Key takeaways
- Follow-ups come in three types: Call, Email and To-do. Only call follow-ups enter the Dial due queue.
- Skipping a follow-up in the queue snoozes it for 1 hour; the menu also snoozes for 15 minutes, 1 hour, until tomorrow 9am or for a week.
- Any outcome other than Callback completes the follow-up being dialed, No answer included.
- Agents see their own and unassigned follow-ups; owners and admins see everyone’s.
Follow-ups: what it does for your team
- Callbacks happen on time
- Choosing the Callback outcome schedules the follow-up for the time the lead asked for, so “call me Thursday at 3” never depends on memory.
- One queue for due calls
- The due follow-ups queue lines up every call follow-up assigned to you or unassigned, oldest first, and Power Dial works through them.
- Nothing slips past due
- The follow-ups page shows what is due and overdue, in a list or on a month calendar, so a manager can see the week at a glance.
Follow-ups, step by step
Schedule it where you are
Add a call follow-up in wrap-up, or schedule one from a lead’s page as a call, an email or a to-do, with a due time and, if you like, a teammate to own it.
Get reminded
While Rapidialer is open in a browser tab, due follow-ups show an in-app reminder and a browser notification.
Dial the due ones
Open the due follow-ups queue in the Dialer. Skip one and it comes back an hour later; complete it with an outcome and it is done.
What it does not do
Plain limits, so you can decide before you sign up.
- Email follow-ups are reminders: Rapidialer does not send email, so the lead’s address opens in your own mail app. Texts go out through Rapidialer’s two-way SMS on your Twilio numbers.
- Cadence steps become ordinary follow-ups a rep works; a cadence does not place calls or send emails on its own.
- Reminders appear only while a Rapidialer tab is open in your browser.
How should you schedule callbacks after a conversation?
Schedule the callback before the next call starts. Schedule the next touch in wrap-up, while the conversation is fresh: the date, the channel and a one-line note about what you promised. Use the Callback outcome when the lead names a time, and a call follow-up when you are the one deciding to try again: a real estate agent might set one three months out for a seller who isn’t ready to list.
Start each day with the due follow-ups queue before opening a new list. These are people who already talked to you, so they deserve your first and freshest hour, not whatever time is left after a long list session.
Use to-dos for the work between calls, such as sending a quote or checking stock, and email follow-ups as reminders to write from your own inbox, where replies thread with the rest of your conversation.
What does a 2–3 week sales call cadence look like?
For leads who have not answered yet, the cadence comes from the list’s retry rules rather than from follow-ups. Each retryable outcome has one wait, up to 30 days, and Max attempts per contact goes up to 20, so the gap between attempts stays the same rather than growing.
One workable setup for a 2–3 week sales call cadence: switch on retries, set No answer to 48 hours and Voicemail to 72 hours, keep calling hours to weekdays, and set max attempts to 6. A contact who never picks up is called about twice a week, and a wait that ends on a weekend rolls to Monday, so six attempts span roughly two and a half weeks. Leave a live voicemail on the first attempt and the last, not on every one, so the lead hears from you without a full mailbox of the same message.
How many times to call a lead before giving up has no fixed answer; it depends on what a reached lead is worth to you. Six attempts is a starting point to test, not a rule. Once a lead answers, follow-up reminders take over from retries.
How do I schedule a follow-up in Rapidialer?
Schedule it in wrap-up after a call, or from the lead’s page at any time. In wrap-up, picking Callback opens a “Follow up at” field with quick times: In 1 hour, In 2 hours, Tomorrow 9am and Next week. Other outcomes show an optional Follow-up field that schedules a call follow-up. Your call notes become the follow-up’s note.
On a lead’s page you choose Call, Email or To-do, a Due time, “Assign to” and a note. A call follow-up can also name a list in “Dial from list (optional)”, so the callback comes up first in that list’s queue once due; “Follow-up queue only” keeps it in the due queue.
A list contact has at most one open call follow-up; scheduling another reschedules it rather than stacking reminders.
How does the due follow-ups queue work?
The queue power-dials every call follow-up that is due, oldest first, and each outcome you save closes or moves the one you just called. Open it with Dial due on the Follow-ups page; the button shows how many are waiting.
Say a rep opens the Due follow-ups queue at 9am with eight calls due. Power Dial starts with the oldest, shows its note, and counts down before each dial.
The first lead agrees to a demo: Connected marks the follow-up done. The second asks for next Tuesday: Callback with a new time moves the same follow-up. The third doesn’t pick up, and here is the catch: any outcome other than Callback completes the follow-up, No answer included, so the rep sets a new time in the optional Follow-up field before saving.
When two reps work the queue at once, each follow-up goes to only one of them.
How do follow-up call reminders work on the Follow-ups page?
The Follow-ups page has Overdue, Today, Upcoming and Done tabs and a month Calendar. Each open row has Done, a Call button for calls, and a menu to snooze (15 minutes, 1 hour, Tomorrow 9am or Next week), reschedule or cancel.
