Aug 24 2023
As part of a new series called Fountain Voices, we’re tapping into the experience and expertise of our very own Fountaineers to get their takes on a variety of topics in the high volume talent acquisition space.
What if you could get insights into the inner workings of Fountain as well as expert views on the current talent acquisition landscape? This week on Fountain Voices, we’re sharing valuable learnings and advice from April Hutchins, a former Fountain customer-turned-Fountain employee. After nearly seven years at Shipt, a Fountain customer, Hutchins joined Fountain as a Customer Success Manager.
Let’s dive in!
Helping customers reach their talent acquisition potential
During her time as a Fountain customer, Hutchins was on the front lines of the product interface, using it daily to hire Shoppers in multiple regions of the United States. Compared to other talent acquisition solutions on the market, Fountain’s automation and customization capabilities set it apart and made it easy to make fast changes.
“There were many times when operation processes would change, and having the flexibility to make those changes immediately was impactful in helping Shipt meet the demands of growth,” Hutchins said.
This flexibility allowed Hutchins to make a major cost-saving decision: “Strategically placing background checks after the ‘Approved’ stage allowed Shipt to approve a Shopper, create their Shopper profile, and only run a background check on those who signed into the Shipt Shopper app. This was a huge cost-saver for Shipt.”
Bringing customer learnings to Fountain
After years of relationship-building and collaboration with Fountain, Hutchins made the decision to join Fountain’s Customer Success team.
“Having worked with Fountain as a customer for nearly seven years definitely made my decision easy!” Hutchins said. “Fountain already felt like a second home, so it made perfect sense to bring my knowledge (as a customer) to the other side.”
Hutchins’ previous experience as a customer gave her a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by current Fountain customers, enabling her to empathize and provide tailored support depending on customers’ talent acquisition needs and pain points.
“My general knowledge of Fountain, the product itself, gave me an advantage in understanding customers’ workflows,” she said. “I’ve been able to identify bottlenecks in workflows that some customers never noticed.”
As one example, Hutchins helped a customer cut down the number of stages within their workflow and, as a result, decrease time-to-hire.
“With my prior experience, I was able to assist the customer with identifying which stages could be combined and which could be easily removed,” she added. “I was able to guide them through making bulk edits across their workflows.”
At Fountain, “Our goal is to add value and reduce churn. I help customers evolve their recruiting strategies, processes, and workflow. This involves building relationships and providing training and insights on how to optimize their use of Fountain.”
Advice for current and future Fountain customers
When we asked Hutchins what advice she would give to new or prospective Fountain customers, she encouraged users to lean into testing openings before making them live.
“Don’t be afraid to create stages or rules in a test opening and run as many test applicants through as you need to make sure you get the stage setup correct before adding it to your active workflows.”
April Hutchins is a Customer Success Manager at Fountain. Prior to Fountain, she served as Senior Recruiting Manager at Shipt and oversaw the company’s Northeast and West Coast Shopper hiring. She then worked as Operations Coordinator, in charge of managing the hiring process, maintaining vendor relationships (including with Fountain), and managing compliance-related issues. Hutchins joined Fountain in June 2022.
