Obviously, as I am currently looking for a job, I spend a lot of time on recruitment Web sites. Overall, I find them quite intuitive, but today one stood out from the rest. It stood out not only because it was not usable, but also because it made me “upset”.
I put quotes around “upset” as it may be too strong a word. In customer experience everything is about emotions, and feelings that experiences trigger. In this case, a simple confirmation page did the trick. I felt treated like a batch of files to process and almost teased at. (See picture)
I registered my profile and uploaded my resume on Manpower. After submitting my information, here comes the confirmation page: “Congratulations, Preferred Candidate!”
Everything in this line is wrong:
- I just submitted my personal information and I am still referred as a “Preferred Candidate”. Why don’t they use my name?
- The word “Preferred” is somewhat strange, as every single candidate registering on the Web site is “preferred”. What value does that provide me?
- The word “Congratulations” is really too much! My task, my aim is to look for a job. I get congratulated because I created an account? What’s to be happy about that? Just get over that account creation and show me some job openings. Or should I be contempt with the fact that I created an account?
Just in one sentence, the company manages to show very clearly their disconnect with candidates and the fact that candidates are treated just like files and not people, which maybe is what Manpower is about in a way.
This is just an example of a problem on their websites. I could go on with the “Next page” button on top of the page when doing a search ( it took me three searches to see it), and the lack of posting date for ads in the search (an information crucial to the candidate).
Customer experience is sometimes (often?) created out of the small things. Especially when your customer is carrying a heavy luggage into the experience (for example, candidates may be quite low as their job search drags on and are quite sensitive), tone and phrasing is very important in order to build a positive experience.