How 11Investments turned customer experience into a group-level growth strategy

Scaling makes service harder to protect

For a growing recruitment group, customer experience becomes harder to control as the business scales.

When a team is small, leaders can stay close to every client, candidate and consultant interaction. They hear the stories, see the issues and know where service standards are being met.

But as a business grows across multiple brands, teams and markets, that visibility becomes harder to maintain.

That was the challenge 11Investments wanted to solve.

The group had already built a strong reputation through specialist recruitment brands including 3Search, whose Advise, Attract and Develop model is designed to help clients understand the skills they need, secure specialist talent and continue the partnership beyond the placement. That proposition depends on the quality of experience delivered across every client and candidate interaction.

The leadership team recognised that world-class service could not rely on informal feedback, anecdotal stories or occasional customer conversations.

It needed ownership, visibility and process.

That is why the business created a dedicated Customer Experience Director role, with Michael Judkins moving into the position to sit centrally across the group.

Making customer experience someone’s job

The creation of Michael’s role was a clear signal.

Customer experience was no longer just something the business cared about. It became part of the operating model for growth.

When we spoke to Michael, he explained that service had always been important to 3Search and the wider group. But as the business grew, maintaining consistency became more difficult.

“The role was created to have someone who could own customer experience across the business, have visibility over it for everyone and make sure that consistency is maintained as we grow.”

Michael Judkins, Customer Experience Director, 11Investments

That is a major shift for a recruitment group.

Many firms talk about service. Far fewer put someone in a central role to measure it, manage it and improve it across the organisation.

From feedback in pockets to one clear view

Before Talent Analytics, 11Investments had customer feedback in pockets. The business had positive stories, Google reviews and a strong belief that service levels were high.

But it did not have one clear view of client and candidate experience across brands, teams and individuals.

Talent Analytics gave the group that visibility.

Michael described the value as being able to access data they did not have before in one place: comparing individuals, understanding service levels and identifying where parts of the business were performing strongly or needed attention.

That visibility became the foundation for a more structured customer experience strategy.

“We have previously talked a good game about offering world class customer experience and had initiatives in place around success stories and Google reviews, but Talent Analytics takes our CX strategy to the next level.”

Andy Sellers, Co-Founder, 3Search and 11Investments

Turning measurement into action

The biggest change was not simply measuring more feedback.

It was building the workflows to act on it.

Michael introduced a structured framework for how different types of feedback should be handled across both client and candidate audiences.

Detractor feedback is owned centrally by Michael. He follows up directly, understands the context and works with the relevant consultant, manager or director to resolve the issue and stop recurring themes from continuing.

Promoter feedback is handled differently. Where someone has had a strong experience, the consultant with the relationship is responsible for following up, thanking them and building on that moment.

That distinction matters.

A negative experience needs ownership and recovery. A positive experience needs recognition and commercial follow-through.

That is the difference between collecting feedback and operationalising customer experience.

Reaching world-class service levels

The initial implementation with 3Search created early momentum.

Within 90 days, 3Search reached a +78 Net Promoter Score, moving into a world-class level of service. The focus was clear from the start: increase promoters, reduce detractors and use customer feedback to protect relationships, improve service quality and create more referral opportunities.

For Andy Sellers, the impact was strong enough to expand the approach beyond the initial brand.

“We were so impressed with the product that we rolled it out across all our brands, rather than just the one business we were initially planning on.”

Andy Sellers

For a multi-brand recruitment group, that is important.

Customer experience cannot only be strong in one team or one brand. The standard needs to be consistent across the organisation, while still respecting the differences between specialist markets, leadership teams and customer journeys.

Talent Analytics gave 11Investments a way to build that consistency without losing the nuance of each brand.

CX as a revenue driver

The creation of a Customer Experience Director role also reflected a bigger commercial belief.

Customer experience is not just about satisfaction scores. It affects whether clients come back, whether candidates re-engage, whether promoters refer and whether a recruitment brand continues to grow in a competitive market.

Michael was clear that expectations in recruitment have changed.

“It’s not good enough now just to be successful and place the role. You need to make sure that the individual has a great experience as well.”

Michael Judkins

That aligns closely with 3Search’s wider service philosophy. If the partnership does not end when a placement is made, then customer experience cannot be measured only at the point of success. It has to be understood across the full journey: advice, attraction, placement, follow-up and long-term relationship development.

That view matters even more in a tougher recruitment market.

When there are fewer opportunities, service standards become more important. Clients and candidates have more choice, more visibility and higher expectations. A poor experience can quickly become a lost relationship. A strong experience can create loyalty, repeat business and advocacy.

For 11Investments and 3Search, customer experience is now part of how the group protects relationships, improves standards and supports future growth.

Embedding NPS at the heart of customer strategy

Andy Sellers summed up the impact clearly:

“Julian, Amay and the team at Talent Analytics have built a brilliant tool. Julian is evidently a passionate expert in the field, and it was a game changer to hear his views on customer experience and what we can do together. It’s also been a fantastic experience working with Andrew to implement the platform and we’ve very quickly been able to embed NPS at the heart of our customer strategy.”

Andy Sellers

That is the real story.

11Investments did not just add feedback software. It created ownership, built response workflows, gave customer experience a central role and started using service data to improve consistency across the group.

For 11Investments and 3Search, the lesson is clear: specialist recruitment growth is not just driven by finding talent, but by delivering the kind of experience that makes clients and candidates want to come back.

World-class customer experience does not happen by accident. It needs leadership, visibility, process and follow-through.

Talent Analytics gives recruitment groups the infrastructure to make that possible, helping leaders move from feedback in pockets to a clear, group-level view of the experience their business is delivering.

See how Talent Analytics helps recruitment groups embed CX across every brand, team and customer journey.