I Rang Him. He Never Rang Me Back.
“Yeah mate, I'll get back to you.” Famous last words.
You're waiting on the supplier for the roof sheets.
The plumber owes you a price.
The electrician was going to confirm whether he can make Tuesday.
The customer needs to choose something before you can order it.
None of those things sounds particularly difficult.
But while you're actually doing the job, another day disappears.
Then somebody asks:
“Whatever happened with that?”
And the answer is:
“I rang him. He never rang me back.”
Waiting is part of the job
A surprising amount of running a small business involves waiting for somebody else.
Suppliers. Customers. Subbies. Accounts. Council. Manufacturers. Whoever happens to hold the next piece of the puzzle.
The real problem isn't waiting.
It's remembering who you're waiting on, what you're waiting for and when you should chase them again.
When you've only got one outstanding call, that's easy.
When you've got twelve of them spread across several jobs, it isn't.
“I'll remember” works until it doesn't
Most of us have our own little systems.
A note on the bench. An email left unread. A text message. Something scribbled on the back of a quote. Maybe just keeping it in your head.
They all work — right up until the phone rings again.
Then another job gets added, somebody needs something urgently, and Wednesday's promised callback quietly disappears underneath Thursday's work.
The supplier hasn't necessarily forgotten deliberately.
Neither have you.
The follow-up simply had no proper home.
That's the loose end that matters
This is one of the problems we're interested in at Dazza Does It For You.
Not another giant management system.
Just a better way of keeping track of the loose ends:
Who am I waiting on? Who's waiting on me? When should somebody follow it up?
Because sometimes the thing holding up a job isn't the work.
It's one phone call that nobody remembered to make twice.
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