. Respondents can choose to register on our website if they are interested in taking part in any other research but this will be their own decision.
If the list comes without phone numbers (business names only) we will charge an administration fee of $200 for every 40 companies we need to do a search on phone numbers for.
Questions that we generally ask you when we are about to work on list project:
- How many names will be on the list?
How many names will be on the list? Generally we get a strike rate of 10-20% of people
agreeing to take part (this depends on the type of project we are working on). If your list doesn’t have enough people on it to fill your project then we can only do what we can do. We will certainly keep you updated on how we are going with getting through your list. We may even ask you if we are able to get more names if we hit this situation of running low on contacts. - Can we mention the client’s name when speaking to these people?
Yes or No
- Do all of the people on the list automatically fit the specs for this project?
Do all of the people on the list automatically fit the specs for this project? If not, and we need to screen them, what percentage of these people will fit the specs for the criteria we are looking for? - Does this list have contact phone numbers?
From past experience we have had lists come through with only business names but no phone numbers or any contact details. If you require us to spend time looking up phone numbers for each business on the list we can assist with this but we would charge you an hourly rate to do this. - Does this list have email addresses?
If so, are we allowed to email them? We would prefer you to approve the text that we sent out to them. Can we attach a letter from your client outlining the objective for the research (we realise this won’t be suitable for all projects).
- Can we sent out SMS messages to mobile numbers on the list?
Again we are happy for you to approve the exact wording of this message.
- Would you prefer we use the method of calling each person and not sending out emails or SMS messages?
If this is the case we will assign staff in our office who are specifically trained on customer call lists.Thorough notes will be made throughout the recruitment phase. - Is it possible for your client to send details of the project out to their customers?
We can include a survey link for any interested people to fill out and we will contact those interested. This has proven to be a very effective way to recruit. This is a cheaper way to recruit and the most effective way.
Our Recruitment Charges when we are working on a list project:
We will quote a per person rate for recruitment when working from a client list. Generally this rate is more than our rates when recruiting from our database.
Our rates vary depending on the answers to the above questions. If we are able to email the contacts then our rates are generally less than it would be if we are to cold call all respondents. This of course requires more man hours and will cost us more money when paying staff an hourly rate.
Our per person recruitment charges include finding the suitable respondent that meets your brief, sending them a confirmation email with the details and also re-confirming the respondent prior to the depth or group.
Other Info:
We re-confirm respondents the night prior to their session via a phone call. If they don’t answer our call we then send them a text message and also an email. They get plenty of opportunity to let us know if they are unable to attend the session.
If we do get a cancellation we do everything we can to replace them (so long as they have given us enough notice.
At the end of the project we delete the client list from our system after we have sent this to you with our recruiter notes. We can provide you with a letter confirming that we have done this if required.
Some other common questions from clients about how we handle client list projects:
Are Confidentiality and/or Non Disclosure Agreement requirements in place for recruiters?
All of our recruiters are employees of our company (no contractors) and they all sign employment contracts with a confidentiality agreement and non- disclosure as part of their contract. All staff working on a client list project work from our office in Hampton – we don’t allow any recruiters to work from home while working on this sort of project. High security is important when working on this type of project.
What training do we provide to our recruiters?
All of our recruiters are trained on a regular basis – we train on a different aspect of recruiting each month. They also adhere to the Code of Professional conduct and are also trained up on the Privacy Act. Our recruiting team also has a daily meeting with Account Managers to discuss the projects they are working on and raise any issues or concerns. They make notes on the spreadsheet of names in relation to what happened in the phone call so you can see these notes.
Are we ISO Accredited?
No we are not presently but we are in the process of applying for this. We do follow all guidelines already for this accreditation. We should have this in place by September 2024.
How do we keep files and data in a safe place?
The client list that you supply to us will be kept on a private Google drive (only accessible by selected staff in our company) for the period of time that we are working on your project only. Once the project is filled and completed we then delete this file from our system. In order to access this shared drive the recruiter needs a password to get into this. We change these passwords every 4-6 weeks. Our IT company works to ensure that our security is set to a high level.
Please respond to our Quotes Manager with as much information as possible about your client list so we can work out an accurate cost structure for this project.
