In this podcast episode Shaun Whynacht and Jodi discuss why systematic follow‑up is crucial for businesses. They explain that clients remember the emotional experience of being followed up more than the actual service quality, highlighting a psychological bias toward feeling valued. The conversation covers the importance of following up with leads to avoid losing potential clients, noting that most conversions happen after several touchpoints (often around the 7th‑8th contact). They advocate a multi‑channel approach—email, text, social media, phone, and in‑person meetings—to ensure messages reach prospects despite spam filters or personal preferences. The hosts stress that follow‑up isn’t limited to new leads; existing and former clients also benefit from check‑ins that provide value rather than hard sales pitches. They discuss balancing personalization with automation, recommending tools such as the Keep platform, CRMs like Keap, phone reminders, and voice assistants (Siri, Google) to automate tasks while maintaining a personal tone. Finally, they advise listeners to design a follow‑up system that aligns with their business processes and client expectations, using calendars, reminders, or CRM workflows, and to consistently stick to the chosen system.
Chapters
People tend to remember that, you know, that what you just said, that he consistently follows up, more than they remember the actual quality of the service. And that just has to do with, you know, human psychology, right? Where we remember the emotions that we felt. We don't remember, you know, the exact words or the exact conversation or the exact series of events. We remember how we felt.
All right, here we are, another episode, and we're going to be covering follow-up. So Jodi, take it away. What's, what's the importance of follow-up?
Oh geez, the pressure. Well, you know, there's following up in a lot of different senses, right? But I think everybody's mind first goes to following up with leads, which is kind of seen as that most important because you can easily lose somebody who could have been a really, really good client just because you didn't follow up. And so looking at it from that side of things, that's how people see the most importance in it. And, you know, once again, we talked about organization in the last episode. It comes down to being organized and having a system in place to, you know, make sure that you don't kind of ease up on those follow-ups and end up losing valuable clients.
Absolutely. And, you know, rarely does the single follow-up work. You know, I think the stats say it's usually like you know, between the 7th and 8th follow-up or touchpoint that a prospect will actually like come back. You know, and that's obviously not for everyone. You have, you know, people where you can follow up once and they'll get back to you. But I think that the key thing that I've found that's been working lately is don't rely on one method of following up. So, you know, if we get a prospect and we do a quote and send an email to them with the quote in it, you know, if I was just relying on just emailing again to follow up and emailing again to follow up, Right? If for some reason your email was in their spam, so are all those follow-ups, right? So I'll send the quote and then maybe I'll follow up by text, or if I have them on Facebook, I'll then send a Facebook message, right? So there's multiple methods where you're like doing a ton of follow-up and then suddenly you send a Facebook message, you get a reply right away, and they're like, oh, I didn't see that, right? Well, had you not done that, right, you still would have been either writing them off as a dead lead or spending the rest of your life just following up with this person that wasn't there.
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, you know, we all have different preferences when it comes to that. I mean, think about in your personal life, if a company was to be contacting you, like, I definitely know that I'd prefer a text message than an email or a phone call. But, you know, that's just one factor you have to consider. You also have to consider like, what's the level of vulnerability of, you know, the service or the product that you're offering? And like, you know, would somebody probably be more comfortable giving you that information or having a conversation with you? About it over the phone. You know, sometimes it's even in-person follow-ups, you know, setting up some type of meeting so you can go over that and, you know, reassure them or give them the answers to any questions that they have. But I'd say there's definitely a wide variety of factors you have to consider before you can kind of make a final decision on how you want to set your follow-up system and what you want that content to actually be.
Yeah, and your follow-up doesn't have to be only for leads or new prospects that are there. You know, you've got your existing clients, so maybe you have a meeting with with them over Zoom or over the phone, and you've made some action items that you're going to do, it's a nice courtesy to follow up after and say, you know, hey, I just wanted to send a follow-up after our call. These are the things I'm gonna be working on. I'll have them to you by whatever date, right? That is, you know, it's gonna help you actually kind of verbalize and put them out, and it also really confirms with them that, you know, what you're going to do. But you also have a record now that, you know, if later you wanted to go back and like, what was it that I said I was gonna do? Just look through your sent history and you've got it there. Right, so there's a lot of different options for follow-up.
[Speaker] Yeah, and I mean, I also kind of group that like checking in aspect with following up. You know, if you haven't heard from a client in a while and it's, you know, they're off, you know, getting some type of content for you or, you know, whatever it might be, trying to make a decision, just checking in with them and seeing how they're doing, if they have any questions, just that like simple touchpoint and reaching out to them can feel you know, really good to, to make sure, you know, you let them know that they have your support and anytime you need them or they need you, you're there. And, you know, there's also following up after a client isn't even working with you anymore, making sure that you're doing that, that little thing to go above and beyond, providing them some type of value or just letting them know that you're there. And another thing is to really keep in mind that, you know, Don't just shove sales down their throat and, you know, talk about, you know, what it is you want the next step to be, or following up in the sense of, you know, trying to sell them more. It's about giving them value and making sure that they feel appreciated as a customer.
