Be the first agency to reply, not the third
A brief lands at 16:40 on a Friday and sits unread until Monday, by which point two other agencies have acknowledged it and one has already sent CVs. This picks up new briefs as they arrive, routes them to the right consultant and drafts the reply.
Briefs in · nobody has replied
4 open
- 63h unanswered
Platform Engineer — Wexley Group
Arrived 16:40 Friday. Two other agencies on the PSL.
FormExisting client - 20h unanswered
Data Engineer — Calder Rail
Sent to a consultant on annual leave. No auto-forward set.
EmailExisting client - 13h unanswered
QA Lead — Ellery Partners
First brief from this client. Nobody owns the account yet.
FormNew logo - Answered
Infra Engineer — Northgate
Acknowledged within the hour. Shortlist due Thursday.
EmailExisting client
The Wexley brief has been sitting for sixty-three hours. Nobody did anything wrong — it arrived at twenty to five on a Friday.
Works with
- Typeform
- Gmail
- Outlook
- Slack
- Google Sheets
- HubSpot
Typeform publishes a new-response trigger and Gmail publishes a new-message trigger, so briefs arriving by either route are picked up as they land rather than on a sweep. Where you take briefs on a call instead, that's the client call logging task rather than this one.
The chore
How this goes right now
Speed of response is the least sophisticated competitive advantage in recruitment and one of the most reliable. On a multi-agency role the agency that acknowledges first tends to get the first conversation, the first sense of what the client actually wants, and a head start measured in hours that turns into a shortlist advantage measured in days. None of that reflects who is better at the job.
And briefs arrive at exactly the times nobody is watching. Twenty to five on a Friday. During a client meeting. Into the inbox of the consultant who owns the account and is on annual leave with no forward set. From a new client who found your website and doesn't know who to address it to, so it goes to a shared inbox three people half-monitor and nobody owns. Every one of those is a normal Tuesday and every one produces a delay that has nothing to do with capability.
Then there's the intake quality problem underneath it. Even when someone does reply quickly, the brief is usually missing half of what's needed, and the questions that should have been asked in the first exchange get asked over the following week instead — one at a time, each one costing another day. So the role starts slow, the client compares you unfavourably with the agency who came back with three sharp questions in the first hour, and the shortlist you eventually send is judged against a first impression you already lost.
The difference
Same briefs, caught when they arrive
Nothing about how you qualify a role changes. What changes is that the clock starts when the brief lands rather than when somebody happens to open their inbox.
Try it
Walk through it yourself
This is the actual shape of the workflow — the same trigger, the same steps, the same draft waiting for your say-so. Click through it.
Catch new vacancy briefs
New brief submitted — Wexley Group
Typeform publishes a new-response trigger and Gmail a new-message trigger, so a brief is picked up as soon as it arrives. This is one of the few genuinely event-driven workflows on this desk — most of the rest are scheduled sweeps because no ATS publishes anything.
What it does
Read the brief and work out who it's from
Platform Engineer, Wexley Group, submitted 16:40. Matched to an existing account from the submitter's email domain.
TypeformFind who owns the account and whether they're available
Owned by you. Not on leave. For a new logo it would go to whoever is on duty instead, since nobody owns an account that doesn't exist yet.
Google SheetsCheck the history before anything is drafted
Two placements with this team in the last year. Their last two roles both had a take-home stage. Fee agreement on file and current.
HubSpotDraft the acknowledgement with the questions worth asking
Reply drafted naming the role and referencing the team. Three gaps identified — office days, interview stages, and whether the band moved since the last hire.
Gmail
Draft email — nothing has been sent
- To
- alan.brightwell@wexleygroup.example
- Subject
- Platform Engineer — got it, three quick questions
Hi Alan,
Thanks — got the Platform Engineer brief through just now. Good timing; we placed two into that team last year so we know the setup well.
Three things before I start, so I don't waste anyone's time on the wrong profile: how many days in the Bristol office are you expecting, is the process the same two-stage plus take-home you ran last time, and has the band moved at all since the last hire?
