It is usually the asking, not the customer
Processes that stall waiting for customers are rarely stalled by unwillingness. They are stalled by a long email asking for eight things, arriving at a bad moment, requiring a laptop and a scanner to answer.
Fix the request before automating the reminder, or you will just be chasing a badly designed ask more efficiently.
Ask better
- Ask for less. Question every field — what would you do differently based on it?
- Ask in stages, so nothing is blocked waiting for everything
- Ask at the right moment, when the customer is already engaged rather than a week later
- Make responding trivial — a phone-friendly form, saved progress, photo upload rather than scanning
- Validate at entry, so an incomplete answer never reaches your team
Then chase specifically
“We still need your November statements and two purchase invoices” gets a response. “Please send your outstanding items” does not. Specificity is the entire difference between chasing and nagging.
Day 2, day 5, day 10, each naming exactly what is outstanding with a direct link back to that step, and an obvious route to reply to a person instead.
Instrument the drop-off
Log a timestamp at each stage. Within a month you will know exactly which request stalls people, and it is almost never the one the team assumes.
Usually one specific item — a document nobody has to hand, a signature needing someone senior — accounts for most of the delay. Once visible, the fix is often a business decision: ask later, ask for less, or stop asking.
Give them a deadline that means something
“At your convenience” produces indefinite delay. A stated date with a consequence — the slot is released, the quote expires, the price is held until Friday — produces responses.
Make the consequence real and apply it consistently, or it stops working within a quarter.