FollowDesk: Automated Lead Follow-Up and Booking CRM

PROJECT OVERVIEW FollowDesk is a production-ready, white-label lead follow-up and booking CRM for local service businesses. I built it to keep new enquiries moving after the first contact without forcing a small team into a complex enterprise CRM.

THE PROBLEM Warm leads often go cold because follow-up depends on memory, spreadsheets, and scattered inboxes. Teams need a clear pipeline, consistent approved messages, and an automatic stop when a lead replies, books, wins, or is no longer active.

WHAT I BUILT • A branded public enquiry experience and six-stage lead pipeline • Configurable follow-up messages scheduled at 0, 24, 72, and 168 hours by default • Booking status with Calendly, Cal.com, or a custom booking link • Automatic sequence suppression for booked, won, and lost leads • Search, filters, priorities, owner assignment, notes, and activity history • Demo email mode, production SMTP support, and formula-safe CSV export • Secure generic webhooks plus direct LeadDesk AI lead ingestion

PRODUCT WORKFLOW New enquiry → lead record → pipeline status → approved follow-up schedule → reply or booking event → automatic suppression → activity history and team follow-up.

TECHNOLOGY AND DELIVERY FollowDesk uses Python, FastAPI, SQLite, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SMTP, Docker, and Railway-ready deployment. Each buyer receives white-label settings, editable templates, client intake documents, a fulfillment playbook, QA checklist, deployment guidance, and a practical handoff guide.

SAFETY AND PRODUCT DECISIONS The public sales demo uses fictional Northstar Home Services data. Demo mode records due messages without sending real email. Admin and webhook access use separate private tokens, production secrets remain server-side, and public enquiry submission is rate limited.

VALIDATION AND LIMITS Automated checks cover the application and core workflows. SMTP delivery depends on a verified sender domain and the buyer's provider. SQLite is suitable for a focused single-business deployment; PostgreSQL and full user authentication are recommended before high-write or multi-tenant use. No client revenue claim is made from fictional demo data.

LIVE PRODUCT Explore the working demo at https://followdesk-production.up.railway.app/