The new year means a fresh slate to achieve and accomplish things you couldn’t in the year prior. Setting resolutions is a task that many people take part in on New Year’s Eve, stating their intentions for the year and what they hope to accomplish. The downside is that most people only stick with their resolutions for January, and then completely forget about them, or adopt the mindset that they have the whole year to accomplish them and push them to the wayside. Setting realistic goals with measurable ways to view them is essential to making sure they are achievable. Through this article, we discuss tips and tricks for setting goals and sticking with them, and provide free tools to help you manage your goals for the year. Our success here at Optimum RTS is measured by the success of the companies we work with. 

Common goal-setting mistakes to avoid:

The most common outcome for New Year’s resolutions is for them to be forgotten and not met. It’s easy to avoid goals, but the most common reason goals remain unmet is that we struggle with setting reachable and attainable benchmarks. 

Setting goals that are too vague, for example,  “get fitter” or “be happier”, are not reachable. What does “fitter” or “happier” actually mean? Does it mean losing weight and smiling more, or is it gaining muscle and feeling content? Vague goals are easy to set aside and feel unattainable as they are subjective. The subjectivity of goal outcomes also makes them hard to track. Not being able to track progress through goals doesn’t allow for any reflection on the steps being taken and what is working and not working.  

Additionally, taking on too many goals at once causes confusion and can become overwhelming. By setting many goals at once, you can lose focus and not allow enough time and effort for the things you wish to achieve. Prioritizing specific goals rather than generalized desires allows you to pinpoint specific actions that you need to take to be successful. 

When prioritizing goals, focus on forward progress and not perfection. Setting goals and believing that one must perfectly meet them is not possible. The chances that we perfectly meet and achieve our goals are not realistic. Focusing on forward progress instead of perfection allows you to succeed and be pleased with your achievements, increasing personal motivation. 

How to set effective goals (the foundation):

To create the highest possibility for success in achieving goals, goals must have the proper foundation. There are many ways to set goals, although the easiest and most successful type of goal structure is the SMART structure. Why create harder goals when you can set SMARTer goals? The acronym SMART is the easiest way to set approachable and achievable goals, forcing you to think realistically. SMART stands for: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. These are all conditions for a solid foundation for effective goals. For the sake of this article, the example goal will be to “Increase Optimum RTS Newsletter engagement (measured by open and click-through rates) by 20% within the next two business quarters.”

To start, let’s talk about being specific and measurable when choosing goals. Both of these conditions go hand in hand as you are choosing precisely what you want to achieve. The “Specific” criteria include what you would like to accomplish, the people involved, the actions needed, and the explanation for why it matters. From the goal above, the “Specific” part applies to “increasing Optimum RTS Newsletter engagement”. It also outlines how the progress will be measured, “measured by open and click-through rates”. To make goals measurable, you must set a benchmark. For example, the frequency something occurs, the percentage increase or decrease, or another measurable metric. In the goal above, the measurable aspect is “increase by 20%”. 

Onto the ART, portions of the SMART structure goals:  attainable, relevant, and timely. Whether a goal is attainable or not is very subjective to the person creating the goal. Essentially, it is asking, “Do you think this is actually possible?” With that, there needs to be support for why a goal is believed to be attainable. For the example goal, let’s say that Optimum RTS just purchased new marketing software that will track and monitor newsletter engagement. This software could be a reason to believe that the goal is more attainable. As for relevancy, you must decide how this goal pertains to your life or position. As the Director of Marketing for Optimum RTS, increasing newsletter engagement is relevant to the position. Lastly, the timely aspect is used to create a reasonable timeline for when goals should be achieved. Adding a deadline puts positive pressure on achieving the goal and not pushing it off. Deadlines force time management and ensure we are always working towards something. If there were no deadline for completing a goal, then it would most likely never be completed. For the sake of the example goal, the time in which the goal should be completed is “two business quarters”. 

