Follow Up Processes: Multi Step Drips per Lead Type

A lead that did not buy on day one is not lost, it is early. Follow Up Processes put a timeline behind every lead type so the second, fifth and twelfth touch happen without a manager chasing them.

A Follow Up Process is a timeline of follow up steps that LeadLocate CRM runs for a lead once a trigger fires: a status change or an appointment event. Each step lands at an offset from the trigger, creates a task with instructions for the salesperson, and can carry a text or email template that sends on its own. That is the whole capability in one sentence, and the reason it exists is that every dealership already has a follow up process; it is written on a whiteboard, and it is followed on the days the manager is watching.

The Follow Up Processes page sits in the Billing and Admin menu next to Automated Templates. The two are different jobs. Automated Templates handle the first touch the moment a lead is received. Follow Up Processes handle everything after: the customer who said "call me next month", the appointment that was missed, the deal that went to a competitor, the trade that was never finished. Each of those is a lead type with its own timeline, which is what the page lets you build.

The buying side of this subject, what a dealer should expect from each lead type and why some go quiet, lives on car dealer leads and what to expect from car sales leads. This page is the tool.

A customer books a Thursday evening appointment for a certified sedan and does not show. On most floors that is the end of the story; the salesperson is annoyed, marks the lead dead, and moves on. On a store with a Follow Up Process attached to the missed appointment event, the process starts the moment the appointment is marked missed.

Step one lands two hours later: a task titled "Reschedule call" with the instruction to ask, not accuse, and an optional text template set to auto send, so the customer gets a friendly "we held the car for you, want to pick another evening?" while the salesperson is still with another customer. Step two lands the next day at noon: an email with the vehicle inserted, since the salesperson attached the unit from inventory. Step three lands three days later: a call task with instructions to offer a Saturday slot. The customer answers the second text, books Saturday through the salesperson's booking link, and the appointment confirmation goes out through Automated Templates.

The salesperson did two things by hand: read the task and make one call. The process did the remembering. And because a process can end with Move to Lost with reason, the customer who never answers is moved to lost with a real reason instead of sitting in the pipeline forever.

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Open a process and you are in the Process Builder. At the top is the Process Name and the Starts When trigger, which is one of two kinds. Lead status changes to a status you pick, using the store's own custom statuses from the custom lead statuses and tags feature. Or Appointment event happens, where the event is Appointment completed, Missed appointment, or a number of Hours before appointment, which is how a store builds a reminder sequence that runs down to the visit.

Below the trigger are the Timeline Steps. Add Step creates one, and each step carries an Offset with a Unit of hours, days, weeks or months, the Channels it uses, a Task Title, Salesperson Instructions that appear on the task, an Optional Text Template and an Optional Email Template, and an Auto Send switch that decides whether the message goes on its own or waits for the salesperson to send it from the task.

At the bottom is After Last Step: Change to status with a Final Status, Move to Lost with reason with a Lost Reason, or No status change. Manager Notes hold the why for the next manager. Save Follow Up Process and Delete Process do what they say, and a store that has edited itself into a corner can restore the defaults.

The reason the page is called Processes, plural, is that a store never has one follow up. A fresh internet lead, a customer who visited and left, a missed appointment, a lost deal, an abandoned trade in, a seller who requested an offer and went quiet: each is a lead type, each deserves a different pace and a different tone, and each gets its own process. The trigger ties the process to the lead type. Status changes to "Visited, no purchase" starts the visited process. Missed appointment starts the reschedule process. Status changes to "Lost" starts the six month check in.

Merge fields keep the messages personal at scale: the dealership name, the company street address, the vehicle of interest and the original lead inquiry drop into the text and email templates, so a customer twelve steps into a process still reads a message about the car they asked about. The AI writing assistant and AI merge fields can vary the wording per lead so a sequence never reads as a sequence.

The abandoned trade in lead follow up page walks one lead type end to end and is the clearest example of why a type deserves its own timeline. The how much dealerships pay per lead page is the arithmetic that makes the twelfth touch worth sending.

A salesperson never opens the Process Builder. What they see is the result: a task on the Workspace with a title, the instructions the manager wrote, the lead attached and the template ready to send. On the desktop that is the Workspace and the lead detail. In the LeadLocate mobile app it is the same Workspace, so the rep on the lot gets the day three call task on the phone in their pocket. A message set to Auto Send has already gone by the time the rep sees the task; a message not set to auto send waits in the task for the rep to read, edit and send.

