From professional experience

Seven business situations from earlier professional work

A contract promised more than delivery could comfortably provide. Customer and service records lived in different places. More demand exposed a capacity constraint. These anonymised examples show what was observed and what still needed to be established.

These examples come from previous professional roles, not completed Unsnag engagements. Observations are separated from unmeasured financial consequences.

01 · Revenue and fulfilment

When the contract created more work than expected

Commercial reports can stop before the resources required to deliver a promise are counted.

Customer economics

Service agreements required additional visits and exceptions

Observed. In an equipment and service business, customer revenue was visible, but some agreed service conditions required additional visits and exceptions to the normal delivery model. Teams absorbed those commitments through extra work.

Analytical distinction. Account revenue showed the value of sales. It did not show the labour, travel and repeat visits required to deliver those particular commitments. That additional cost could alter the contribution of an otherwise important account.

Decision affected. Compare the terms promised to each account with service events and attributable costs before deciding which accounts to expand, reprice or renegotiate.

Evidence boundary. The additional service work was observed. A quantified margin effect requires a consistent account-level cost calculation.

What an account-level review would need to connect

Account and service terms
Equipment or site covered
Service calls and exceptions
Labour, travel and other attributable costs
Revenue less attributable service costs

This is the reconstruction required to assess the financial effect, not a claim that all five links were available in the original records.

How customer records connect to service requirements →

Product economics

Some products required additional packing and delivery work

Observed. In the same equipment business, certain products needed unusual packaging and shipping arrangements. Their sales appeared in the product report; the handling requirements were dealt with during fulfilment.

Analytical distinction. A margin calculated before product-specific packaging and logistics overstates the contribution available from those sales. The effect depends on how these costs are treated in the existing accounts.

Decision affected. Compare the selling price and direct product cost with packaging, transport and handling attributable to each SKU. Then decide whether the offer, price or delivery terms need changing.

Evidence boundary. The exceptional fulfilment requirements were observed. The size of the contribution adjustment must be calculated for each product.

02 · Information and operations

When the information existed — but did not connect

The missing connection may be between campaigns and orders, accounts and service activity, or contracts and delivery.

Commercial information

Marketing activity was not traceable through to orders

Observed. Marketing and Sales reported largely separately. Campaign activity and lead volumes could be seen, but the connection to qualified opportunities, orders and customer value was inconsistent.

Analytical distinction. This is an attribution and management-information problem. It does not establish that marketing was ineffective: both useful and unproductive activity can sit behind the same incomplete record.

Decision affected. Agree definitions and follow a sample from source or campaign through qualification and ordering. Use the result to decide what the business can actually learn about channel quality and spend.

Evidence boundary. The broken reporting connection was observed; the economic return of individual campaigns was not established by that observation alone.

Cost-to-serve

Property maintenance and customer revenue sat in different records

Observed. A property business recorded part of its commercial relationships in CRM, with managed properties and maintenance activity in separate systems. Repair and service requirements varied substantially across the portfolio.

Analytical distinction. The difference in workload was visible operationally but was difficult to connect consistently to a particular customer relationship, its commercial terms and its revenue.

Decision affected. Establish the link between account, managed property, maintenance event, obligation and cost. Only then compare customer economics or revisit contract terms.

Evidence boundary. Variation in service activity was observed. An uncalculated relationship margin should not be described as an established loss.

Operating capacity

Staff manually reconstructed the connection between contracts and service delivery

Observed. A contracted-service not-for-profit had an underused CRM and a separate service environment. Tracing what had been delivered to service users against the relevant contracting organisation required manual reconciliation. Workload increased, deadlines were missed and staff departures occurred.

Analytical distinction. The reporting and coordination burden was an operating requirement created by disconnected records. The timing of staff departures does not by itself prove their cause.

Decision affected. Define the contract-to-service-user relationship, necessary delivery events and reporting responsibility before deciding whether the next investment should be more administration or a change in the information process.

Evidence boundary. Manual reconciliation and delivery pressure were observed. The relative contribution of information gaps to staff turnover was not isolated.

03 · Products and capacity

When demand grew faster than the capacity to serve it

Demand-generation and product decisions need evidence of buyer need and feasible delivery economics.

Product and sales

Product decisions lacked a consistent customer-demand signal

Observed. In a large service organisation, Product and Sales worked in an established Salesforce environment but did not consistently use the same commercial definitions or customer evidence. Some offers reached Sales without clear evidence of demand or sufficient readiness; some attracted weak demand or were loss-making.

Analytical distinction. Shared software did not ensure shared criteria for developing, releasing and selling a product. Poor commercial performance could involve the proposition, its delivery economics or the evidence used to approve it—not merely CRM configuration.

Decision affected. Specify the evidence required before a product is developed or launched, then compare actual buyer response, readiness and cost with those assumptions.

Evidence boundary. The cross-functional gaps and weak outcomes were observed. They do not prove that a single missing field or system change would have prevented the losses.

Demand and fulfilment

Client reactivation was considered against recruitment capacity

Observed. A recruitment business was considering email campaigns to reactivate dormant client accounts. At the same time, recruiter workload was high and the accessible pool of suitable candidates was constrained.

Analytical distinction. The proposed campaign could create more vacancies. Whether those vacancies would convert into placements depended on candidate availability, recruiter capacity, vacancy quality and the time required to fill each role.

Decision affected. Test the candidate and recruiter constraints before scaling reactivation. Prioritise client demand that the existing delivery model can fulfil economically.

Evidence boundary. The campaign was being considered, not evaluated as a completed intervention. Additional placements, costs or revenue are therefore not claimed.

Across the cases

Distinguishing what happened from what the records support

The recurring issue was not one faulty department or one missing dashboard. Each organisation had information or decisions divided across commercial activity and the work required to fulfil it.

Revenue, campaign activity, product output and staffing levels are observations. To explain their economic effect, management may need to connect the transaction to the customer obligation, the work performed, and the costs incurred. The necessary linkage differs by business.

These examples do not establish that the same causes apply elsewhere. Their value is in identifying what would need to be checked.

Account revenue and economic contribution → · Different records of the same customer → · Capacity after automation →