Staying on top of follow-ups and internal tasks keeps your business running smoothly. Exoserva provides a Follow-Up Queue for customer-facing actions and a Task Manager for internal team assignments. This guide shows you how to manage both to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Estimated time: 6 minutes
Before You Begin
- An active Exoserva account with any role that has task management permissions
- Some existing jobs or conversations to follow up on
Step 1: Open the Follow-Up Queue
Click “Follow-Ups” in the left sidebar under the Work section. The page opens with a sticky header displaying the title “Follow-Up Queue” alongside a clock icon and a progress indicator showing how many follow-ups have been sent today. Directly below the header, a compact stats bar displays four interactive metric chips: an “Overdue” count with a pulsing red dot, a “Review” count for items pending approval, a “Sent” ratio showing completed versus total, and a “Conversion” percentage on the far right. Click any of these chips to instantly filter the queue to that category.
Below the stats bar, a Daily Progress panel shows a horizontal progress bar visualizing your completion rate for the day, along with keyboard shortcut hints at the bottom (j/k to navigate, a to approve, s to skip, r to refresh). The queue itself is organized into four tabs: “Due Now” (overdue items with a red danger badge), “Needs Approval” (items requiring manual review with a blue badge), “Upcoming” (scheduled future follow-ups), and “Completed” (sent, cancelled, or skipped items).
Tip: Press the number keys 1-4 to switch between tabs instantly without using the mouse. Press “r” at any time to refresh the queue data from the server.
Warning: The “Due Now” tab only shows follow-ups whose due date has already passed. If you are looking for items scheduled for later today, check the “Upcoming” tab instead.
Step 2: Take Action on a Follow-Up
Each follow-up item in the list displays the customer name, the AI-generated message type (such as “Gentle Reminder,” “Value Add,” “Check-In,” “Availability Update,” or “Last Chance”), a priority indicator (high priority in red, medium in amber, low in grey), the channel icon (phone, email, or SMS), and a relative timestamp showing when the item is due. Click any item to expand its details, which reveals the full AI-drafted message text, the originating job or conversation context, and three action buttons.
Click “Approve” (or press “a”) to send the follow-up message to the customer through the designated channel. Click “Skip” (or press “s”) to dismiss the item without sending, marking it as skipped with a neutral badge. Click “Cancel” (or press “c”) to permanently cancel the follow-up. After any action, a toast notification confirms the result (for example, “Follow-up approved” in green) and the item moves to the Completed tab.
Step 3: View the Tasks List
Click “Tasks” in the left sidebar under the Work section. The Human Tasks page opens with a header displaying an AI-powered task overview. The page is organized into status tabs: active tasks, completed tasks, and cancelled tasks. Each task row displays a type icon (such as a phone icon for callbacks, a camera for photo reviews, a package for material orders, or a clipboard for custom tasks), the task title, the assigned staff member, a priority badge (urgent in red, high in orange, normal in blue, low in grey), and a relative time indicator.
Use the search field at the top to filter tasks by keyword, and the sort dropdown to order by due date, priority, or creation date. Quick filter buttons let you narrow the view to “Urgent,” “Due Today,” “My Tasks,” or “Unassigned” items. The task type filter dropdown lets you isolate specific categories such as escalations, photo reviews, material orders, follow-ups, quote approvals, schedule conflicts, customer updates, invoice creation, quality checks, callbacks, site visits, or custom tasks.
Step 4: Create a New Task
Click the “Create Task” button in the top-right corner of the Tasks page. A modal form opens with the following fields: Title (text, required – a descriptive name for the task), Type (dropdown with 12 options: Escalation, Photo Review, Material Order, Follow-Up, Quote Approval, Schedule Conflict, Customer Update, Invoice Create, Quality Check, Callback, Site Visit, or Custom), Priority (dropdown: Urgent, High, Normal, Low), Assignee (dropdown populated with your active team members), Due Date (date-time picker), and Description (textarea for detailed instructions or context).
You can also add a checklist of sub-items to the task, each with a “Required” toggle that determines whether the checklist item must be completed before the task can be marked as done. The checklist progress is tracked as a percentage in the task detail view. Click “Save” to create the task – it will immediately appear in the active tasks list and the assigned team member will be notified.
Step 5: Manage Task Priorities
Each task displays a colored priority badge for instant visual scanning: Urgent shows a red badge (text-red-400 on a red-tinted background), High shows an orange badge, Normal shows a blue badge, and Low shows a grey badge. Click any task row to open its detail modal, which displays the full description, checklist progress bar (showing “X of Y items completed” with a percentage), assignment history, and a timeline of all status changes with timestamps.
From the detail modal, you can change the priority level, reassign the task to a different team member, update the due date, toggle checklist items as complete, or add notes. Click “Start Task” to change the status from pending to in-progress, or “Complete Task” to mark it done with a resolution note. Completed tasks retain their full history for audit purposes.
Step 6: Use Priority Filters and Sort Options
Click the “Sort” button (sliders icon) in the top-right area of the Follow-Up Queue header to open a dropdown menu with three sorting options: “Due Date” (clock icon, sorts chronologically), “Priority” (alert-triangle icon, sorts high-to-low), and “Customer Name” (user icon, sorts alphabetically). The currently active sort option is highlighted in blue with a checkmark. Click a different option to re-sort the list immediately.
On the Tasks page, combine the sort dropdown with the quick filter buttons (“Urgent,” “Due Today,” “My Tasks,” “Unassigned”) and the task type dropdown filter to create highly specific views. For example, select the “Urgent” quick filter and sort by “Due Date” to see the most time-sensitive items first. The filter counts update in real-time as you apply them, showing the number of matching items next to each filter label.
Step 7: Set Up Automation Rules for Follow-Ups
Navigate to Settings in the left sidebar, then click the “AI Automation” card under the System category. The Automation Templates section lets you create rules that automatically generate follow-ups based on triggers such as job completion, estimate expiration, or customer inactivity periods. Each rule specifies a trigger event (what initiates the follow-up), a delay (how long to wait after the trigger), a message type (gentle reminder, value add, check-in, availability update, or last chance), the channel (email, SMS, or phone), and the default priority (high, medium, or low).
When “Requires Approval” is enabled on a rule, generated follow-ups land in the “Needs Approval” tab of the Follow-Up Queue instead of being sent automatically, giving your team a chance to review and personalize the AI-drafted message before it reaches the customer. Toggle this setting off for routine, low-risk follow-ups like appointment reminders to reduce manual workload.
What’s Next?
Now that you’ve completed this guide, check out:
Need help? Post in the Tech Support category or contact support@exoserva.com.