Break Big Goals Into Actionable Steps:

To be successful, it’s important to find a way to make big goals seem more manageable. If you are setting a high goal for yourself this year, the last thing you want is to be overwhelmed by the size. Find a way to break ambitious goals apart into smaller steps. As Desmond Tutu once said, “How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. By breaking goals apart into smaller steps and focusing on consistency rather than intensity, ambitious targets are more easily met. An easy way to consistently work towards a goal is to set up a routine. For example, the goal of “get healthier” is too vague and subjective. If the aim is to achieve a healthier lifestyle, actionable steps could be “work out 3x per week for an hour” or “cook a low-carb meal twice a week”. These are two steps that can now be consistently repeated and thus propel you towards your main goal. 

Tips to Stick With Your Goals All Year Round: 

Progress is rarely linear, especially when it comes to achieving ambitious tasks. You will often fail and have to restart, plateau, and struggle to build momentum, or take off fast with a running start. The idea is that no matter which path you journey towards success, remember to keep moving forward. 

Starting small allows you to build momentum towards the long journey towards success. Taking actionable steps, as we discussed in the section prior, will allow you to absorb the ambition and achieve smaller victories, thus adding up to a big win. 

It is important to track your progress, as this is truly the only way to view progress. Whether it’s through journaling, data entry, keeping a checklist, or a calendar, it is essential to document progress. Not only will this show progression, but it also creates a sense of accountability.

Expect that there will be setbacks, and plan for them. This doesn’t mean that being ambitious means you will inevitably fail, but you will encounter pushback, delays, or obstacles. Having a plan will keep setbacks from derailing progress. Additionally, understanding that goals can be changed saves room for grace when it inevitably happens. 

Optimum RTS is committed not only to helping our clients and candidates with their hiring and training needs, but we are also here to promote success for everyone personally and professionally. It’s our job to help you and your company become the best they can be. With this, we have created a free-to-use Goal Tracking Sheet to help you stay on track and accomplish everything you hope for. Feel free to follow the link and follow the steps to download the Goal Tracking Sheet. Additionally, we encourage our readers to contact us for more information about how Optimum RTS can help you and your company accomplish all of your 2026 goals. We are here to help you every step of the way: hiring, training, and consulting. 

The new year is not about perfection; it’s about consistency. With this, we hope that you take time to plan some intentions for the year and create a roadmap to accomplish them. Goals do not have to be dreams. With the proper setup, support, and strategy, they can become a reality. 2026 is your year to accomplish whatever you desire; you just have to set your mind to it.  

Click the Button for  the Optimum RTS Goal Tracking Sheet: Optimum RTS Goal Tracking Sheet

The Two Faces of Ghosting

There are two sides to the ghosting story and everyone is guilty of it. Whether you know it or not there is a chance you have once fallen victim to ghosting either as the ghoster or ghosted. 

Candidates sometimes stop responding to communication, don’t show for their interview or simply disappear after they have accepted an offer. This not only causes frustration on behalf of the recruiter and employer, but it causes hiring delays, and wastes resources such as time and money. 

Employers and recruiters have been known to not respond once resumes are submitted, or never reach back out to a candidate following an interview/phone screen. This not only causes frustration and disappointment for the candidate, but it can damage the company brand through negative candidate experience.

Regardless of which side of the ghosting you are on, everyone has had a bad hiring experience. Ghosting causes frustration and disappointment for both employers and candidates, and thus causes both parties to lose faith in the hiring system. Most candidates, ”who have been hunting for a job for months say the process is both frustrating and demoralizing, especially after sending hundreds of applications that fail to get a response.” (CBS News). This brings the question, why is ghosting haunting the hiring process?

Why is Ghosting Haunting The Hiring Process?

Ghosting is considered largely a new trend that was brought about with the increased use of technology within the hiring and communication process. With the influx of technology augmented hiring and communication, it is easier for both candidates and employers to look at all of their options within the hiring process.

