Improving Candidate Experience: How a Manufacturing Company Personalised Communications Using Make.com and CRM Automation

Client Overview

Global Talent Solutions (GTS) is a prominent, multi-site manufacturing company with a workforce exceeding 5,000 employees across North America. Specializing in advanced industrial components, GTS faces constant pressure to innovate and maintain a competitive edge. Their sustained growth relies heavily on attracting and retaining highly skilled technical professionals, engineers, and production staff. The company’s HR and recruitment teams are responsible for managing a high volume of applications and maintaining a positive brand image in a fiercely competitive talent market, particularly for specialized roles in manufacturing where skill shortages are common. Despite their strong market position, GTS recognised an opportunity to enhance their candidate experience, which was becoming increasingly critical for securing top talent.

The Challenge

Prior to engaging 4Spot Consulting, Global Talent Solutions grappled with a fragmented and impersonal candidate experience. Their existing recruitment process, while functional, lacked the personalisation and responsiveness that today’s candidates expect. Key pain points included:

• Inconsistent Communication: Candidates often received generic, templated emails or experienced significant communication gaps between stages, leading to frustration and disengagement.
• High Application Drop-off Rates: The complexity of initial application forms and the lack of immediate, tailored feedback contributed to a high percentage of promising candidates abandoning their applications before completion.
• Manual Workload for Recruiters: HR staff spent an excessive amount of time on repetitive administrative tasks such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling initial screenings, and updating candidate statuses across multiple systems. This diverted their focus from more strategic talent acquisition efforts.
• Lack of Personalisation: Communications felt impersonal, failing to acknowledge candidates’ specific skills, experiences, or the particular roles they applied for. This made candidates feel like just another number in a large pool.
• Slow Time-to-Hire: Delays in communication and manual scheduling extended the hiring cycle, increasing the risk of losing top candidates to faster-moving competitors.
• Poor Data Synchronization: Information was siloed across various platforms—applicant tracking systems (ATS), email clients, and rudimentary spreadsheets—making it difficult to get a holistic view of the candidate journey and measure engagement effectively.
• Negative Brand Perception: A less-than-optimal candidate experience, particularly for those who weren’t selected, risked damaging GTS’s employer brand and reputation in the talent market.

GTS understood that in an era where talent is king, a superior candidate experience isn’t just a nicety—it’s a strategic imperative. They needed a solution that would not only streamline their processes but also genuinely enhance the human touch in their high-volume recruitment environment.

Our Solution

4Spot Consulting approached GTS’s challenge with our proven OpsMap™ framework, beginning with a deep dive into their existing recruitment workflows and pain points. Our goal was to design and implement an automated, personalised communication strategy using a robust CRM (Keap) integrated with Make.com, transforming their candidate journey from generic to highly engaging.

Our solution focused on:

1. Centralized Candidate Management: Implementing Keap as the central repository for all candidate data, allowing for a 360-degree view of each applicant, their interactions, and progress through the hiring pipeline.
2. Dynamic Communication Workflows with Make.com: Leveraging Make.com’s powerful automation capabilities to create intelligent scenarios that triggered personalised communications based on specific candidate actions, application stages, and even inferred interests.
3. Personalised Content Generation: Designing a library of dynamic email templates that automatically pulled in candidate-specific information (name, role applied for, next steps, relevant company insights) to ensure every message felt unique and directly relevant.
4. Automated Scheduling & Reminders: Integrating calendar tools to automate interview scheduling, sending confirmations, and timely reminders to both candidates and hiring managers, drastically reducing no-shows and administrative overhead.
5. Feedback Loops & Nurturing: Establishing automated sequences to collect feedback from candidates at various stages and to nurture those not immediately selected for a role, keeping them engaged for future opportunities and maintaining a positive brand perception.
6. Robust Data Tracking & Reporting: Building dashboards within Keap and Make.com to monitor key metrics such as communication open rates, click-through rates, time-to-respond, and ultimately, the impact on time-to-hire and offer acceptance rates.

The core of our strategy was to move beyond simple automation to *intelligent automation*, where the system could react to candidate behaviour and provide a human-like, empathetic experience at scale. By using Make.com, we were able to seamlessly connect their ATS, Keap CRM, and email platforms, creating a cohesive, responsive ecosystem.

Implementation Steps

Our implementation with Global Talent Solutions followed a structured, phased approach, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum impact:

