For professional services and finance firms
Up to the point where it needs you.
We can run the work, set it up or advise on it, whether that’s a new client’s first call or the last document a file is waiting for.
What we do
A new enquiry, a missing document, a timesheet that hasn’t come in. None of it needs a qualification. That is the work we help with. Calls, enquiries, documents, reminders and overdue invoices.
Ours to run, to set up or to advise on
A team we hire and lead can do the work, to your process. We can put in place the written process and the reporting it runs on. Or we can advise on how it should all be organised.
Which parts are ours is up to you
It could be one phone line in the evenings. It could be a list of clients to chase before a deadline, with no calls answered at all. It could be a single project to bring every file’s documents in, and stay at that.
From your own week
The work you’re paid for, and what breaks into it.
Accountancy practices
Ten days before a filing deadline
Some clients still haven’t sent their records.
They were asked a month ago and reminded since. Meanwhile the phone rings with other clients asking whether their return has gone in.
Law firms
Tuesday, 12:50
A new enquiry rings at lunchtime, and gets voicemail.
She has been dismissed and wants to know where she stands. She doesn’t leave a message. She rings the next firm on her list.
Recruitment and staffing
Wednesday, 19:40
A worker rings to say he’s off for the rest of the week.
The office closed at six, so the call goes to whoever is carrying the phone this week. Their evening goes on ringing round for cover, and they’re back at their desk first thing.
What we take on
A different list for each profession.
Find the one nearest to yours. No job on its list depends on the others.
Records in, calls answered.
Clients asked for their records ahead of each deadline and chased until they arrive, and the practice’s phones answered while your accountants are on the returns. The accounts stay with you.
- Records chased, and marked off as they arrive
- Calls sorted by how soon they matter
- New client enquiries taken
- New clients’ paperwork collected
Records chased
A landlord’s tax return, waiting on one thing
- Rental statements received, marked off your checklist
- Reminded by email, then rung
- Still to come
- Bank statements for the last two months of the year
Marked on your checklist, by name and period
The enquiry taken in full.
New enquiries answered in your firm’s name and taken to your questions, with the names of everyone involved noted for your conflict check. Legal advice stays with your lawyers.
- New enquiries by phone, form or chat
- Calls when reception is busy or closed
- Documents for a new file, chased
- For chambers, fees chased with instructing solicitors
New enquiry
A will, for a couple who own a business
- Both names and the business’s taken, for your conflict check
- What they want, taken to your questions for a will
- Asked
- “What will it cost?” Left for your solicitor to answer
Sent to your private client team as a new enquiry
The calls, the files, the timesheets.
Candidates and clients answered in your agency’s name, evenings and weekends included, and the chasing behind each placement kept moving. The recruiting stays with you.
- Calls from candidates and clients
- Tomorrow’s shifts confirmed
- Documents and references chased
- Timesheets in before the cut-off
Timesheets
Last week’s timesheets, the morning of the cut-off
- Workers who hadn’t sent theirs in rung
- Managers who hadn’t approved theirs rung
- A client doesn’t agree with one timesheet. Passed to you
In your system, with the query noted
Further than a message
What a message would have left undone.
Each of these could have ended as a note on someone’s desk. Pick one, and see what the team did with it.
Where it began
You · Monday, a month before the deadline
These clients still owe us records for this deadline. The list says what each one is missing.
Waiting for you on Friday
Where the list stands
- Who has sent everything, who has sent part, and who hasn’t replied
- Two questions about tax, passed to each client’s accountant
What the team does
- Takes the list as it standsEach client, and what your checklist still shows as missing
- Writes to each of themIn your practice’s name, naming what is outstanding
- Rings those who don’t replyIn the order you set
- Marks off what arrivesBy name and period, as it comes in
- Passes on what isn’t the team’sOne client asks whether a new rental has to be declared
Returns your accountants can start on, and a short list of clients who need to hear from you.
Where it began
Caller · Tuesday, 12:50
I was dismissed last week and I don’t know where I stand. Is this something you deal with?
Waiting for your employment team after lunch
New enquiry, dismissed last week
- Both names, ready for your conflict check
- She mentioned a letter from her employer that gives a date to reply by
What the team does
- Answers in your firm’s nameWith your questions for an employment enquiry open
- Takes the names firstHers and her employer’s, for your conflict check
- Takes down what happenedAs she tells it, with the dates. Nothing is said about her chances
- Tells her what happens nextIn the words you’ve given the team, and no more
- Sends it to your employment teamAs a new enquiry, the way you’ve asked to receive them
An enquiry that didn’t go to the next firm on her list, and a solicitor who knows who is on the other side before ringing back.
Where it began
Worker · Wednesday, 19:40
I’ve hurt my back. I won’t be in at the warehouse for the rest of the week.
Waiting for the desk on Thursday morning
Thursday and Friday covered from your own list
- Both records updated in your system
- The list for that site is getting short
What the team does
- Answers in your agency’s nameWith his bookings open in your system
- Records it against each shiftThursday and Friday, and when he rang. Nothing more is asked
- Rings the list you keep for that siteWorkers you’ve already cleared, in the order you set, that same evening
- Confirms the coverWith the worker who accepts, for both days
- Tells your clientWho is coming in, and from when
Two shifts that started fully staffed, and a list you now know needs more names.