The shifting dynamics of the job markets seen through hiring websites such as Indeed and LinkedIn, highlight how many opportunities are available at any given time. Meaning that candidates now can mass apply to positions and thus forget that they reached out to employers, or forget to schedule/show up for their interviews. Employers are facing the same problem, as there is a larger number of candidates applying to their positions. With this many hiring teams can become overwhelmed and thus not focus individual time to each candidate that applies.

However, the largest contributor to the ghosting epidemic is the general fear of confrontation. No one enjoys sharing bad news, especially when there is a fear of disappointing someone or upsetting them. This affects both employers and candidates. Candidates fear upsetting potential employers when explaining the position is not a good fit, or that they have found another position. Employers sometimes fear disappointing candidates when explaining that they are moving forward with different candidates. Both situations lead to either party avoiding the perceived confrontation, and with this the communication line dies. 

Lack of communication protocols only further exacerbates the problem, and with this the communication loop is never closed. Ghosting is something that will affect everyone within the business world and the costs of it are felt in every aspect of a business.

The Cost of Ghosting

Ghosting has negative effects for every aspect of the hiring process but the most damaging is an overall erosion of trust within the hiring process. Candidates feel discouraged knowing that they never heard back from employers, and employers are frustrated they wasted time having been ghosted by potential candidates. Both of these situations cause damage to a company or person’s brand. This can lead to negative word of mouth/reviews regarding experiences with a company, and can lead a candidate to be placed onto a do not hire list. There is nothing more damaging for a candidate than ghosting a recruiter, and not showing for an interview or first day. 

By ghosting employers, candidates miss out on good opportunities and positions, and likewise employers miss out on skilled and qualified candidates. Although ghosting is so easily avoidable, many people still let the fear of disappointing someone dictate what type of worker/company they will be. 

How to Break The Curse

Ghosting is a trend that is easily fallen into but it is also a curse easily broken. It takes action from both parties, but with a commitment to stopping the trend it can finally be put to rest. Employers can avoid ghosting candidates by setting clear expectations for the hiring process; highlighting the hiring process steps. In addition, a commitment to closing the communication loop between candidates and employers is the main way to stop the ghosting on a whole. Being able to communicate with candidates even when the response is a “no” is essential to eliminating ghosting from the process. Furthermore, building a communication culture that values transparency between both the company and the candidates can help in this process. 

Candidates can eliminate ghosting on their side of the hiring process by setting clear intentions with employers and recruiters at the get-go. Responding to employers/recruiters messages even if they are no longer interested in the position ensures that everyone understands each side’s intentions. Maintaining clear intentions and desires with employers/recruiters secures a communication bridge between candidates and employees. Due to this employers/recruiters are more likely to think of the candidate if a position they fit better arises. Ghosting is a fixable problem and with that both employers and candidates can experience a more efficient hiring process. 

Although ghosting plagues the hiring world, it can be easily stopped. This hiring season don’t let ghosting spook you. Take the steps to break the ghosting curse, and the easiest step is to increase and maintain healthy communication throughout the entire hiring process. Here at Optimum RTS we are working to exorcise ghosting, by helping candidates and employers avoid communication nightmares, and find real results. Our skilled recruiters are here to ensure that your company finds quality candidates and stays in contact with them. If you’re ready to hire candidates while avoiding the ghosting nightmare, call us today to learn more about our recruiting and hiring services.

Sources: 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employment-job-market-surge-in-long-term-unemployed-workers-economy/

Why One Bad Hire Can Cost You More Than You Think

Sometimes the cost of a bad hire is easy to see. Other times they go unnoticed for far too long, further perpetuating the problem. The costs can be separated into two types: tangible and intangible. Your tangible costs of a bad hire are easy to spot; they are what you directly spent money on. Examples are recruiting expenses, training investments (such as time and resources) and severance/re-hiring costs. All these explicitly cost your company money, and each time that you hire quickly you might be sacrificing these things. 

