Notes: FOLLOW-UP WHIT CLIENTS

(Dated 29/3/94)

FOLLOW-UP

Success of our business will depend upon effective follow-up. This is true of all businesses.

We need to follow-up

Internally, our own staff
Externally:

our clients
Candidates
Associates
Advt. Agents
Suppliers / Vendors
Maintenance Contractor
Banker

This list will grow as our business grows.

Most companies depend upon

Manual follow-up systems
or, still worse,
the "memory" of their executives to carry-out FOLLOW-UP work.

(Dated 30/3/94)

Arrange "sequentially" (the order in which these can happen / take place)

The moment any Staff member enters an activity or event, the System Software would Flash on the screen the next 2 or 3 activities and ask:

Which of these is likely to be your next activity? $\underline{\text{tick } \checkmark}$
When would you like it to be followed-up? $\underline{\text{enter date}}$
For follow-up, Whom would you like me to send a reminder? $\underline{\text{enter name/co.}}$
What type of standard letter or statement would you like me to send-out to that person?

Menu/Std. Letters		Std. Menu/Statement
a		1	$\checkmark$
b		2
c	$\checkmark$	3
d		4
e		5
f		6
g

NOW the system has clear "Instructions" in its memory which will activate the FOLLOW UP MODULE on the due date.

The EDP Manager can activate the follow-up module, first thing every morning. The system will flash on the screen, one by one, all the follow-ups due on that date.

At this stage, EDP Manager has following choices / options listed against each Follow-up Activity:

# 1. Give a green signal to go ahead and print-out follow-up letters.

# 2. Because of additional information gained on the subject-matter during the intervening period, decide to RE-SCHEDULE the follow-up action. On "Reschedule" command, Computer will flash all the questions all over again and the EDP Manager (or Marketing Manager)

The amount of follow-up will directly increase (proportionately) with the volume of business.

And, unless we take help of the technology (IT), the more and more of our staff will be spending more and more of their time simply "chasing" matters!

They will have less-and-less time left to do any DEVELOPMENTAL / CREATIVE work.

I read Norbert Whitehead's (?) "HUMAN USE OF HUMAN BEINGS" some 35 years ago. Time has come to implement his ideas.

We must harness the powers of

Computers
Telecommunications
Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Expert Systems

to takeover from our staff, the routine FOLLOW-UP : follow-up which does not add much "VALUE" to our business – but it is still essential, like oil/grease in an automobile.

A few Companies have taken help of Computers in their follow-up, but to a very limited extent.

e.g.

In L&T, Computer automatically print-out at the end of each month what supplies/materials are OVERDUE (as compared to normal, cumulative delivery schedule) from EACH of 2000+ suppliers/vendors.

There are many Companies, who have their computers print-out OVERDUE PAYMENTS (Customer Outstandings) every month-end, for each customer, in

descending order of "age" (oldest outstanding at top)
descending order of "Value" (biggest outstanding at top).

There could be also one, consolidated statement for all customers put together.

These statements could be

Business wise / Product wise
Salesman / Sales Manager / Reg. Mgr.-wise
Territory wise etc. etc.

will enter a fresh set of instructions.

# 3. Decide to follow-up by "phoning / faxing / e-mail"

So he gives command "OVERRIDE"

All of These should get recorded in the PURCHASE ORDER EXECUTION file.

This file should be preserved until a few months after the order has been executed. Thereafter, it can be erased (DROP DEAD DATE?).

The purpose of preserving it for a few months is that, on occassions, there could be disputes with a Client - whether we had done our job properly / timely / efficiently etc. So we will need PROOF. We already had such disputes with

Shah & Mahajan
STP Ltd
Mega-Meditex etc.

— when they asked us to refund advance.

EXTERNAL FOLLOW-UP

Here the most important (and most voluminous) follow-up will be with

The Clients and
The Candidates

Let us take-up one at a time.

CLIENTS

we need to follow-up Clients (including potential / prospective clients) for:

Getting response to an "Introduction letter" (general or special) offering our services.
Feedback on bio-data sent (whether interested / not interested etc).
Feedback on "Interviews" arranged (final) (Whether candidate rejected / short-listed etc). $\checkmark$
Feedback on "Invoices" raised (when sending payment).
Feedback on "Preliminary Interviews" held by (whom to call / when, for final interviews).
Feedback on "draft Advt / Artwork / Estimate" sent for approval.

Feedback on "TERMS – acceptance / Advances"
Follow-up requesting expediting of ESR form / Tabulation
Follow-up to expedite Company-Profile / Bal. Sheet / Org. Chart / Job-Description etc. (For forwarding to Candidates). Especially required for Sr.-level head-hunting.
Sending to client, confirmation of interview-dates by candidates called (Client should not have to follow us for this!)
Follow-up of "follow-up"!