121 CRM playbook · Dormant-customer follow-up

Review quiet customer relationships and choose whether to help, reconnect or leave them alone.

A fictional maintenance firm reviews customers whose annual check may be overdue, rather than messaging everyone labelled inactive. This playbook turns that kind of situation into an owned sequence with explicit stop points, exceptions and measures. Use only channels, data and capabilities approved for your setup.

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Customer Thread

Dormant-customer follow-up: the working sequence

Illustrative example

Define dormancy meaningfully
Choose the treatment
Record the result
Human review

Define dormancy meaningfully
Use a service-specific interval and distinguish completed, lost and deliberately paused relationships.
Choose the treatment
Offer useful information, create a personal task or take no action.
Record the result
Update status, next review or closure so the customer is not repeatedly recycled.
Human review
A person checks the outcome and any exception.
Human decision

Illustrative playbook — names, organisations and activity are fictional.

Fictional workflow demonstration

Follow dormant-customer follow-up from start to next action.

The coded interface shows an example sequence using fictional data and does not expose a live CRM account.

121

Northstar Joinery

Fictional

Follow up consistently, with people in control

OverviewContactsInboxPipelineAutomation

Follow up consistently, with people in control

Build the sequence, review each decision and test an exception before activation.

Draft v0.4

This example stays on this page and does not send messages or change CRM data.

Illustrative 121 interfaceAll people, organisations, dates and activity are fictional. Any figures are illustrative. Controls demonstrate interaction patterns, not enabled account features.

What supports the playbook

See what the CRM can coordinate — and where your team steps in.

The CRM can organise the sequence, but the business still sets the rules, checks consent and handles the moments that need human judgement.

Capability 01

Smart lists

Builds reusable contact views from saved filters and relevant record conditions.

How it works: Stores or organises supported business data under configured fields, permissions and record rules.
Why use it: Lets teams focus on a working group without maintaining separate copies of the same contacts.
Plan for: The platform does not make imported, duplicated or incomplete data accurate without review.
Your team owns: A data owner must define the record model and resolve quality, ownership and access exceptions.

Capability 02

Contacts

Stores a person or lead with contact details, activity, ownership and related records.

How it works: Stores or organises supported business data under configured fields, permissions and record rules.
Why use it: Gives a team one place to understand who a customer is and what has happened.
Plan for: The platform does not make imported, duplicated or incomplete data accurate without review.
Your team owns: A data owner must define the record model and resolve quality, ownership and access exceptions.

Capability 03

Tasks

Creates assigned, dated and optionally recurring actions against contacts or opportunities.

How it works: Tracks a potential deal, stage, owner or task using configured pipeline and record rules.
Why use it: Turns the next step into owned work instead of leaving it inside notes or inboxes.
Plan for: Pipeline position is only reliable when users and workflows update it consistently.
Your team owns: A responsible owner must qualify the deal, choose next actions and resolve stale or disputed status.

Capability 04

Goals and exits

Moves or removes records when the configured outcome or stop condition has been met.

How it works: Runs an ordered sequence only after its configured trigger and conditions are met.
Why use it: Helps avoid continuing follow-up after the customer has already acted.
Plan for: Automation follows its configuration; it cannot repair poor data, unclear rules or an unavailable external service.
Your team owns: A process owner must approve, test, monitor and pause or correct faulty automation.

Entry criteria

Begin with a valid trigger, enough context and one owner

A defined period of inactivity is reached for a customer category where review is useful. Before any automated action, confirm that the event, customer record and communication basis are suitable for this playbook.

Trigger

A defined period of inactivity is reached for a customer category where review is useful.

Practical scenario

A fictional maintenance firm reviews customers whose annual check may be overdue, rather than messaging everyone labelled inactive.

Human decision retained

Accountable owner

Name the person or queue that accepts the work, monitors exceptions and can stop the sequence.

The sequence

Run the dormant-customer follow-up playbook step by step

Each step should leave evidence a colleague can understand. Timing and channels should follow the customer context rather than a generic high-pressure cadence.

1. Define dormancy meaningfully

Use a service-specific interval and distinguish completed, lost and deliberately paused relationships.

2. Review the record

Check latest conversation, preferences, complaints and whether the service is still relevant.

3. Choose the treatment

Offer useful information, create a personal task or take no action.

4. Contact proportionately

Explain the reason and make declining further contact easy.

Close the loop

5. Record the result

Update status, next review or closure so the customer is not repeatedly recycled.

Owner, timing and exception

Make the operational state easy to review

The supporting view keeps the next action and human checkpoint visible around the automated steps.

121 CRM · Connected operations

Book discovery

October · illustrative availability

MTWTFSS1234567891011121314

11:3014:00

Appointment sequence

Booked

Calendar entry created

1 day before

Reminder scheduled

Exception

Owner reviews a reply

Journey summary

New

Illustrative

Owned

Illustrative

Due

Illustrative

Website

Referral

Direct

Illustrative exampleAll dates, counts and workflow states are fictional. Availability and behaviour depend on the agreed setup.

Exception paths

Stop the normal route when the facts change

Exceptions are part of the process, not failures to be hidden. Route them to a person with the authority and context to decide what happens next.

Human review

Data too old

Validate or exclude the record rather than treating history as current.

Human review

Customer was dissatisfied

Route to service review, not a promotional sequence.

Human review

No relevant reason to contact

Close the review without sending anything.

Operational review

Measure whether the work became safer and clearer

Use measures that reveal ownership, service quality and control. Counts of messages, tasks or workflow runs are supporting signals, not proof of customer value.

Dormant records reviewed with a decision

Do not measure success by messages alone.

Records corrected or closed

Count data-quality improvement.

Relevant conversations reopened

Review customer benefit and operational fit.

Questions about this page

Useful answers, without the sales fog.

1. When should the dormant-customer follow-up playbook start?

A defined period of inactivity is reached for a customer category where review is useful. Confirm the record is eligible and that a named owner or monitored queue is available before allowing customer-facing action.

2. Which channels should the dormant-customer follow-up playbook use?

Use only configured channels that suit the purpose, customer preference and consent position. Give each channel a distinct role and check provider availability and usage charges before launch.

3. When should dormant-customer follow-up automation stop?

Stop when the purpose is complete, the customer responds or opts out, the data conflicts, or an exception needs judgement. In this playbook, pay particular attention to data too old, customer was dissatisfied, no relevant reason to contact.

4. How should we judge whether dormant-customer follow-up works?

Review dormant records reviewed with a decision, records corrected or closed, relevant conversations reopened. Combine the numbers with sampled records and customer context; do not treat activity volume as a business outcome.

Read all CRM questions

Continue the journey

Contact segmentation Customer reactivation Data-quality review Complaint escalation

Delegate the work. Keep the human.

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