Intangible costs are harder to spot. They relate to relationships, company environment, and productivity. A bad hire can impact the success of your company’s working environment, or possibly your relationships with your clients. Your employees are a representation of your company, meaning that if the hire was rushed it’s possible you might not have found the best representative for your company. In addition, your company’s internal environment can become less productive, due to gaps in skill or performance, and overall team morale can decline due to frustration. Whether the costs of a bad hire are tangible or intangible, both can cause damage to your company internally, and should be avoided. So why do companies often find themselves with a bad hire?

Breaking Down the Root Causes of Bad Hires

Most bad hires aren’t bad people; they are just the wrong match for the role or the company. Bad hires happen when employers rush the hiring process, use vague job descriptions, have no structured interview process, don’t check references, or just simply overlook the cultural fit within your office. 

Rushing through the hiring process forces you to skip steps and settle with a candidate due to time constraints. Vague job descriptions bring in a larger pool of candidates, but they may be missing critical skills due to the description not listing them. Using detailed job descriptions allows you to pre-screen candidates and prevents underqualified people from applying.

The structure of the interview process is crucial to ensuring that candidates feel as though your company has structure. When interviewing is lackadaisical it makes candidates feel inclined to treat the job as such. The structure of the interviewing also sets a schedule and allows for a hiring timeline. 

When employers feel the need to rush into hiring someone, they often skip the reference checks and other crucial screenings. References exist so that employers can hear feedback about their new potential employee. When this step is overlooked, potential problems are as well. 

Lastly, you should ensure that candidates fit within your company’s culture and environment. If a hired candidate does not match the mission of your company they are not going to help you achieve it. Every person has their own culture they bring to the table. It’s important to note that companies should be hiring employees that fit within the company culture. Miscommunication throughout the hiring process can result in problems identified too late, thus leading to a bad hire.

Your Action Plan to Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes

The ways to avoid making a bad hire can seem self-explanatory, especially after we’ve addressed why bad hires occur. The first way to avoid a bad hire is to slow down. As we said previously, rushing through the hiring process only makes things worse and thus further wasting your company’s time. To avoid a bad hire, slow down and take the time to define exactly what you are looking for, not just skillsets but also personality-wise. Using a structured interviewing process can help with time management. Following a step-by-step procedure for screening and interviewing candidates helps filter candidates though scheduled events, allowing for a productive hiring timeline. In addition, having set interview questions allows for interviews to flow easily, and for you to easily determine whether a candidate is going to be a good fit for you and your company. 

Working with a professional recruiting company such as Optimum RTS removes the stress of hiring and finding the perfect candidate. We handle that for you. We vet hundreds of candidates a week, specifically pinpointing what our clients are searching for, both skills-wise and personality-wise. Once we have located a candidate that we think will be a good fit on paper, we interview them prior to sending them to you. By interviewing candidates throughout the whole process, it allows us to ensure that you are only receiving candidates qualified for your job. We don’t just fill jobs; we find the right people for the right roles. 

Once we have submitted the candidates to your company, you interview them and then finally decide whether the candidate will become an employee. If you feel as though we did not find the right match, we start the entire process over and will continue until we have found your perfect candidate. We are only paid once, and that is when you have decided that the candidate is exactly what you’re looking for. In addition, if a recently hired Optimum RTS candidate doesn’t end up working out, we will start the search again without any added fee until you are satisfied. Our proven recruiting process helps clients avoid the costly mistake of a bad hire. Whether you’re hiring entry-level or executive-level, temp or perm, we are here to help. 

Bad hires are more common than they should be, especially when there are effective ways to avoid them. By learning how to identify and prevent bad hires, you can save your company both time and money. At Optimum RTS, we’re here to help you find the right person for the job. With our expertise, your company can avoid the costly consequences of a bad hire and stay focused on what you do best.

Happy 4th of July from Optimum RTS!

We are hoping that you and your family enjoyed a relaxing and fun-filled holiday! We are here for you and your company any time you need it, whether it is hiring, training, consulting, and more.