I'll come back with an initial view early next week either way. If it's easier to cover on a call, I'm around Monday morning.
Best,
Send this acknowledgement?
Most of these go as written — being fast is the point, and the questions come from what was genuinely missing. Worth a look where the client is new or where you're not sure you want the role, because an acknowledgement is a small commitment and you may not want to make it.
Acknowledged, routed and on the clock
The reply goes from your mailbox and the brief is posted to your desk channel with the owner named. Anything still unanswered after the window you set is escalated rather than sitting quietly. Taking the role, agreeing terms and starting work all remain decisions you make.
First reply wins more than it should.
The acknowledgement is drafted in seconds. Whether you take the role is still a decision.
How it works
What it's actually doing
Removing the delay between a brief arriving and a human knowing about it, and using that first exchange to ask what's missing.
- 1
- TyTypeform
- Gmail
- OuOutlook
Picks up briefs as they arrive
From your intake form or your mailbox, both of which publish real triggers. No sweep, no waiting for somebody to open an inbox.
- 2
- Google Sheets
- HubSpot
Routes to a person who is actually there
By account ownership, with cover rules for leave and a duty rota for new logos. A brief sitting in an absent consultant's inbox is the most common failure.
- 3
- HubSpot
- Google Sheets
Brings the history into the first reply
Previous placements with that team, their usual process, whether the fee agreement is current. It's what makes a fast reply also a good one.
- 4
- Gmail
- Slack
Asks the three things the brief didn't say
Office days, process, band. Asked in the first exchange rather than discovered one at a time over the following week.
It acknowledges. It never accepts a role or agrees anything.
An acknowledgement is a small, safe act — you've received it, you're taking a look, here are some questions. Everything after that involves commitment: whether to work the role, on what terms, at what fee. Those stay with a person every time.
Step one
It drafts
Step two — you
You read it and approve
Step three
Only then does it send
It doesn't accept the role
The reply says you've got it and asks questions. It never says you'll work it, never commits to a timeline and never agrees to a shortlist date.
Nothing is said about terms
No fees, no rates, no rebate terms — not even to restate an existing agreement. Commercial terms are a conversation, and one wrong number in an email creates a dispute.
It won't turn a role down either
A brief you don't want is flagged to you, not declined. Declining is a relationship decision, and clients remember how it was done.
New clients always reach a person
A first brief from an unknown company is escalated rather than handled by a routing rule. That first exchange sets the relationship and deserves a human from the start.
Setup
What setting this up involves
- 1
Connect
- Typeform, if you take briefs through a form
- Gmail or Outlook, for briefs that arrive as email
- Google Sheets, holding account ownership and cover arrangements
- Slack and HubSpot, for routing and account history
- 2
Tell it how you work
- Who owns which account, and who covers them when they're away
- Your duty rota for new logos and unowned enquiries
- What counts as a brief, so a general email doesn't trigger a reply
- The questions you always want asked in the first exchange
- Your response window, and what happens when it's breached
- 3
Then it runs
About 35 minutes, once
Ownership and cover mapping is most of it. The standard question list is worth arguing about internally for ten minutes, because it's the thing that turns a fast acknowledgement into a genuinely useful first exchange.
Edge cases
Where it's careful, and what it won't do
What it handles
A brief for an account whose owner is away
Routed to their cover rather than sitting in an unread inbox. Annual leave is the single most common reason a brief goes unanswered for days.
An email that isn't really a brief
A general enquiry, a CV, or a client asking about an existing role. Only genuine new briefs draft an acknowledgement; the rest are routed without a reply.
The same role sent to three of your consultants
Recognised as one brief rather than three, so a client doesn't receive three separate acknowledgements from the same agency in ten minutes.
A role you've been sent before
A re-sent or re-opened role is flagged as such, with the previous history attached, rather than acknowledged as though it were new.
What it does not do
Accept or decline a role
It confirms receipt and asks questions. Whether you work it, and on what basis, is a decision with commercial consequences.
Discuss fees or terms
Nothing about rates, fees or rebates appears in an acknowledgement, including terms already agreed. Those belong in a conversation.
