Here at SecureIQLab, we kinda like triangles. Nothing against parallelograms, but we’re triangle folk.
There are two famous triangles. When the tenet of people, process, and technology is properly executed, a perfect equilateral triangle is created. When execution is abysmal, you’re looking at the Devil’s Triangle (AKA Bermuda Triangle) of customer service. At that point, customer satisfaction joins a litany of lost planes, ships, and parking tickets.
Today’s is a story of failed data validation, failed process, and the absence of employee empowerment.
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, customer service wasn’t really an issue, so I’ll fast forward to medieval times when merchants knew the value of customer service and their word. If a merchant didn’t have quality customer service, they’d better be the only game in town or they’re out of business.
Now let’s hop into our DeLorean, visit earth in the year 2023, and witness the unnamed hotel’s cautionary tale.
Other than when South by Southwest is on in Austin, and any hotel room is the only game in town, the unnamed hotel isn’t the only game in town, and they need to be aware of that. Well, that and the need for data validation. And people and process, too.
As you can see from the picture below, my hotel reservation at a hotel in Austin, Texas includes breakfast.
When I went to eat breakfast, I was told I had to pay for it, and so I showed the host my reservation details. Simple, huh? The host told me breakfast was not included and that I needed to go to the front desk to get a coupon.
The coupons probably should have been handed to me when they gave me my room key at check-in. Oh well, things happen, I get that. Even well-designed processes will fail from time to time.
What I didn’t expect was the front desk to tell me no, breakfast isn’t included, even though I showed them the proof on my reservation. Two people at the front desk told me the same thing, so quickly and curtly that this was obviously a common occurrence, and rather than being empowered they were simply instructed to repeat the mantra “breakfast isn’t included. Breakfast isn’t included…” That is a serious problem with the people portion of the triangle. The people were not empowered.
I’ll get to data validation real soon, but first the corporate customer service process failure. An email to corporate customer service resulted in a reply “We’ve passed your concerns on to the hotel management and you should hear back from them in 3 to 4 business days? Really? Three to four days to continue the bait and switch as opposed to fixing a 2-minute problem? I mean really, you take a look at what you told the customer, honor it, and then do your failure post-mortem. Things did soon change. It became we’ll get back to you in 6 days. Folks, never, ever let a simple customer satisfaction issue that can be settled in minutes fester on for days. This is a process problem. The process was painfully inefficient and prevented expedient customer service. Now on to the technology leg of the triangle.
It was on the second day of customer service fail that I learned the root cause of the problem: a data validation failure. A front desk clerk (really cool guy) explained to me that he could only go by what their reservation system showed him. The information transmitted online to the customer making the reservation was not the same as the information that was transmitted to the hotel’s reservation system. It’s really that simple. There was no validation that the data output was consistent. Perhaps it was never tested or perhaps a change was made that broke something and testing after that was neglected. Honestly, I know that a comprehensive set of test scenarios can be tricky. Sometimes what appears to be a minor change has a totally unexpected and detrimental effect. Technology is too fragile to be trusted alone.
Why couldn’t the cool guy at the front desk fix it? The picture below would paint a thousand words, but it’s a blank canvas.
The problem isn’t that there’s no name on the sign, the problem is that the sign was accurate. The clerk was not a manager, was not empowered to do the obvious right thing, and there was no manager on duty at breakfast time.
Let’s paint a picture. You have a ship. That’s technology. You have a process; the captain steers the ship, and you have the crew, the people. The crew is not empowered. No matter what the situation is they are not allowed at the helm. Bermuda lies ahead, the captain is nowhere to be found, and the crew is not allowed at the helm. And that’s how you disappear into the devil’s (Bermuda) triangle.
Technology will fail. Deal with it. When your technology fails you still have people and process. When process fails you still have people and technology. In other words, if process and technology fail, people, become the last line of defense, and without empowerment, they become helpless bystanders. When people are not empowered, the whole triangle flatlines regardless of process and technology.
Do understand that your technology will fail. Do understand that processes will fail. Do understand that technology and processes will fail simultaneously. Do have empowered people who can take the helm when process and technology fail. Do learn from the cautionary tale of the unnamed Hotel’s collapsed triangle.
If your process requires several days to fix a problem that your competition can take care of in a couple of minutes or less, then you are a heavily sedated pig trying to outrun famished jaguars. You’re the prey. You’re going to be eaten alive and s#!t spit out.