Marketing Magic & Money Moves with John Dalton

In this month’s spotlight, Optimum RTS owner John Dalton joins Patti Heid, Director of Best Practices and Compliance at the Home Care Association of Florida (HCAF), for an insightful conversation on “Marketing Magic and Money Moves: Winning Tactics for Homecare Growth.”

John shares his journey from launching his sales career in 1991 to founding Optimum RTS, a leader in healthcare recruiting, training, and staffing. In the episode, he dives into powerful strategies for driving sales in the home health industry, including how to stand out, create meaningful referral relationships, and build a marketing team that truly understands the art of connection.

Key Takeaways:

• Why “everything is sales” beyond just your marketers
• How to paint the picture for referral sources
• What top-performing sales reps do differently
• Proven tactics to increase visibility and drive growth in your agency

Don’t miss this episode packed with practical insights and real-world experience.

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Be the Four-Leaf Clover in a Field of Applicants: How to Stand Out

Picture this: You’re one of many job applicants, all vying for the same position. How do you make sure you’re the one that stands out? Like a rare four-leaf clover among a sea of threes, you must be distinct. This article will guide you on how to set yourself apart from other candidates and catch the eye of employers by showcasing your unique skills, experience, and personal brand.

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The Power Of Personal Branding

How you present yourself professionally is essential to setting yourself apart from the rest. The personal brand that you hold yourself to not only allows employers to see what your values are, but they can examine what type of assets you will bring to their company and your position. Personal branding both in-person and virtually allows companies to see what you bring to the table and quickly understand who you are. Creating your personal brand can be done through many avenues, but there are a few requirements; identify your strengths, values, and passions. These variables are what make you stand out from the rest of the candidate pool and can act as the tie-breaker between you and another candidate. 

Using the strengths, values, and passions you have identified, you must create an engaging way to showcase them. This can be done through creating an online portfolio using sites like LinkedIn, or portfolio websites. Lastly, you need to be prepared to explain your brand to anyone who asks. Preparing an elevator pitch allows you to be ready to market yourself in any situation. Remember, when it comes to creating a brand for yourself, you are always working, and you should be ready to showcase your brand at any point in time. 

Tailor Your Resume and Cover Letter

When it comes to standing out to employers and recruiters, customization is key. Tailoring your resume and cover letter to a specific position that you’re applying for not only highlights how you will fit into that specific position, but it shows your dedication to presenting yourself. Employers admire dedication to being specific with personal image, as it highlights how you will represent them as a company. Tailoring your resume emphasizes how you will fit into the specific needs of the position you are applying for.

Highlight relevant skills and accomplishments. By drawing attention to your skills, employers can envision you as a worker and examine what benefits their company would gain from hiring you. Drawing attention to accomplishments further puts you ahead by showing the recruiter what makes you special and what past success has looked like for you. 

Incorporating key words and or action words will catch the eye of the recruiter and encourage them to take a deeper dive into your application. Employers and recruiters do not always have the time to read every word of your resume, and that is why it is so important to catch their attention. By attracting them with key words, you are enticing them to read more and therefore setting yourself ahead of the rest in the applicant pool. Additionally, it is important to remember to highlight your expertise. Use your knowledge to stand out. Use your education, work experience, and certifications to draw the most attention so that employers can see what you have done to enhance your performance within the industry. 

Show Your Passion and Enthusiasm

Employers want to know that the candidate they are hiring is going to bring a good mindset to the job, which means you need to show them that you are passionate for the position. Employers want someone who is excited for their position and is not just treating it like any other job; you need to be their top choice, and they need to be yours. Demonstrating your enthusiasm can be done through research and first impressions.

Researching a company before applying is essential, as it shows the employer/recruiter that you care about the position you applied for. If you’re not researching your future company, how do you know that it will align with your strengths and values? By researching the company, the company senses that you are serious about working for them, and you know if it’s a position you’re interested in. 

