Xcho for Recruitment Companies

Recruitment is a race on two fronts. On one side, you need to reach the right candidate before a competitor does. On the other, you need to stay front of mind with hiring managers who might use three or four agencies at once. Both depend on fast, consistent follow-up, and that's exactly what gets squeezed when consultants are busy filling live roles.

Meanwhile, most agencies are sitting on an untapped asset: a database of thousands of candidates and contacts who haven't heard from you in months. Many of them are now open to a move, available for temp work or hiring again, if only someone got in touch.

Xcho is an AI assistant built to do exactly that. It's a lead engagement platform with a strong focus on re-engagement, reconnecting you with the candidates and clients you already know, while also making first contact with new applicants and employer enquiries. It holds natural, two-way conversations over SMS and WhatsApp, 24/7, qualifies each contact against your criteria and books calls and interviews straight into your diary. Because it was developed by a financial services firm, it was built from the start to work within clear rules.

Four campaigns, working on both sides of the desk

Xcho runs four types of campaign. Each can be pointed at candidates, clients, or both:

• Reactivation: reconnects with candidates and clients who have gone quiet
• Renewal: gets in touch ahead of key dates, such as the end of a temp assignment or a client's annual hiring review
• Recommendation: turns successful placements into candidate and client referrals
• New customers: makes first contact with new applicants and employer enquiries, and qualifies them before a consultant gets involved

You can run any combination. Here's how each campaign works for recruitment agencies, executive search firms and temporary staffing providers.

Reactivation: Put your database back to work

Every agency's CRM holds thousands of candidates who registered, interviewed or were shortlisted and then went quiet. Their CVs cost time and money to source, yet most consultants only search the database when a role comes in, and even then, many contacts never answer the phone. The same is true of clients: hiring managers you placed with two years ago, or businesses that enquired and never signed terms.

Xcho works through these dormant records with short, friendly messages by SMS, moving to WhatsApp where available. Careers move on quickly. People get promoted, change jobs, relocate or finish contracts, and businesses win new work and need to hire. A light-touch check-in finds out who's open to opportunities now, gathers their latest details, and hands active candidates and clients back to your consultants, without paying for extra job board credits or advertising.

Renewal: Never miss a key date

Recruitment runs on end dates, from temp assignments and fixed-term contracts to client agreements. Each one is a chance to keep a candidate working, or a client using you, before someone else steps in. Xcho handles that outreach automatically, for example: Temp assignment endings: check workers' availability for their next booking before their current assignment finishes, so your bench is ready when clients call

• Contract renewals: contact contractors as their contract nears its end, to find out whether they're extending or looking for their next role
• Compliance documents: remind temps and contractors when certificates, training or right-to-work documents you hold are due to expire
• Client reviews: invite hiring managers to an annual review of their recruitment plans, or to discuss renewing terms and preferred supplier agreements
• Recommendation: let every placement lead to the next

Referrals are among the best sources of candidates and clients, but asking for them tends to fall by the wayside once a role is filled. Xcho makes it part of your process.

After a successful placement, it checks in with the candidate and invites them to recommend friends or former colleagues who might be looking. Happy temps are often the best route to more temps. On the client side, Xcho can ask satisfied hiring managers to introduce you to colleagues in other departments or businesses, and let clients who only use you for temporary staff know that you can help with permanent hires too, or the other way round.

New customers: Qualified candidates and leads

A single job advert can bring in hundreds of applications, and many applicants are applying for several roles with several agencies at the same time. Screening them all by phone takes hours, and the best people are often snapped up before a consultant gets to them.

Xcho makes first contact with new applicants by SMS or WhatsApp, answers simple questions about the role using only the job details you provide, and runs your screening questions in a natural, conversational way. You decide what it asks, which might include:

• Right to work in the UK
• Current or most recent role, and relevant experience or qualifications
• Salary or hourly rate expectations
• Notice period or availability to start
• Location, commute and preference for on-site, hybrid or remote work
• Shift patterns, driving licence or specific certifications for temp and industrial roles

The same approach works for employer leads. When a business enquires about recruitment support, Xcho can follow up, find out what roles they're hiring for, how many people they need and how quickly, and whether the roles are permanent, temporary or contract. Your business development team then speaks to warm, qualified prospects rather than cold names.

Calls and interviews, booked without the back-and-forth Whichever campaign a candidate or client comes through, the next step is usually a conversation. Xcho connects with your existing calendar software, including Google Calendar, Microsoft 365 and Calendly, offers available times by SMS or WhatsApp, and books screening calls, registration appointments, interviews and client meetings straight into the right diary.

Candidates who miss an interview or registration slot are a familiar frustration. Xcho spots no-shows and cancellations automatically and follows up with a short message offering another time, so a promising candidate isn't lost over a diary clash.

You can connect calendars for as many consultants, branches and specialist desks as you need, with unlimited users on the Enterprise Plan.

Rules that protect your reputation

Your agency's name is on every message, so Xcho works to a clear set of rules on every campaign, and nothing a contact sends can change them:

• No legal, immigration, tax or financial advice
• No promises of interviews, job offers, salaries or start dates beyond what you've told it to share
• Only the role and company details you provide, so it never invents information about a vacancy or client
• It confirms it's an AI in its first message, and again whenever asked
• STOP requests are respected on every campaign
• Attempts to override its instructions are ignored

When someone asks not to be contacted again, Xcho adds them to your 'do-not-contact' list immediately. That list is checked before every message, including those your consultants type by hand, so nobody who has opted out hears from you again.

Spend your time placing people, not chasing them

Consultants add the most value when they're building relationships, understanding briefs, presenting candidates and negotiating offers. Ringing round dormant CVs, chasing temps for their availability and leaving voicemails for applicants isn't the best use of their day.

Xcho handles that follow-up quietly in the background, turning old databases, ending assignments, happy placements and new applications into a steady flow of qualified candidates, booked interviews and new client conversations.

Ready to get more from the candidates and clients you already have? Explore Xcho early access for recruitment agencies, executive search firms and staffing providers - join the waitlist here.