Following up leads · ASRR Tech
How do you write a useful next action?
Describe the action, intended result and timing. Avoid vague instructions such as follow up, which leave interpretation to the next employee.
A practical example
Call on Thursday to check whether a Tuesday intake works.
This is an illustrative situation for assessing your own process.
Checklist for your team
- Use an action verb.
- Name the intended outcome.
- Choose a time.
What does success look like?
A colleague can execute the action without spoken explanation.
Test this with a recognisable record and have a colleague review the outcome. Note missing information or decisions. Use that finding to improve a working agreement before applying the process more broadly.
Following up leads: the wider process
Follow-up works when a record has an owner, a specific next action and an agreed time. A status alone does not tell a colleague what to do. Describe an action with a verb and an outcome: call to arrange an intake, or check that a quotation arrived. Respect the customer’s contact preferences. Agree which situations take priority and when contact should end. Review a small sample of open records regularly to see whether the process works beyond the ideal journey.