Thursday 13 March 2008

Thanks... but no thanks


A friend of mine is just starting an incredibly successful business (to be). Finding her on the net, one eager young thing sent in a CV on spec, along with a lovely covering letter saying how much she admired the site. She sounded great - but the business isn't ready to start hiring.

As soon as that thank-you-but-no-thank-you letter gets sent, this girl will turn from prospective employee back into prospective consumer. So, how can you refuse someone a position but still encourage them to feel positively about your company?

Firstly we need to define what we mean by positive. Positive isn't the same as nice. You don't have to invite them in and feed them biscuits while you stroke their arm and say "Its not you, its us!". You just need to make the rejection experience an accurate reflection of your brand.

Lea's business is an indepent guide to independent stores with a very clear tone of voice (accessible, friendly, trusted) and its success is based entirely around its inherent brand promise to be honest. So in this case the rejection should reinforce that brand by being friendly but candid. (Unchained is trustworthy) If possible she should recommend a couple of other places where the prospective employee might try looking for a job, (Unchained is helpful and knowledegable).

It is not possible to make every experience that anyone ever has of your company an enjoyable one. However if you remain true to your brand values in everything that you do, you can make sure that its always positive.

1 comment:

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