Sometimes, customer issues or complaints get tagged as “resolved” without actually resolving them from the customer’s perspective. At times, the customer doesn’t even know that their complaint has been tagged as resolved because no one from the company told them. Often, this happens because someone in the company wants to make some interdepartmental performance chart look good.

This can be dangerously misleading, because the business leader or senior management do not see the real picture as to how many customer issues or complaints were genuinely resolved on time, how many were resolved late, how many still remain unresolved, and how old the unresolved ones are. If management doesn’t have this information, it obviously won’t be a focus area for your company. Because these “early warning signals” remain hidden, you may only learn about the problems when it manifests itself in the form of more serious outcomes, such as customers and business leaving you. By then, it may be too late—or definitely much more difficult—to reverse the situation.

This two-part article recounts a real-life example, and the lessons learned from it, that might be relevant to your business.

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