An Interview with Diana Robben and Julie Verduystert of Econocom about their latest collaboration with AGC BELGIUM.
How Diana (engagement manager) closed the deal with AGC by creating a strong long-term relationship over the years that elevated our brand reputation.
How Julie (recruitment specialist) increased the efficiency of the recruitment process through searching and selecting the right candidate strategically.
How is the relationship with the client?
AGC Belgium is a long-standing client of Econocom. In March of this year, the client approached us with a direct request for a full-time IT specialist, without publishing the request on the client’s platform.
Could you share more on how you went about your business with this client?
For this client, we already had some other projects in the past, which led to a relationship based on trust. This was a sort of dream situation to our team; we strive more towards this kind of contacts. We knew from the beginning that there were no competitors, which created some confidence for us as well.
The client had not prepared a comprehensive job description when it contacted Diana. This gave her the freedom to create a profile description and job specification, based on AGC’s company objectives.
This involved some improvisation, but it is also very important to have a proper understanding about what the customer is looking for and requires for this project. After the description of the profile, we start searching for the right candidate, first internally via the recruitment manager. If we do not find a suitable candidate, we continue our search through recruitment. Julie has then actively been looking into finding a suitable candidate. For Julie, it is crucial to make a proposal that matches what the customer and Econocom are looking for at that same time.
This is how we matched Alice to AGC. She already had gained experience using collaboration tools in her previous job. Alice’s experience really appealed to the client, and she also has a good profile that matches our client’s requirements. We now have a clear understanding of which profiles are passing through AGC and how we can connect them to find a perfect match.
First, Julie had an interview with Alice, then Diana came into the conversation to provide further details about the customer, after which the candidate was proposed to the customer. Of course, this was the ideal situation for the team, where the client starts searching for candidates with a profile and outsources this process to us.
The interview with Alice was very pleasant and the customer soon agreed to work with her.
This is where we were fortunate, because some of the introduced candidates are matching and some might not be matching with the client. It was soon clear that the customer was confident of Alice’s capabilities, because at the end of the interview it was already decided that Alice was suitable for the profile. Usually we only get a final decision after the interview, whereas here the client didn’t go looking for other profiles. The customer was convinced that he had the right candidate in front of him. We can say that the search was concluded very quickly: it was approximately 1-month from first contact to Alice getting started.
How do you build your relationship with the customers?
In this case, it was all about expanding the trust that we already had with the client, continuing to draw upon the information we have about the customer; their environment and past requests helps to determine the best match for this customer.
Being honest with the customer is key, as is resolving issues and setting up priorities for the customer’s best interest. Monitoring at close range on projects builds engagement as does asking about other concerns of the customer and monitoring budgets to determine which price range we are in.
Who stays in touch with the candidate?
Julie is the candidate’s first point of contact until she is recruited and after that, her job is done, and then the competence manager comes in and checks whether the candidate is satisfied. When Alice is employed, Diana will check whether all went well or not.
What role will Alice fulfil at AGC?
Alice will give support to the end users of AGC, where the domain name of the company is going to change. She will assist the users within the framework of this project. In particular, she will be providing user support: by phone, or remotely by taking over control. At first, users will be able to come to her with their laptops; after a period, when she has enough information about the client, she can switch to teleworking.
Why did the candidate choose Econocom?
Alice indicated early on that she had a good feeling about working at Econocom, which was the key factor in her decision. She informed Julie that she had a former co-worker who had started working at Econocom in 2020 and who had also worked with her at the European Commission, where he had been responsible for the helpdesk. This former colleague has left a good reference to Alice about Econocom, which is why she gave us the time and the trust to help her with a new job.
Can you say the company has grown accustomed to the services of Econocom?
The client knows our services well, and that creates a sense of loyalty. For instance, we have recently had a new application of a project in which AGC would like to make use of our services. The request was made when they were searching for a candidate for their last project.
This shows once again that clients are only human, and that if things go well, they will not be changing their ways or looking to competitors for their services.
What are the future perspectives for Econocom and AGC?
As a trusted client, AGC is familiar with all 3 main branches of Econocom. Currently, the client has opted to continue using the leasing and services activities, which it consistently relies upon. The lease contract for PCs and laptops comes to its end and the fleet must be replaced.
The renewal of the park demands extra resources in order to implement and provide support, and for this the client once again counts on a partnership with Econocom. We are currently examining how we can work together within the team to address this matter. We begin by consulting the competence manager, who looks for someone in-house or checks if there is somebody available at a client who could do the job for some days and who we can recruit. If we can’t find someone internally, then Julie moves to external recruitment from partners or freelance. We are looking forward to matchmaking the right candidates to AGC soon.
TAKEAWAY 1: Be authentic and create an human connection with your customers.
TAKEAWAY 2: Employees that are experts and passionate about their work achieve shared team goals.
TAKEAWAY 3: Teamwork and collaboration are essential for a successful business.
