Stop Letting Follow-Ups Fall Through the Cracks

You know that inquiry from three days ago you meant to reply to? Or the client who ghosted mid-package and you forgot to check in? These aren't just admin tasks—they're relationship moments. And when you forget them, people notice.

In this episode, we're building a real follow-up system that helps you follow through without turning into an anxious inbox lurker. From Gmail folders and smart inboxes to MailButler tricks and Practice Better tags, we're finding the solution that actually works for YOUR brain.

Because following up doesn't make you pushy. It makes you reliable.

In This Episode:

• Common follow-up moments that slip through the cracks
• How to use folders, labels, and smart inboxes to triage responses
• Email templates that take the brain power out of following up
• 5 action items you can implement TODAY (choose 2!)
• Why Apple Mail + MailButler became Courtney's unexpected favorite setup

Resources Mentioned:

• MailButler email extension
• Busy Cal
• Apple Mail smart inboxes
• Practice Better custom fields
• Google Tasks
• Apple Reminders

Action Items (Choose 2):

1. Create a "Waiting For" label/folder in Gmail and assign it to 3 emails right now
2. Block "Follow-Up Friday" on your calendar (30 minutes weekly)
3. Add a "Follow-Up Needed" custom field in Practice Better
4. Create a follow-up board in Notion/ClickUp/SmartSuite
5. Try an email management tool like MailButler

Next Episode: Digital Boundaries—What to do when a client messages you at 10 PM on Saturday expecting a reply

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   📍   Welcome to the Tech Savvy Dietician Podcast, where we believe that your systems should support your practice and not sabotage your sanity. I'm your host, Courtney Vickery, a registered dietician turned web designer and tech translator for private practice owners who are tired of playing calendar Tetris and inbox Detective.  

Hi, friend, and welcome back to the Tech Savvy Dietician, where we talk about all the little tech and workflow things that make your business feel less like a hot mess. Today's topic, we're gonna talk about follow ups. You know that person who filled out your inquiry form three days ago and you meant to reply, but then you had sessions, your kid was sick, your brain filed it under later.

We've all been there. But forgetting to follow up doesn't just mean lost income. It can also break trust. So let's build a real system that helps you follow through without turning into an anxious inbox. Lurker. Not that I would know anything about that. , Anyways, we're gonna first list out. A list of common follow up moments that you might forget.

What could that be? What's falling through the cracks? Maybe that potential client inquiry didn't get a reply. The discovery call that went quiet, you know, maybe they booked a call or submitted a form, but then they didn't, they didn't follow through and then you didn't follow up and then it just got lost in the abyss.

Maybe a client who ghosted mid package, I have literally had that happen. It blows my mind. They've prepaid and then they just. Ghost. And then I've had them reach out a year later and say, oh, you remember that package I bought? I remember. But uh, you know, what can you do anyways? A portal message with a question that you meant to answer.

Someone who downloaded a resource or a freebie, but they never heard from you again. And these aren't just admin tasks. I want you to think of them as relationship moments or touch points, because when you forget them, people notice. Maybe subconsciously, but they definitely notice and it they notice when you don't forget even more.

What are some things we could do to catch this? Let's think about, guess it. Google Workspace and our Gmail. There's labels, right? There's folders. I am a folder girly. I'm also an inbox zero person, so I need those things gone, but I don't like to delete things, so I put everything in folders, so folders, tags, whatever it is, and.

Whatever you're using. This can work in both Google Workspace or you can connect your Google email to the Apple Mail desktop app is what I use. And you can create smart inboxes if you use something like that where it's it, it looks for something specific that you've set and then it automatically puts them into what they call a smart inbox.

So I'm looking at my screen right now and my smart inboxes are. Um, meetings. That is my number one favorite. Favorite. Do you have a favorite inbox folder? I do. Um, it's the meetings folder and anytime I get a meeting it goes into that folder. So at any time I can always just go and look at it and say, yep, there's all the meetings I have coming up.

That's great. Um, I also have one that is to do. I don't use this one as much anymore because I think I mentioned a few episodes ago, I use a extension called Mail Butler, and it is amazing for the tasks that you kind of forget about when you're in your email, you know, respond to this person, give them this, give them that, give creates task from the email for me and.

Again, love it. If you wanna add something like that, I definitely recommend it, but if not, you can use this smart inbox to create the to-dos. And the way I set up the to-do box was I used the flag. So I used, for example, the orange flag in the apple mail, and it would automatically put it in this folder.

When I'm done with it, I remove the flag. I also made a folder that says, waiting on reply, and I use the purple flag, and you're like, how do you remember which color flag do you use for these things? Emojis. The to do folder is an orange heart, and then to-do the waiting for reply is a purple heart with then the purple flag.

So that's how I had it set up before I used Mel Butler and definitely recommend. Setting it up like that or something similar. Same thing in practice. Better you can use, um, tags and things in there as well. And you could, you know, flag someone who hasn't booked their second session yet, something that you need to follow up on.

You can create tasks in there as well. So think about, again, we always come back to. What is our natural flow? What am I actually going to use this? It is the same thing we teach our clients, right? When we talk about habits, if it's not a habit that comes naturally or that we can create or stack or whatever way works for our brain, then we're not going to be likely to continue to use it.