Yeah, and I guess in my own, I guess, business life, you know, somebody that stands out that's followed up with me constantly has been Chuck Hennessey, who is now with the Royal Bank in Kentville. Who was previously with Scotiabank. I mean, he is an amazing person, not only just on the bank side, but as just a human being. And, you know, he's always, from 10 years of doing business banking with him, has followed up consistently year over year for no sales-oriented reason. He just checks in. He's like, hey, you know, just seeing how things are going, you know, wishing you all the best, and if you need me, I'm here, right? So He's always top of mind, and no one else has ever done that. It's like, you know, those friends that you have that you only hear about when they want something from you. There are businesses out there that the only time you hear from them is when they want to sell you something, and you don't want to be that person, right? You don't want to be that person that's showing love because you want something from them.
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, depending on the company and your follow-up process, this can either be fortunate or unfortunate, but You know, people tend to remember that, you know, that what you just said, that he consistently follows up, more than they remember the actual quality of the service. And that just has to do with, you know, human psychology, right? Where we remember the emotions that we felt, we don't remember, you know, the exact words or the exact conversation or the exact series of events. We remember how we felt. So that's really important to keep in mind when you're considering your follow-up.
System. And one thing I want to go back to when you were talking about, you know, checking in with clients is you have to consider, you know, what they're experiencing. So let's say, you know, you're a client, you're working with a marketing firm, and we'll use our example here, um, and you said, hey, can you get me this, this, this, or can you write this, or can you shoot this video? And you're like, yeah, I can do that. Then you get off that call and you're like, you start to do it and you struggle with it, and then you start to feel embarrassed, like I should be able to do this. So I don't want to reach out and be like, I need some more guidance or that. So, you know, for you to touch base and say, hey, you know, how's it going? You have any questions? You've kind of taken that off. You're like, yeah, actually, you know, I'm struggling with this, right? Versus waiting till the next meeting when you're supposed to deliver it, and then that anxiety is building up because you haven't met that deadline, right? So you're checking in, you're supporting them along the way. You know, it's that hand-holding side of things.
Yeah, absolutely. And You know, like I mentioned, that's the part that they're going to remember.
Yeah, you know, the fact that this company has always been there for me, um, and I can ask questions at any point, right? So, you know, when it comes to systems for follow-up, you know, we're huge supporters of, uh, of Keep. I mean, there's other systems out there, there's a lot of them, but what I enjoy about it is the fact that you've got that automated power to have, you know, onboarding processes to follow up and, you know, post-meeting deliveries. But You can do things with email, with text right there. You can do it on your mobile app. So, you know, let's say I run into either a client or a prospect while I'm grocery shopping and I have a chat with them and I want to send them a link to book a meeting. I can do that in the parking lot before I even get home and it's not forgotten, right? Or I can, you know, set a task for someone else to, to follow up with them.
Yeah, definitely. And I mean, a lot of people have that perception of automation being you know, too impersonal. Is that a word?
Impersonal? It is now.
Okay, impersonal. I said it and I was like, that doesn't sound right.
We make up lots of words on the show.
We really do. Um, anyway, so impersonal. Um, but, you know, wording it in a way that, you know, is appropriate and, you know, personal. Um, but with keep too, if, if you have that fear of it not being personal enough, then you can just set a reminder to follow up because a lot of times the biggest issue isn't necessarily that time because, you know, it can take less than 5 minutes to follow up with somebody. It's remembering to do it. So, you know, even just setting a reminder if you aren't currently using some type of software that has that automation aspect, just setting reminders in your phone. You know, set them for a week after you had that conversation or a month after, whatever it might be, just making sure that you're reminding yourself to to follow through with those follow-ups.
Yeah, and then I mean the voice side of all the phones, I mean you've got Siri, you've got Google, you've got all those for your phones. I mean they will recognize commands like asking it to remind you to follow up with so-and-so in 3 days or next week or things like that, and it has reminder systems in it where you don't even have to even touch the device, you can just audibly do that.
Yeah, exactly. You know, not remembering or things being taking too much time and stuff, they're not excuses anymore because there's technology now that makes it so ridiculously easy and convenient for us.
For sure. And I think the closing off point of this is looking at your business and figuring out all the different elements of it that, you know, you could be following up for, and then figuring out a system that's gonna work well with you for that. And it could just be, you know, putting it in a calendar. It could be using your Google or, Siri or Alexa or any of those systems for that. Or you can use a CRM system like Keap, right? It's just a matter of getting back to coming up with a system that works for you and sticking with it.
Absolutely, and I mean, just to add on to that, try to take the— when you're thinking about that and thinking about what system would be best, you have to think about it from your client's perspective. So, you know, what's their average— what's the average experience with your company at every touchpoint? You know, how can you, how can you make that better through following up?
And having systems to be able to text them. If you just want to use it from your phone, great, no problem. But just ask the client, hey, how do you prefer to be communicated with? Right, some say email, some will say give me a call, some will say text, right? And just making sure that you're able to follow up by those clients in those different ways.