Your kind of business
Not one of those? Find yours.
The kinds of professional and financial firm we work with, and what we’d do for each.
Accountancy practices
The phones are covered through the tax-return peak, and clients chased for their records. New clients are taken through onboarding and ID collection. The accounts stay with you.
More about accountancy practicesLaw firms and barristers’ chambers
New client enquiries are taken to your questions and sent to you the way you choose, and calls covered when reception is busy. For chambers, unpaid fees can be chased with instructing solicitors. Legal advice stays with you.
More about law firms and barristers’ chambersRecruitment and staffing agencies
Candidates and clients are answered in your agency’s name, in the evenings and at weekends too. Shifts are confirmed, documents and references chased and timesheets brought in. The recruiting stays with you.
More about recruitment and staffing agenciesWarranty and service-plan providers
Products are registered and renewal reminders sent. A repair you’ve approved is booked and the engineer scheduled.
Funeral directors
The call to say someone has died is answered at any hour, taken down to your questions and passed to whoever you have on call. Website and email enquiries are answered, and questions about pre-paid plans passed to you.
The team
Who answers, and where they are.
Your work runs from one of our three locations, in the Philippines, Portugal or Ireland. Which one is settled with you before anything starts, by the hours, the languages and the kind of work. Wherever it is, the team gives your firm’s name and works to the process you’ve agreed.
- Our own employees, trained on your process before they take a call
- A login for each person, given by you, for only what the work needs
- Advice, and anything that is a decision, comes to your own people
- Team leads whose job is coaching
Questions, answered.
The things professional and financial firms are likely to ask first.
Which parts of our work can you take on?
Any one of them, or several. That could be the phones, new enquiries, a list of clients or files to chase for documents, or overdue invoices owed by business clients. We can also set up the written process and the reporting behind that work, or advise on how it should be organised.
Where does the team stop, and our own people start?
At anything that needs a qualification or a decision. The team answers, takes the details, asks for what’s missing and chases it. Advice, opinions, whether to take a client on and any check you have to make yourselves all stay with your own people. Where the line sits for your firm is written down with you before the work starts.
What does the team say when someone asks for advice?
That it can’t advise, and that the question will go to someone who can. The team takes down what was asked and passes it to the right person, with the caller’s details. The wording it uses is agreed with you beforehand.
Who can see what our clients tell you?
Only the people working for you. Each has a named login, with access to only what the work needs. One client’s information is never visible to people working for another. It is all handled on your instructions, under a data processing agreement we sign with you.Security and data protection
Do you work in our systems?
Yes, where you give the team access. That might be a practice management, case management or recruitment system. Each person needs a login of their own, because we don’t work from a shared password. Where you’d sooner not give access to a system, the work reaches you another way, such as your own enquiry form.
How does the team learn our firm?
Through training, before anyone does any work for you. How that training happens depends on what material you already have, how soon you need people, and how much of it you want to run yourselves. New services and processes are trained in as they arrive.How we work
Who manages the team?
We do. Hiring, the rota, cover and performance are ours, and each team has a team lead whose job is coaching. Nobody at your firm hands out the work or checks it. You deal with one person who owns your service.How we work
Can we start with one part, or only our busy weeks?
Yes. It could be one line, one list, the evenings, or the weeks before a deadline. A busy stretch you can see coming is planned with you ahead of time, so that everyone covering it has been trained before it starts.
How do we know how it’s going?
Where the team works in your systems, every note it leaves is there for you to read. Real pieces of work are reviewed too, and what the reviews find goes into each person’s coaching. You also get regular reporting on how the work is going, what we’ve found and what we’re doing about it.How we work
What if the work I need help with isn’t listed here?
Tell us about it. This page covers the work professional and financial firms are most likely to need, not everything we do. If the work follows a process and happens on the phone, in an inbox or in your systems, there’s a good chance we can take it on. If it isn’t one for us, we’ll say so.Tell us about your business
How does the cost work?
It depends on the kinds of work, the hours you want covered and how much the work rises and falls through the year. We work it out with you once we understand your firm.
Alongside it
The rest of what we do for professional firms.
Work that sits beside the calls and the chasing. Any one can be taken without the rest.
- Credit controlOverdue invoices owed by your business clients, followed up politely and regularly.We run itWe run it
- Dedicated helplinesA separate number for one campaign, with its own questions, set up before it starts.We run itWe run it
- Processes and knowledge baseWhat to ask, what to collect and who it goes to, written down for each kind of client.We set it upWe set it up
- ReportingWhy clients get in touch, with a reason against every call.We set it upWe set it up
- Training materialFor your own receptionists and administrators, built once and used for every new starter.We set it upWe set it up
- ConsultancyHow enquiries, documents and deadlines move through the firm, and what to change as it grows.We plan it with youWe plan it with you
Let's talk.
Tell us what's going on. If we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone we trust.
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