How to Follow Up With a Client Without Being Pushy, Step by Step

Most owners don't skip follow-ups because they're lazy. They skip them because they don't want to be that business: the one that keeps chasing.

That worry is fair. But a family who enquired about support for their dad last Tuesday may simply have been busy. A short, useful note can be the thing that helps them decide.

So the question isn't "should we follow up?" It's "how do we follow up in a way that feels like help?"

Why follow-ups feel pushy

Look at the follow-ups that annoy you. They usually share three things:

• The same message, again. "Just checking in" adds nothing.
• No new information. You learn nothing you didn't know the first time.
• No exit. There's no easy way to say "not now" or "please stop".

Fix those three things and most of the pushiness goes away.

The sequence: four touches, each adding something

Here's a simple starting point. The days count from the enquiry.

How many touches? The sources on this disagree, and plenty of the numbers you'll see online are hard to trace. A sensible default is 3 to 5 touches. Start with four, watch what happens, and adjust for your own enquiries.

The rule that matters most: the sequence stops the moment someone replies. A reply means a person takes over.

The consent and opt-out part (do this first)

Australia's Spam Act applies to commercial emails and SMS. The ACMA's guidance comes down to a few points:

• Consent first. Make sure the person agreed to hear from you, for example with a clear tick box on your enquiry form, and record it. You can't send an email to ask for consent.
• Say who you are. Every message clearly identifies your business and how to contact you.
• A working opt-out. Every message includes an easy way to unsubscribe, and you honour it within five working days.

Read the ACMA's own page before you set this up. Rules are applied to your situation, not to a blog post. If you're unsure whether a particular contact gave consent, leave them out until you've checked.

Build it with tools you already have

You don't need a new platform to start. A sheet and your email account will do.

Step by step

1. Make a follow-up sheet. Columns: enquiry date, name, how they enquired, what they asked about, consent noted (yes/no), touch 1 sent, touch 2 sent, touch 3 sent, touch 4 sent, replied (yes/no), unsubscribed (yes/no), owner.
2. Write your four templates once. Keep them short. Each one adds something new, from the table above.
3. Add the opt-out line to every template. For example: "If you'd rather not hear from us, reply STOP or use the unsubscribe link and we'll take you off the list."
4. Each morning, check the sheet. Who is due a touch today? Who replied? Anyone who replied or unsubscribed comes off the sequence.
5. Draft with AI, approve as a person. Use the prompt below to draft each touch from the enquiry details. Read it, change what's wrong, then send or schedule it. Most email tools let you schedule a message.
6. Review after a month. Which touch gets replies? Which gets unsubscribes? Change one thing at a time.

Inside the NDIS and aged care provider I have worked with since 2017, referrer lists and follow-up sequences were built by hand first, in a sheet much like this one. Only once the steps were clear did AI come in to draft the messages. That order matters. If you can't run it by hand, an automation will just do the wrong thing faster.

The prompt you can copy

You supply the facts and the judgement. The AI drafts.

You are helping me draft a follow-up message for a person who enquired
with our business. Do not give any clinical advice.

About us: [business name, what you do, where you are]
Our tone: [warm, plain, short. Add 2-3 words that describe how you speak]

The enquiry:
- Date: [date]
- What they asked about: [summary, no health details beyond what's needed]
- How they contacted us: [form / phone / email]

This is touch number [1 / 2 / 3 / 4] of 4.
The new thing this message should add: [e.g. what the first visit involves]

Rules:
- Under 120 words.
- Do not repeat earlier messages. Earlier messages said: [paste or summarise]
- No pressure, no urgency, no discounts.
- End with this exact opt-out line: [your opt-out wording]
- Sign off as: [name, role, business, phone]

Give me two versions so I can pick one.

Checklist before you switch it on

• Consent checked for everyone in the sheet
• Every template names your business and has an opt-out
• Unsubscribes come off within five working days (sooner is better)
• A reply stops the sequence and goes to a named person
• No message gives clinical advice
• A person reads every draft before it goes out

What a person must still decide

AI can draft and a sheet can remember. These decisions stay with you:

• Whether this person should be followed up at all. Some enquiries are sensitive. A distressed message needs a call, not a sequence.
• What's genuinely useful at each step for your clients, not for a generic business.
• When to stop early. If something in a reply tells you to back off, back off.
• Whether consent is clear. If you're not sure, the answer is no until you've checked.

Good follow-up is mostly memory and care. The system handles the memory. You bring the care.

If you'd like this set up for you, that's what the free check is for.

General information only — not clinical, legal or financial advice. No client is named and nothing here describes a patient or participant. Written by Aishah Shah, Western Sydney.