A customer has already described a faulty product in a messaging app, sent photographs and been told that help is on the way. When calling for an update, the customer must provide the order number, describe the fault and explain who handled the earlier conversation. At the store, the story begins again. Every employee may be polite, yet the customer still feels that the business has not taken ownership of the problem.
What needs attention here is the handover between teams. When information does not travel with a request, customers must connect the separate parts of the service themselves. Improving the experience means enabling the next person to continue from the work already completed.
The customer is trying to resolve one issue
A business may divide work among sales, delivery, technical support and customer service. For the customer, there is still one unresolved issue: receiving the right item, replacing a faulty product or learning when a refund will arrive. A department finishing its own task is not enough to close responsibility for that request.
The UK Government’s Service Standard recommends joining up the channels that users need and addressing barriers created by internal processes, systems or structures. This offers a useful direction for reviewing handovers between channels rather than improving each channel in isolation (GOV.UK, Service Standard, point 3).
A handover must preserve the story
A note saying “customer needs urgent help” communicates urgency but does not tell the recipient what to do. Forwarding a long conversation without a summary also forces the next person to start searching again. A handover should be concise, structured and sufficient for deciding the next step.
A business can try a template with five parts:
- What the customer needs resolved: describe the request in one clear sentence.
- What has been verified: include relevant information and distinguish checked facts from the customer’s report.
- Actions taken and commitments made: avoid asking the customer to repeat a completed step or receiving a different promise.
- The current owner: name a specific person responsible for monitoring progress.
- The next action and update time: state who must do what and when the customer will hear back.
This is a practical template that can be adapted to the service. A product return does not require the same information as a technical enquiry. What matters is that the recipient understands what remains unresolved and has a basis for continuing the work.
A handover needs an accepting recipient
Sending a request to a shared inbox does not establish that someone has accepted it. If both the sender and the recipient see themselves as providing only partial support, the request can remain between teams. Define when a handover is complete: the recipient acknowledges the request, understands the customer commitment and accepts responsibility for the next step.
Meanwhile, the person communicating with the customer needs access to progress information. That person does not have to resolve everything personally, but must be able to ask the right colleague and explain the current position. “I have passed this to another department” should come with a specific time for an update.
Test it with a concrete situation
Suppose a customer receives a lamp that does not work and sends photographs to the messaging team. Before arranging a store visit, the employee should verify the information genuinely needed for reception, record the agreed approach and pass the request to the responsible person at the store. An immediate replacement should not be promised if that decision still requires a check.
When the customer calls again, the next employee can begin with confirmation rather than asking for the whole story:
“I have reviewed the request about the lamp that does not work and the photographs you sent. The store is checking the conditions for accepting it; I will update you at the agreed time. Is there any new information you would like to add?”
This hypothetical situation illustrates a handover. The lesson is to preserve the information and update commitment already agreed, rather than turning the wording into a promise for every case.
Share only what is needed
Keeping work connected does not mean sharing the customer’s entire record with everyone. Each team needs information relevant to its own task. Unrelated conversations or data should be left out of the handover, and viewing and editing rights should reflect responsibilities.
Changes should be recorded somewhere that both parties can consult within their assigned permissions. Separate personal copies can lead the business to give conflicting answers. A simple tool can be enough to begin with, provided the current record and the person responsible for updating it are clear.
Check the second customer contact
To test the process, choose a type of request that commonly moves between teams and follow it from reception to resolution. At the next customer contact, check whether information already provided is requested again, whether the recipient knows the earlier commitment and whether the next action can be explained clearly.
If repeated questions remain necessary, find where information was omitted or responsibility became unclear, and repair that handover. The experience improves when customers can see that the business remembers their issue and continues working on it, even when the employee or contact channel changes.
Reference
GOV.UK. Service Standard 3: Provide a joined up experience across all channels. Updated 16 December 2025.
Illustrative photograph: Yan Krukau / Pexels.
