Use case · Payroll
Every payroll question answered twice: once on the phone, once in writing.
Payroll advisers spend their days on calls about payslips, contracts and the law that changed last month. Drummer captures those calls, writes the follow-up for the client, checks that the points that had to be covered were covered, and coaches the adviser on what was left unsaid.
Sound familiar?
The knowledge sits with three senior advisers
They know which exception applies to which joint committee. When they are on holiday, the question waits, and a junior learns by guessing.
Agreed by phone, written down nowhere
A client calls about a termination, hears the right answer, and three weeks later nobody can say what was agreed or which date was named.
The hours after the call
Summarising, mailing the client, updating the ticket, flagging the change for the next payroll run. The advice took ten minutes; the admin takes thirty.
No view of the quality of the advice
You hear about a call when it goes wrong. Nobody reviews the hundreds that went fine, so nobody knows which questions are being missed.
How it works
For advisers who answer client and employee calls all day.
- 1The call comes inCalls from the dialer your team already runs arrive in Drummer on their own. Nobody starts a recording, and nobody has to remember to.
- 2Checked against your advice checklistDrummer holds the call against the points your firm agreed on for that kind of question: the reference period named, the deadline named, the written confirmation promised.
- 3The written confirmation, draftedThe summary and the client email are ready in the language of the call, with the dates and the amounts that were said out loud, waiting for the adviser to check and send.
- 4Back when the file reopensWhen the same client calls again in May, ask what was agreed in March and the answer comes with the moment in the call to play back.
For advisers who sit with a client at year-end or at onboarding.
- 1The meeting, video or in personA meeting bot joins the video call from the calendar; in person, the phone app records with the screen locked and keeps going offline.
- 2Commitments picked out of the conversationWhich documents the client will send, by when, and what your firm will do in return, separated from the rest of the conversation.
- 3One file, one handoverThe brief for whoever picks the file up next holds what was said, what is still open and who promised it.
- 4Coaching after the meetingThe adviser gets feedback on their own conversation the same day, with the second where a question was left hanging.
Your advice checklist
- Joint committee confirmed
- Notice period and start date named
- Documents the client must send listed
- Written confirmation promised with a date
Agreed
- Last working day
- 31 March
- Client sends
- Signed letter
- Next payroll run
- Flagged
Coaching tip
You promised to follow up, without saying when. Name the day before you hang up, and the client stops calling back to ask.
What it means for the firm
The advice your team gives stops being invisible, without anyone sitting in on calls.
Advice you can show
What was advised, when and on what basis is written down with the moment it was said, for every file.
Fewer calls back
The client gets the confirmation in writing the same day, so the second call to ask what was agreed never happens.
Juniors up to speed faster
A new adviser hears how your seniors handle a joint committee question, and gets feedback on their own calls from week one.
The questions your team misses
See which checklist points go unasked across the team, and where a refresher is worth an hour.
Hand a file over without a meeting
Whoever takes the file next reads the brief instead of calling the colleague who took the original call.
Hours back per adviser
The write-up after each call is already done, so the time goes back to the clients waiting in the queue.
Built so your advisers want to use it
Advisers carry the client relationship. Drummer has to make their day lighter before it reports anything.
Recording is not mandatory
An adviser decides per conversation. A call they would rather not record is not recorded, and nothing else changes.
The adviser wins first
What comes back first is their own write-up, done: the summary, the client email and the ticket update. The firm’s overview falls out of the same work.
Coaching, not control
Feedback goes to the adviser who had the conversation, with the moment to listen back, and a manager comments on that moment rather than on a score.
Transparent with the client
Advisers say it in one sentence: “I record our call so I can confirm everything to you in writing. Is that all right?” Almost every client agrees.
Works with what you already use
Drummer picks calls up from the phone system your team runs and writes the result back into the mailbox and the file.
Payroll teams work in locked-down environments with personal data in every file. The phone app needs nothing from IT, each connection is switched on separately by your own administrator, and recordings, transcripts and summaries stay in the EU.
How we get started
Eight weeks from the first call to a decision you can make on evidence.
01
Intro call
Thirty minutes on the kinds of questions your advisers answer and the systems they answer them in.
02
Deep-dive workshop
Ninety minutes with your advisers to write down the advice checklist Drummer will hold calls against.
03
Pilot with one team
Five advisers, eight weeks, one team or one office, with the checklist from the workshop.
04
Review and rollout
We go through the calls, the time saved and what the advisers say, and then decide together on the rest of the firm.
Questions payroll teams ask us
Does every call have to be recorded?
No. An adviser decides per conversation, and a call that is not recorded stays unrecorded. Teams usually agree a rule together, such as every advice call about a file but no internal check-in.
How do clients and employees feel about it?
Advisers say it in one sentence: they record so they can confirm everything in writing, and they ask whether that is all right. It is in the caller’s interest too, because what was agreed about a date or an amount stops being a matter of memory.
If someone would rather not, the adviser does not record and the call goes on as before.
Does Drummer give the payroll advice itself?
No. Drummer works on what was said in the conversation: it writes the summary and the draft confirmation, and it flags the points on your own checklist that did not come up. The advice, and the responsibility for it, stays with your adviser, who reads and approves everything before it leaves the firm.
What about the personal data in these calls?
Payroll conversations carry salary and health details, so Drummer treats them the way your own systems do: recordings, transcripts and summaries stay in the EU, nothing is used to train a model, access is set per role, and every file shows who opened it. Our data processing agreement covers it.
Does it work with our phone system and our file software?
Calls come in from the dialers Drummer supports, and the summary and the confirmation land in the mailbox your team already uses. If the file software your firm runs on is not connected yet, our developers build that connection with your team.
Curious what this could mean for your team?
Thirty minutes on your own advice calls, your own checklist and a conversation like the ones your advisers have every day.