How a Recruitment Firm Fixed Consultant Availability Tracking with Two-Button Emails
Your Automation Guy
The Problem: Low response rates on consultant availability updates
This recruitment firm maintains a pool of consultants who take on project-based work. To match consultants with opportunities, the firm needs to know who's available and when. They were sending emails asking consultants to fill out a form with their availability, but the response rate was dismal.
The problem wasn't that consultants didn't want to respond. It was that clicking through to a form, filling out fields, and submitting felt like too much effort for a simple yes or no question. Most emails went ignored, which meant the firm was operating with stale availability data. Opportunities were being sent to consultants who'd already moved on to other projects, or qualified consultants were being overlooked because their availability wasn't up to date.
The firm already had Airtable and Make.com in place. What they needed was a way to make responding so frictionless that consultants would actually do it.
Client Testimonial
"Working with Thaha was a great experience. I was particularly impressed by his diligent and thought-through approach to our automations, providing expert guidance from the initial ideation all the way through to final delivery."
Mike James
Founder, Project Blackbook
The Solution: Two buttons, one click, instant update
I replaced the multi-field form with the simplest possible interaction: two buttons in an email. Yes or No. Click one, and Airtable updates instantly.
The entire solution was designed around reducing friction to zero. Instead of asking consultants to navigate to a form, I built a system where the email itself is the interface. Each email contains two buttons: "Yes, I'm available" and "No, I'm not available." One click, and the system updates their availability status in Airtable.
But that simplicity required careful engineering behind the scenes. Airtable has a 100-record limit per automation trigger, the links needed to expire for security, and the firm wanted the process to run on autopilot. I built three interconnected Make.com automations to handle it all.
How It Works: Three Automations, One Seamless Flow
Automation 1: Send the availability emails
Airtable can only process 100 records at a time per automation. For a firm with a larger consultant pool, that's a problem. I built a Make.com automation that systematically loops through the consultant database, sending batches of emails without hitting the limit.
Each email includes two unique, expiring links tied to that specific consultant. The links are valid for 7 days. After that, they stop working. This prevents stale clicks from corrupting availability data weeks later.
The emails are sent via Loops, a transactional email API service with excellent deliverability. No more availability requests landing in spam folders.
Automation 2: Update Airtable when a consultant clicks
When a consultant clicks "Yes" or "No," the link triggers a webhook that fires a Make.com automation. This automation immediately updates the consultant's availability status in Airtable.
But I didn't stop there. After the status updates, the consultant is redirected to a form where they can optionally update their full profile: skills, location preferences, rate changes, or any other details that might have shifted. It's not required, but it gives consultants a natural opportunity to keep their profile current without it feeling like extra work.
If the link has expired, the consultant sees a message explaining that the window has closed, and they're directed to contact the firm directly. No confusing errors. No outdated data entering the system.
Automation 3: Scheduled monthly activation
The firm wanted this process to run automatically once a month without anyone having to remember to trigger it. I built a third Make.com automation that runs on a schedule.
On the first of each month, it activates the email-sending automation, waits for it to complete, then turns it off again. Fully hands-off. The firm just watches the availability data refresh itself every month.
Built for Reliability: Error Handling and Edge Cases
This wasn't a "set it and forget it" automation thrown together with default settings. Every Make.com module includes proper error management. If an email fails to send, the automation logs it and continues processing the rest of the batch instead of crashing.
The firm needed to trust that this would work month after month without manual intervention, so I designed it to handle the inevitable edge cases that come up in production systems.
The Result
The firm went from chasing consultants for availability updates to receiving them automatically. One-click responses mean higher engagement. Expiring links keep the data clean. Monthly automation means the system runs itself.
Frictionless response
Two-button emails replaced multi-step forms, driving higher consultant engagement
Automated scheduling
Monthly automation activates, runs, and deactivates itself. Zero manual work
Clean data integrity
Expiring links (7 days) prevent stale clicks from corrupting availability records
Reliable delivery
Loops transactional email API ensures availability requests land in inboxes, not spam
Better data. Less chasing. A system that respects consultants' time and makes it easy to stay engaged. That's what happens when you design around how people actually work instead of forcing them into unnecessary steps.
This project solved availability tracking. But most recruitment firms I work with are managing consultants across scattered tools - availability in email, skills in spreadsheets, communication in WhatsApp, job matching in their heads. This automation was one piece. The full picture is a unified recruitment operating system where consultant management, job matching, and placement workflows all connect in one place.
Need a system that actually fits your workflow?
If you're managing operations through scattered tools, chasing people for updates, or running your business out of spreadsheets and WhatsApp, I can help you build a system that works the way you do.
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