Start work on the role
No searching, no outreach, no candidate contact. It ends at the acknowledgement and the routing.
Handle a brief taken on a call
A role discussed verbally has no arrival event to react to. That's covered by client call logging, which works from the recording instead.
Time back
Hours off every response, and roles you'd have lost on timing
- Time back
- Minutes, not days
- Spent on
- Roles you get first crack at
- What it costs
- $19 / monthStarterplan — see what’s included
How that’s worked out: Based on desks where briefs routinely arrive outside working hours or into an absent consultant's inbox, and where response time on multi-agency roles is measured in days rather than hours. The saving isn't consultant time — an acknowledgement takes five minutes to write. It's the roles won by being first, which is a poor way for the market to work and a real one.
Fair questions
The questions agency owners ask first
An instant reply looks automated, which isn't the impression we want.
It would if it were a receipt confirmation, which is why the draft is a real reply with real questions in it. A message that names the role, references the two people you placed into that team last year and asks three specific things doesn't read as automated — it reads as an agency that was paying attention. It also goes from your mailbox after you've read it, and you can hold it for twenty minutes if immediate feels wrong for that client.
We don't use an intake form — briefs come by email and phone.
Email is covered, since Gmail publishes a new-message trigger, and the routing and history work identically. Phone briefs genuinely aren't covered here, because there's no arrival event to react to — a call that happened is handled by the client call logging task, which works from the recording. Worth being clear about that split rather than implying this catches everything.
How does it know an email is a brief and not just an email?
It looks for the shape of a role — a title, requirements, a hiring need — rather than keywords, and it errs toward not replying. A CV, an invoice query or a question about an existing role gets routed without an acknowledgement. Since every draft waits for you anyway, the cost of a false positive is a draft you delete, not a strange email arriving at a client.
More off the same desk
Other things that keep falling off the list
Log client calls into the CRM
BD calls become logged activity with the roles mentioned and commitments made, so your CRM reflects the conversations that actually happened.
Write job adverts
A two-line brief becomes a drafted advert in your format, with the missing information named so you know what to ask the client for.
Send weekly client updates
A per-client summary of what moved, what's waiting and what you need — drafted Friday morning from the week's real activity.
Re-engage dormant candidates
Your database stops being a graveyard — people you've already met are surfaced against live roles, with the reconnect drafted from your own history.
Chase hiring manager feedback
Every interview with no feedback after 48 hours gets a nudge drafted to the client, and you get one list of what's outstanding across the desk.
The same intake problem elsewhere
FAQ
Questions worth answering properly
How fast does it actually pick up a brief?
Within minutes. Typeform publishes a new-response trigger and Gmail a new-message trigger, so this genuinely reacts on arrival rather than waiting for a sweep. It's one of the few workflows on this desk that can honestly claim that — most are scheduled polls, because no ATS publishes any trigger at all.
Does it commit us to working the role?
No. The acknowledgement confirms receipt and asks questions. It never says you'll take the role, never agrees a shortlist date and never mentions fees or terms. Those are commitments, and they stay with a person every time.
What happens with a brief from a client we've never worked with?
It's escalated to whoever is on duty rather than routed by a rule, because nobody owns an account that doesn't exist yet. A first brief from a new company is the start of a relationship and it should reach a person immediately.
What if the account owner is on holiday?
It routes to their cover, using the arrangements you've set. Briefs landing in an absent consultant's inbox is the most common single reason a role goes unanswered for days, and it's entirely avoidable.
Will it reply to things that aren't briefs?
It's built to err the other way. It looks for the shape of a role rather than keywords, and CVs, invoice queries and questions about existing roles are routed without an acknowledgement. Everything waits for your approval regardless, so a misread costs you a deleted draft.
Can it handle briefs given over the phone?
Not here — there's no arrival event for a conversation. If you record client calls, the call logging task picks roles out of them and creates the opportunity and follow-ups. Between the two, form, email and phone are all covered, just by different mechanisms.
Stop losing roles to a Friday afternoon
Connect your intake form or mailbox and set your routing. The next brief is acknowledged before a rival has opened theirs.
Start free