The Eastern Way - Fundamental #11: Follow-Up On Everything

This week's fundamental was written by Ananya D. Menon.

Fundamental #11 -"Internal and external customers rely on us and we rely on others. Record a follow-up date for every action and take responsibility to see that it gets completed. We get paid to complete things, not simply to put them in motion"

fol·low-up

noun

a continuation or repetition of something that has already been started or done, in particular.

an activity carried out as part of a study in order to monitor or further develop earlier work.

When you see "follow-up" defined it seems pretty easy and obvious, but given that we work in a fast paced environment it can be quite challenging at times. Keeping up with customers, vendors, manufacturers, loan officers and peers while simultaneously extracting information can be difficult. Despite how easy it can be to forget, following up should be part of every employee's daily routine since it's so often required on external and internal tasks. Spending a few valuable minutes to touch base and follow-up with your customer, loan officer and peers will not only make a great impression and demonstrate your determination to honor commitments, but help us as a team execute and see things to completion. By making this a daily exercise, you will see a quicker turn around, which ultimately leads to completing more open tasks and funding more deals.

Following up builds relationships and trust amongst the parties we communicate with daily. It also reflects sincerity in our commitment to complete a task. There are various tools you can use in order to organize the follow-ups.

Project Management Tool – At Eastern Funding we use a program called Vision. The Notes/Tasks feature is a great platform to help us relay the follow-up message to everyone associated with the deal by using the "Task" field then assigning it to the respective party. Messages should be detailed so the requisite task is clear.

Outlook Calendar is good to schedule the next follow-up by creating an appointments or reminders. It helps ensure punctuality and persistence.

Sticky Note (my personal favorite) is another great way of following up. Sticky Notes is one of the many Microsoft programs available. It helps to simply create a To-Do List for yourself. I use this tool everyday to stay organized and efficient.

In the documentation team, following up with the respective parties is practiced daily. It helps keep an open communication with everyone and leaves very little room for misinterpretation and misunderstandings.

Follow-ups are crucial when moving a deal from "Approved" status to "Funding". Once the documents are sent, we must immediately call the customer to verify that the documents have been received. Follow-ups like this are always expected throughout the loan process.

If you need help then set an alarm for yourself using a follow-up tool of your choice. Alarms will help you set the realistic expectations and allow you to help others stay on track.

This fundamental is a valuable characteristic in our organization. It makes the individuals working here, remain organized, efficient and focused to get tasks done. The simple gesture of following up helps portray the personable and caring nature we continuously strive for.