I have a high opinion of Microsoft.
It’s one of the highest valued companies in the world, and it underwent a remarkable turnaround since Satya Nadella took over the company in 2014.
Until last week, they seemed almost invincible.
What changed? I interacted with the technical support group of Office 365 (a service I’ve used for almost 10 years).
I got locked out of one of my accounts due to a malfunction in their texting service that sends verification codes.
After several conversations and email exchanges with their support group, I got back this message from a technical support representative:
Our Data Protection Team is currently working through a 2000+ ticket backlog.
I have some customers who have been waiting over 20 days to have their issues resolved.
I’m on day 13 right now, and it’s still not resolved.
I wasn’t in the market for a new email service in early March, but I am now.
Here’s the recruiting lesson in this story.
Things are always changing and sometimes they change quickly. Your best competitors may be performing at a high level today and then stumble in a profound way tomorrow.
High performing recruiters know that consistent prospecting is the best way to access the health of your competitors.
When they uncover trouble, it also puts them first in line to exploit the cracks that are just starting to develop.