Follow-up Activity Settings

Follow-up Activity Settings

What is the Follow-Up Activity feature?

  1. A follow up activity is a task to be done as a result of an initial incoming call.
  2. Follow-up activity entry is optional - if none is required, simply enter nothing in this section.
  3. It can be assigned to yourself, another phone worker or anyone.
  4. It will be scheduled with a due date, and optional time.
  5. It also contains more information about the task, like the subject, notes and more.
  6. You can create a follow-up activity before initially saving the call, or at any time after that when viewing a call.
  7. There is no limit to the number of follow-up activities that can be attached to a call.
  8. As these follow-up activities become due, they will be highlighted on the main Calls page, in the "Follow-up" menu
  9. Then the follow-up activity can be opened and edited, and when appropriate, mark it as Closed.
  10. This feature can be turned on or off for each call report in your system via the Overall settings for this call report form, found when editing a call report form.
  11. Which fields appear in the follow-up section, plus default settings for these fields, can be set via the Calls tab in the Admin Tools menu.

Customize fields in the Follow-up Activity

Admins can control what information is required for follow ups.Turning on the "Schedule a Follow-up Activity" section on your call report, plus determining who follow-ups should be assigned to, and what the default follow-up due date is, are settings made via editing your call report.

Follow the steps below to access the Follow-up Activities Settings:
  1. Click "Calls" in the left hand menu
  2. Click "Manage Call Report Forms"
  3. Click "Edit this form" underneath the name of the call report to be adjusted
  4. Click "Overall settings for this call report form" at the top of the screen
The settings are found in the section entitled "Follow-up Activities".  The settings are as follows:
  1. Follow-ups: Can create follow-up activities attached to each call report - This setting turns the "Schedule a follow-up activity" section on or off.
  2. Assigned to anyone: Follow-up activities are initially assigned to "anyone available", instead of the person creating the call report - Check this setting if you would like to set the default "Assigned to" value to "Anyone available" rather than the name of the person who is submitting the call report.
  3. Follow-ups due (by default) in: - This setting determines the default due on date for follow-ups.  The options available are immediately, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 7 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks.  Please note that the call takers, when scheduling a follow-up, can change this default if they wish.
The fields that appear in the "Schedule a Follow-up Activity" section can be turned on or off, made required or not and default selections for many of them can also be set.  These settings are made on the Calls tab in the Admin Tools section.  
To access click " Admin Tools" in the left hand menu, click the Calls tab.The following Follow-up Activity settings are available:
  1. Contact method: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  2. Phone number: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  3. OK to leave message: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  4. OK to use caller information: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  5. Name to ask for: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  6. Follow-up is with (caller/third party): Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  7. Try to contact (# of times): Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  8. Email/SMS text address: Can be shown, made required, and a default can be set.
  9. Minutes spent on follow up activity (Note: manual entry in this field will accumulate as Follow-up 'time spent' in Statistics.): Can be shown and made required.  A default cannot be set for this field.

Turn on/off Follow up Activity for Contact Forms/Call Reports

Admins or Supervisors (or users with special permissions) can enable/disable follow up activities in individual call reports. 
Enabling Follow-ups in a Call Report
  1. Click on "Calls" from the left menu
  2. Click on "Manage Call Report Forms "button 
  3. Click on "Edit this form" for the call report you want to add follow-up activities 
  4. Click on "Overall settings for this call report form"  link at the top 
  5. Scroll down to the "Follow-up Activities" section 
  6. Enable/Check mark the "Follow-ups: Can create follow-up activities attached to each call report" 
  7. Select Assigned to anyone if appropriate
  8. Edit the Follow-ups due time frame as appropriate
  9. Save Settings

Considerations for including Follow-up Questions in a Call Report

A number of considerations must be considered when you include Follow-up data collection within the original Call Report.
  1. Enable access to the original Call Report to record Follow-up information. Unless this setting is enabled, only the volunteer/staff who created it and Admins are able to edit it during the Follow-up process.You may choose to enable 'anyone' to edit this form.
  2. The length of time a Call report may be edited is controlled by a setting in Admin Tools, Calls tab. Set this to reflect the longest time permitted after the initial report entry for volunteers/staff to update follow-up information.

Make scheduling follow-ups required

As an Admin level user, you can set fields to trigger a requirement that a follow-up is scheduled. From the All Calls page, you can make follow-ups required by completing the following steps:
  1. Click the 'Manage Call Report Forms' button
  2. Click the link to 'Edit this form' underneath the call report name you wish to edit
  3. Navigate to the field level:
    1. In the left-hand menu, select the Category name
    2. Then choose the Group
    3. Then choose the Field you wish to trigger a requirement that a follow-up is scheduled
  4. On the Field level, in the yellow box on the right of the screen, select the checkbox 'If selected, must schedule follow-up'
  5. Click the ‘Save’ button
  6. Complete these steps for all fields you wish to trigger a requirement that a follow-up is scheduled

Limiting the Volunteers and Staff from the Follow Up Assigned To list

When Programs are enabled volunteers and staff can be added or removed from the Follow Up Assigned To list by an Administrator if appropriate. When a volunteer or staff member is removed from the list, their name will not appear for other standard users when assigning a follow up activity. However, if appropriate volunteers and staff who have been removed from the list for other users, may be allowed to assign follow ups to themselves when needed.

To enable the limited Assigned To list:

  1. Log into iCarol as an Admin (or user with advance access privileges)
  2. Click on “Admin Tools” from the left menu
  3. Click on the “Calls” tab
  4. Under the Follow-up Activity settings section, click the checkbox for the setting “Allow volunteers to be excluded from Follow-up Assigned To list”.
  5. Click “Save all settings”

Configure volunteers who are included in the Assigned To list:

  1. Click on “Vols – Staff” from the left menu
  2. Click on “Assign people to Programs and Roles” from the Administrators tools panel
  3. When Volunteers and Staff are members of a Program, they can be included in the Assigned To list by enabling the “Assigned Follow-Ups” setting.
  4. If users are not included in the Assigned To list, the “Assign Follow-Ups to Self” option will be available, which will allow logged in users to create and assign follow-up activities to themselves, but no one else can assign a follow up to them.
  5. Click “Save changes” (before navigating to a new page)
Note: Supervisors and Admins may assign or reassign a follow up activity to any user, regardless of their Assigned To settings.

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