A client and a candidate calling at the same moment
Healthcare recruitment desk
Both sides of a placement answered without a second phone line.
The business
A small desk placing clinical staff into practices. Both halves of the business are phone-led: practice managers describing a vacancy, and candidates chasing an application.
The challenge
- Recruitment is two inbound streams on one line, and both of them matter.
- Most calls arrive while the consultant is already on another call — the exact moment they cannot be answered.
- Either missed call could have been the next placement, and neither leaves a voicemail.
What was set up
It works out which side is calling
A practice with a role to fill and a candidate chasing a submission need different questions. The agent establishes which it is and captures the details that matter for that side.
Overflow rather than replacement
Calls ring the consultant first. The agent picks up the ones that would otherwise have gone to voicemail, so nothing changes for the calls that were already being answered.
A callback booked, not promised
Rather than "someone will get back to you", it offers a real slot from the consultant’s calendar and confirms it by text.
What changed
- Being on a call no longer costs the next one.
- Every enquiry arrives written down, with a summary, on the side of the business it belongs to.
- Callbacks happen at a time both people agreed to.
This story describes a real operating situation and the setup that handles it. The business is described by trade and size rather than named, and nothing here is presented as a measured result. Named stories with figures are published once the customer has signed them off.