Follow Up Process

[billbenson]

I agree VG, there is no point in trying to get business you don't want. That includes people that will only complain etc. You might want those just starting up though? You are just at a point where you don't have to do that.

I don't think the original post was for that situation or a one call close situation though.

[vangogh]

The original post just mentioned the person who contacts you and never contacts you again after your initial reply. This isn't necessarily true for all businesses, but for mine those people tend not to be good leads and so I generally won't follow up. If they reply to my reply it's a different story.

Just to give an idea of what I'm talking about I get emails in which the entire email is:

"How much to seo my site" or "how much for a website"

My response is usually to ask for some details and then offer a very general and very broad price range. If that person doesn't reply I'm not going to follow up.

[billbenson]

You may already do something like this, but in your situation I'd have a few boilerplate emails to send or even do a php mail() form; enter cust name, email, select boilerlpate, click.

At that point, my objective would be to get something in their hands they may want to refer to, so they don't delete it and to have my signature in their inbox. Who knows, they might wise up and turn into a customer in a year as Suzanne suggested.

I agree, its not worth more than a couple of clicks of your time which is why I like things like the php boilerplate above.

In my case, I get a lot of datasheet requests, requests for local distributors, etc., that will probably never turn into business. I always take the time to answer them. I probably get about 50 of those a week. Some take a bit of time as I may need to do some research or write a several paragraph explanation. Probably something like 3 to 5% of them turn into orders. That's worth my time as my orders can be fairly large.

[Steve B]

If I get a phone call asking for information (and a price) the process is as follows:
1. Send e-mail within 48 hours with written quote and link to website etc.
2. Two-weeks (approx.) later - I send a 2nd e-mail asking if they have any questions.
3. 2 weeks (approx.) later - I send a hard copy letter to their home.
4. Several months later - I send them a general letter about our company.

I almost never call them on the phone - if they want to avoid me I make it easy on them by only contacting by e-mail and real mail. It sounds like I should probably shorten up the time between 1 and 2 and 2 and 3. I may need to have an admin. person do that for me since I have trouble keeping up with it.

[vangogh]

Bill that's pretty much what I do. I'll always answer the initial email. But I've learned to throw in some kind of price even if it has to be somewhat vague. That seems to very quickly sort out the legit requests from the tire-kickers.

Steve it probably would make sense to shorten the time between some of your steps. Maybe one week instead of two weeks. I assume you keep some record of all the calls. Is there a way to tie it into a calendar application that alerts you what day to send. With the email you could use a mailing list to send out the emails automatically too.

[billbenson]

If you had some boiler plates, you could always batch the followup emails. That way you don't need to think about sending and keeping track of followup emails every day. I'm a big fan of automation when possible. there is probably software out there that does this. I'd just write it to get exactly what I want.

[Steve B]

True automation would be the ticket. Reminders won't work, because if I'm out of the house all day installing fences it still won't get done.

When I can afford to have a full-time admin. this will be one of his roles.

[Patrysha]

You likely don't need a full time admin for the work that currently comes in through the web though. After you get the initial query and work out a quote you could pass the information on to a VA who can set up his or her own system to send them out in a timely manner. If you set up the series of emails in advance all he/she will have to do is customize them...and that's easily done with a decent database/word program. How much business would this need to bring in to make it worth the maybe $20-$30 a day it would cost (if you hire domestic)? Unless you get a high volume of email, the price would go up according to how long it would take to do the task of course.

[Steve B]

I don't get any business through the web. They call me on the phone. That doesn't mean I couldn't use a VA to do this however. I did try using a VA two different times they were both terrible experiences. I know the concept of a VA is a great one, but I'll be reluctant to try it again.

However, you've given me a great idea. I currently have a part-time admin. that comes to the office a couple times a week. I could easily give this follow up to her and let her do it from home. She'll appreciate the extra work and she likes not having to come into the office since she has a toddler at home.

[Patrysha]

Great idea!

I am actually looking at training local women to do the work I would hire out a VA for. Not that I don't know some great VA's, it's just that with my huge shop local obsession that it makes more sense to find and train someone local.