If you don’t empower your people, you too will become a cautionary example…. and some damned tasty bacon too!
Randy Abrams
Senior Security and Triangle Analyst
SecureIQLab
Today’s is a story of failed data validation, failed process, and the absence of employee empowerment.
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, customer service wasn’t really an issue, so I’ll fast forward to medieval times when merchants knew the value of customer service and their word. If a merchant didn’t have quality customer service, they’d better be the only game in town or they’re out of business.
Now let’s hop into our DeLorean, visit earth in the year 2023, and witness the unnamed hotel’s cautionary tale.
Other than when South by Southwest is on in Austin, and any hotel room is the only game in town, the unnamed hotel isn’t the only game in town, and they need to be aware of that. Well, that and the need for data validation. And people and process, too.
As you can see from the picture below, my hotel reservation at a hotel in Austin, Texas includes breakfast.
When I went to eat breakfast, I was told I had to pay for it, and so I showed the host my reservation details. Simple, huh? The host told me breakfast was not included and that I needed to go to the front desk to get a coupon.
The coupons probably should have been handed to me when they gave me my room key at check-in. Oh well, things happen, I get that. Even well-designed processes will fail from time to time.
What I didn’t expect was the front desk to tell me no, breakfast isn’t included, even though I showed them the proof on my reservation. Two people at the front desk told me the same thing, so quickly and curtly that this was obviously a common occurrence, and rather than being empowered they were simply instructed to repeat the mantra “breakfast isn’t included. Breakfast isn’t included…” That is a serious problem with the people portion of the triangle. The people were not empowered.
I’ll get to data validation real soon, but first the corporate customer service process failure. An email to corporate customer service resulted in a reply “We’ve passed your concerns on to the hotel management and you should hear back from them in 3 to 4 business days? Really? Three to four days to continue the bait and switch as opposed to fixing a 2-minute problem? I mean really, you take a look at what you told the customer, honor it, and then do your failure post-mortem. Things did soon change. It became we’ll get back to you in 6 days. Folks, never, ever let a simple customer satisfaction issue that can be settled in minutes fester on for days. This is a process problem. The process was painfully inefficient and prevented expedient customer service. Now on to the technology leg of the triangle.
It was on the second day of customer service fail that I learned the root cause of the problem: a data validation failure. A front desk clerk (really cool guy) explained to me that he could only go by what their reservation system showed him. The information transmitted online to the customer making the reservation was not the same as the information that was transmitted to the hotel’s reservation system. It’s really that simple. There was no validation that the data output was consistent. Perhaps it was never tested or perhaps a change was made that broke something and testing after that was neglected. Honestly, I know that a comprehensive set of test scenarios can be tricky. Sometimes what appears to be a minor change has a totally unexpected and detrimental effect. Technology is too fragile to be trusted alone.
Why couldn’t the cool guy at the front desk fix it? The picture below would paint a thousand words, but it’s a blank canvas.
The problem isn’t that there’s no name on the sign, the problem is that the sign was accurate. The clerk was not a manager, was not empowered to do the obvious right thing, and there was no manager on duty at breakfast time.
Let’s paint a picture. You have a ship. That’s technology. You have a process; the captain steers the ship, and you have the crew, the people. The crew is not empowered. No matter what the situation is they are not allowed at the helm. Bermuda lies ahead, the captain is nowhere to be found, and the crew is not allowed at the helm. And that’s how you disappear into the devil’s (Bermuda) triangle.
Technology will fail. Deal with it. When your technology fails you still have people and process. When process fails you still have people and technology. In other words, if process and technology fail, people, become the last line of defense, and without empowerment, they become helpless bystanders. When people are not empowered, the whole triangle flatlines regardless of process and technology.
Do understand that your technology will fail. Do understand that processes will fail. Do understand that technology and processes will fail simultaneously. Do have empowered people who can take the helm when process and technology fail. Do learn from the cautionary tale of the unnamed Hotel’s collapsed triangle.
If your process requires several days to fix a problem that your competition can take care of in a couple of minutes or less, then you are a heavily sedated pig trying to outrun famished jaguars. You’re the prey. You’re going to be eaten alive and s#!t spit out.
If you don’t empower your people, you too will become a cautionary example…. and some damned tasty bacon too!
Randy Abrams
Senior Security and Triangle Analyst
SecureIQLab 