The sidebar badge counts overdue follow-ups. Reminders check every minute, and browser notifications need your permission for the site.
Follow-ups move with their lead: reassign the lead and its open follow-ups go to the new owner; archive it and they are cancelled.
Why is a follow-up missing or not dialing?
Usually it is not a call follow-up, it belongs to someone else, or it is not due yet. The messages Rapidialer shows point to the cause:
- “No follow-ups are due right now.”: nothing is due for you or unassigned. Upcoming ones wait on the Upcoming tab, and email and to-do follow-ups never enter the queue.
- “This follow-up is assigned to someone else”: agents can work only their own and unassigned follow-ups. An owner or admin can reassign it.
- “This lead is on DND. Clear DND before scheduling a follow-up.”: the lead is on the Do Not Call list, and only an owner or admin can clear it.
- “This lead is not on the selected list. Add them to the list first.”: “Dial from list” must name a list the lead belongs to, or use “Follow-up queue only”.
- “Set a callback date and time before saving”: the Callback outcome needs a time, so pick a quick time or type one.
- No browser notification: press Enable reminders on the Follow-ups page and allow notifications, and keep a Rapidialer tab open.
When are follow-up reminders not enough?
When the plan is several touches over days, enroll the lead in a cadence: a sequence of call, text, email and to-do steps, each due a set number of days after enrollment. Every step lands as an ordinary follow-up, call steps join the due queue, and the cadence can be set to stop when the lead texts back or a call connects. Emails stay manual, because Rapidialer sends no email; if you need automated email sequences, keep a sales engagement tool for that part.
In return, every reminder traces back to a real conversation. Pair them with the Callback disposition in wrap-up and a sensible retry cadence on each list.
Features that work alongside it
- Power DialSequential power dialing: the next contact is dialed after each wrap-up and a five-second countdown.
- Call outcomesCall dispositions in one click, with custom outcome buttons that can move a lead to a pipeline stage.
- Leads and pipelineA lightweight lead pipeline with custom stages, temperature, saved views and CSV export.
Follow-ups: questions and answers
Can I power-dial my follow-ups?
Yes. Rapidialer’s due follow-ups queue works like a list: press Dial due on the Follow-ups page, or choose Dial due follow-ups from the command palette, and Power Dial calls each due call follow-up in turn, oldest first, after a 5-second countdown. The outcome you log completes the follow-up, and Callback schedules it again at the new time.
Does Rapidialer support multi-step cadences?
Yes. A Rapidialer cadence is a list of call, text, email and to-do steps, each set for a day after the lead is enrolled. Each step becomes a normal follow-up when its turn comes, and completing it schedules the next. Each cadence can end enrollment when the lead texts back or a call connects, and edits to a cadence apply only to leads enrolled afterwards.
Does Rapidialer send follow-up emails?
No. A Rapidialer email follow-up is a reminder with the lead’s address one click away, and you send it from your own email app, so replies thread with the rest of your inbox. If your organization has added its AI keys, Rapidialer can draft the email from the call’s summary and notes for you to copy. Texts are different: they go out from Rapidialer over your Twilio numbers.
Can I assign follow-ups to teammates?
Yes. An owner or admin can assign any Rapidialer follow-up to a teammate with “Assign to”, and unassigned call follow-ups show up in everyone’s due queue, so a team can share them. Agents can assign follow-ups only to themselves. When two reps work the queue at once, each due follow-up is claimed by one of them, so nobody calls the same lead twice. Team roles explains the rest.
What happens to follow-ups when a lead is marked Do Not Call?
They are cancelled. Marking a lead Do Not Call in Rapidialer, from wrap-up or the lead page, closes its open follow-ups along with its open list entries, so nobody is reminded to call that person again. Clearing DND later does not reopen them automatically, so schedule a new one if the lead asks.
Can I schedule a follow-up for a lead on the Do Not Call list?
No. Rapidialer refuses with “This lead is on DND. Clear DND before scheduling a follow-up.” Only an owner or admin can remove a number from the internal Do Not Call list or clear a lead’s DND mark. Agents can add numbers to the list but not remove them, which keeps a single rep from reopening a number someone asked you to stop calling.
Do follow-ups respect a list’s calling hours?
Only when the follow-up is dialed from its list. Calling hours apply to a list’s queue, so a callback set to come up in a list waits for the lead’s local window. The due follow-ups queue does not check them, so pick times that suit the lead’s time zone. Federal rules limit telephone solicitations to homes to 8am–9pm local time (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)); this is general information, not legal advice.
What should a rep say on a follow-up call?
Open with what you promised on the last call, confirm the lead still has the problem, then ask for one clear next step. Rapidialer shows the follow-up’s note and the lead’s prior notes in the Dialer before it rings, so the rep has the context. A follow-up call script loaded as a talk track keeps the wording consistent across reps.