Manage follow-ups and due work

Next action versus SLA

Use Next for the operator's follow-up: call the buyer tomorrow, check inventory later today, or review the promised document next business day. Use SLA for the customer response deadline. They can coexist.

Example: a customer message has an SLA in four hours, but the customer then promises to send a document tomorrow. After the current response is complete, set Pending with a Next action tomorrow; do not keep today's SLA as a false overdue signal.

Create a useful follow-up

1. Open the source conversation from My Work, a notification, or the Work inbox.
2. Confirm the customer, current owner, status, and latest message.
3. Decide the exact next action. “Follow up” is not specific enough; use “Send revised quote after finance approval.”
4. Assign the conversation to the person who will perform it.
5. Select Next in the conversation workflow bar.
6. Choose Later today, Tomorrow 9 AM, Next business day, or enter the appropriate date and time.
7. If waiting, set Pending only after the future action is visible.
8. Add a concise internal note when the reason or dependency is not already clear from the thread.
9. Reopen or refresh the conversation and confirm the Next time, owner, and status were saved.

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Work the Follow-ups queue

The /follow-ups path opens Inbox → Work with the Follow-ups queue selected.

1. Start with overdue items, then due today, then upcoming work.
2. Open one conversation and read what changed since the follow-up was created.
3. Complete the promised action or change the plan based on new evidence.
4. If a customer reply superseded the reminder, record the new action rather than executing stale instructions.
5. Set a new date only when there is a real dependency and named next action.
6. Resolve the conversation only when the customer outcome and any accountable linked outcomes are complete.

Write follow-ups another person can execute

Use the pattern Action + trigger/context + owner + time.

• Good: “Nisha to resend quote v3 after buyer confirms GST details; tomorrow 09:00.”
• Weak: “Check later.”
• Good: “Aarav to confirm replacement dispatch with operations; today 16:00.”
• Weak: “Pending ops.”

If the work belongs in a deal, quote, or accountable outcome, update that record as well. Do not let the conversation reminder become the only evidence of a commercial promise.

Use the dashboard for due-work risk

My Work and Priority Queue can surface follow-up, quote, deal, and SLA commitments. Open the source record from the ranked item. The dashboard's appearance is not proof that your follow-up is complete; completion changes the underlying record.

Edge cases and recovery

• The follow-up is missing: confirm the owner, Next time, and workspace, then check that the conversation is not closed or filtered out.
• The reminder appears at an unexpected time: verify the workspace/reporting timezone and the exact saved timestamp.
• The owner is unavailable: reassign deliberately and update the note; do not leave the old owner as a silent dependency.
• A customer replied early: reopen the record, evaluate the new message, and clear or replace the stale next action.
• The action failed: preserve the failure or delivery state before changing the date. A new reminder should not hide a send problem.
• The customer outcome is complete: resolve with the appropriate outcome so it does not continue to consume queue attention.

Measurable follow-through

Monitor the share of active commitments with an owner and date, on-time completion of due follow-ups, overdue age, and repeated reschedules. A low overdue count achieved by continually moving dates is not successful follow-through.