Working as a Client Account Manager, it is imperative that I strive to ensure that each hospital that we work with has their boxes ticked. Knowing what your customers are looking for in a business relationship and then being able to deliver it is fundamental in excellent customer service, and over the years I have fine tuned exactly what it is that NHS trusts seek when partnering with a recruitment company such as Total Assist Group.
Here is my check list of what hospitals want when working with a recruitment agency.
How to deliver to clients
Be there 24/7. Whether on the other end of the phone, or picking up your emails, hospitals work round the clock and they expect you to as well, especially if they need to get in contact with you urgently to deal with a cancellation or a last minute placement. You need to be aware that normal business hours don’t apply to the shift work of hospital rotas so this may mean shuffling your diary to make sure you deliver your best.
Be open. If you keep pushing and pestering, you won’t really get very far. Yes, you do have to maintain a pro-active attitude but hospitals prefer it if you keep yourself available and open to communication when they are ready rather than you keep contacting them when they are up to their necks in paperwork.
Work around them. Our role is to cater to and assist the medical staffing teams that work in hospitals and NHS trusts to fill empty slots on the staff schedule. It is important that our working methods make things as easy as possible for the clients so that they enjoy working with us and can reap the benefits of our service. For example, many NHS staff prefer to receive emails than a phone call as then they can deal with it in their own time and won’t feel pressurised or put on the spot.
Give a good supply. At Total Assist Group, we provide only the best quality of locum doctor, ensuring that all candidates in our pipelines are experienced and fully qualified. Many hospitals prefer qualifications from particular universities, so it is always worth having local knowledge of what different hospitals like in that respect – maybe they receive students from certain establishments and like the teaching methods. Equally, additional skills such as ALS (advanced life support) are also looked favourably upon, while experience in a British hospital is absolutely essential if you want to get a doctor booked quickly.
Do your homework. Hospitals can only take on fully compliant doctors, so before suggesting a candidate to one of your clients, make sure you double check all of their details – NHS staff won’t want to wade through the paperwork to find out that half of it is missing. Ensuring that all blood work and documentation is present and correct really makes the difference when building relationships with your clients.
[testimonial name=”Matt Levene” who=”Client Account Manager” imagelinks=”https://totalassist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/matt-200×200-e1409137611567.jpg” vertical=”no”]”I have been working on the Client Account team for Total Assist Group for about two years 10 months now, liaising with NHS trusts from Cornwall to Oxford, as well as assisting Welsh hospitals. If you wish to work in these areas, please get in touch with me.”[/testimonial]
