> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.apten.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Follow-ups
> Review follow-up performance and improve automated follow-up strategies.
## Follow-ups
Follow-ups shows weekly insights into automated follow-up performance. It helps you understand which follow-up strategies, message patterns, and schedule choices are driving replies.
### What you can review
The Follow-ups report includes:
* **Recommended Actions**: suggested changes you can review, apply, or reject
* **Strategy Performance**: reply metrics for each follow-up strategy
* **Detected Patterns**: recurring message themes in follow-up content
* **Key Observations**: trends, concerns, opportunities, and anomalies
Use the **Period** selector to switch between weekly reports. Use **Sort by** to sort metrics by message volume or reply rate.
### Recommended Actions
Recommended actions can include:
* **Update Strategy**: revise the instructions for an existing follow-up strategy
* **Optimize Schedule**: change follow-up timing, channel, or strategy assignment for a step
* **Delete Strategy**: remove a redundant or underperforming strategy
* **Create Strategy**: add a new strategy for a missing follow-up approach
* **Set Up Strategies**: add follow-up strategies for profiles that do not have them yet
Click **Review** to inspect the rationale, evidence, and exact proposed change. From the review dialog, you can apply the change or reject it with a reason.
Applying a recommendation changes live follow-up configuration. Review the proposed change and evidence before applying it.
### What applying a recommendation changes
* Applying an instruction update changes the selected follow-up strategy's instructions.
* Applying a strategy deletion removes the selected follow-up strategy.
* Applying a strategy creation adds a new follow-up strategy for the profile.
* Applying a schedule change updates the profile's follow-up configuration for the proposed step.
* Rejecting a recommendation records your decision so Apten can avoid repeating the same recommendation without stronger evidence.
### Strategy Performance
Strategy Performance compares follow-up strategies for the selected week.
Each strategy can show:
* Message count
* Reply count
* Reply rate
* Average response time
* Sample messages
* Links to source conversations
Deleted strategies can still appear in historical reports if they were active when the messages were sent.
### Detected Patterns
Detected Patterns groups follow-up messages by what the message says, not just which strategy generated it.
Each pattern can show:
* A pattern label and keywords
* Message count
* Reply rate
* Strategy breakdown
* Sample messages and reply status
Patterns are useful when strategy-level metrics are too broad. For example, one strategy might perform well overall but struggle with a specific message pattern, or a low-volume pattern might reveal a promising angle to test.
## Interpreting reply rates
Follow-up reply rates depend on where a message appears in the sequence.
A later follow-up usually reaches harder-to-convert leads because those leads already ignored earlier messages. That means a strategy used later in the sequence can have a lower reply rate and still be valuable if it uses a different angle and gets replies from people who ignored earlier messages.
Good follow-up optimization usually means:
* Put the broadest-appeal strategy earlier in the sequence.
* Use meaningfully different approaches across steps.
* Keep niche or experimental approaches for later steps.
* Remove strategies that are redundant or consistently weak after enough volume.
* Create new strategies when the data shows an uncovered message angle.
## FAQ
Why does a rejected recommendation still appear?
Rejected recommendations remain visible in the weekly report as history. Future recommendations take that decision into account.
Can I review the original conversation?
Yes. Strategy samples and pattern samples link back to the source conversation when available.