1. Discovery & OpsMap™ Audit:
   • Conducted comprehensive interviews with GTS HR, recruitment, and IT teams to map out the entire candidate journey.
   • Identified all manual touchpoints, communication gaps, and data silos.
   • Defined specific candidate experience goals and quantifiable metrics for success.
   • Developed a detailed automation blueprint using our OpsMap™ methodology, outlining all integration points and workflow logic.
2. System Integration & Setup:
   • Configured Keap CRM as the central hub for candidate relationship management, customising fields to capture relevant recruitment data.
   • Established secure API connections between GTS’s existing Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Keap, and email service providers using Make.com.
   • Designed and built custom Make.com scenarios to trigger actions based on ATS events (e.g., new application, status change) and Keap data updates.
3. Workflow Automation Development (OpsBuild™):
   • Automated Application Acknowledgment: Immediately after application submission, candidates received a personalised email acknowledging receipt, confirming the role applied for, and outlining next steps.
   • Intelligent Screening Communication: Based on initial screening criteria, candidates received tailored messages. Qualified candidates were invited to self-schedule an initial screening call via an integrated calendar link; others received polite, constructive feedback.
   • Interview Scheduling & Reminders: Make.com automated the sending of interview invitations, calendar invites, and pre-interview reminders to both candidates and interviewers, significantly reducing scheduling conflicts and no-shows.
   • Post-Interview Follow-ups: Custom workflows ensured candidates received timely thank-you notes and updates on their application status, regardless of outcome.
   • Offer & Onboarding Communication: Automated sequences guided successful candidates through the offer acceptance and initial onboarding paperwork, integrating with GTS’s HRIS for data transfer.
   • Rejection & Nurture Sequences: Candidates not selected for a role received respectful, personalised rejection emails with an option to join GTS’s talent network for future consideration, ensuring a positive off-boarding experience.
4. Content Creation & Personalisation:
   • Developed a comprehensive library of dynamic email templates, ensuring brand consistency and a professional tone.
   • Implemented merge tags and conditional logic within templates to pull in specific data points (e.g., candidate name, job title, hiring manager, interview date) for true personalisation.
5. Testing & Refinement:
   • Conducted rigorous end-to-end testing of all Make.com scenarios and Keap campaigns with GTS’s team.
   • Gathered feedback from pilot groups of candidates to fine-tune messaging and timing.
   • Iterated on workflows to optimise for user experience and system efficiency.
6. Training & Handover (OpsCare™):
   • Provided comprehensive training to GTS HR and recruitment teams on managing Keap campaigns and monitoring Make.com scenarios.
   • Established clear documentation and ongoing support protocols to ensure sustained success and empower the internal team to make future adjustments.

This systematic approach allowed GTS to incrementally transform their candidate experience, building confidence with each successful implementation phase.

The Results

The implementation of 4Spot Consulting’s Make.com and CRM automation solution yielded significant, quantifiable improvements for Global Talent Solutions, transforming their candidate experience and recruitment efficiency:

• 25% Reduction in Time-to-Hire: By automating communication, scheduling, and follow-ups, the average time from application submission to offer acceptance was reduced by a full quarter, allowing GTS to secure top talent faster.
• 18% Increase in Candidate Satisfaction Scores: Post-interview and post-offer surveys showed a marked improvement in candidate sentiment, with specific positive feedback on the clarity, timeliness, and personalised nature of communications.
• 12% Decrease in Application Abandonment Rate: With immediate, engaging acknowledgments and clear next steps, fewer candidates dropped out of the application process at early stages.
• 10% Boost in Offer Acceptance Rate: Enhanced engagement throughout the process, coupled with a professional and responsive experience, led to a higher percentage of candidates accepting job offers.
• 150+ Hours Saved per Month in Administrative Tasks: GTS recruiters were freed from repetitive manual emailing, scheduling, and data entry, allowing them to redirect their focus to more strategic activities like candidate sourcing, relationship building, and interview quality. This translated to a significant operational cost saving.
• Improved Data Accuracy & Visibility: Centralizing candidate data in Keap provided GTS with a single source of truth, enabling better reporting, performance analysis, and strategic decision-making regarding their talent pipeline.
• Enhanced Employer Brand: The consistent, professional, and personalised candidate journey reinforced GTS’s image as an employer of choice, positively impacting their reputation in the competitive manufacturing sector.
• Reduced “Ghosting” from Candidates: Consistent and timely communication significantly reduced instances of candidates disengaging or not showing up for interviews, demonstrating increased candidate commitment.

These metrics not only demonstrated a significant return on investment for GTS but also validated the power of strategic automation in transforming critical HR functions. The shift from a reactive, manual process to a proactive, automated one has fundamentally improved how GTS engages with prospective employees.

Key Takeaways

The successful partnership between Global Talent Solutions and 4Spot Consulting highlights several critical insights for any organization looking to optimize its talent acquisition efforts through automation:

1. Candidate Experience is a Strategic Differentiator: In today’s talent landscape, a positive and personalised candidate experience is no longer a luxury but a necessity. It directly impacts offer acceptance rates, employer brand, and ultimately, a company’s ability to attract and retain top talent.
2. Automation Amplifies the Human Touch: Far from dehumanising the process, strategic automation using platforms like Make.com and a robust CRM (Keap) frees up recruiters to focus on high-value, empathetic interactions. It ensures that the right message reaches the right candidate at the right time, making the experience feel more personal, not less.
3. Integration is Key to a Single Source of Truth: Siloed systems are the enemy of efficiency and data integrity. Seamless integration between ATS, CRM, and communication tools creates a unified view of the candidate journey, enabling better decision-making and preventing communication gaps.
4. Quantifiable Metrics Drive Success: Clearly defined metrics from the outset (as established during our OpsMap™) are crucial for measuring the ROI of automation initiatives. Tracking improvements in time-to-hire, candidate satisfaction, and offer acceptance rates demonstrates tangible business impact.
5. Start with a Strategic Blueprint: Jumping straight to automation without a clear understanding of current workflows and desired outcomes often leads to fragmented solutions. A thorough audit and strategic blueprint, like 4Spot’s OpsMap™, is essential for building sustainable and effective systems.
6. Ongoing Optimization is Essential: The talent market is dynamic. Implementing automation is the first step; continuous monitoring, feedback collection, and refinement (our OpsCare™ approach) ensure the system remains effective and adapts to evolving needs.

Global Talent Solutions now possesses a scalable and highly effective recruitment communication infrastructure, proving that even in high-volume industries like manufacturing, a human-centric approach can be delivered at scale with the right automation strategy.

“Working with 4Spot Consulting was a game-changer for our recruitment team. We went from being overwhelmed by manual tasks and inconsistent communication to a system that truly engages candidates and frees up our recruiters for more meaningful interactions. The impact on our time-to-hire and candidate satisfaction has been phenomenal.”

— Sarah Jenkins, VP of HR, Global Talent Solutions

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Beyond Efficiency: Strategic HR Automation with Make.com & AI