Make sure a promise is kept
A promise is only kept if it exists as a follow-up, on a channel that can carry it, with a reason attached. Anything else — a line in a transcript, a sentence in a thread, an intention in somebody's head — is not a commitment the system can act on. The weekly job is turning the first kind into the second and closing what has gone stale.
What counts as a promise here#
Follow-ups run on six channels: email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone, any, and task. The last is work for a person — no drain ever sends it, and it appears as work for a person to do rather than pretending to be automation. Choosing task when a person must act is not a downgrade; it is the difference between a commitment somebody owns and one that quietly expires.
- Reason
- Why the commitment exists. A follow-up without one is not useful to whoever inherits it, which on a busy week is everybody.
- Due time
- When it fires. Duplicate protection treats the same time for the same person as the same commitment.
- Channel
- How it will be carried. A phone follow-up on a line that is off will not become an email by itself.
The weekly pass#
Open Follow-ups and read the due and upcoming lists together, not separately.
Result Overdue is a symptom; upcoming is the workload that will produce the next lot. Reading only the first guarantees you do this again next week.
For each overdue row, decide one of three things: it still matters and needs a new date, it has already been handled, or it never should have existed.
Result Complete, reschedule or cancel accordingly. Leaving it overdue is a fourth option that costs you the signal the list is meant to carry.
Scan the reasons column for blanks.
Result A commitment with no reason usually turns out to be a duplicate or a misfiled note. Fix the reason or close the row.
Ask the Assistant what was promised in the last week's conversations and calls that has no follow-up behind it.
Result This is the gap that matters — a promise made in a reply or on a call that nobody turned into a dated commitment.
Close everything for a relationship that has ended, in one action.
Result Stopping for a person clears their open commitments together, which is safer than cancelling them one at a time and missing one.
What the drains actually do#
| Channel | What happens at the due time | What stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Email, WhatsApp, SMS | An outbound goes through the same send boundary a person's own send uses | Autonomy, allowance, suppression |
| Phone | Calls are placed a couple at a time each tick, through the same gates as any outbound call | A line that is not ready — retried in an hour |
task | It appears for a person. Nothing is sent, ever | Nothing; it waits until somebody completes it |
any | Resolved to a channel that can carry it | The same gates as that channel |
Proving the loop is closed#
- The summary shows overdue trending down rather than flat — a flat overdue count with items changing underneath is the same debt with new names.
- Every open commitment has a reason. Sample five; if two are blank, the problem is upstream of this list.
- Nothing in Needs You for those customers is older than your review cycle.
- The outcomes recorded against phone follow-ups are calls placed or refusals with a stated reason, not silence.
If a follow-up fired and nothing reached the customer, that is a send question rather than a follow-up one: a message is reported as sent only when the provider acknowledges it, and an unacknowledged send is shown as uncertain rather than guessed either way.
Questions#
Connect promised a call-back on a call. Does that create a follow-up by itself?
That is exactly what the promise-integrity handling exists for: a commitment spoken on a call is meant to become a dated follow-up rather than a sentence in a transcript. Check the call's follow-up on the record — if it is missing, the troubleshooting page for a follow-up that was not booked covers it.
Why do I have two follow-ups for the same thing?
Duplicate protection treats the same due time for the same person as a duplicate, so two at different times are two commitments as far as the system is concerned. Cancel one and give the other the right reason.
Can I promise something on a channel that is switched off?
You can create it, and it will not be carried. That is why the channel column is worth scanning during the weekly pass — a phone follow-up on a line that is off waits, retries and eventually reads as missed.