For Recruiters’ dialogues are like oxygen. You forget to dialogue with your client, candidate or cat and you’re on a one way trip to the poorhouse. Everybody likes to be listened, noticed and remembered. Automate-responsing your candidates shreds your reputation. Recruitment is all about how good your relationships are, not how quickly your email response time is.

In a world of blogging and twitter and facebook dialogues are ubiquitous. No-one sends physical greeting cards anymore. When was the last time you received one?

Trust isn’t instantaneous. In a competitive field trying to over-deliver in every aspect of recruitment (calling, sourcing, interviewing, placing) does nothing but recede your hairline. Pressure is for others. The only way to guarantee success and prevent a comb-over is to be liked and trusted by clients and candidates.

Your dialogues don’t always have to be urgent emails. Sometimes, simple kindness will suffice. You want their business long term, right? Care about them and they’ll reciprocate. Don’t and your competitors will be sending them invoices faster than you can tweet your disapproval. Look around your office. How many people are emailing? How many are sending cards? See what the masses do. Now do the opposite.