What shouldn’t you do when working with customers? The question was posed Tuesday during a panel discussion of contingent workforce managers at client companies during the Executive Forum North America in Austin, Texas.

“The big thing is transparency and to be compliant,” said Geoffrey Abere, contingent workforce program director, FINRA. But one action staffing firms should avoid is trying to engage with hiring managers directly, going around the contingent workforce program. That’s a major misstep. “There’s no reason to use you if I can’t trust you,” Abere said.

Staffing firms should instead work to understand customers' pain points and how they can solve them, he said. And that’s another concern, internal staffing firm employees working with clients should know about the client. A staffing firm representative without knowledge of the client’s operations can send a wrong message.

Email overload also made the “do-not” list.

“Don’t bombard us with hundreds and hundreds of emails,” said Kim Graziano, global contingent workforce manager at VMWare. Instead, staffing firms should respect the buyer when they outline the process for becoming a supplier.

Surprises are bad as well.

“No. 1, I hate surprises,” said Clay Lewis, senior VP and TA vendor executive at Bank of America. Something will go awry at some point, and staffing firms need to be proactive and raise it with clients. They shouldn’t wait until there is more information.

In addition, gifts such as boxes of bagels or tickets to sporting events can also leave a bad taste, said Dawn McCartney, VP of Contingent Workforce Strategies (CWS) Council at Staffing Industry Analysts, and a panelist.

Accepting gifts such as those represents an ethical breach in many companies, McCartney said. In one case, a contingent workforce manager almost lost his job after the delivery of a gift made it appear as if the manager had known about it and accepted it.

The Executive Forum North America continues through Thursday.