Article: Follow-up and Success Go Hand-In-Hand
Author: Kim Eyer

Success in business often depends on your follow-up skills. Lack of
follow-up is something much too common these days. It’s bad for your
business, and very hard on your professional image.

When it comes to small business, volunteer organizations, and even
personal careers in corporate environments, follow-up is where many
individuals and business owners miss the boat.

We often see the concept of follow-up referred to in various articles
and written business advise. You have probably seen many examples of
this; perhaps in any number of articles about providing good customer
service as a key to building a successful business and satisfied
customer base. Typical advise might include a) answer customer
inquiries on a timely basis, b) handle customer complaints promptly
and courteously, c) ask customers or website visitors for feedback,
d) ship products as quickly as possible, etc., etc. All of these are
examples of follow-up skills.

Follow-up involves returning to previous tasks, checking on the
progress of your ventures, finishing partially started projects,
returning phone calls and emails whether the original contact was
from a customer or not, consulting with associates and business
contacts regularly, and applying some self discipline and self
organizing methods. Business people cannot just set things in motion
and then leave them to coast by on their own. Here are some simple
basic follow-up rules:

1) Keep a list or follow-up file. It’s hard to remember every little
thing we intend to do. Develop a habit of jotting these things down
and keeping a follow-up list or file for reference to keep track of
them.

2) Schedule follow-up. When are you supposed to take more action on
today’s contact or project? Next week? Two months from now? Make a
note on your calendar now, and tell the secretary to pull the file
for the same day.

3) Remember follow-up is a matter of professional courtesy. Leaving
other parties unanswered for days at a time is considered
discourteous. Get back with others in a timely fashion whether they
are a customer or not.

4) Think about commitments before you make them. Do not volunteer for
a task or as a project team member if you do not have the time or
intention of following through.

5) Delegate follow-up when necessary. No one can do everything for
his or her self. Delegate some follow-up tasks to associates and
employees. This gives the employee a vote of confidence, and improves
your company or team follow-up.

6) Have discipline. I’ll be the first to admit that follow-up can
sometimes feel like a mundane chore, or even a small detail we don’t
have time for today. It requires discipline sometimes to make
yourself follow-up.


In order to better understand how critical follow-up is to our
success, let’s review some typical examples of improper follow-up and
the damage they cause:

Failure to call people back or answer email – Most of us probably
give the best and quickest response to customer calls or emails. But,
it is equally important to return calls from vendors, suppliers,
advertising agencies, business contacts and so forth. When these
people call and/or leave messages, your response is important to
them. When you delay getting back to these people, you leave the
impression that they’re not a priority to you and your business. If
you want better response when you call for a short notice delivery,
inquire about a product, or want to squeeze an ad in before
tomorrow’s deadline, then your best bet is the person you called will
be inclined to get right back with you because they know you have
always done the same. If you handout sloppy follow-up on a regular
basis, then you can expect to get the same in return.

Not completing volunteer commitments – Lots of us have roles in
volunteer organizations. The question is, do we follow-up on the
commitments we make to them? Having served in various roles with
Scouting, United Way, Rotary, and so forth, I have to say it is a
cardinal sin to leave people in volunteer organizations with
unfulfilled promises. All of your enthusiasm for the organization
does no good when others in the group begin realizing you say you
will do things that never happen, or worse, you later back out. This
is exceptionally damaging to your professional image. Remember, many
of these same group members are also business community members. You
can leave a very negative lasting impression that will carry over
into your business dealings.

Contacting another business and then leaving them hanging – Perhaps
you are interested in someone’s product or services for potential
purchase by your own business. You call this Company A, make a
contact, ask a question or two. Maybe you call back, gather more
information, request a quote. Finally you decide to go with another
product or services from Company B, but Company A hears nothing from
you. They have to call repeatedly or send a letter or whatever before
you finally get back with them. This is generally regarded as rude –
not the fact that you selected someone else’s product, but the fact
that you failed to inform Company A and made them follow-up
repeatedly before you did.

Not checking on critical parts or other materials on order – I’m sure
you’ve seen this happen. Your company has ordered something that was
supposed to be in time for you to meet a deadline. Suddenly, the
delivery day for the parts is here, but you get no delivery. Now, I
admit, the supplier is at fault for not making the delivery and not
informing your company of an expected delay. But, you know, if it’s
really that important, why didn’t someone call the supplier and check
our delivery status last week?

Waiting for associates to inquire before doing anything – This is the
age-old habit of waiting until others are asking or pressuring that
they need something before taking any action. It forces others to
become “squeaky wheels”. I’m willing to bet you find it annoying to
put up with this from the same person or business contact all the
time. Don’t make others squeak at you to move you into addressing
their needs and issues.

In summary, I can’t say enough about how important follow-up actually
is to success. It makes a huge difference in how others perceive your
ability and willingness to get things done, work together, handle
problems and concerns, and keep problems from flaring up. Pick out
any successful person you see or hear from regularly. Watch their
daily business habits a bit, and you will realize they follow-up
constantly, as if it comes second nature to them. People who follow-
up are generally highly regarded in business and other organizations.
You’ll hear them referred to
as “reliable”, “dependable”, “concerned”, “honest” and “considerate”.
It’s actually their follow-up skills that constitute this success.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim Eyer, of http://www.eyerstation.com publishes the WebSiteObserver
eZine for webmasters and small businesses. To get your monthly copy
and access to its support website, send a blank email to
mailto:eyerstation@carolina.net. Kim also operates a successful retail
website at http://www.eintown.comeInTown.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------