On an appointment the salesperson or a manager can Assign process or Reassign Process, which is how a store puts a specific timeline behind a specific visit without waiting for a status to change. The whole sequence, the automated texts, the emails, the calls the rep made from the tasks, sits in the customer's communications log in order, so a manager reviewing a lead reads the story rather than reconstructing it.

Managers get their view through reports and the Workspace counts of tasks open and overdue, which is how a process that is being ignored becomes visible before the month ends.

The thing Follow Up Processes replace is the whiteboard cadence and the manager who enforces it. Every store has a rule about day three and day seven; few stores follow it after the first week of the month. The cost of that is not a software bill, it is the lead the store already paid for that went to the competitor who happened to call on day five.

What it also replaces is the separate drip tool. Many stores bolt a general purpose email drip product onto their CRM, pay for it per contact, and accept that it knows nothing about lead status, appointments, or the vehicle. A process in LeadLocate CRM is triggered by the CRM's own status and appointment events, sends through the CRM's own texting and email, and creates the CRM's own tasks. There is nothing to connect and no second bill. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

Where a store wants a pure message drip with no tasks, the email drip automation and text automation pages cover those tools; Follow Up Processes are for the sequences a person should be part of.

A follow up process is safer than ad hoc follow up for a simple reason: it has an end. Every process ends with a status change, a move to lost with a reason, or an explicit no change, which means a customer who has stopped responding is not texted indefinitely by a salesperson who forgot to stop. The lost reason itself is recorded, and the lost reason tracking page describes what a store learns from that.

Every automated text or email a process sends carries the same opt out and blacklist handling as any other message in the CRM. A customer who replied STOP, or a number on the DNC blacklist, is not messaged by a step. Every step's message shows its delivery status and is logged in the customer's communications log alongside the calls, so a question about what a customer was sent and when has a written answer. The Manager Notes on each process record why the cadence is what it is, which is the kind of documentation a store is glad to have when a process is questioned. None of this replaces the store's own consent practice; it makes the follow up that runs after consent consistent and finite.

Follow Up Processes are part of the LeadLocate CRM subscription. A new account starts with default processes already built, so a missed appointment has a timeline behind it on day one; the work is editing the wording and the pace to match your floor. Open Follow Up Processes under Billing and Admin, walk the defaults, change what a step says, add the steps your best salesperson does by hand, and write the Manager Notes for whoever runs the desk after you. If you edit yourself into a corner, restore the defaults and start again. Anything a store needs that the builder does not carry is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Pair processes with Automated Templates for the first touch, with appointment booking links so the reschedule step has a link the customer can act on, and with send vehicles by text so a step carries the unit with photos and price. The all features list shows the rest of the platform.

If we are ever unavailable, the messages already sent are in your customers' hands, the tasks already on a rep's Workspace were already read, and your processes are kept for when the screen returns. The pre-recorded live demo shows a process running from trigger to final status.

What starts a Follow Up Process?

One of two triggers: a lead status changing to a status you choose, or an appointment event, which is appointment completed, missed appointment, or a set number of hours before the appointment.

What is in a step?

An offset in hours, days, weeks or months from the trigger, the channels it uses, a task title and salesperson instructions, an optional text template, an optional email template, and an Auto Send switch that decides whether the message goes on its own or waits in the task.

What happens when the process ends?

Whatever After Last Step says: change the lead to a final status, move it to lost with a lost reason, or leave the status alone. That is how a customer who never answers stops being followed up.

Can different lead types have different processes?

Yes. That is the point. A fresh lead, a visit without a purchase, a missed appointment, a lost deal and an abandoned trade in each get their own process with its own pace and wording, tied to their own trigger.

Can I put a process on one specific appointment?

Yes. On the appointment, Assign process or Reassign Process attaches the timeline you choose to that visit without waiting for a status change.

What if I break the default processes while editing?

Restore the defaults from the Follow Up Processes page and start over. Your custom processes are separate and stay as you built them.

Follow Up Processes are part of every LeadLocate CRM plan, month to month. See a missed appointment trigger a reschedule sequence and end in a real status.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.