Too often people discover a gap, a mistake or a problem-in-the-making and choose to keep quiet about it. This frontline leader couldn’t let it go on any longer and did something about it!
One day, in the middle of a 400-person call center for a manufacturing company, a pregnant young lady (not me) stood in the middle of a sea of cubicles and shouted, “Someone please listen to me! Something terrible is happening!” With tears coming down her face, she refused to budge until someone paid attention to her.
It had been going on for at least a week. She was in Accounts Receivable and had been getting angry phone calls from customers saying the company had cleaned out their checking accounts. One customer had placed a phone order for five boxes of cards but was charged for 51. Another lady had ordered 11 items but her credit card was debited for 110.
Customer Service then got in on the action. They had been getting calls from folks who desperately begged, “Please, make it stop!” The delivery company showed up at their doors and unloaded boxes upon boxes of product. One lady had requested her order be delivered to her office. So there she was, holding the door open for the delivery guy, crying on the phone with boxes of product piling up all around her. Her boss was not happy.
Then there were customers who had requested Express Delivery (like FedEx) who were charged the $25.00 fee, multiplied by the quantity of extra products they’d never ordered.
In the Inventory system, rapidly shrinking product levels triggered the Purchasing system to jump into action, prompting signals to resupply depleted stock.
The Shipping Department had to bring in extra people to the packing line to keep up with all the orders. The loading dock was jammed with trucks.
Customer service reps didn’t know whether to ask for product to be returned or tell customers to keep it. Either way they were busy refunding customers.
In the meantime, phone order reps kept doing what they did best and were taking orders.
It was totally out of control. And nobody put the pieces together until this frustrated young lady from Accounts Receivable demanded attention. She’d gone from one department to another asking questions and telling people about the complaints she was getting.
But nobody took her seriously until she made a spectacle of herself. Then everyone noticed! And then they hustled to pull together a crisis management team — a team that worked late into the night trying to figure it all out.
How the Mystery Was Solved
So what was the cause of this crisis? It turns out that someone from the IT Department had worked on the phone order system a week earlier. He’d removed the phone order audit filter, which allowed the computer system to then add a “0” or “1” to the quantity of each order placed by phone.
But he had forgotten to turn the audit filter back on.
It took days, but the problem was eventually solved. Protocols were created. Customers were made whole. And after a while, the system settled down and things returned to normal.
Nobody looked at that outspoken young lady quite the same way again.
She was a hero. She took a risk. She knew something was seriously wrong and alerted others who worked together to stop the mayhem.
What if she had said, “It’s not my job to worry about this. I’ll just let someone else take care of it.” Goodness knows how much longer it would have gone on before someone tracked down the source of the problem.
It’s good she made a fuss.
Successful Leaders Keep Their Ear to the Ground
Leaders who stay in-tune to the issues their people face are more likely to notice when things are amiss. These are folks who do the occasional “ride along” to get an in-person experience.
They’re also people who listen and take complaints seriously, knowing that no matter how small, a minor issue can blow up into something more significant. They know that people will be afraid to speak up if they hear responses like this:
- It’s not that big of a deal
- It’ll be okay — just give it a day or two to work itself out
- You’re being overly dramatic
- Stop complaining about everything
- You’re making a mountain out of a molehill
- Just get back to work; you’re worrying too much
It’s good to hear them out. We never know, do we?
What Happened to the Guy Who Caused the Problem?
Once the leadership team discovered what had caused the phone order snafu, it led back to one IT technician who worked on the phone order system. (Can you imagine how much it cost the company to fix this issue? Take a guess. I’m betting it was well over $100,000.) If you were this guy’s boss, how would you have handled the error that caused the crisis? Would you have:
- fired that IT tech?
- given him a written warning?
- demoted him or put him on probation?
- thanked him for fessing up?
- chalked it up to a simple mistake?
Well, he wasn’t fired, but no doubt there was a serious conversation that ensued.
And the young lady who raised the ruckus? She had a healthy baby girl!
Laura Lollar is a USAF Veteran, author, speaker, facilitator and mentor, based near Colorado Springs, Colorado. She works with individuals and organizations on communication, leadership and self-employment success. Her recent book, Wildfire Survivors: A How-to Guide on the Road to Recovery can be found at BarnesAndNoble.com. Her forthcoming book, The CARLA Concept Communication Model will be released in late 2025.
Visit Laura at LauraLollar.com