By MARK RIFFEY for the Flathead Beacon Newspaper

Last time, we discussed why it’s important to consistently follow up with your clients. Consistency requires a system to manage the process, track the follow ups and remind you when they need to be done. Without a system, daily challenges can take over your day. Result: follow ups are forgotten.

After I posted, someone emailed to suggest I show how to build a follow up system, so let’s do that.

Identify your touch points

When you build a house, you determine a list of requirements before starting construction. You need to know how many bedrooms and bathrooms you want and whether there will be a basement and/or a garage. From there, a set of plans will guide the construction process and provide the information needed to create the materials list. A follow up system does the same for your follow ups.

To get started, make a list of all the follow up actions (ie: touch points) that you want your follow up system to manage. A touch point is an opportunity to inform, educate, placate, calm, reinforce, remind, warn, notify or advise.

Identifying touch points should be easy because you know your business. I’ll use one of my favorite examples: the small engine repair shop that sells, rents (perhaps) and services outdoor power equipment, like mowers, chain saws, leaf blowers and garden tillers.

Here’s my list:

• Repair started
• Repair delayed, parts ordered
• Repair resumed, parts received
• Repair completed
• Repair delivery schedule needed
• Repair delivery date/time reminder
• Order placed
• Order delayed
• Order shipped
• Order received
• Order delivery schedule needed
• Order delivery date/time reminder
• Payment plan schedule – upon creation of plan
• Payment due reminder – 10 days out, to allow for banking online bill pay processing time
• Payment due reminder
• Payment overdue
• Automated payment reminder (payment will be charged to card soon)
• Automated payment confirmation (payment charged to card)
• Automated payment failed
• Automated payment card expiration warning
• Automated payment card expired
• Rental return reminder – at beginning of rental
• Rental return reminder – return due soon
• Spring tune up for warm weather equipment (eg: mowers, blowers, tillers)
• Fall tune up for cold weather equipment (eg: snowblowers, ground thawing gear)
• Oil change reminder
• Winter storage service offer
• Winter storage service pickup scheduling needed (ie: in the late fall/early winter, to pick up your equipment for storage)
• Winter storage service pickup date/time reminder
• Winter storage delivery scheduling needed (ie: in the spring, to return your equipment to your home/business)
• Winter storage delivery date/time reminder

My list is intentionally long to give you ideas, but don’t let it distract or discourage you. Keep your list simple by starting with the most important touch points on your list. Build the system around those, then add more over time.

Let’s build a follow up system

Now that we’ve mapped out the touch points, let’s build a system.

Group the follow ups on your list by what drives their use. For example, do they occur when acquiring a new client, when processing an order, or when selling/delivering a service? The type of activity that drives them will be reflected in the system you setup for that follow up.

For example, a service order for a mower might produce a follow up list that looks like this:

• Repair pickup schedule needed
• Repair pickup date/time reminder
• Repair – Equipment picked up
• Repair started
• Repair delayed, parts ordered
• Repair resumed, parts received
• Repair completed
• Repair delivery schedule needed
• Repair delivery date/time reminder
• Repair – Equipment delivered
• Repair – Equipment picked up

Each item would have a place to mark that it was done, that a call (or some other form of contact) was made, who did it and the date/time it was done. Want more info? Add space for notes at each step.

The medium used doesn’t matter at first. What matters is that you perform the steps and refine your system. As it gets more difficult to manage a low-tech system, you should seek out a technology-based solution. By that time, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out what will work for you and what won’t.

To reiterate why a system is important, look at the list of steps and consider how it makes your business look and your customer feel if a step or two never happens or if it’s delayed by days or weeks because “it fell through a crack”.

A system can all but eliminate the cracks.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him atmriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.  Check out the Flathead Beacon archive of all of Mark’s blogs.