We're living through some tough times and we've all had to find ways of making cut backs in recent months. Some companies have had to look at staff numbers and whether there are roles that they're funding which they just have to make do without while they ride the storm of recession. Others have cut back on hospitality or more social aspects of their day to day lives to save money. We all look forward to the time when these can once again become less a luxury and more an important element of our working lives. We've looked at all the options for how to survive and have had to consider both of the above. However, we've also taken the view that the critical thing is to maintain high levels of client service and to keep your clients on your side if you're going to come out of this recession strong enough to remain a force to be reckoned with. If we, as suppliers, are shopping around and looking for ways to cut back on costs then, of course, our clients are doing exactly the same thing. Recruitment is an area that comes under the spotlight in times of economic hardships because there are people who think that it's more of a luxury than a necessity. Thankfully there are many, many more people in business who understand that having a successful working relationship with a professional recruitment consultancy, can mean the difference between finding the best candidates for your team and settling for the mediocre. We've built up some strong relationships with our clients and we do feel that rewarding their loyalty, especially when they're under such pressure to bring their own operating margins down, is of paramount importance. We've launched Purple Payback which we believe is the first client reward scheme in the recruitment sector and we hope that our clients recognise it as a way for us to thank them for past business they've given us, and also to give them a helping hand in tough times - something we all need at the moment. Some may view it as an obvious sales promotion vehicle, but we genuinely feel that it allows us to continue to provide the high levels of service our clients are used to, at the same time as giving our clients something back. www.purple-consultancy.com
