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I had a communication problem with a customer via an instant messenger. Please advice on how to say formally that I had to wait long for his responses and we exchanged just a few phrases per day.

I thought the following was a possible solution:

"the project completion took longer than expected because communication was too slow."

But I checked collocation dictionaries and did not find a phrase "slow communication".

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    Describe what problems this low communication rate is causing you, and ultimately will cause him. Describe the fundamental problem, and low communication rate as a symptom of it. If this isn’t actually a customer but a prospective customer and the low rate is just him not being responsive to your sales pitch, then get a new sales pitch or a new prospect. There’s no way to “formal” your way out of someone who doesn’t want to buy.
    – Dan Bron
    Feb 17, 2018 at 10:24
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    Ok, now we’re one step closer. What does unclear requirements cause? Focus on what the impact is to the customer: he doesn’t care whether his requirements are clear, so what does he care about? What outcome would incentivize him to make his requirements clear? What happens to him if he doesn’t clarify his requirements? Maybe he’ll never get the product he paid for? Maybe it will be delayed significantly? Maybe it will be unlike what he wanted?
    – Dan Bron
    Feb 17, 2018 at 10:29
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    Now I understand. Can you edit that information into your question?
    – Dan Bron
    Feb 17, 2018 at 10:39
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    I think that what you have suggested is perfectly understandable.
    – marcellothearcane
    Feb 17, 2018 at 11:45
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    The project took longer to complete than expected because our questions were not answered in a timely manner.
    – Jim
    Feb 17, 2018 at 22:13

1 Answer 1

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Sporadic communication.

'Sporadic' means - the gaps between communication were long, the communication was 'patchy' and inconsistent, irregular and occasional.

Example:

  • ' the project completion took longer because communication with the customer was sporadic'

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sporadic

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