How to Track Customer Commitments Made in Chat: Finding Forgotten Promises

Which phrases create a commitment

Sales chats are full of promises, but they do not all carry the same weight. You need to know which sentences the customer treats as a commitment. Separate four kinds:

1. Concrete promise“I’ll send the price tomorrow morning”, “I’ll call you on Friday”. There is an action and a time. The customer is waiting, and if it does not happen, they will be the first to notice.
2. Promise without a date“I’ll send you the catalogue”, “I’ll check and get back to you”. There is an action, no time. The customer still waits; it is just unclear when they will start to worry. This is the kind most often forgotten.
3. Conditional promise“I’ll let you know as soon as it’s back in stock”, “if the director approves, we’ll give you a discount”. The commitment kicks in when the condition is met, so you need to track the condition too: is it back in stock, did the director look at it?
4. General intention or offer“I’ll have a look”, “I can send samples if you like”. Not yet a commitment. When the customer says “yes, please send them”, the offer becomes a concrete promise. Check the customer’s reply.

This distinction matters because it stops the list from overflowing. If every “I’ll have a look” counts as a commitment, the list gets long and the real promises disappear inside it.

Turning a promise into structure

Break every promise into three fields. If one is empty, record that too. Do not fill it in by guesswork.

1. What will be doneDescribe the action specifically: “price for a triple room”, “3D sketch of the kitchen”, “warranty terms”. “Send information” is too vague and makes it impossible to check whether it happened.
2. Who will do itThe person who made the promise is not always the one who carries it out. “Our fitter will come to measure” is promised by the seller and done by the fitter. Record both names: who promised and who delivers.
3. When, and under what conditionConvert relative phrases into dates: if the message was sent on Tuesday, “tomorrow” means Wednesday. For “by the end of the week”, pick one team rule, such as Friday. If there is a condition, write it separately: “once the stock arrives”.

Sample report: six promises

The report below is an illustrative example: six promises pulled from a furniture company’s chats over one week. Undated and ambiguous promises are marked separately, because they are the ones most often forgotten.

1. 1. Send a priceMessage (Monday): “I’ll send the price tomorrow morning.” Who: seller Nina. Due: Tuesday morning. Evidence: file sent on Tuesday. Status: done.
2. 2. Measuring visitMessage: “Our fitter will come and measure on Thursday.” Promised by: the seller. Done by: the fitter. Evidence: nothing in the chat about the visit. Status: not confirmed; ask the fitter.
3. 3. CatalogueMessage: “I’ll send you the catalogue.” Date: none. Evidence: no file after five days. Status: undated, treated as late. Rule: an undated promise counts as late after two working days.
4. 4. Discount answerMessage: “I’ll talk to the director and let you know about a discount.” Condition: the director’s decision. Evidence: none. Status: conditional, condition unknown. Action: get the director’s answer.
5. 5. Colour samplesMessage: “I can send colour samples if you like.” Customer’s reply: none. Status: an offer, not a commitment. Stays off the list.
6. 6. Delivery dateMessage: “I’ll confirm the delivery date by the end of the week.” Due: Friday, per team rule. Evidence: on Saturday the customer wrote “Any news?”. Status: late; a recovery message is needed.

Of six promises, only one is confirmed as done, and one is not a commitment at all. The other four are either late or lack evidence. Even if you build a report like this once a week, it lets you see problems before the customer has to remind you.

Checking that it was done

Evidence that a promise was kept shows up in a chat in three ways: a file or photo was sent, a message contains the promised information, or the customer confirmed it (“Got it, thanks”).

If there is no evidence, do not automatically mark it “not done”. The work may have happened elsewhere: the price was emailed, the fitter called to set a time. Use a “not confirmed” status for these and ask the person responsible. That way you do not blame a rep for work you simply could not see.

Recovering a late commitment

If a promise is late, do not make excuses or act as if nothing happened. Send a short, honest message with three parts: acknowledge the delay, deliver the promised thing now or give a new date, and propose the next step.

The message skips long explanations, respects the customer’s time and brings the chat back to a concrete step. If you cannot give a new date yet, say so clearly and say when you will confirm it. That is a second promise, so put it on the list too.

A promise that is due is the strongest signal for deciding who to contact today. If it is the customer’s question rather than a promise that was left hanging, that is a different problem: see finding unanswered enquiries in WhatsApp. When a customer moves to another rep, prepare a handover summary so promises are not lost.

How to check your own chats with Chatdue

Chatdue reads your company’s WhatsApp conversations, and its “Who to contact today” list shows follow-ups that are due. You can create your own analytics field, such as “open promise”, to record what was promised in each chat, who promised it and whether a date was given. Promises made in voice messages are transcribed and included.

Chatdue is not a task manager and does not push tasks into other systems. It shows what was said in the chat. You can export the results to Excel and work from your own tracking sheet.

Frequently asked questions

1. Which date does “tomorrow” turn into?The day after the message was sent. If it was written late on Thursday and your company does not work Saturdays, the customer will still read “tomorrow” as Friday. Always work the date out from the customer’s point of view, and write it down once as a team rule.
2. How do I record work done on another channel?Mark it “done, other channel” and add one line to the chat: “I’ve emailed you the price.” That keeps your report accurate and shows the customer where to find it.