4 Ways to Use Customer Reviews in Recruiting

Employer reputation really matters in talent attraction, and managing employee reviews on sites like Fairgodboss, Glassdoor and kununu has become an important part of talent acquisition strategy. But did you know there are other types of review sites that can influence your employer brand as well? Savvy candidates might also be researching product review sites to learn what your customers are saying, and for some roles at your company, this could have a significant influence over whether they choose to work for you.

Before we dive into customer reviews and how to use them in recruiting, however, let’s walk through why candidates care about your product brand in the first place.

Rally note: If you want to learn more about best practices for managing your employer reputation, download the Rally Ideabook: 5 Trends Shaping Employer Reviews.

Why does your product brand matter to candidates?

Candidates want to understand your product brand for two main reasons: 

1. to know what they will be working on upon joining your company, and
2. to know your product’s brand perception in the market. 

The better your product’s reputation, after all, the better working for your company will look on their resume and the more it will help them to advance in their careers. Product brand is particularly important to those employees whose job will directly contribute to developing the product and to those roles responsible for serving customers.

Consider the example of a customer support specialist applying to work at your company. That person is going to be customer-facing all day, every day. If they see that the majority of your company’s product reviews are negative, then that means the bulk of that customer support specialist’s time is going to be managing customer complaints, and that’s no fun. This could be enough to dissuade great customer support professionals from even applying in the first place, even if you have a great company culture.

How do candidates learn about your product brand?

Candidates learn about your product brand through word of mouth and by browsing your corporate website, reviewing your marketing collateral and by reading through product review sites. Product review sites like G2, Amazon, Capterra and Trustpilot allow customers to leave reviews as well as rate the products they’ve used. Even if a candidate doesn’t know about these sites, customer reviews are likely to appear in search engines when a candidate is researching your company.

Product review sites like G2 Crowd tell candidates about your product brand reputation. Candidates interested in working for a technology provider can easily search and find these reviews, which can tip the scales in favor of applying.

If you have a strong product brand and great customer reviews, then you’ve got Recruitment Marketing content that’s worth sharing with candidates! You can leverage these product reviews on your careers site and in other touchpoints during the candidate journey such as recruiter emails and in talent e-newsletters. This can be persuasive info that can help influence candidates to choose your job opportunity and provide them with an improved candidate experience by delivering the information they’re craving up front in your recruiting process. Here’s how:

4 ways to use your product brand and customer reviews to improve your employer brand

1) Display your company rating from product review sites

If you have a positive rating, display your company rating from product review sites in as many places across the candidate journey as possible.

It might make sense to place your rating on your home page, your product page, your company about page, as well as your careers site.

Just like with your employer review site rating, displaying your company rating from customer review sites further strengthens your social proof and demonstrates your dedication to making your customers happy.

KnowBe4 has racked up several industry and workplace awards as well as product accolades, and makes sure to place them on their corporate website where candidates are researching their company.

2) Create a dedicated customer review page on your careers site 

In addition to having a dedicated customer testimonial page on your company site (if you don’t already have one, you should create one!), you should also have a dedicated customer review page on your careers site.

In addition to reviews, this area should include product photos and videos to show job seekers how they’ll be working on a solution that your customers love.

3) Share customer reviews on your careers social media channels

As you know, in addition to review sites, candidates will also be checking out your company on social media.

This is why it’s crucial that you share customer reviews on your careers social media channels to pique candidate interest even more about your company and the work employees do.

On top of sharing customer reviews, it’s also important to acknowledge and reply to all customer feedback left on your careers social media channels. Replying to negative customer comments shows you care enough about your customers to try to rectify their bad experiences, and replying to good customer reviews shows that you’re willing to take time out of your schedule to acknowledge and appreciate their business.

Both of these actions can positively influence a candidate’s decision to work for you.

4) Send out customer reviews in emails to your talent network

Exposing your talent network to how well you satisfy your customers’ needs might be enough to persuade interested candidates that the time is right to make a change.

To increase your chances of reaching people at the right time, it might be worth sending these types of emails on an ongoing basis (once a month, as an example), highlighting a range of content including fresh, new customer reviews as you get them.

Showcasing your strong product brand encourages candidate conversions because it gets candidates excited about the work you’re doing. In this way, your product brand can help strengthen your employer brand and recruitment marketing efforts. A bonus to this is the fact that since candidates are customers too, putting your product front and center can also help drive sales!

Interested in learning other strategies for managing your employer reputation and using employee reviews and product reviews to hire more effectively? Download the Rally Ideabook: 5 Trends Shaping Employer Reviews.