I ordered a new laptop from Dell in March, and am awaiting delivery now - hopefully by next week.

Currently, the order status has 6 or 7 different order status possible:

Order Processing

Pre-Production

In Production

Shipped

Delivered

Cancelled

Changed

Ideally, Order processing is very short term - no more than a day one hopes.

Pre-Production seems to be no more than hours if that.

Production, however, lasts weeks... But I seem to recall that once upon a time, Dell had sub categories for this phase, such as obtaining parts, assembly, testing etc.  

My suggestion is to have more detail on the In Production phase.  

I think many people, when buying a significant purchase like a computer - especially one that has been customized - are likely checking status regularly.  Having updates would make a difference in customer satisfaction.

I also have read/seen many reports of unhappy people who have had order issues and late delivery.  Adding in more phases will I think both make consumers feel like their order is making progress and will make them happier and may also help keep Dell accountable to meeting promised deadlines and reporting issues to the consumer earlier.  I think most people will be less upset to learn a week prior to promised shipment that there's an issue rather than having the promised delivery date missed and feeling like their order has fallen into a black hole.

Thank you for listening!