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NDIS · Referrals answered while they are still warm

Support coordinators refer to whoever replies.

A coordinator with a participant to place sends the same email to four providers. The one that answers first, with capacity, gets the referral. Usually that is decided within a day.

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Pipeline

Example data

Referral in

2

  • Support coordinator · M. Rahman

    Website form

    Participant, daily living supports

    Plan-managed12m

    Auto · Acknowledged, capacity confirmed

  • 0491 570 178

    Missed call

    Missed call · family enquiry

    TBC40m

    Auto · Text back sent

Intake

2

  • Participant · J. Okafor

    SMS

    Community access, 2 days/wk

    Self-managed1d

    Auto · Intake questions sent

  • Participant · L. Trinh

    Website form

    Support coordination

    NDIA-managed2d

    You · Intake call booked

Agreement out

1

  • Participant · D. Whitmore

    WhatsApp

    SIL, shared living

    Plan-managed4d

    Auto · Service agreement chased, 2nd

Onboarded

1

  • Participant · A. Kaur

    Website form

    Therapy supports

    Plan-managed6d

    You · First shift scheduled

fired automatically

done by you

A demonstration board, not real participants. Names, plans and supports are specimens. What is real is the shape: referral, intake, agreement, onboarded.

Where NDIS referrals leak

“We get back to everyone. Usually the next morning.”

Next morning is too late

You are paying to generate leads and then handing them to whoever answers faster. The ad spend is not wasted at the click, it is wasted in the gap after it.

How we fix it

“It's in my phone. Or Facebook. Or the notebook in the ute.”

Your leads live in five places and none of them talk

Enquiries do not get lost dramatically, they get lost quietly. Nobody notices the ones that never got a second call.

How we fix it

“We'd hire someone for it, but the numbers don't work.”

Hiring an admin is expensive here

So the admin does not get hired, and the work lands on the owner at 9pm instead. That is the most expensive hour in the business being spent on the cheapest task in it.

How we fix it

Where the line sits

What runs itself, and what never will.

Half of buying this well is knowing what it must never do. Both columns below are the service. Anyone who only shows you the left one is selling you a risk you will carry, not them.

Runs itself

Without anyone remembering to make it.

The referral
Acknowledged within minutes with a straight answer on whether you currently have capacity for that support type, which is the only thing the coordinator wants to know.
The plan question
Self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed, captured at intake rather than discovered at invoicing, because it changes how you get paid.
The intake pack
Consent, service agreement and the documents you need, sent, chased and tracked, instead of one staff member remembering who has not signed.
The coordinator relationship
Every referral is logged against the coordinator who sent it, so you can see which relationships actually feed your service and which have gone quiet.
Capacity
One place that says what you can take on right now, so nobody accepts a referral the roster cannot cover.

Always reaches a person

By design, not by exception.

Anything about a participant's plan
What their funding covers, how their plan should be managed, whether a support is claimable. That goes to your team, their coordinator or their plan manager.
Whether you can safely support someone
Suitability and risk are a judgement your team makes with the information in front of it, not a form outcome.
Incidents and complaints
Anything with a safeguarding dimension leaves the system immediately and is logged for a person to handle.
Cohorts where automated first contact is a poor fit
If a support type or communication need makes this the wrong channel, we say so during the build and leave that path human.

How it lands in your service

20 minutes

Step 1: Map the referral path

One call. Where referrals arrive, who acknowledges them now, what your intake actually needs, and where agreements stall.

Weeks 1 to 3

Step 2: Build to your intake

Your support types, your capacity rules, your intake questions and your document set. Boundaries around plans and funding written down first.

From go-live

Step 3: Your team keeps the judgement

Acknowledgement, sorting, chasing and scheduling run themselves. Suitability, risk and anything about a participant's plan stays with your people.

Before you commit

Count the referrals you answered after the second day.

Those were placed somewhere else. Ali Ishtiaq will time your referral responses with you, honestly, and you can decide what the delay is worth.

Talk to AliWhatsApp instead
+61 469 759 353

Ali Ishtiaq answers it himself. Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm AEST.