An example from customer service
Have you ever spent a whole morning answering "where's my order?"
Each call is quick. There are forty of them. Each one pulls someone off the work that ships the orders.
Who this is for
- Firms whose customers ask about orders or jobs every day.
- Teams that check three systems, then ring the warehouse or the shop.
- Customers who hear about delays when they ask, not before.
When we'd advise against it
A few status calls a week? Just answer them. Customers already see live tracking and use it? You're set. We'd say so.
Where the work stalls: nobody outside operations can see it
- Order confirmed
- Scheduled
- Made or picked
- Shipped
- In transit
- Delivered
- Confirmed
Only operations can see where an order is. So sales and service both call operations to ask.
Each call interrupts the people doing the work. Delays reach the customer when they ring, already annoyed.
In a distributor, it's the contractor asking whether the pipe ships today. In a manufacturer, it's the buyer asking when their run finishes. In construction, it's the homeowner asking when the cabinets arrive.
What we would build: an order status desk
It answers status questions from live data, and warns customers before they need to ask.
What changes
- Emailed status questions get an accurate answer drafted within minutes.
- Your team stops ringing the warehouse to find out.
- Delays are spotted early, and customers hear first.
- Operations gets far fewer interruptions.
What it's worth to you
Count the status calls and emails each week. Multiply by the minutes each takes, including the call to operations. Multiply again by the hourly cost of whoever answers.
Then add the hours operations loses to being asked.
Status desk ยท today
52 status questions
| Answered from live data, replies drafted | 44 |
|---|---|
| Needed a personSplit shipments. | 6 |
| EscalatedOrders at risk, passed to the account owner. | 2 |
| Delay notices drafted before customers asked | 9 |
Your team sends every answer and every notice.
How it works, in full
Read the full workings
When it starts
When a customer asks, and every morning for open orders.
What it reads
Your ERP or job system, such as Epicor, NetSuite or Procore. Carrier tracking. The customer service inbox. We confirm each one in the first conversation.
The steps
- Reads each status question and finds the order.
- Pulls its stage, ship date and tracking.
- Drafts a plain answer for the customer.
- Checks open orders each morning for slipping dates.
- Drafts a delay notice with the new date and the reason.
- Flags orders at risk to the account owner.
Where a person signs off
Your team approves every answer and every delay notice before it's sent.
What it never does
It only states dates your systems show. It never promises a date, and never changes an order or a delivery.
What we'd ask of you
Read access to your order system and tracking. Your rules for what customers are told. One person who owns service.
What tends to come with it
- A late-order early warning, so delays are caught upstream.
- Same-day quotes that start with dates you can keep.
- Scheduling, so crews and shifts move with the orders.
You become the supplier customers never have to chase.
Customers know where their order is, and your mornings are your own again.
Yours would look different, of course. Shaping it to your firm is what the first conversation is for.
Shall we find an hour?
A first conversation is with one of our co-founders. It's free, takes about an hour, and needs no access.
A person writes back, usually within one working day.