Sometimes my work involves telling organisations the truth about their business, people, processes and systems in a way that has to be made extremely blunt, in order to cut through layers of red tape, years of accreted, splinted and broken processes, and organisation-wide human intransigence.
This is a true story, although the names have been suppressed to avoid embarrassing the subject organisation. You know who you are.
I received a phone call from the specialist service provider selected by my client. “We need to refund them the payment they’ve made directly into our bank account, and get them to pay it again, via their credit card,” the account manager said.
“Why?” I asked, thinking the money must have been erroneously deposited.
“Because they have signed up to pay for a different service via credit card".
Stunned silence... “So, how does that affect the payment they just remitted?” I asked, perplexed.
“I’m not sure, but our finance people tell me they are unable to reconcile the account because it came directly into our bank account not via a credit card. They want to refund the money and then charge the same amount to the client’s credit card”.
Just to recap: So the service provider has a contract with the client to perform services for which they have been paid directly into their bank account, by the client, in full. At the same time, the client has signed a separate contract for additional services, payable (at the service provider’s request) by monthly credit card payments. Now they want to refund the client, charge the same amount to their credit card, which will result in the service provider receiving a lesser amount (due to deduction of the commission on the credit card transaction).
I hope you are following this!
“Are you trying to lose this account?” I asked, “Because the client is going to think your organisation is insane”.
“No, of course not – why would you think that? It’s just the way our Finance Department works”, he said.
“OK, let me talk to the person who runs Finance”, I said.
“They won’t listen to logic. We’ve tried before and it’s no use!”, the account manager wailed.
“It’s OK, I have a solution”, I said. “Is there a sports store nearby?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, there’s a big one just around the corner, why?”
“Because you need to go there to buy a baseball bat.” Silence. “Why?”
“Because if they won’t listen to logic, you need some other way to attract their attention to the pain they are inflicting upon the customer. Plus, the fact they are systematically destroying the trust relationship with the client, that your sales and marketing team has been building so carefully the last few months. See, there's this thing called strategic alignment. Your finance department has absolutely no alignment with your marketing team."
More silence... “Maybe I need to explain the problem to them in those terms, huh?”
“Yes, you do. Best of luck.”
The following day I received another call. Thankfully, sanity had prevailed. The payment was going to be accepted, and somehow, the very clever people in the Finance Department had seen the light and found a way to reconcile the cash payment languishing in their bank account against the receivable in their GL.
Just like normal people would.
What’s the most insane or broken process you have ever experienced in an organisation?
In times of crisis, such as the global financial crisis, organisations face the challenge of trying to maintain their objectives and meet targets that are very difficult to achieve.
