During leave

How do you follow up with customers when a salesperson is on leave?

To follow up with customers when a salesperson is on leave, a Muzau agent replies to the emails you give it with what the Brain knows about your business: offers, prices, lead times. By default it follows up at D+3, D+7 and D+14 on the quotes it tracks, with the salesperson in copy. What it does not know, or what needs judgment, goes back to the team. You choose what goes out on its own and what a colleague approves first.

Why customers wait while a salesperson is on leave

Before leaving, the salesperson sets an out-of-office message: “back on [day]”. A customer who writes with a simple question waits for their return, or goes elsewhere. The quote sent the day before departure is followed up by no one, and the colleague covering does not know which ones are waiting for an answer.

The team keeps the relationship and the decisions. What gets lost during the absence is regular follow-up: answering questions that already have an answer, following up on the right date. That is the part the agent keeps up.

How the agent goes about it

Input

The emails addressed to the absent salesperson, and the messages they left in progress

It does

Replies with what the Brain knows, follows up on the planned days, hands over to the team

It delivers

Replies to customers, follow-ups with the salesperson in copy, a card for anything that needs judgment

A reply rather than an out-of-office message

During the absence, a rule on the connected mailbox (Gmail, Outlook or IMAP) hands the emails addressed to the salesperson to the agent. Tick the “it replies” box on that rule: it is not ticked by default. You can also forward their mailbox to a receiving address that Muzau creates for the agent. Before writing, the agent rereads the last ten messages of the exchange, then replies with what the Brain knows about your business. If it cannot find the answer, it tells the customer so and the question goes back to the team. On their return, you remove the rule.

Open quotes are followed up, with the salesperson in copy

The messages the agent tracks, because they had its address in copy or because it rereads them in Sent, keep being followed up: by default at D+3, D+7 and D+14, Monday to Friday at 9 am, Paris time. The follow-up goes in the original thread, with the salesperson who sent it in copy: on their return, they find it in their mailbox. A customer’s out-of-office message does not count as a reply; a colleague who writes to the customer from a connected mailbox, or from Muzau, stops the follow-up. See how to track the whole team’s quotes.

Anything that needs judgment waits for the team

When a request goes beyond what the agent can handle (calling the customer back, deciding, checking information it does not have), a card in “To do” says who wrote, what needs doing and why. Opening it, the colleague finds a prepared reply to review. Muzau also emails the account owner, then reminds them after four hours if the request is still waiting. With Slack or Microsoft Teams connected, the agent alerts the team there: see how to get notified in Slack or Teams.

You choose what goes out without the salesperson

On the “Autonomy” page, you set, for each type of action, what the agents do on their own and what they submit first. At the start, the “Email follow-ups” agent submits every follow-up: it waits for approval in “Management”. During the absence, a colleague invited to the same Muzau workspace (Pro and Enterprise plans) approves what is waiting. Even when set to send on its own, the agent holds back a reply it is unsure about. Before leaving, the schedule for the next 14 days shows each planned follow-up: you read it, correct it or drag it to another day.

Before leaving on leave: a salesperson’s handover

With or without a tool, a handover is prepared the week of departure, not the evening before.

• The list of open deals: the customer, the subject, the date of the last message, the next step. One line per deal, not a story.
• A colleague named for each customer waiting for a decision, and that customer told before the departure, with the colleague’s name.
• What the colleague can say on their own (a usual lead time, a document to resend) and what waits for the return: a discount, a firm date, a complaint.
• The leave entered in the calendar as “busy” or “away”, so no one proposes a meeting on those days.
• On return, the threads reread before calling anyone back: a customer does not like re-explaining what they told a colleague.

The out-of-office message fits in three lines, for example: “I am away until [day]. For an ongoing matter, write to [first name], [address]. Your email has been received and will be followed up in the meantime.” Avoid “I will reply on my return” if someone replies before: the customer no longer knows who to expect.

What it does not do

• It does not reply to a question the Brain has no answer to: it tells the customer so, and the question goes back to the team.
• It sees neither a customer’s reply addressed only to the salesperson on a mailbox that is not connected, nor a phone call: the follow-up continues until someone cancels it.
• It does not write from each salesperson’s mailbox: its emails go out from the business’s connected mailbox, or from the agent’s address.

Frequently asked questions

What should I put in my out-of-office message before going on leave?

The return date, the name and address of the person to contact for an ongoing matter, and what happens in the meantime. If a Muzau agent replies to emails during the absence, simply say so: the customer knows their email will be read and followed up.

Will a quote sent the day before leave be followed up?

Yes, if a Muzau agent tracks it: the quote has the agent’s address in copy, or the agent rereads the Sent folder of a connected mailbox, according to a rule, before sending. The first follow-up is planned by default at D+3, or the following Monday if D+3 falls on a weekend, in the quote’s thread and with the salesperson in copy. As long as the agent submits its follow-ups, a colleague approves it before it goes out.

Should I follow up with a customer who is on leave?

A follow-up sent during a customer’s leave often gets lost among the emails waiting on their return: better to place it after their return date. For a Muzau agent, an out-of-office message does not count as a reply: the follow-up continues on the planned days. If you know the customer’s return date, you move the planned follow-up to a later day, without losing the text already prepared.

Who should follow up with an absent salesperson’s customers?

A colleague named before the departure, for each customer waiting for a decision. With Muzau, that colleague is invited to the same workspace (Pro and Enterprise plans) and approves what the agent has prepared, in “To approve” and “Management”. One exception: recaps drawn from a salesperson’s Granola notes are shown only to them.

How do I pick my deals back up on returning from leave?

Reread each deal’s thread before calling a customer back. With a Muzau agent, every follow-up is in your mailbox, in copy, in the thread of the exchange, and each line of the tracking file shows the agent’s last action, dated. You can also ask it “where are you at?”: it answers with its latest actions, not the whole history.