Email Status "sent" - what next?

Email Status "sent" - what next?

Hi, 

Please do not hate me if this topic was here before (and I bet it was a 100 times, yet I can't find it).

However, when using IMAP with outlook, i noticed that for some times emails sent from zoho (or outlook) to some customers appear to hang on status "Sent", where I know the customer did reply previously when the previous emails had the status "delivered" - dose this mean that the email are not being delivered? Please advise as I need an answer for my superior as well.

cheers