> Hour later he called back to find out what we had done, the answer was "nothing". Again I had to explain:
"I have 4 P1s, 5 P2s and I don't know how many other tickets."
This reads as a lesson in miscommunication more than mismanagement. On his first call, he should have explicitly asked for an ETA. (Even if the assumption was you would immediately start working on his ticket.) On the first call, after his ticket was escalated, he should have been provided with the new context.
The solution, ironically, might be inserting a manager between you and him who can better handle communication.
Normally I wouldn't have even spoken with the sales guy, but I saw his name on my phone and "Bob" was generally a good sales executive and actually pretty good to support so I answered. Long story short Bob's next call was to my management team (who already knew I was swamped) to get me some resources.
This was very much a situation where things just had to reach a certain point / inconvenience the wrong people before it was resolved.
This reads as a lesson in miscommunication more than mismanagement. On his first call, he should have explicitly asked for an ETA. (Even if the assumption was you would immediately start working on his ticket.) On the first call, after his ticket was escalated, he should have been provided with the new context.
The solution, ironically, might be inserting a manager between you and him who can better handle communication.