American Staffing Association ASA Speaker Chris Sund Unlocking ROI

How Uniti Med Achieved a World-Class NPS Their First Year Surveying

ClearlyRated “Survey Says” Podcast – Episode 31 with Chris Sund

Chris Sund, President and COO of Uniti Med, joined hosts Ryan and Bridget on the ClearlyRated “Survey Says” Podcast for Episode 31 — a candid conversation about how Uniti Med went from having no reliable feedback system to achieving an 86.6 NPS and an above-average response rate in their very first year surveying with ClearlyRated.

This is a behind-the-scenes look at building a feedback-driven culture in one of the fastest-growing healthcare staffing companies in the country — and what that result actually meant to the team who earned it.

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About ClearlyRated and the Survey Says Podcast

ClearlyRated is the leading customer experience (CX) platform designed specifically for professional services firms, including the staffing and recruiting industry. Their platform helps firms leverage the Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) methodology to gain deep insights into client and talent satisfaction, identify strengths and weaknesses, and build reputation through third-party validated feedback.

ClearlyRated is best known for the Best of Staffing® Award — the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies proven to deliver superior service based entirely on ratings from clients, placed talent, and internal employees. Uniti Med has earned this award multiple times under Chris Sund’s leadership.

The Survey Says podcast features conversations with ClearlyRated clients about their real experiences — what they learned, what surprised them, and what advice they’d give others. Episode 31 features Chris Sund as a first-time ClearlyRated client who achieved something the hosts described as “nearly impossible.”

The Numbers: What Uniti Med Achieved

When Uniti Med completed their first ClearlyRated talent satisfaction survey, the results stopped Chris mid-stride in the office:

86.6 NPS — a world-class score in the first year of surveying (an NPS of 50 is considered excellent; the healthcare staffing industry average is well below that)
33.8%+ response rate — above the industry average at a time when median response rates across all ClearlyRated clients had hit their lowest point in a decade (25% in 2023, down from 30% in 2014)
First-time client results that typically take multiple years to achieve

The hosts noted that it typically takes clients several years of surveying to reach an NPS above 50. Uniti Med did it in year one.

What We Covered in This Episode

In Episode 31, Chris shares the full story — from why Uniti Med needed a better feedback system to what they actually did with the results once they got them. This isn’t a polished highlight reel. It’s a real conversation about how a healthcare staffing company built a culture of accountability around the talent experience.

Key topics covered:

Why Uniti Med’s 2023 company-wide thematic goal was “the best customer experience” — and how every department had to define what that meant for their role
Why previous survey attempts failed to generate meaningful response rates — leaving Uniti Med unable to answer basic questions about how their travelers felt
How word-of-mouth from other ClearlyRated clients in the industry led Uniti Med to the platform before they even evaluated alternatives
What made the implementation process surprisingly smooth — and why clean data management was a major factor
How Uniti Med locked their entire leadership team in a room to go through every piece of survey feedback together
How they categorized feedback into six to seven themes — quick wins vs. long-term roadmap items — and assigned each to the right department
How recruiters personally followed up with travelers to encourage survey completion — and why that human touch drove the above-average response rate
How the Director of Marketing took ownership of sharing testimonials across leadership in real time as they came in — creating a wave of internal pride
How Uniti Med added a standing feedback page to their website so travelers could share thoughts year-round — not just during survey windows
Why Chris says the most important advice he can give is: “Don’t wait.”

In Chris’s Own Words

“Before working with ClearlyRated, we tried other third-party survey platforms but our response rate was so low we didn’t even qualify to see the results. We still couldn’t answer whether travelers thought we were doing a good job at placing them, responding to them when they needed answers, or helping them if they had a problem.”

“Our implementation went so smoothly that I actually couldn’t believe it. I kept checking on everything at first because it felt almost too easy.”

“When we got the results back, I may or may not have screamed loud enough in the office that multiple people throughout the entire building could hear me. Everyone’s like, ‘What? Why did you do that?’ … Should I hold this back for an all-company meeting?”

“There’s a lot of people working really hard, going above and beyond to create that raving fan experience. To hear how we did — it was rewarding to know we can go back and make sure the team understands: you are making impact, you are making a difference, it does matter.”

