Rthirteen Recruitment set out to make customer satisfaction its main goal – and has been so successful in doing so that the Norwich-based firm won the Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Greater Anglia, at the 2021 Norfolk Business Awards.

“It felt epic to win this award,” said Ruth Harding, one of the agency’s founders. “It’s a huge achievement to be a finalist, but it felt so good to win – for us, our team and all our client/candidate partners. Winning this award reinforces why we set up Rthirteen in the first place: offering customer excellence runs through everything we do."

“The team are ecstatic to have won this award,” says her business partner Rebecca Headden. “They are on the front line, working hard to deliver unrivalled service. Winning this award is hugely validating.

“Recruiters often get a bad rep, that we’re only interested in money,” she adds. “We believe the opposite. Putting people first, delivering great service and genuinely caring about what we do has made our business the success it is today. Customer excellence is at the forefront of everything we do – and now we have an award to prove it!”

Rebecca and Ruth launched Rthirteen in 2013, looking to put the heart back into an industry they felt had become too transactional. “We help businesses find the best talent for their jobs; we help candidates find the best business for their talent,” Rebecca explains. “Sounds easy? As anyone who recruits knows, it’s not – especially now. We make that process seamless, efficient, honest, and enjoyable. We combine clever tech with years of expertise – and a lot of love and care – to identify, attract, present and match the best people and opportunities.”

Over the past eight years the agency has grown steadily and now has a team of 11, dedicated to finding the best matches between companies and candidates. “To create a culture of excellence is to gain buy in from your team. They must understand what you are doing, the value of it and, most importantly, they need to believe in it,” says Ruth.

“We keep talking about service. We ensure its embedded within our day-to-day business – training new staff, refresh team sessions, included in our business strategy, associated with internal incentives, measuring performance against reviews received and so on. This creates and grows a culture that is continually aspiring to elevate."

Rthirteen doesn’t just rely on hard work by humans, though. It makes sure its people have the right tools. “Technology features heavily in helping us deliver excellent service,” says Rebecca. “The tech allows us the time to really hone the human elements: having unique conversations, establishing wants and needs, offering bespoke advice and support – all those things that come from having time to listen, so we can use our expertise to guide.

“Our platforms are cloud-based, allowing us to connect, respond and update any-time, anywhere. Technology gives us data, which we use to recognise and establish trends, gaps and performance statistics, which all contribute towards us continually developing our service.”

The team are clear that the best service is constantly evolving. “Ensuring first-class service is an ongoing commitment and we firmly believe you can always do better,” says Ruth. “As a team, we challenge our customer-experience related processes and procedures frequently.

“This could be via an internal team think tank, analysis of on/offline reviews, trialling the user experience, reviewing competitor intel, requesting service-users' feedback,” she explains. “Then we use all of that info, all of those suggestions, to make changes."

Winning the Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Greater Anglia, confirms that all this hard work really does translate to great customer care. “This award means everything to us. We have an outstanding team of recruiters who inspire us every day to keep pushing and be better as business,” says Ruth.

“It can be a life-changing service we provide,” concludes Rebecca. "It is something we take immense pride and care in delivering.”

For more information, visit www.r13recruitment.com