First impressions can be the make or break when it comes to making yourself a top candidate. By expressing your excitement for the position and asking strong questions through the interview, employers can sense whether you’re interested in their position or not. The impression that you make on the person conducting the interview carries power, and making sure that you make a good impression is essential. 

Make a Lasting Impression

You want to stand out, and that is done by making the employer think of your name first. Making yourself memorable is critical to the recruiting process, and it is what makes employers choose you over anyone else. The quality of the interview is essential to ensuring that employers walk away with a good impression of who you are and what you will bring to their company. Simple behaviors such as maintaining positive and confident body language, being punctual, actively listening, and asking good questions creates a professional persona showing recruiters that you are taking their time seriously. 

Be prepared to answer any questions that may be thrown your way, and most of all, be ready to explain what makes you unique from the rest of the applicants. When it comes to answering these types of questions, this is your moment to truly shine. If there is a quality that you are proud of, shine a light on it. Make the recruiter see how you are better than the rest, and how you are the lucky candidate they have been looking for. Answering this question, think back to when you set up your personal brand. Now is the time to share the things that make you unique and how those will be incorporated into the business you are interviewing for. 

Lastly, the impression you leave with the interviewer goes beyond the interview. Staying in contact with the interviewer can remind them that you are interested in the position and keep you at the forefront of their mind. This can be done through reaching out to thank them for their time after the interview was conducted. This keeps your name in their mind, as well as further promoting a sense of gratitude and professionalism. 

With the right strategies, you can stand out from the crowd and be the lucky candidate employers are searching for. By building a strong personal brand, tailoring your resume and cover letter, and showcasing your passion, you can separate yourself from the pack. When you walk into that interview, remember: a memorable first impression is the key to leaving a lasting mark.

Now is the time to take action—refine your approach, show off what makes you unique, and make your job search as lucky as finding that elusive four-leaf clover. Good things are just around the corner, and with the right mindset and tools, you’ll be well on your way to landing the job of your dreams.

February of 2025 marks Optimum RTS’s 11th anniversary as a company. Since the beginning, we have been dedicated to bringing quality services and candidates to companies across Florida and the nation. At our formation, Optimum RTS was built on three main pillars: Recruiting, Staffing, and Training. Now starting our 11th year, we are not only an award-winning employment agency and staffing company, but a locally and nationally sought-after sales training and consulting group. Whether you have interacted with us as an employee or an employer, we are so grateful for over a decade of support. Remember, it’s our job to understand your job, and all of you have made that mission a reality!

Fall in Love with Your Career: How to Find the Job That’s Right for You

    Every day millions of Americans and people worldwide wake up and get ready to head off to their jobs, but how many of them are looking forward to their day? Having the right job can determine whether your day is something you look forward to or dread. Just like a relationship, the right job should make you feel excited, appreciated, and valued; so it’s time for you to fall in love with your career.

Understand your needs and desires

To find that perfect match, you need to address your standards: what are you looking for? Think about your values, passions, and goals. Are these essential to your work environment? Are you able to be flexible with some of them? Once you have addressed what your requirements are for your job “partner” it’s time to determine what your motivators are. What aspects of your job make you feel excited to get up in the morning? Lastly, determine how happy you are in your current position and identify what aspects you like and dislike with that position/company. Knowing your desires can help you filter through the available jobs and find the perfect match for you.

Evaluate your skills and strengths

Once you have determined what you are looking for in your career, look inward and identify your skills and strengths: How will you make yourself attractive on the job market? First, identify what you are good at. What past job positions were your favorite and what did you excel at in them? Assess your talents by asking yourself, if I were an expert in a skill what would that skill be? Identify what paths you are interested in learning more about and align these with your strengths. Find a job that requires the skills you are strong in and translate those skills into a role that excites you.

Research and explore job opportunities

Now it’s time to put yourself out on the market. Use online sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed to see what is available and market yourself. In addition, you can visit the Optimum RTS website and click on the “Find Jobs” tab to see what current positions we are filling. Once you have identified a job you are interested in, send us your resume’ and we will match you with your dream job.

