A follow-up schedule that holds up later
Chasing a business that never calls back feels like wasted effort. The log of those attempts is evidence in its own right, and it is worth more than any single reply.
Why keep it
The log is the evidence. The replies are a bonus.
A business that answers nothing leaves you with no correspondence to show, which is exactly what it wants. A dated log of every attempt is the record it cannot produce and cannot contradict, and it exists whether or not anybody ever replies.
Every later route asks a version of the same question. A licensing board asks what the contractor did when contacted. A surety asks what the claimant tried first. A court asks whether the other side had the chance to put it right. One page answers all three.1
The cadence
Four things that make a record readable
A regular interval makes a pattern legible
Contact at an even spacing produces a column a stranger can read in one pass. Contact whenever frustration peaks produces a cluster, a gap, another cluster, and no visible shape.
The same interval throughout
Changing the spacing partway makes the record about your patience. Keeping it constant makes it about their response, which is the subject you want it to be about.
One channel, then another
A chase by the method that failed last time is easy to ignore twice. The same request by phone, then in writing, then to a different part of the business, is a record of having tried the routes available.
Log the attempt, not just the contact
A call nobody answered is an entry. The unanswered attempts are most of the evidence, and they are the entries people skip because nothing happened.
The log
Six columns to copy
| Date | Method | Who | What was said | What was promised | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Mar | Phone | Reception, no name | Asked for the site manager. Told he would call back today. | Callback by 12 Mar | No call |
| Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank |
| Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank |
| Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank | Blank |
Date
The spine of the whole document. Gaps in a date column are the first thing anybody reads it for.
Method
Call, email, letter or portal. Which route was used decides what proof exists of the attempt.
Who
A name, or the fact that no name was given. Being passed between people who cannot decide anything is a pattern, and it is only visible in this column.
What was said
One line. What you asked for and what you were told, in their words where you have them.
What was promised
The commitment and its date, separated from the rest of the conversation. This is the column that turns into the argument.
What happened
Filled in later, often with nothing. An empty cell against a promise in the column beside it is the most useful thing on the page.
Nothing new to say
What to write when there is no news
Restate the request, unchanged
The same ask, in the same words, with the original date attached. Rewording it each time gives the reader a new thing to respond to and lets the original request age out of the conversation.
Name what was promised and when
One line quoting the commitment and its date. It moves the conversation from what you want to what they said, which is the harder thing for them to be silent about.
Say what you are doing next, and only what you will do
A dated next step you will actually take. A step announced and not taken costs more than saying nothing, because it teaches the reader that your dates are not real.
Keep it short enough to have been read
A long chase invites the reply that it is being reviewed. Three sentences leaves nothing to review.
Non-response stops being a gap and becomes the finding
Where it goes
The log inside the file
The log sits with the correspondence in the evidence file, and what you can show about each letter you sent is on sending it so it counts. How much of your own time this adds up to is what the effort estimator works out.2
Disclosures
- 1.Satisfy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. This page describes how to keep a record. It does not assess any dispute, state how often anybody should make contact, or say what a record proves.
- 2.How long a licensing board, insurer or other body takes to respond, and what it requires of a complainant first, is set by that body and by each state. Nothing on this page states a period or a requirement, because neither is the same in any two places.