With unemployment at lows not seen in years, employers are struggling to find enough candidates for any given vacancy. There are a lot of ways to branch out in the hiring process, including expanding geographic scope, offering remote options, considering those with a criminal history, and more. One avenue more employers are exploring is hiring those who already interact with their organization: their customers.
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Here are some of the advantages of hiring customers:
- Customers already know at least a little about the business and/or the product/service being sold. This may mean they require less training on that area after they’ve joined the organization, which could result in quicker productivity.
- Customers have insight into customer needs from direct experience. They probably already like the product and have input on how it could be improved. Additionally, because of their knowledge of how to use it, they may be great at selling and promoting it.
- Customers’ built-in connection with the organization may result in higher retention rates.
- It may be easy to reach customers because you can recruit where you’re already advertising for sales. You could also advertise directly through things like flyers given out with purchases.
- Customers may have already interacted with the team they may potentially be working with, which could ease the transition process if they’re hired.
- They may be more likely to accept a job offer, especially if it includes a discount on the products you sell. (This is especially relevant in an economy where many applicants do not accept job offers because they have so many choices.)
- They’re likely to already be in alignment with the organization’s values.
- Customers who are not looking for a job may still be receptive to hearing about job details at an organization they already like, which means you’re reaching passive candidates.
There are, of course, disadvantages to hiring customers, as well. Here are some of them:
- If you’re actually hiring employees of your customers (i.e., you work in a business-to-business (B2B) industry and your customers are other businesses), your customers may express frustration. Be careful and tread lightly in this case. Hiring too many (or hiring their best employees) could mean losing the customers’ business. Note that depending on the client relationship, there may be ways to mitigate the fallout in this situation. Transparency can be useful.
- Depending on your industry, there may be ethical or legal obstacles to hiring customers.
- Customers may be familiar with your organization, but their work experience may not be in alignment with what you would normally look for. There may be areas beyond product knowledge that they will need additional training on.
- If your customers are already employed in your industry, they may have a noncompete agreement that you’ll have to wait out before they can take a job with you. That may make the recruitment process complicated or even impossible in the short term.
What has your organization’s experience been with hiring customers? Is this a group you may target future recruiting efforts toward?
Bridget Miller is a business consultant with a specialized MBA in International Economics and Management, which provides a unique perspective on business challenges. She’s been working in the corporate world for over 15 years, with experience across multiple, diverse departments, including HR, sales, marketing, IT, commercial development, and training.