Schedule a quote follow-up or send a reminder: choose the right Alfie action

“Follow up the quote on Friday” can mean two very different things: create an internal reminder for the salesperson or send a message to the customer. Confusing them can contact a client too early or leave a quote untouched. Alfie has separate actions for schedule_followup and send_offer_reminder. Their permissions, side effects and confirmation needs reflect the difference between planning work and communicating externally.

Clarify the intended outcome

Ask whether the user wants a future internal task or an immediate customer message. Capture quote, customer, owner and date. If the instruction includes message wording, confirm whether it is a draft for later review or content to send now.

Do not infer external consent from the word “follow up”. The safest question is short and explicit.

Use scheduling for internal ownership

schedule_followup creates an internal follow-up and requires customer write permission. It records when the team should act without sending the quote reminder itself. Use it when timing, owner or customer readiness still needs attention.

Include a useful subject and context so the future task does not force the salesperson to reconstruct the entire history.

Use the reminder action for external delivery

send_offer_reminder sends externally and requires offers.send. The action is high risk and requires confirmation across current channels. Verify recipient, subject, body, quote status and whether the customer has already replied through another channel.

An external send cannot be meaningfully rolled back. Preview is therefore a business control, not a cosmetic step.

Check timing and duplication

Review the last contact, promised response date and any scheduled activity. Avoid sending a reminder on the day the customer asked you to wait. Prevent duplicate messages from automation, salesperson and project lead.

When a quote is no longer valid, route it to a commercial review before asking for acceptance.

Confirm only the selected action

Alfie should display whether it will schedule or send, with the target and date. Voice execution requires confirmation for write actions, while the high-risk reminder also carries explicit confirmation requirements on WhatsApp. Enfin applies channel support, permissions and audit logging.

Cancel if the preview changes the intended mode. Do not accept a send because the text itself looks correct.

Review outcomes without automating pressure

Track scheduled tasks completed, reminders sent and customer responses. Adjust cadence based on the company’s own process, not invented conversion claims. A governed follow-up system helps ensure every quote has an owner while preserving human judgement about the relationship.

Read also diagnose unanswered quotes and meet Alfie.