Key takeaways
- Measure the delay by item and by client, not by how many emails were sent.
- Find whether the delay is the request, the client's records or the firm's follow-up.
- Change one part of the process at a time, then measure again.
- A due date and a short, specific reminder are more effective than a longer email.
Measure the delay
Start with the date the request went out, the due date, the date the first item arrived and the date the last item arrived. That gives four numbers per client, and the pattern is usually obvious.
Measure by item, not only by client. A client who sends the bank statement on time and the payroll report two weeks late is not a late client; they are a client with one late document.
Do not measure the number of emails sent. A firm that sends five reminders and still has a late client has a process problem, not an effort problem.
Find the bottleneck
If clients start late, the request probably arrived too late or was too hard to start. If clients start on time but finish late, the list is probably too long or one item is blocking the rest.
If one client is always late, look at the client's records: a bookkeeper who is waiting on a bank, a business owner who is traveling, a client who does not use email. The fix may be a phone call, not another reminder.
If every client is late in the same week, the firm sent every request in the same week. Spread the sends.
Change the request
Shorten the list to the items the firm actually uses. Remove the items that nobody reads and the items that duplicate another request.
Make the first item easy. A client who finishes one item is more likely to finish the second. A list that starts with a difficult document can stop the whole request.
Put the deadline in the first paragraph and on the checklist. A deadline that only appears in the email footer is easy to miss.
Change the reminder
Send the first reminder before the due date, not after. A reminder three days before the deadline gives the client time to act without feeling late.
Name the items still open. "We still need the March bank statement and the payroll register" is more useful than "you have items due."
Stop the reminders when the client finishes. A reminder that arrives after the last document teaches the client that the reminders are noise.
Change the client conversation
Ask the client how they want to be reminded: email, phone or a message to their assistant. A client who chooses the channel is more likely to respond.
For a client who is consistently late, have a short conversation about the impact. The return may be extended, the close may be late or the loan application may be delayed. The client may not know the consequence.
Do not frame the conversation as a complaint. Frame it as a scheduling problem the firm wants to solve.
Use the due date
A due date should be a real date, not "as soon as possible." The client needs to know when the firm will stop waiting and what happens next.
If the firm has a late-document policy, apply it consistently. A policy that is enforced once and ignored the next time teaches the client that the deadline is optional.
The due date is also an internal commitment. If the firm says the close will be done by the 10th, the client's due date has to leave enough time to close.
What not to do
Do not send a longer email. A long email is harder to act on, not easier.
Do not resend the whole list when one item is missing. The client sees the same work again and may stop reading.
Do not mark an item complete to make the list look better. The missing document will come back as a correction or a cleanup.