HandL Agency
Three-Tier Operations Automation System
6 weeks
Digital Marketing
15-24 hrs/week savedThe Challenge
HandL Agency, a successful digital marketing firm, was drowning in operational overhead. As they grew, admin work started consuming more time than actual client work. Three specific areas were particularly painful: routine email responses (5-8 hours/week), meeting follow-ups and coordination (4-6 hours/week), and invoice processing (6-10 hours/week). Combined, these repetitive tasks were eating 15-24 hours weekly—time that should have been spent on strategy and client success.
The agency was at a crossroads: hire more operations staff (expensive and difficult to manage) or find a way to automate the bottlenecks. Manual invoice processing had a 10-15% error rate, delayed responses were hurting client relationships, and meeting follow-ups were inconsistent. They needed a solution that could scale with their growth without proportional overhead increase.
The Solution
We built a three-tier automation system, each tier addressing different complexity levels. Tier 1: AI-powered email responder handles routine client questions with GPT-4 drafts and human approval. Tier 2: Meeting follow-up automation uses Fathom transcripts to generate summaries, action items, and next-meeting scheduling automatically. Tier 3: Invoice processing monitors Gmail and vendor portals, extracts data via OCR, and populates tracking sheets—reducing errors to near-zero. The result: they reclaimed 15-24 hours per week and can now handle 2x the client load without adding operations staff.
What We Built
AI Email Responder
GPT-4 analyzes incoming emails and generates draft responses in company tone. Team approves before sending. Handles routine questions, service inquiries, and scheduling—saving 5-8 hours weekly.
Meeting Follow-Up
Automatically retrieves Fathom transcripts, generates summaries with action items, creates follow-up emails, schedules next meetings, and saves notes to Drive—saving 4-6 hours weekly.
Invoice Processing
Monitors Gmail and vendor portals, extracts invoice data via OCR, populates tracking sheets, and generates monthly reports—reducing errors to <1% and saving 6-10 hours weekly.
Results & Impact
Per week saved across all tiers
Annual value in recovered time
Error rate (down from 10-15%)
Client capacity without adding staff
Why This Matters
- Team can focus on strategy and client success instead of repetitive admin tasks
- Scalable growth without proportional increase in operational overhead
- Faster client responses and professional follow-ups improve satisfaction
- Eliminated invoice errors and improved financial visibility
How It Works
AI-Powered Email Analysis
Gmail API monitors designated inbox. When emails arrive, GPT-4 analyzes content and generates draft responses matching company tone. Drafts go to team for approval—usually no edits needed. Auto-send after 15-minute review window or immediate approval.
Automated Meeting Follow-Up
After Microsoft Teams calls end, system retrieves Fathom transcript. GPT-4 analyzes for key points, decisions, and action items. Generates comprehensive follow-up email with summary and assignments, creates next meeting in Google Calendar, saves notes to Drive, and sends 24-hour reminders.
Intelligent Invoice Processing
System monitors Gmail and vendor portals for invoices, downloads PDFs, uploads to FreeAgent Smart Capture. OCR extracts vendor name, amounts, dates, line items. Validates data for errors, then populates monthly Google Sheets with tracking columns. Auto-generates expense summaries and flags approaching due dates.
Ready to Eliminate Operational Overhead?
See how automation can help your agency scale without operational bloat.