When not to chase: the exclusions worth setting up before you automate follow-up
Short answer: the risk in automating follow-up is not that it annoys people generally. It is that it contacts the wrong person at the wrong moment in a way a human never would. Six exclusions remove almost all of that risk.
1. Anything with a decision already recorded
Accepted, declined, closed, expired. This should be handled by the tool itself rather than by you remembering — if it is not automatic, that is a reason to look at something else. Your part is keeping the record current the same day the decision happens.
2. Customers in dispute or on stop
An overdue-account conversation and a cheerful “thought I would check in on that quote” do not belong in the same week. Exclude any account that is with credit control, and re-include it deliberately afterwards.
3. Tenders and formal procurement
Where the buying process forbids contact during evaluation, an automated nudge is not merely awkward — it can disqualify you. Exclude these at the moment you submit, not later.
4. Speculative or budget-only quotes
The “roughly what would this cost?” estimate produced for someone’s planning exercise was never a live opportunity. Chasing it makes you look as though you cannot tell the difference, which is a bad signal to send a customer you would like real work from.
5. Anyone who has told you when they will decide
If a customer has said “after the board meets in March”, your cadence is now wrong for them. Exclude and diary it. Honouring what someone told you is worth more than any sequence.
6. Quotes where something has changed since sending
If the price is no longer valid, the follow-up should not be a nudge — it should be a reissue. Chasing a number you would not now honour creates a conversation you will lose.
Build the list before you switch anything on
Ten minutes with your open quotes and these six headings will find the handful that need excluding, and that is the whole risk managed. Then set a habit: exclusions get applied at the moment the reason arises, not in a monthly review.
The general rule underneath all six
Automation should do the thing you would have done if you had the time — not a thing you would never do. If a sequence would send a message you would be uncomfortable sending by hand, the sequence is wrong, and no amount of volume justifies it.
Both Quote Nudge and Quote Nudge QB let you exclude individual quotes or whole categories with rules, and end every sequence on a recorded decision. See Quote Nudge QB → · How many times to chase
Questions, or want a tool we don't have yet? Email hello@grafto.co.uk — a real person replies.