Dazza's Blog

Building the secretary is one thing. Teaching it where all the loose ends live is another. This week's Dazza Follow-Up update isn't about announcing a release date. We're still developing DFU, and some of the work currently depends on answers and access from external providers. But that work highlights something important about what we're trying to build. A useful digital follow-up secretary can't live in one little box. The things you're waiting on don't. Follow-ups start al

“Yeah mate, I'll get back to you.” Famous last words. You're waiting on the supplier for the roof sheets. The plumber owes you a price. The electrician was going to confirm whether he can make Tuesday. The customer needs to choose something before you can order it. None of those things sounds particularly difficult. But while you're actually doing the job, another day disappears. Then somebody asks: “Whatever happened with that?” And the answer is: “I rang him. He never rang

Five words that can turn a perfectly good job into a surprisingly long conversation. Most tradies have heard some version of it. The job is underway. Something small comes up. The customer asks, “While you're here, can you just do this as well?” It doesn't seem worth stopping everything over. You talk about it, agree on what needs doing and get on with the job. Then the invoice arrives. “Hang on. I thought that was included in the quote.” And now two people can remember the s

“I thought I was waiting on them” has probably killed more follow-ups than most software bugs ever will. Follow-up gets messy when responsibility gets blurry. Take a quote. You send it Monday. Now you’re waiting on the customer. Easy. Wednesday morning they email back: Looks good. Can you confirm how soon you could start? The situation has changed. They aren’t holding the job up anymore. They’re waiting on you. That distinction is one of the core ideas behind Dazza Follow-Up.

Plenty of small trade businesses are too small to justify a full-time office employee, but they still have the exact same problem a good secretary solves: keeping track of what needs to happen next.

A quiet customer is easy to write off as a lost job. Sometimes they never rejected you at all — the conversation simply stopped.

Most follow-ups only take a minute. The trouble is they have to be remembered later — after another day of jobs, calls, suppliers and interruptions.

Sending the quote feels like the job is done. But for plenty of small businesses, the real leak happens after the quote leaves the inbox and nobody remembers to chase it.