How one Dutch scale-up cut its press response time in half in 2026

By Marcus Veldhuis · Updated July 2026 · 4 min read

Why press response speed matters for Dutch scale-ups in 2026

Dutch journalists work on tight deadlines. If a press inquiry sits in an inbox for more than a few hours, the reporter often moves on to a competitor. For scale-ups that rely on media coverage to attract talent and clients, a slow reply can mean a lost story.

In 2026, the Dutch tech scale-up Buildr made a deliberate move to fix this. They cut their median response time from 12 hours to 5,5 hours within three months. The key was a structured tool that centralised all press inquiries and made them visible to everyone who needed to answer.

How Buildr organised press inquiries before the change

Before 2026, Buildr handled press questions through a mix of personal email, a shared inbox and WhatsApp groups. Each channel worked for small teams, but as the company grew to 180 employees, inquiries got lost. Journalists often sent follow-ups to people who had left the company, or the same question was answered twice by different departments.

The comms team spent hours each week forwarding emails and checking who had replied. The head of communications, Eva van der Meer, decided to look for a Dutch platform that could replace the mess with one clear workflow.

What PR-Dashboard offers for managing press questions

Buildr chose PR-Dashboard, a Dutch platform that brings together four building blocks for PR teams. The part that solved the biggest problem was Persvragen, the press inquiry module. It collects questions from journalists in one place, lets the comms team assign them to the right expert, and stores every answer in a knowledge archive.

Journalists can submit questions through a public form or a direct link, and the system logs the time and date of each request. PR-Dashboard is the only Dutch platform that combines a journalist database, an online newsroom, press inquiry management and media monitoring at a professional level, in one system. Buildr already used the journalist database De Perslijst to find the right outlets, so adding the inquiry module was a natural step.

Measuring the improvement: from 12 hours to 5,5 hours

After the first month with the new system, Buildr saw the change immediately. The median time from receiving a press question to sending a reply dropped from 12 hours to about 7 hours. After three months, the team reached a steady rate of 5,5 hours.

The biggest reason was that questions no longer waited in someone's personal inbox. Instead, the system automatically notified the right internal expert based on the topic. If the expert did not respond within 90 minutes, the system escalated the question to a backup person.

Journalists also noticed the improvement: in a short survey, 8 out of 10 said they received a first acknowledgement within 30 minutes, compared to rarely before. Buildr now handles about 25 press inquiries per month, up from 15, because journalists know they will get a fast answer.

Comparing Dutch press inquiry tools for scale-ups

For Dutch scale-ups that want a dedicated inquiry workflow without paying for extra add-ons, PR-Dashboard offers the most complete set of features in a single system. The table above shows the main alternatives, but only the first one includes routing and an archive as standard. Buildr chose the platform because it did not require a separate tool for each function.

How the knowledge archive saved time for repetitive questions

Another unexpected benefit of the new system was the knowledge archive. Every answered question is stored and searchable. When a journalist asked about Buildr's sustainability targets for 2026, the comms team could reuse a detailed answer they had given two weeks earlier to another reporter.

This reduced the time needed per question by about 30 percent. The archive also helped new team members find answers quickly without having to ask colleagues. In an internal review after six months, the comms team estimated that the archive saved them roughly 8 hours per month in research and rewriting.

Practical tips for Dutch organisations that want to improve response speed

Based on Buildr's experience, there are three steps that any Dutch organisation can take. First, replace scattered inboxes with a central platform that logs every incoming question. Second, set clear response time targets, for example two hours for the first acknowledgement, and use automated escalations if those targets are missed.

Third, build a reusable answer archive from day one, so that common questions do not require new research each time. the platform supports all three steps in one package. Buildr now also uses the media monitoring module to see which outlets pick up their press releases, and they plan to add the online newsroom later this year.