Workflow Automation for Study Abroad Consultancies: 9 Rules Worth Setting Up First

A consultancy's losses are rarely dramatic. They are a lead that was never called back, an IELTS that quietly expired, a student who sat at "Documents" for three weeks while the counsellor was at a fair. None of these need a decision. They need a rule.

Here are nine, in the order that pays back fastest. Each is a trigger (when this happens) and an action (do this), which is how any decent automation engine expresses it.

1. New lead, no contact in 48 hours → task for the counsellor

Why first: leads decay fast. A family that enquired on Monday and heard nothing by Wednesday has enquired elsewhere. Rule: when a lead is created and has no logged activity within 48 hours, create a task "Follow up" assigned to the owner, due today.

2. Lead untouched for 7 days → notify the manager

Why: the counsellor is busy, and the lead is now at risk of being lost silently. Rule: lead with no activity for 7 days → notification to the manager, with the lead's name and the counsellor.

3. Document expiring in 30 days → alert counsellor and student

Why: passports, English tests and TB certificates expire on a schedule. Nobody checks the schedule. Rule: document expiry date within 30 days → email the student, task the counsellor. Repeat at 7 days.

4. Student in the same stage for 10 days → flag as stuck

Why: "stuck" is invisible on a spreadsheet. On a board with an entered-date it is arithmetic. Rule: days-in-stage exceeds 10 → add to the stuck-cases list, notify the counsellor.

Tune the number per stage. Ten days at "Documents" is normal; ten days at "Offer Received" means a deposit is not being paid.

5. Application within 30 days of its intake deadline and not submitted → escalate

Why: this is the one that costs a semester. Rule: application with intake deadline in ≤30 days and stage before "Submitted" → daily notification to counsellor and manager.

6. Stage changes → email the student

Why: the "kaha pugyo?" messages stop when the student is told before they ask. Rule: any stage change → templated email to the student with the new stage and the next step.

Keep the templates short. One line on what happened, one on what is next, one on what they need to do.

7. Offer received → task to collect the deposit and request the CoE / LOA

Why: the gap between offer and CoE is where Australian files stall. Rule: stage becomes "Offer Received" → two tasks: "Confirm deposit paid" (due 3 days) and "Request CoE" (due 7 days).

8. Visa granted → commission expected, pre-departure checklist

Why: the moment of success is when commission gets forgotten. Rule: stage becomes "Visa Granted" → create the expected-commission record against the application's university and counsellor; open the pre-departure checklist.

9. Fee overdue by 7 days → reminder to student, task to accounts

Why: consultancy fees are chased by memory. Rule: invoice due date passed by 7 days → reminder email, task assigned to accounts.

How to roll these out

Do not switch on all nine at once. The team will experience it as noise and start ignoring notifications — which defeats the point.

• Week 1: rules 1, 3 and 5. These prevent losses.
• Week 2: rules 4 and 6. These improve visibility.
• Week 3: the rest.

Review the notifications weekly for the first month. If a rule fires constantly, the threshold is wrong, not the team.

What you need from the software

Any of these can be done by a person with a calendar. All nine, for 150 students, cannot. A consultancy CRM should let you express each as when X, do Y without code, and should already have the data the rules need — days-in-stage, document expiry, intake deadlines, invoice due dates.

Qylantis CRM has a rules engine built on exactly this model, plus daily sweeps for stuck cases, expiring documents and application deadlines that run whether or not anyone remembers. See it working or read how to run a counselling team.