Hiring a CSR or adding Relay: find the capacity you need
When the service queue grows, another CSR may be exactly the right investment. A person can own relationships, handle conversations, exercise the authority appropriate to their role, and help clients through difficult situations.
First separate the work that needs more human attention from work your current team repeatedly prepares by hand. Relay can be evaluated on the second group. The goal is a team that can serve clients well, not a staffing decision based on a software promise.
Side by side
How the two paths compare
| Need | Hiring a CSR | Using Relay |
|---|---|---|
| Client service | Adds a person to handle assigned relationships and conversations | Helps prepare information and deliverables for the team |
| Repetitive preparation | Adds capacity; the process may still be manual | Can reduce repeated entry in supported tasks |
| Cost to evaluate | Compensation, benefits, recruitment, training, and tools | Current access terms, setup, usage, and review effort |
| Setup | Define the role, authority, training, and service standards | Define inputs, workflow, review, and the completed handoff |
| Evidence of value | Service coverage, client continuity, and workload capacity | Usable output and measured preparation or correction time |
Where each fits
When Hiring another CSR fits
Clients cannot get timely attention even when documents are ready.
The agency needs another person to own accounts, cover phones, or handle escalations.
The work requires licensed judgment or relationship continuity within the role's authority.
Where Relay fits
Experienced staff spend repeated time reading source files and preparing the same documents.
The team can review a draft and still own the client conversation.
You want to establish how much of the current queue is repetitive preparation before adding capacity.
Other paths
Alternatives worth weighing
A CSR with better preparation tools
Add the human capacity the agency needs and support it with a tested workflow.
Best for: Agencies with both service demand and repeated document preparation.
Redistribute work within the team
Clarify task ownership and standardize the handoff before adding another queue.
Best for: Agencies where unclear responsibility is the first bottleneck.
The honest take
What we would tell a friend who runs an agency
Review a week of work and classify it into client conversations, judgment, waiting, preparation, and review. Then test one recurring task in Relay, such as preparing an ACORD draft from a prospect's dec pages and confirmed information.
Measure the complete task, including corrections and saving the reviewed output. Use the observed difference alongside your staffing plan. Hiring a CSR and giving that person better preparation tools can be the right answer.
FAQ
Common questions
Will Relay replace a CSR?+
Relay does not replace the colleague's client relationships, service responsibility, or coverage judgment. It helps with supported preparation and browser tasks. Decide staffing from service demand and observed results.
What cost should we compare?+
Use your own fully loaded hiring cost and current Relay terms. Include manager training time, tools, setup, review, and correction effort. A national general-service wage is a poor substitute for your actual role.
Can our existing team handle more work?+
Test it on repeated tasks. Count usable completed outputs and time spent preparing and reviewing them, then check whether the team has more room for client service. Do not infer a new account capacity from a single demonstration.
We mainly need phone coverage. Does Relay solve that?+
That need calls for an appropriate service staffing or phone arrangement. Faster document preparation may help the current team, but it is not the same as adding a person to answer calls.
Sources
Part of the Relay comparison library. Updated 2026-07-11.
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