Consultants were hired to talk to candidates and clients and were spending half the day arranging interviews across three diaries, chasing referees who did not reply and answering the same questions about start dates and parking. Placements slowed not for lack of candidates but for lack of hours. The agency wanted the admin done so the consultants could sell.
Three things kept going wrong, and each cost the business time, money or a customer.
Three agents built on the agency's CRM and the consultants' calendars, with the consultant still owning every relationship and the agents doing the arranging, chasing and answering around them.
The CRM held the candidates, clients and roles; the consultants' calendars held the rest. Each consultant recorded a short voice note on how they like to sound, and the agents write in that voice under that consultant's name. For the first week a resourcer read every message; in the second week the consultants were reading only their own. The agency set one firm rule: an offer, a salary or a counter-offer is never handled by an agent, and the booking agent hands over the moment either is mentioned.
Interviews are arranged the same day a client says yes, usually before the consultant has finished the call. References and right-to-work documents arrive days sooner, so placements start on time. Interview feedback is in the CRM before the consultant rings the client, which makes that call a better one. Each consultant has half a day a week back, and the agency measures it in placements.
'I got into this to talk to people. For two years I mostly talked to Outlook. Now the interview's booked while I'm still on the phone to the client.'
Senior consultant
New enquiries sat in a shared inbox until someone had a gap, often two days. Prospective clients had usually instructed another firm by then. They wanted every enquiry qualified and booked the same day.
Every client is owed an annual review, and each one takes three emails to book, two to collect the documents and one to remind. With 400 clients that was a paraplanner's whole job, and reviews still slipped past their due date. The firm wanted every review booked on time, prepared for, and every message written inside the rules.
A free 45-minute call. Tell us where the time goes; we'll tell you honestly whether an agent would help and what it would save.
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