Who's in the Dark? Communication and Customer Service

 

At Organization #1, the customer was told that everything was ready and that the order would be shipped by Organization #2.

Just be patient, they said. It may take around 10 days.

In the meantime, Organization #2 was awaiting notice from the customer that a separate product had been received from another organization we'll call Organization #3.

But no one told the customer, so no notice was sent to Organization #2.

Then again, that would have been impossible even if notice had been given to the customer because Organization #3 was not going to send the separate product until they'd gotten a document from the customer. 

But no one told the customer.

In short, the process was blocked at Organizations #2 and #3 because they were awaiting information from the customer, but no one told the customer and so the customer and Organizations #2 and #3 continued to wait.

Lessons Learned: Overcommunicate, follow-up, and look for areas in which projects can fall between the cracks and be forgotten or lost.