How Agent Follow-Ups Work

Follow-ups are the automated messages your agent sends when a lead goes quiet. Instead of hoping someone on your team remembers to check in again, the agent handles it on a schedule you define. A lead gets your first message, does not respond, and follow-ups kick in with timed texts, calls, or emails until they reply, complete the goal, or hit a stop rule. This guide explains how follow-ups work at a high level.

What Are Follow-Ups?

Follow-ups are not the same as the live back-and-forth in a conversation. They are scheduled outreach that runs in the background. The agent already reached out. The lead did not respond or did not take action. Follow-ups keep nudging until something changes.

Each agent has follow-ups that can be turned on or off. When they are on, the agent uses two pieces of configuration:

• Follow-up sequence. The ordered list of messages and how long to wait between each one.
• Stop When rules. The conditions that cancel the rest of the sequence.

The Follow-Up Sequence

The follow-up sequence is a timeline of automated touchpoints. You define each step and how long to wait after the previous one before the next message goes out.

What Each Step Can Include

Every step in the sequence has these settings:

• Message type. Text (SMS), phone call, or email.
• Timing. How long to wait after the prior message before this one sends. For example, 1 day, 3 days, or 1 week.
• Message content. What the agent says in the text, the opening line on a call, or the subject and body of an email.
• Goal link. Whether to include your agent's destination link in the message (for example, a booking page). This gives the lead a clear next step in every follow-up.

A typical sequence for a new lead might look like this: text on day 1, another text on day 3, a phone call on day 5, and an email on day 7. You control the timing and the channel for each step.

When the Sequence Starts

Follow-ups schedule automatically when a lead goes quiet after the agent's initial outreach. The agent sends its opening message, the lead does not respond or does not click the goal link, and Alivo starts counting down to the first follow-up step.

Follow-ups only run when the agent and the conversation are both active. If follow-ups are turned off on the agent, nothing schedules.

Respecting What the Lead Says

If a lead asks to be contacted at a specific time during the conversation (for example, "text me next Wednesday" or "call me tomorrow at 2"), Alivo can adjust the follow-up timing to match. Vague requests like "maybe later" or "after the holidays" do not override your sequence. Only clear timing requests do.

Good to know: Responding within five minutes makes you about four times more likely to win the job than calling back hours later. Follow-ups exist because most leads do not respond to the first message. The sequence keeps you in the game without manual effort.

Stop When Rules

Stop When rules tell Alivo when to cancel the rest of the follow-up sequence for a lead. Without them, follow-ups would keep going even after the lead already booked, opted out, or made it clear they are not interested.

Each Stop When rule is a plain-language condition you write, such as:

• "If the homeowner already booked an appointment"
• "If they said they are not interested"
• "If they already left a review"
• "If they had a bad experience and should not be asked for a review"

Alivo checks the conversation against your Stop When rules and a set of built-in safety conditions (like wrong number, opt-out requests, or profanity). If any rule matches, the remaining follow-ups for that lead are canceled.

When Follow-Ups Stop

Follow-ups can stop for several reasons. Here are the most common:

Follow-Ups and Your Agent's Goal

Your agent's goal shapes how follow-ups work:

• For goals with a trackable link (Schedule an Appointment, Leave a Review, Visit a Webpage), each follow-up step can include that link so the lead always has a way to take action.
• For goals like Initiate a Call, Sign Document, Fill out Questionnaire, and Customer Service, follow-ups work differently because there may not be a standard link to include in every message.

You can also choose whether clicking the goal link should cancel scheduled follow-ups. This is on by default for most agents.

Which Agents Use Follow-Ups

Follow-ups are optional on every agent, but some presets start with them on or off based on the job:

• Evan, Alex, and Jenna typically start with follow-ups on. Their whole job is reaching out and staying on leads until something happens.
• Lilly typically starts with follow-ups off. Her main job is answering live inbound calls, not chasing quiet leads over text.
• Custom agents follow-ups are on by default, but you control everything.

Templates

Like scripts and knowledge base content, follow-up sequences and Stop When rules can be saved as templates. You might have one follow-up template for new leads (Evan's sequence) and a different one for estimate rehash (Alex's sequence). Multiple agents can share a template, or each agent can have its own.

Follow-ups are how your agents stay on leads without anyone on your team manually setting reminders. The sequence does the outreach. Stop When rules keep it from going too far. Your agent's goal gives every message a clear purpose. Together, they turn a single first touch into a persistent, respectful follow-up process.

Still have a question this didn't answer? Reach out to our support team support@alivo.ai and we'll be glad to help.