End-to-end workflow automation for a services firm

The challenge

A professional services firm was losing its week to the space between tools: enquiries waiting in the inbox, follow-ups tracked in heads instead of systems, and a CRM that was always one manual update behind reality.

None of it was hard work. All of it was constant work — the kind that eats 10, 15, 25 hours a week without ever appearing on an invoice.

The approach

• Map before build. Every recurring workflow was walked end-to-end with the people who ran it, and ranked by hours lost against effort to automate.
• Response handling first. Incoming enquiries were classified and routed automatically, with AI drafting first-pass replies for human review — speed without losing the firm's voice.
• Follow-up sequences that never forget. Multi-step follow-ups moved out of memory and into Make and Zapier scenarios, triggered by real pipeline events.
• A CRM that updates itself. Status changes, logged interactions and next actions synced automatically, so the pipeline finally matched reality.
• Handover, not hostage-taking. The team was onboarded inside the live workflows, with plain-language documentation for every scenario.

Why this matters

This is the most common shape of engagement — and the most repeatable. Almost every service business runs the same triangle of enquiries, follow-ups and CRM hygiene, and almost every one of them is paying for it in unbilled hours.

The firm didn't buy "AI transformation." It bought its week back — and kept the controls, because the team can run and adjust every scenario without us.