So play around with some different things, see what works. But think about how you could use labels and tags and folders for triaging, things like that. I already said it, but create a pending follow up folder. You could also make a pending follow up tracker, and that could be in notion Google Sheet, Trello, whatever is your choice of project management.

Um, you added column for the date of the inquiry, the type of contact, and the follow up deadline. Again, though. If you make a Google sheet, but that's not something you pull up all the time or you don't have a way like for that to be like in your face when you pull things up. Maybe that's not the right one.

Maybe it's just Apple reminders. That's what mine is with the Mail Butler thing. Um, I never used Apple Reminders before. It wasn't something I used. I always went for like the big daddies of like clickup and Notion and all of these things, and I do use that for. Big projects, but for these little tasks, this is the stuff that slips through the cracks.

This is the stuff that I, I feel like causes the most risk. It's not the big things. It's these little things that we are like, oh crap, I forgot to do that. Oh crap, I forgot to do that. So. Look at your email that you use already or your calendar set up and see if there's something that already is there.

Like if you're using Google Calendar on the desktop, in the browser, Google task is right there. So maybe we use that. So again, look at what you have, figure out what makes sense for your brain. I love a color code and a tag, so implement something that goes along those lines. And what good is a task if we don't set a reminder.

I know for me anyways, you need to set a date to have a due date, uh, so that it will send you those reminders and nudge you, because if not, you know, it might just go to the graveyard unless it's again in your face. The next thing is when we do follow up, what do we say? This is a message for myself and for you.

Don't overthink it. Keep it short and warm. If it's an inquiry, you could say, Hey, I just wanted to follow up in case my last message got buried. I'm still happy to chat if you're interested. I'll use my design studio as an example because I do follow ups for inquiries, and once I send someone an agreement or proposal, I follow up with them and if they haven't signed it.

And again, we're not being salesy. We're just connecting. Like, Hey, are you still interested? I would love to help you. It's again, we're connecting. We're not selling for the ghosted client. This is what I did with a client I mentioned earlier. I just kept messaging occasionally and saying, you know, I've been thinking about you and I wanted to check in.

There's no pressure, but I'm here. If you're ready to reconnect. Whenever you're ready, just reach out. And you could do that. However often feels appropriate to you for a question you forgot to answer. I might know a little about that. Um. But apologies for the delay. I missed your message earlier, but I wanted to circle back.

Here's what I would suggest and remember in a previous episode, we talked about having those email templates. These are perfect examples of things that you may think like, oh, I don't need a template for that, but you do. It's going to save you so much brain power to know that I already have this template or this structure of an email that I can use and I don't have to.

Just start from scratch. Sometimes that can just feel so draining depending on the day we've had. All right. Let's talk about what your action items can be. This time, I want you to think of choosing two of the following. First one could be you're gonna create a waiting for label or folder in Gmail, and I want you to look in your inbox and I want you to assign it to three emails right now.

That are in your inbox. Now, if you're inbox zero person and you're like, I don't have any emails in there, kudos. But next time, you know, maybe try this out. Next option, you could set a weekly follow up Friday block on your calendar, 30 minutes on your calendar, blocked off to sweep through any missed replies or little tasks like that.

Next option, add a follow up, needed custom filled in. Something like practice better to filter clients for that don't have recent bookings, so that again, it reminds you, hey, I need to follow up with this person. See what's going on. Do they wanna book another session or are they good? You could also use something like Notion or Clickup.

I've been on a Smart Suite kick lately. That's what we use for our big project board. . And that can, be a board that you make just for follow ups. And another thing that you could try, , is the Mel Butler situation. There's, and there's a bunch of other ones. This is just, I, you know, I love to test things and I tested a bunch of them.

I tested all of the email apps and. Just everything trying to, trying to simplify also, and I, it's just kind of crazy to me that I ended up just using Apple Mail because I had never even bothered before because I didn't particularly like it. But once I set it up in a way that made sense to my brain and then I added that Mel Butler feature, and I use it in coordination with busy cow.

Which again, I can make a whole video on this and I'm happy to do that. I don't wanna overwhelm you, but I'm just letting you know that those are the things that I found works for me, and you won't know what works for you until you try something. So pick one of these action items. Try them out. Pick the one that's the easiest.

We're not trying to be fancy here. We're just trying to make things a little easier. And I want you to remember this. Following up doesn't make you pushy. It makes you reliable because we've gotta stop leaving money and trust and client progress on the table just because we felt. You know, weird or we didn't have a system to even remember.

To circle back to those things. If you want more help with your email templates or setting things up like this, again, you can schedule a strategy session with me. , We can set it up for you. I don't know if you know that, but we do offer that service. We love to set up systems for people. Or you could just join us in the clinician crew where you can come nerd out with us about this stuff.

, Every week. Now, next episode we're gonna talk about my favorite kind of thing, boundaries, but the tech kind we're gonna talk about what do we do when a client messages you at 10:00 PM on a Saturday and they expect a reply? Yeah, we're gonna be going there. So I hope to see you then.

 Thank you so much for hanging out on the Tech Savvy Dietician podcast. If today's episode helped your practice feel a little lighter, I would love for you to follow the show, share it with a friend, and even leave a review. If you want even more support, come check out decklet designs.com or clinician crew.com.

Until next time, here's to systems that work and practices that thrive.