How switching from Zendesk to Pipedrive helped a talent agency manage relationships more efficiently

Founded by Carolyn Nikkanen in the 1980s, Carolyn’s Model & Talent Agency has head offices in Toronto and Mississauga. The agency represents actors and models of all ages for film, television and print – and is connected with agents and casting directors worldwide, with international bookings and callbacks.

“I work closely with people to help them be as successful as possible in the field they’re pursuing.” – Carolyn Nikkanen, President

Industry: Talent and Casting

Location: Ontario, Canada

Key Feature: AI Sales Assistant

Carolyns Model & Talent Agency Case Study

1

Pipedrive seat

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Simple pipelines

40+

Years in the business

Why Pipedrive passed the audition for a new management tool

Before switching to Pipedrive CRM, Carolyn used two other systems at different stages of her company’s life cycle: Salesforce and, most recently, Zendesk. Both served a purpose for a time, but neither aligned with how she actually works day to day as the owner of a small, fast-moving talent agency.

Carolyn found Salesforce overly complex, as it required more configuration and maintenance than a one-person business could reasonably support. Zendesk, on the other hand, presented a different problem: its tools weren’t expansive enough for her workflow.

Zendesk is primarily a ticket-based platform for customer-support teams handling incoming enquiries, service requests and escalations. Its focus on ticketing rather than relationship management means everything is structured around reacting to issues rather than proactively nurturing client relationships. Changing CRM platforms meant Carolyn could rethink how to organize communication with her talent pool and corporate clients.

Pipedrive was the ideal fit. Its simple and intuitive tools immediately tallied with how Carolyn already worked. Unlike Salesforce, it required no complex setup – and unlike Zendesk, it was built for moving opportunities forward. Most importantly, Pipedrive gave Carolyn a clear, central place to manage all the moving parts of her agency.

Salesforce offered lots of tools I simply didn’t need. I’m a senior who’s still working and even my girl said she couldn’t figure it all out! Zendesk didn’t match my requirements either. I needed something simple to use every day; a system that didn’t overwhelm me but offered the right digital tools.

Pipedrive was recommended to me. After reviewing it, I found it to be easy to implement. The integration from Zendesk was a huge factor in my decision, as it was going to be quite simple to upload all our existing information.

Learning the new setup was the only real challenge, but I spoke to a team member at Pipedrive and they explained it all.

Now everything is kept in order. Pipedrive’s structure helps me stay organized whether I’m onboarding new talent or contacting existing clients.

Carolyn NikkanenPresident, Carolyn’s Model & Talent Agency

How Pipedrive’s features have taken center stage

Carolyn has built a day-to-day workflow around a modest set of core Pipedrive features that directly support how she manages her work. What stands out most for her is the platform’s overall ease of use.

For Carolyn, Pipedrive functions primarily as a clear and reliable organizational hub: a place where all follow-ups, reminders and communication activity are kept visible and easy to action. Daily summaries, task reminders and activity lists help structure her workload, making sure important touchpoints with clients and talent never slip. This simple automation has become a major time-saver, removing the need to track tasks manually or manage follow-ups through her inbox.

Pipedrive’s email integration is also a key benefit. Read receipts and email-open tracking give her helpful context for prioritizing outreach and timing her next steps. The CRM’s searchability adds further efficiency: Carolyn can pull up a person’s entire file instantly, and stored documents remain easy to locate and reference.

Although Pipedrive offers advanced tools such as automated sequences and A/B testing, Carolyn’s work is rooted in personal communication rather than mass automation. She uses Pipedrive’s Premium plan and finds it more than sufficient, knowing that additional functionality is available should she wish to implement it. Carolyn says she’s keen to investigate the Sales Sequences feature, which enables users to automate a series of follow-ups using their own custom criteria.

I keep things very simple. I’ve created two pipelines – ‘Contacted’ and ‘Signed’. That’s really all I need. I track my emails, monitor follow-ups and manually input new talent when they come through referrals. Pipedrive makes that easy.

I really depend on the daily email Pipedrive sends with my tasks. It keeps me up to date and tells me exactly what I need to follow up on. Otherwise it’s too confusing as I get so many emails every day.

I’ve synced Pipedrive with my calendar. I also added QuickBooks, although I’m not sure yet whether I’ll use it inside Pipedrive. At the moment I don’t have any other add-ons.

Right now, I’m the only one in my company using Pipedrive. Revenue growth doesn’t really apply to me in the same way it does for sales teams, but it’s a really efficient way to manage new people and keep all their documents centralized.

Specific Pipedrive features and how they’re used

Here is some key Pipedrive functionality adopted by Carolyn’s Model & Talent Agency:

Daily task reminders (AI Sales Assistant)

Pipedrive sends Carolyn a morning email summarizing all her tasks for the day. This keeps her workload structured and prevents follow-ups from slipping.

“It’s like having a personal assistant,” she says.

Calendar sync

Pipedrive syncs seamlessly with Carolyn’s calendar, fixing a pain point she experienced with Zendesk. Having everything visible in one place is essential to how she manages her day.

“Being able to sync with the calendar is a big factor for us.”

Email tracking

Carolyn uses Pipedrive’s tracking to see when her emails are opened, giving helpful context for timing follow-ups and prioritizing outreach.

“The tracking feature is really good.”

Simplified pipelines

She uses just two pipelines, designed to match the straightforward flow of her talent-management work.

“It’s very simple, and it’s all we need.”

Daily activity list

Inside Pipedrive, this list keeps every follow-up, reminder and upcoming task in one place throughout the day, replacing the imperfect system of relying on email reminders.

“Without Pipedrive I’d have to use email reminders. This gives me a manageable task list every day.”

Email sync

Emails automatically sync to each contact record, making files and communication histories easy to find – something that was a struggle with Zendesk.

“I can just type the person’s name and their whole file comes up. Files are easily searchable.”

Final thoughts

By using only Pipedrive’s simplest and most practical features, Carolyn has gained structure and clarity – alongside significant time savings – for her business. These are benefits she struggled to achieve with Salesforce or Zendesk. Her story proves that even basic usage can deliver excellent value, making Pipedrive a CRM worth investing in no matter what your business size or level of technical need.

I would highly recommend Pipedrive for its ease of use and organization capabilities. It has so many great features that would benefit many companies.