Through to signature

How do you follow a customer request from first contact through to signature?

To follow a customer request from first contact through to signature, give every stage a written next step. Muzau agents open a row for each request, gather the answers to your questions, draft the meeting recap and follow up with the customer who goes quiet. You approve every next step proposed and, by default, every recap. Follow-up stops once the quote is signed in Yousign or DocuSign, or when your team sets its row to "signed".

Why a request gets lost between two stages

A request passes through several hands before it is signed: the inbox that receives it, the person who asks the questions, the salesperson who holds the meeting, the one who prices the quote. It is the handover from one stage to the next that gets lost: the customer's answer stays in a thread, the promised recap never goes out, the quote waits for a follow-up nobody noted.

Your team keeps the relationship, the meeting, the price and the decision. The agents take the written follow-ups between stages, the ones that demand rigor.

How the agent goes about it

Input

A request received by email or on the site chat, then the meeting notes

It does

Opens a row, gathers the answers, drafts every next step and every follow-up

It delivers

The last dated action on each row, and follow-ups that stop at the reply or the signature

One row per request, from the first message

Each request sent by email to a Muzau agent opens a row in its tracking file: two requests from the same customer make two rows. On the site chat, the visitor gets in as soon as they leave their email. Your questions are the columns of this file: the agent fills them from the conversation, in the customer's own words, and a question left unanswered stays empty. It needs access to the records, which is refused by default.

Once the request is qualified, the next step is proposed to you

It is the software, not the AI, that checks that every expected question has its answer. You receive a card in "To do" and an email: the customer's name, their request, their answers in your order. The card proposes the next step in one click: a meeting, a polite refusal, or the next step you planned, such as a quote or a price. The first is already drafted, and you always review before it goes out. To choose these questions, see how to qualify a prospect.

From meeting to quote, the recap then the follow-ups

From your meeting notes, the agent drafts the recap and puts it in "To approve": see follow-up after a meeting. Once the recap is sent, the customer is followed up by default at D+3, D+7 and D+14 if they do not reply. For the quote, put the agent's address in copy of your send: a file opens, and the follow-up tracks it. Follow-ups stop as soon as the customer replies, or a colleague writes to them from a connected inbox.

Signing the quote closes the follow-up

With Yousign or DocuSign connected, the signed quote is seen: follow-up stops, or moves on to the next stage. A quote signed on paper or sent back as a PDF is not spotted: your team then closes the follow-up by writing "signed", "accepted" or "won" in the status column. The row moves to "Settled / accepted", and nothing more is followed up. If you give it the right, the agent can also write this status when the customer confirms by email, in a Muzau file or one imported as CSV, not in a tracked Google sheet. See how to stop follow-up when the quote is signed.

The five handovers of a request, and what to pass on at each

At every handover, with or without a tool, the next person should receive the following in writing.

• From request to first reply. The request in the customer's own words, the date it arrived and the name of whoever owns it. A request with no name goes unanswered: everyone thinks someone else is handling it.
• From qualification to meeting. The answers already given, and what is still missing. At the meeting, the customer should not have to repeat what they already wrote.
• From meeting to quote. What was promised, by whom and by when. Whoever prices the quote reads the recap sent to the customer before drafting it.
• From quote to decision. The send date and the date of the first follow-up, set when the quote is sent. Each follow-up recalls what was agreed and asks a single question.
• From signature to what comes next. The status written the same day, the follow-ups stopped, and the name of whoever now looks after the customer, given to the customer.

To test your handovers, pick a request in progress at random: a colleague who has not followed it should be able to say its stage, its next action and who owes it. If they have to ask someone, look for the handover where the written record stopped: that is where your requests get lost. For the overall method, see customer follow-up in a small business.

What it does not do

• It does not spot a quote signed outside Yousign or DocuSign, on paper or as a PDF sent back: the row's status then closes the follow-up.
• It does not count signed sales or revenue, and gives no conversion rate.
• It does not send the next step of a complete record on its own: meeting, quote or polite refusal, you read it before it goes out.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a CRM to follow a request through to signature?

No. One row per request is enough, with the customer's answers, the last dated action and the status: that is the tracking file a Muzau agent keeps, which can also be copied into a Google Sheets sheet. If you use HubSpot or Pipedrive, give Muzau the CRM's BCC address: every recap you approve and send is copied there.

How do you close the follow-up on a quote signed on paper or by email?

Write "signed" or "accepted" in the status column of its row: in a Muzau agent's tracking file, the row moves to "Settled / accepted" and nothing more is followed up. A signature outside Yousign or DocuSign is not spotted on its own. If you give it the right, the agent can also change this status when the customer confirms by email, in a Muzau or imported file, not in a tracked Google sheet.

How do you hand a customer request over to a colleague?

Pass on in writing the request in the customer's own words, their answers, what was promised and the next dated action, in the same place for the whole team. With Muzau, each request has its row in an agent's tracking file, with its last dated action. When a colleague writes to the customer from a connected inbox, the follow-up stops and the row says so.

How many follow-ups should you send between the quote and the signature?

Set the rhythm when you send the quote, rather than as the wait goes on. A Muzau agent follows up by default at D+3, D+7 and D+14 after sending; you can go up to six follow-ups, spaced 1 to 90 days apart. Follow-ups stop as soon as the customer replies or a colleague writes to them from a connected inbox.

How do you turn a prospect into a customer without losing them along the way?

Give every stage a next step, an owner and a date: a reply to their request, a meeting, a recap, a quote, then follow-ups until their decision. With Muzau, the agents draft these next steps and, by default, you review them; the relationship and the price stay with your team.