Telling a Customer Their Order Is Delayed

Who noticed first

The same three-week delay produces two entirely different outcomes depending on one thing.

If you tell them, it is a problem being managed by somebody paying attention. Disappointing, and evidence of competence.

If they chase and discover it, it is a problem that was being hidden, and the reasonable inference is that nobody was watching.

The delay is identical. The reaction is not, and the difference is entirely within your control.

When to send it

As soon as you know, which is earlier than most businesses manage.

The temptation is to wait a day or two in case it resolves, which occasionally it does. More often the delay extends and you have burned the goodwill that early notice would have bought.

The rule that works: if you would be uncomfortable with them finding out today, tell them today.

And certainly before the date you originally promised. A message on the day it should have arrived is late; one three days before is management.

What the message should contain

1. The fact, in the first sentence, without a preamble.
2. What happened, briefly and without blaming anybody by name.
3. The new expectation, which must be one you will meet.
4. What you are doing about it.
5. What they can choose, including cancelling.
6. When you will next be in touch.

The first matters more than it seems. A message that opens with two paragraphs of context before reaching the point reads as though you are working up to something, which is worse than the news.

A worked example

A furniture maker whose fabric supplier slipped by five weeks on a large order.

His instinct was to wait, because the supplier kept suggesting it was nearly resolved. Three weeks passed and the customer, whose sofa had been due, emailed asking.

That conversation was difficult and the customer nearly cancelled.

On the next occasion he wrote on the day he heard. The email said the fabric was delayed, gave the revised date, said he had checked two alternative suppliers and what that would cost, and offered either to wait, switch fabric at no extra charge, or cancel with a full refund.

The customer chose to wait and thanked him for the notice.

Same supplier, similar delay, opposite outcome. The only variable was who found out first and what options came with the news.

How much to apologise

Once, plainly, and then stop.

Excessive apology is uncomfortable to read and shifts the message from information to emotional management. It also invites the customer to reassure you, which is the wrong direction.

One clear apology, then the practical content. "I am sorry, this has slipped by three weeks. Here is where it is and what we can do."

What to avoid entirely: apologising for the inconvenience while providing no new information, which is the standard corporate formula and reads as a message that took effort to say nothing.

Blame

Worth a position, because it comes up.

Explaining that a supplier let you down is honest and useful context. Dwelling on it reads as deflection, and the customer's contract is with you rather than with them.

One sentence of explanation is enough. Then move to what happens next, which is what they actually care about.

The exception is where the customer can act on the information, such as choosing a different manufacturer next time. Then the detail is genuinely useful rather than defensive.

The counter-case

Where a message is not the right move.

For a significant delay on a significant job, a phone call comes first and the email follows to confirm. Bad news of any size is better delivered in person than in writing.

For a delay of a day or two on something routine, a message may create concern where none existed. If it will resolve before they would have noticed, silence is reasonable.

The line is roughly whether the delay crosses a date you gave them. Inside your own margin, manage it. Outside it, tell them.

Compensation, and when it helps

The question that arises once a delay is significant.

Offering something unprompted, before it is demanded, changes the conversation entirely. Offering it after a complaint reads as buying somebody off.

What works is usually modest and specific: absorbing a delivery charge, a discount on the delayed item, or upgrading something at no cost.

What works less well is a large gesture, which suggests the failure was larger than the customer thought and can invite escalation.

And for a first delay of ordinary length, nothing is frequently the right answer. Notice and options are what people want; compensation offered too readily makes the next delay expensive to handle.

Giving them a real choice

The element that most often distinguishes a good delay message from a bad one.

Offering to cancel and refund feels like inviting the loss. In practice most people do not take it, and being offered it is what makes waiting feel like their decision.

The ones who do take it were going to be difficult customers for the rest of the job, and letting them go early is usually cheaper than the alternative.

Where you can offer an alternative, price it fairly. Charging more for a substitution caused by your supply problem converts a delay into a grievance.

Delays that affect many customers at once

A different problem from a single slipped order, and it needs a different approach.

Where a supply problem affects everybody waiting, individual messages become impractical and start to sound identical, which customers notice when they compare.

The better arrangement is a short dated note on the site explaining the situation generally, plus an individual message to each customer about their specific order.

The general note does the explaining. The individual message does the part that matters, which is their date and their options.

What does not work is only the general note. A notice on a website is not a message to somebody who is waiting, and treating it as one is how businesses discover their customers felt ignored.

What happens after

The follow-through that decides whether the goodwill survives.

Meet the revised date. A second slip after a first is what turns a patient customer into an angry one, and the second apology is worth much less than the first.

Which means the revised date should be conservative. Build in more room than you think you need, because you are now spending credibility you have already partly used.

And when it does arrive, say so promptly rather than letting them discover it. The same principle that governed the bad news governs the good, and a message saying it has shipped closes the episode properly.

How to describe uncertainty before it becomes a delay is covered in when your supplier cannot give you a date.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.