40+ Questions to Ask About an Applicant Tracking System & CRM

Are you tired of struggling with the ATS selection process for your staffing and recruiting business? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! When it comes to choosing the perfect Applicant Tracking System (ATS), asking the right questions to your ATS vendor is crucial. To help you make an informed decision, we’ve compiled a list of essential questions to ask your ATS vendor. From customization options to data security, these questions will ensure that you choose the best ATS solution for your business.

So, let’s dive in and discover the key questions to ask your ATS vendor to simplify your ATS selection process and boost your recruitment success.

Also Read: How to choose the best Recruiting software for your recruiting/staffing firm

General Questions to ask your ATS vendor

1. How do you address the unique hiring needs of industries like mine?
2. What is your customer satisfaction rate? What is the average customer lifetime of a client who chooses your software over another option?
3. Do you have a history of working with companies similar to mine?
4. What is your process for billing and invoicing?
5. Can I get a trial of the software before making a decision

Also, check 15 Benefits of Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Questions Related to Data Security to ask your ATS vendor

6. What is your process for collecting data?
7. Where is the data stored?
8. Who owns the data?
9. What is the data protection policy and how often do you take backups?

Also Read: 5 Mistakes to Avoid While Choosing ATS for Your Recruitment Business

Questions related to Product Features to ask your ATS vendor

10. What is your product’s core functionality? For example, does it include applicant tracking,(recruiting CRM) and reporting? Does it also include other key features such as billing, time tracking, and expense management?
11. Does your product support team collaboration? If yes, how advanced are the collaboration features?
12. What are your system’s automation capabilities?
13. Does your system support email sequences?
14. What type of reporting does the system provide? Is there an analytics engine built into the software that provides reports, recruitment dashboards, or scorecards showing trends in sales performance or any other metric that might be relevant to your business?
15. What kind of dashboards is available out of the box (if any)? Can additional dashboards be created and customized based on your specific needs (i.e., if you have a specific report that needs to be broken down further than what is available out of the box)?
16. What is your product’s load speed?
17. Do you offer drag-and-drop candidate pipelines?
18. What is the average time to configure your system?

Questions related to Communication flow

19. What are the different channels of communication that you offer within your system (like email, text messages, etc.) to reach out to potential candidates?

Questions related to the Integration your ATS vendor provides

20. What kind of integrations does your system offer?
21. Does your CRM integrate with email and calendar?
22. Can your system log into a VoIP or hosted phone system so I don’t have to manually log calls?
23. Can your system integrate with major recruitment platforms like Indeed, LinkedIn, etc., and aggregate all the job information in one place?
24. Does your system support Zapier integration?
25. Is there an API available for developers who want to customize their integration with our software or create new integrations altogether?
26. Do you have detailed API Documentation?

Also Read: ATS vs CRM for recruitment and why do you need both

Questions related to the implementation of the ATS software

27. Will you be able to share the implementation plan beforehand?
28. Do you have a dedicated customer success team?
29. What are the common roadblocks during data migration to your system?
30. Do you have dedicated staff for support? If not, what kind of SLAs do you provide?
31. Do you offer support for multiple languages?
32. What is your cost to support?
33. What are the identified limitations of your product?

Queries related to training and support

34. How will you train our team on how to use the system? What training options are available?
35. Ideally, how long will the training process take?
36. What do you offer in terms of ongoing support after the training?
37. Is there a training manual or an online training portal I can access at any time?

Questions Related to Technology Stack

38. Is it a cloud-based solution, or will I need to purchase additional servers or storage?
39. Do you use multi-tenant architecture on the cloud?
40. Does your CRM use an event architecture to handle real-time data?
41. Does your system come with mobile compatibility?
42. Have there been any data breaches in the past? What is your data security process?
43. How much customization is available with your software?
44. How often do you update the software?

Check out Recruitflow – the ATS & CRM for ambitious recruitment agencies

A strong, positive relationship with your vendor is key to achieving your company’s goals. An ATS & CRM is the most central software to your recruiting business and it’s critical that your needs and the solutions provided are well aligned. 

We hope that you’ve found our simple, but effective, list of questions to ask your ATS and CRM vendor useful. By asking these questions before you decide on a platform partner, you can avoid potential problems down the line, and ensure that both parties are working toward the same goal: helping you recruit great people into your organization.

We also hope that using this list has made the process of selecting a new solution a little more straightforward, and perhaps even saved you a little time in the process.

Recruiterflow is the complete ecosystem that helps you run and scale your recruiting & staffing business. We help transform your recruiting business by helping you with a world-class operating system that you need to run your staffing and recruiting business.

Give us a try today and let us know what you think! Book a demo today!