Over 90% of resumes that you receive will not be appropriate for job. Reading each and every one of them is time consuming and tedious. Some resume management systems allows you to set filters to identify relevant resumes. The filters are keywords that you can specify for each job and filter will check resume if those words are present. They are only partially effective as they are looking for particular words in a resume and they may find them in places that have no relevance to qualification of candidate. They do not understand in what context those words were used.

You can use advanced technology like resume match technology that can automatically select best candidates not on basis of a few keywords but on basis of your entire job requirement. This technology considers resume like an actual recruiter; it takes into account objective of applicant, applicant’s experience, skills and education and matches them with each requirement in a job description. This also understands that not all requirements are same, and that some are more important than others, and ranks candidates accordingly.

With a click of a button and a well defined job description, you would be able to shortlist candidates in under 10 seconds.

How to Reduce Recruiting Cost

Your recruiting costs depend on whether you do it yourself or you avail services of an external agency. Do it yourself requires that you commit time and resource before you even conduct first interview. Time and costs can be significantly reduced if you have a backend resume management system in place that can automatically receive, consolidate and short list candidates without any manual intervention.

External agencies work with you on a contingency or a retainer basis. Contingency firms charge you anywhere between 20 – 30% of hiring salary. Retainer firms charge an upfront retainer and charge you by hour. Such firms primarily focus on senior executives.

You need to decide if you have necessary time and resource to devote to recruiting and remember, time spend on recruiting is time not spent on your business. If 30% commission is on high side, you can consider fixed price services. These services charge you a fixed price for attracting right candidates, help you select best candidates and assist you in hiring process. (Contact author for a free, Recruitment Cost Estimator tool. This tool estimates your recruiting cost. It also compares “Do it Yourself” costs with commissioned recruiting and fixed price services.)

Conclusion Cleary define ideal candidate for job. Make use of internet job boards, your web site, your local newspaper etc. to attract applicants. Have a backend system that eliminates manual processing of resumes. The system should also be able to select and rank best candidates for a job. Compare cost of doing it yourself, paying commissions and availing service of a fixed price service. Happy Hiring!! (Contact author for “Tips for a smoother Hiring”, a white paper with tips and hints to make your hiring go smoother.)

Inversely, a recent trip to a local Taco Bell almost ended on an episode of Cops because young lady behind counter grew angry when I politely pointed out that my nachos were stale and asked for a fresh bag (pet peeve #132: stale nachos).

Miss Mary Sunshine snatched offending nachos from my hand and slam dunked them in a trash can, then tossed a replacement bag (which were also stale) on counter in front of me. She then gave me a look that clearly said that if I had any further complaints she'd be happy to escort me outside to discuss them in detail. I like nachos, but not so much that I would risk getting my behind kicked by a disgruntled teenage girl wearing a sideways Taco Bell cap. Not-so-excellent customer service after sale.

Now, which restaurant do you think I will go to next time I feel need to feed my fast food monkey? And which restaurant do you think I enthusiastically recommend to my friends? The one that understands importance of good customer service before and after sale, of course.

The worst customer service experience I've ever had involved purchase of a vehicle at a local used car lot. I purchased used Ford Expedition on a Friday evening and when problems arose with vehicle over weekend, I went back to dealership on Monday morning to speak with sales manager.

To say least, sales manager (who acted like my best friend on Friday) was not thrilled to see me on Monday. To make a very long story short, when I pointed out that he wasn't being very helpful after sale he came around desk yelling at top of his lungs and waving his hands in my face.

By time receptionist managed to calm him down, sales manager had gone so far as to call me "a retarded idiot" (which may be considered redundant) and had instructed me to do something with vehicle that I believe is anatomically impossible.

It was an Expedition, I'm a little guy. Use your imagination.

Though dealership owner later apologized and offered to take care of any problem I had, damage to his business had already been done. The bad buzz machine started second I left his lot.

Do you think I told everyone I met about my experience with that dealership? You bet your stale nachos I did. Do you think I will ever buy another car from that dealership? Not on your life. Do you think anyone I've told about experience will buy a car from that dealership? Probably not. Do you think owner and sales manager learned anything from experience? We can only hope.

In end, what is value of great customer service before and after sale? Priceless, my friend.

Simply priceless.

Now, can somebody please get me some fresh nachos…

Do you have a customer service horror story? I'd love to hear it. Email me at address below.

Here's to your success.

Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net For information on starting your own online or eBay business, visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs.