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The System is Down
Gluttony, sloth, and lust are fine sins for most real-world interactions, but sinning on the Web requires special skills. To help you avoid an eternity in the fiery pits, here's a handy guide to the Seven Deadly Sins of Information Design.
Chuck Martin
Chuck Martin is syndicated columnist as well as chairman and CEO of NFI Research, a global research read his profile »
How many times have you heard the phrase "the system is down" as a reason that you cannot, at this moment, obtain a service or product?
Problem is, "the system is down" or, more precisely, the "result" of the system being down, can negatively impact those on the receiving end of the message.
Computer systems will go down and generally technology personnel work fast and furious to restore them and later determine causes of those failures so they may institute procedures to avoid them in the future.
However, down systems can be more of a marketing or customer service issue than one of technology, and can affect any industry or marketplace.
I recently tried to cancel one of my wireless services by phone. Over the course of two days, I was told by various company representatives that the system was down so my service could not be canceled and I would have to call back. When I suggested that they write the information and enter it later, I was told that it could not be guaranteed to occur. I gave the information to two different customer service employees in hopes of increasing my chances. No one ever called back.
In health care, systems down can lead to increasing costs and wasted resource. Like many healthcare services, Chest Physical Therapy Services, a New England-based healthcare agency that deploys therapists to children with cystic fibrosis, routinely needs authorization from an insurance company before providing treatment.
When company president John Nadeau recently called a case manager at a major national insurance company to authorize treatment for an 8-year-old boy who could not be released to go home from the hospital without scheduled treatment, he was told the system was down. The case manager, who authorizes such services, said the data would have to be entered manually later and that if there was a problem Nadeau would be called. Over the next two months, Nadeau received letters requesting information about that patient, which he provided.
Nadeau eventually received a letter saying nothing would be paid because there was no authorization in the system. He called the insurance company and was told the system was down. He called the next morning, and was told again that the system was down. When he called again that afternoon, the system was up and was told that because it had taken so long he had to write an appeal letter.
"If anyone wants to know where the cost is in health care, it's this sort of inefficiency," says Nadeau.
Just a Crutch?
Too many people are using "the system is down" as a crutch that replaces the
original idea that the "system" is a process and method of serving
customers. Technology systems and their problems should be invisible to
customers, and the problems of the customer agent should not be made the
problem of the customer.
When any of the 100,000 annual service calls come in to the Maryland call
center of Micros-Fidelio, a global technology company that sells to hotels
and restaurants, technicians are automatically dispatched.
"We don't stop service calls if the system is down," says field service
technician Arthur Snow. "The call center dispatcher writes the information
and faxes it to a technician, and follows with a phone call to assure it is
received and acted on." The customer never is told that the system is down,
as the company views the "system" as one of efficiently servicing customers,
not the technology that facilitate it.
And if a system fails at Shade Tree Powersports, an outdoor enthusiasts'
catalog and retail company with operations in Big Lake, Minn., and
Middlefield, Oh., the operator still takes the order, writes the information
and if there is a problem when the order is entered later, contacts the
customer.
Telling customers that the system is down does not instill confidence in
customers, who might question doing business with a company that stops
functioning because of a computer failure and actually pays people to tell
customers they cannot conduct business with them at the same time.