Paul Harvey was on the radio in my house a lot when I was a kid.

Harvey was famous for a segment called "the rest of the story" where he shared a forgotten story or little-known fact about a famous person or event. Each ended with with a surprise twist and his famous phrase, "And now you know... the rest of the story!"

We often miss the rest of the story when we interact with customers.

• Did the solution work?

• Did the customer succeed?

• Are they happy with how things turned out?

Surveys sometimes capture some of the story, but often anonymously or without all the interesting details. When you care about a customer, you want to know what really happened.

Friendly follow-up is one way to learn the rest of your customer's story. It can help you build stronger relationships and identify additional opportunities to serve.

Here's how to do it.

When to give customers a friendly follow-up

The best time to follow up with a customer is right after a critical moment in their customer journey where what happens next can determine success or failure.

My wife, Sally, and I recently had solar installed on our home by Stellar Solar. Friendly follow-up is one of the reasons the company has been voted the best solar company in San Diego County for five years in a row.

Our sales person, Dave Gersz, did an amazing job of following up throughout the installation process.

There were a couple of very minor hiccups along the way, but Gersz's check-in calls allowed him to address any small issues immediately before they became big ones. They also assured us everything was on track.

Our installation was very smooth as a result.

Take a moment to determine when it makes sense and under what circumstances you should follow up with your customers. Here are a few examples:

• An important delivery

• A resolution to a challenging problem

• A milestone in a big project

How to follow up with customers

There's no single best way to follow up with customers. Try to pick the method that's most appropriate to the situation and best matches what you know about your customer's preferences.

Generally speaking, a call or text is better than an email because it’s more personal and urgent.

When I experienced difficulty getting a furniture delivery scheduled, I communicated with a supervisor via both phone and email. However, she called me to follow up on the day of the delivery.

It was a good thing she called, too. The furniture had arrived damaged and now I needed her help getting it replaced. We were able to work out the details over the phone.

There are times when an email is more appropriate. For instance, if all of your previous correspondence was via email or you are following-up about a relatively minor issue.

I also like email to send additional details, such as sending customers step-by-step instructions.

How to remember to follow up with customers

This can be the biggest challenge for some customer service professionals. It's hard to keep an important customer top of mind when you serve hundreds of other people during the week.

Setting a reminder is one easy way to do it. There are a few places you can do this:

• A customer relationship management (CRM) system.

• Your calendar.

• A project management system.

Some follow-ups can be automated.

For example, I've set automated follow-ups for my free Customer Service Tip of the Week newsletter. Subscribers get a follow-up email from me at several milestones:

• When they subscribe

• After three months

• After six months

• After one year

Each email contains a helpful suggestion or reminder. It also contains my contact information so subscribers can easily reach me if they have a question, comment, or some feedback.

These automations help me effectively support more than 10,000 subscribers without any additional staff.

Conclusion

You've likely experienced friendly follow-up when you've dined out at a restaurant.

The server comes to your table shortly after your meal arrives and asks, "How is everything?" Everything is great most of the time, but occasionally there's a small issue with the order, a drink needs refilling, or you want extra ketchup.

Friendly follow-up can work even if you don't work in a restaurant.

Use it to spot additional opportunities to serve or find a way to prevent small problems from becoming big ones. It is also a great way to build stronger relationships with important customers.

Here's one bonus tip I can share.

Some people ask customers to write an online review on Yelp or another platform right after the customer service transaction. I advise against this.

A better strategy is to use friendly follow-up to learn the rest of the customer's story before asking them to leave a review. This will help you solve any issues that could prevent you from earning a glowing recommendation.