Trust the process: Recognizing a job that is right for you

Lastly, you know when you have found The One. Having a healthy relationship with your job means more than just finding the available job, it means feeling like you found the right fit. When you feel you fit in the position, you are energized and excited for the work you are there to complete. Follow your intuition and trust your gut; you will know when you’re in the right place.

Finding a career that truly excites and fulfills you is possible—it’s all about aligning your passions, skills, and values with the right opportunity. By taking the time to understand what you want, evaluate your strengths, research your options, and trust the process, you can pave the way toward a job you genuinely love.

Remember, career fulfillment doesn’t happen overnight, but each small step you take brings you closer to the job that’s right for you. So, whether you’re just starting your journey or rethinking your current path, don’t be afraid to pursue a career that makes your heart race with excitement. You deserve to fall in love with your work, and you can make it happen with the right mindset and actions.

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Embrace and growth mindset:

Understand the importance of the desire to learn and grow. This means challenging yourself and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and using criticism as feedback rather than failure. This allows you to shape yourself into the best version for both your job and employer.

Develop key skills:

Identify skills that are crucial to your career or position within your company and work continuously to strengthen them. Invest in both the hard skills your position requires and the soft skills that allow you to be a stronger team member.

Build a strong personal brand:

Define and communicate what sets you apart professionally. This can be done through enhancing skills, learning new techniques, and promoting a desire to always learn more. Using platforms such as LinkedIn not only allows you space to shine, but they can also draw attention to the work you and your company are doing.

Master time management:

Improve productivity by effectively managing your time and devoting your time to what matters most. Eliminating distractions and minimizing multitasking allows you to produce a higher quality of work in a more timely manner, leading to higher overall productivity. By analyzing what you are allocating time for, you can better schedule and shape your day-to-day, creating a higher yield of success.

Foster a collaborative spirit:

Build a positive and welcoming work environment that enhances both personal and team success. Achieve this by actively contributing to team goals and encouraging colleagues to meet their goals. By sharing knowledge and helping the team around you, success is both personal and shared.

Adopt a results-oriented approach:

Focus on delivering tangible, impactful outcomes that align with the company’s objectives. Assess how you contribute to the success of the organization. Take the initiative and propose solutions to challenges that the company may face, increasing productivity.

Network and build relationships:

Expand your web of people both inside and outside the company. By increasing your number of connections you are also increasing the resources you have at your disposal. Participate in industry events to build professional relationships. Regularly check in with peers and mentors to build a strong network, and lastly offer to help and support others, leading to mutual success amongst team members.

The path to achieving your ideal outcome in 2025 is not set in stone, you must take active steps to ensure that this goal becomes a reality. Through an effort to hone new and old skills, network, support, and challenge yourself, you can truly grow into the best version of yourself. The actions you take today will shape the professional you become tomorrow, and it’s our job at Optimum RTS to help you through that process. Whether it is finding your dream job or the perfect candidate, our services can help ensure that 2025 is your best year yet for both you and your team.

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A message from Optimum RTS owner John Dalton.

2024 is a wrap and what a year it was. If I had to say what the word of the year turned out to be, it was “TRAINING!” Optimum RTS was built on its three main business sector pillars, which are R for recruiting, T for training, and S for staffing. During our first 10 years, Recruiting and Staffing were our main focus, but not in 2024. This year we helped companies across the nation bring in new salespeople and trained them to be some of the best in the market.

What will 2025 bring? That is yet to be seen, but what I am manifesting through my daily actualization is growth in our temp-to-perm business and expansion up the east coast of Florida. We are looking forward to growth in our permanent recruiting division and the addition of more than a handful of full-time recruiters and sourcers, and finally, an explosion of new clients requesting not only sales training but also our fractional CFO and COO services in both the medical sector and service sectors.

