The order of tasks
- New enquiries. Shortest shelf life, most expensive delay.
- Stalled threads. The ones with no reply or no next step.
- Scheduled contacts. The ones where something was agreed for today.
- The base. Upselling and reactivation, once the first three are clear.
The first thirty minutes
- enquiries that arrived outside working hours
- yesterday's missed calls, and who has not been rung back
- the list of threads stalling today
The last thirty minutes
- recording every contact of the day in the system
- a next-step date on every active deal
- the daily report: three or four numbers
Calls and written threads
Calls get grouped into blocks: two or three windows of an hour each, rather than one call at a time between other jobs. Written threads work the other way, they need reactions through the day, because response speed is what counts there. So call windows go in the hours when enquiry volume is lower.
A practical observation: if a rep has no dedicated call windows, calls do not happen at all. A chat thread always looks more urgent.
What to take out of a rep's day
- assembling documents by hand: invoices and delivery notes should be created automatically
- filling in spreadsheets that duplicate the system
- hunting for information across chats: everything needed sits in the knowledge base