A follow-up did not go out
A due follow-up that produced no message almost always hit one of six gates: the channel is task and never drains, autonomy held it for approval, the recipient is suppressed, the line or mailbox was not ready, the budget could not cover the work, or it was more than 24 hours late and was closed as missed. The row records which, in Connect's own words.
What you are looking at#
The follow-up is on the screen with a due time in the past. There is no message on the person's timeline, no call in their history, and the commitment has either stayed open or closed with an outcome you do not recognise. Nothing is necessarily broken: five of the six causes below are Connect deciding not to act, and each one writes down why.
The outcome recorded against the row is the fastest evidence available. The phone drain writes one of three things — that a call was placed, that the row is awaiting approval, or that execution was refused with a reason. A row carrying none of the three has not been reached yet, which is a different problem with a different fix.
The six causes, most likely first#
| Cause | How it reads on the row | What clears it |
|---|---|---|
The channel is task | Shown as work for a person to do | Nothing — no drain ever sends a task. A person does it and marks it complete |
| Autonomy holds it | Awaiting approval | Somebody approves it in Needs You |
| Suppression or do-not-contact | Refused, with the suppression named | Clearing the suppression, where it is one that may be cleared |
| The line or mailbox is not ready | Refused; retried in about an hour | The channel becoming healthy again |
| The budget cannot cover the work | Refused, with the budget named | The budget resetting, or being raised |
| More than 24 hours late | Closed as missed | Nothing. A very late call-back is worse than none, so the row closes rather than rings |
What Connect did complete#
- The commitment was recorded with its reason, its channel and its due time, and it is still on the record.
- The drain reached the row and evaluated it — the recorded outcome is the proof that it did.
- For a held row, the message was generated before the gate, so approving it does not start from nothing.
- The person's relationship record, timeline and history are untouched and correct.
- The decision — refused, held or missed — is in the audit trail with its reason.
What Connect did not complete#
- No message was handed to a mailbox, a messaging provider or a carrier, so there is nothing in flight and nothing to recall.
- The recipient experienced nothing at all. A held follow-up is not a slow chase; it is no chase, and the customer's own clock is still running.
- A missed row was not converted into a later attempt. Closing it is the decision, not a step towards one.
- No channel usage was metered for a message that was never generated or never sent.
What you can do now#
Read the outcome on the row before changing anything.
Result It names the gate. Five of the six causes need different fixes, and guessing spends the window the commitment still has.
If it is awaiting approval, open Needs You and decide.
Result Approval executes immediately and the item leaves the queue.
If it was refused for suppression, look at the person's identity rather than at the follow-up.
Result The suppression sits on the address, so scheduling the same chase again on the same channel refuses again.
If it closed as missed, decide whether the commitment still makes sense and schedule a fresh one with a fresh reason.
Result The new row is an honest commitment with an honest due time, rather than a stale one pretending to be current.
What an administrator can do#
An administrator can change the autonomy rule for the channel or for the contact so that future follow-ups execute without waiting; check the narrowest scope first, because a rule on one contact is what usually holds a single row while everything else runs. They can also review line and mailbox health, since a channel that keeps refusing is a channel problem rather than a queue problem.
Clearing a suppression is an administrator action and it leaves a record. A do-not-contact entry is deliberately harder to clear than a bounce, and the Assistant cannot clear one at all — its rights are narrower than a person's precisely here.
When to escalate#
Escalate when the recorded outcome matches nothing above, when rows on a healthy channel are refused repeatedly with the same reason, or when follow-ups stop being evaluated at all — a queue where nothing has been reached for hours is a runner problem, not a rules problem. Say which follow-ups, which channel and what the rows record. That is enough to place the fault without anybody reading a log.
Questions#
Why does a task follow-up never send anything?
Because it is not a message. The task channel means work for a person, shown as 'For a person to do', and no drain touches it. If Connect was meant to write, the channel needed to be email, whatsapp, phone or any.
Can I make a missed follow-up run anyway?
No. Past 24 hours late a phone follow-up is closed as missed rather than executed, on purpose. Schedule a new commitment with a current due time and a reason that acknowledges the delay.
The row says refused and names a budget. Is that a fault?
No, that is the budget working. Work that would exceed the remaining allowance is refused before it starts rather than abandoned halfway, which is the failure that leaves a customer half-answered.