I hope that all of you had an equally great year and your plans for 2025 are coming into clear focus as Optimum RTS’s are.

Cheers to the success of us all!

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Let’s start off by defining who your customer is. Immediately, you envision the person currently utilizing your service or products. Typically, these people would be called your prospect, patient, client, shopper, patron, etc. Other people fall into this category as well, however, when you examine this a little closer. A customer is not always only the person using your services. It could be the parents of a child in school, the family members of a parent using your services. It could be the candidate you’re attempting to hire or the employees in your organization, or even your manager or one of the company’s vendors. In brief, it is everyone you come into contact with during the course of your work day. Beyond your work day, the term “customer service” can be substituted for just being polite in your interactions with everyone you meet. 

Now that we have defined who a customer is, let’s dig deeper into why understanding their emotional state might be important to a successful and positive interaction. To do this, think of a child and his or her parents going back-to-school shopping. In this scenario, there are two clients you will be faced with, and both may have very different emotional states. The child may be excited about going back to school, buying their new binders, pencils, and backpacks, whereas the parent is cranky about all the money they are spending, and trying to corral their children, the traffic, or crowds in the stores and malls. In both cases, how they are feeling has a direct relation to the way you or your employee will need to interact with them. For the child you will need to show that same excitement, and for the parent you might need to just be courteous and efficient. Now let’s look at a new patient being referred to a Home Health Agency. What could be the mental state of this customer? They could be scared, feeling vulnerable, tired of being sick and within the healthcare system, ready to be home, and concerned for the potential financial burden they might incur. Initially, the patient is not your only customer in this case, and each one of those involved may have one or more of the aforementioned emotions going on. As an example, when speaking to Mr. Smith and his wife, your ideal customer service would lead with empathy, reassurance, competence, and the timely nature of nursing, therapies, and caregivers. Whereas, when dealing with Mr. Smith’s daughter or son, you may want to switch the focus of your customer service to being efficient, actively listening, and providing concise descriptions of services and cost. This sounds easy, like basic information, but honestly, in most interactions, everyone is only thinking of themselves. For instance, the cashier at the office supply store in the first example might only see a grumpy lady and an obnoxious kid, or the staffing coordinator at the home health agency might be put off by the curt conversation Mr. Smith’s son is having with her. In both cases, the person who should be providing customer service has focused on themselves rather than the customer.

As you begin to read this list of best practices, think about your customer and their emotional state and how you would need to modify these best practices to be most effective.

Top 7 Customer Service Best Practices:

1. First Impressions: How your client initially interacts with you has nothing to do with you. Do not personalize a person’s attitude or behavior.
2. Observe and Drive: In face-to-face interactions, look your client in the eye, and all interactions use active listening skills to determine what the needs are and the driving force behind their need or question.
3. Be the fixer: Be concise in your response and only promise or solve issues that can be done at that time. Apologize and explain how you will get the information to answer the question or solve that problem. Be as specific as you can about the expected resolution time frame.
4. The Follow-up: Follow up on what was promised by keeping your client aware of your progress, should the timeframe you set move.
5. Make it personal: Personalize your customer service by introducing yourself and using your customer’s name when appropriate.
6. Smile: Smile. Really, it’s that simple. This applies when you are face to face or talking to someone on the phone. A smile can be heard as loudly as it can be seen.
7. Remove yourself: Remember, this interaction is not about you.

In my 26 years in recruiting, sales management, and national sales as a trainer and now a business owner, I have seen communication and customer service lead to unbelievable successes and an equal amount of failures. The primary causes of those failures occur when the person providing the service did not fully understand the “why” behind an attitude or question of a client. Without that understanding, even the best customer service plan will fail.

About the Author: John Dalton is the owner of Optimum RTS, a medical employment and consultant company. He has taught and consulted for clients that have just opened their doors to Fortune 100 companies. He can be reached at jdalton@optimumrts.com and you can visit his website at www.optimumrts.com

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