How Nexus Search elevated its service to a world-class standard

Building world-class service, not just claiming it

Nexus Search set out to prove that world-class recruitment service is built, not claimed.

Over two years, the business used Talent Analytics to measure client and candidate experience, identify the behaviours that needed to improve and embed service quality into the way the business operates.

For a specialist executive search business operating across automotive and consumer goods, that standard matters. Nexus positions itself around quality, speed, sector expertise and becoming a genuine partner to a focused group of clients. To deliver on that promise, the experience clients and candidates receive has to be measured, managed and consistently improved.

For co-founders Johnny Smyth and Max Fitzgerald, this became a clear leadership priority.

“At the start of 2024, Max Fitzgerald and I made it our number one priority to elevate our service offering and ensure we deliver world-class client and candidate experience.”

Johnny Smyth, Co-Founder, Nexus Search

That focus matters because recruitment businesses are often measured on activity: meetings, CV sends, interviews, placements and revenue.

Those metrics are critical, but they do not always show whether clients and candidates are receiving the standard of service a business wants to be known for.

A team can be busy and still create service risk. Candidates can feel under-updated. Clients can feel poorly briefed. Follow-up can slow down. Communication can become inconsistent as a business grows.

Nexus wanted to do more than track activity. They wanted to raise the standard of every key touchpoint in the client and candidate journey.

Turning feedback into behavioural improvement

Nexus invested in Talent Analytics to get real-time feedback on where the business was performing well and where it could improve.

“We have worked hard on every touch point of our client/candidate journey and in parallel we invested in Talent Analytics NPS software to get real time feedback on where and how we can improve, as well as track our progress.”

Johnny Smyth, Co-Founder, Nexus Search

Nexus measures experience across the core moments that shape its service reputation, including every candidate sent forward for a role and every client that registers a job. That gives the business a broad, consistent view of how clients and candidates are experiencing the recruitment process, rather than relying on selective or anecdotal feedback.

The important part is what happened next.

Nexus did not treat NPS as a reporting exercise. Working with Talent Analytics as an Embedded CX partner, the team used the data to support leadership conversations, manager coaching and targeted L&D.

Qualitative feedback helped identify the behaviours that shaped client and candidate experience: job briefing, follow-up, speed, communication and process clarity. That made the data practical. It gave the business a clearer view of what needed to improve and where training could have the biggest impact.

That partnership became especially valuable for L&D. With Talent Analytics helping surface the themes behind the feedback, Richard Whalley was able to focus development sessions around the issues most relevant to the business at that point in time.

“A special mention to Richard Whalley who has used this feedback to tailor his L&D session to the most important topic at the time.”

Johnny Smyth, Co-Founder, Nexus Search

For Richard, the value was being able to connect training to real service themes, rather than relying on generic development topics.

“Talent Analytics gave us a clearer view of the specific behaviours affecting client and candidate experience. That meant we could focus L&D on the themes that mattered most at the time, whether that was communication, follow-up, briefing quality or process management. It helped make training more relevant, timely and connected to real service outcomes.”

Richard Whalley, Nexus Search

That is where the programme became powerful. Feedback was not just collected. It was used to shape how consultants developed, communicated and delivered service.

Reaching a world-class service standard

Over time, Nexus saw its service scores consistently trend upwards towards its goal of world-class service.

By October, the business had officially reached what is considered a world-class service level. Just as importantly, that improvement came alongside strong revenue and KPI performance.

“The graph below shows our consistent improvement and in October we officially hit what is considered WORLD CLASS service levels, alongside having a MEGA revenue and KPI performance.”

Johnny Smyth, Co-Founder, Nexus Search

This is an important part of the story.

It challenges the idea that service quality and commercial performance are competing priorities. Nexus improved the experience they were delivering while also delivering strong business results.

Better communication, sharper briefing, faster follow-up and more consistent delivery do not slow a recruitment business down. Done properly, they help consultants perform better, build trust faster and protect long-term relationships.

Max Fitzgerald made the same point when reflecting on the journey.

“Providing a world-class service to both clients and candidates has always been a key value of ours. Two years ago we invested in Talent Analytics to highlight where we can continuously look to improve. Great to see that everyone’s efforts and focus is paying off as we have officially hit world-class service levels.”

Max Fitzgerald, President Americas, Nexus Search

This was not a short-term campaign. It was a sustained effort over two years, backed by leadership commitment, consistent measurement, L&D and team-wide focus.

For a business built around specialist markets, quality delivery and long-term client partnerships, that matters. Nexus has become a respected operator in its sectors not just because it can deliver talent, but because it has invested in the service discipline needed to do that consistently.

Why it worked

The Nexus story shows that world-class service is not created by software alone.

AI, automation and real-time feedback all play an important role in helping recruitment businesses manage experience at scale. They make service visible, measurable and easier to act on.

But human-first service still depends on people.

Consultants need to understand what good looks like. Managers need to coach around the right behaviours. Leaders need to keep service quality visible, especially when the pressure to grow and deliver more activity increases.

Talent Analytics gave Nexus the measurement layer, reporting and embedded CX support. Nexus then used that structure to embed the insight into how the business operated, from leadership focus and manager conversations through to L&D and consultant behaviour.

That meant feedback became part of the culture. It informed conversations, highlighted weak points, supported L&D and helped the business build a shared standard for how clients and candidates should be treated.

Over time, that standard becomes part of a company’s identity. It passes from leader to manager, from manager to consultant and from one team to the next.

This is where service quality becomes defensible. It is no longer just a value on a website. It becomes something the business can measure, manage and prove.

The role of Talent Analytics

Talent Analytics helped Nexus turn experience into a measurable business discipline.

The platform gave the team visibility of client and candidate sentiment over time. It helped identify the patterns behind performance and created a way to track whether service was improving.

For Nexus, that meant the business could:

• measure client and candidate experience consistently
• track progress against world-class service levels
• identify behavioural themes in qualitative feedback
• focus L&D on the areas that would make the biggest difference
• recognise consultants contributing to strong service outcomes
• connect experience improvement with wider business performance

The result was not just better reporting.

It was a clearer way to manage service quality as the business grew, and a stronger way for Nexus to evidence the standard of experience it delivers across its specialist markets.

Build a world-class service culture

Talent Analytics helps recruitment businesses measure client, candidate and contractor experience, identify the behaviours driving service quality and build the operating rhythm needed to improve performance over time.

With CX Hub and Embedded CX support, recruitment teams can turn feedback into clearer management conversations, sharper L&D and a more consistent standard of service across the business.