“We tell the team all the time: we’re one big giant wheel and every piece matters. It’s not just a sales function. It goes from how did they find us, was the website helpful, was it easy to understand, how did onboarding go, do they love their benefits… every piece of that whole experience has friction we need to fix.”

“Don’t wait. Really, who matters the most are the people we’re serving every single day. Asking the people we’re here to serve for their feedback — that’s the most important guiding role you have.”

The Story Behind the Score

Uniti Med didn’t go into their first ClearlyRated survey expecting a world-class result. They went in wanting a baseline. Their 2023 company-wide thematic goal — the equivalent of a company resolution that changes with each season — was to create the best possible customer experience for every traveler, client, and business partner. To improve, they first needed to know where they stood.

When the results came in, Chris was in the middle of a normal workday. What happened next became part of company lore: he screamed loudly enough that the sound traveled through the entire building — startling a pregnant recruiter in the process. He’d been debating whether to hold the news for an all-company meeting. He couldn’t hold it.

The score wasn’t just personally rewarding. It gave Chris and his leadership team something concrete to bring back to every department: the work you’re doing matters, and the people you serve are telling us so.

How They Got There: Leadership, Data, and a Room Full of Honest Feedback

The response rate didn’t happen by accident. After the survey launched, Uniti Med tracked completion data down to each individual recruiter. Every recruiter knew exactly how many of their travelers had responded — and who hadn’t. They personally reached out to encourage participation, framing it as the company genuinely wanting to hear feedback, not just collecting data for a checkbox.

When results came in, Uniti Med’s Director of Marketing took ownership of one of the most impactful moves: she emailed testimonials to each recruiter’s leadership chain in real time as they arrived. By the time the full results were in, internal pride was already building.

Then leadership locked themselves in a room and read every single response. Not a summary. Every one. They categorized what they heard into six to seven recurring themes and divided them into two buckets:

Quick wins — simple fixes like adding a resource to the website or including a benefits summary during onboarding. Done immediately.
Roadmap items — deeper systemic changes that required cross-department coordination, quarterly goals, and regular check-ins to execute properly.

Every department — compliance, payroll, HR, sales — was assigned the feedback that applied to them. The goal wasn’t to put it all on the recruiter. It was to make clear that the traveler experience is a whole-organization responsibility.

Chris also followed ClearlyRated’s recommendation to send a thank-you email to all travelers after the survey closed — whether they responded or not. That email generated additional unsolicited feedback. And it led to another simple fix: a permanent feedback page added to the Uniti Med website so travelers could share thoughts at any time, not just during survey windows.

Key Takeaways from the Episode

An NPS of 50 is considered excellent in most industries. Uniti Med hit 86.6 their first year.
A world-class NPS doesn’t require years of preparation — it requires a culture that’s already oriented around the traveler experience.
Clean data management is an unsung hero of high response rates. If you can’t communicate reliably with your travelers, you can’t survey them effectively.
Getting leadership in a room to read every response — together — changes the nature of the conversation from “what did we learn?” to “what are we going to do about it?”
Thanking people for their feedback — and showing them you acted on it — builds trust and increases participation in future surveys.
Testimonials are a recruiting asset. When a traveler can see that other travelers speak highly of working with you, it removes risk from their decision.
The most important advice: don’t wait. The longer you delay asking for feedback, the longer you operate without knowing how the people you serve really feel.

About Chris Sund

Chris Sund is the President and COO of Uniti Med, a healthcare staffing company operating in 45 states serving travel nurses, long-term care facilities, allied health professionals, and locum tenens providers. He grew Uniti Med into one of the fastest-growing healthcare staffing companies in the country, building a culture recognized by BluePipes, ClearlyRated, Staffing Industry Analysts, and Great Places to Work.

Under his leadership, Uniti Med achieved a world-class NPS of 86.6 in their first year surveying with ClearlyRated — a result that reflected years of intentional investment in team culture, recruiter accountability, and traveler experience.

Chris is also a keynote speaker and executive coach, speaking nationally on leadership, workforce strategy, culture, and the talent experience. He is the founder of Amplify Speakers and works with healthcare organizations, staffing companies, and leadership teams across the country.