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Susan Smith
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More »

Collaboration = communication

 
August 27th, 2014 by Susan Smith

Last evening I was shopping online through the Babies r us registry to get my anticipated grandson a gift for his baby shower which is coming up in September. The whole idea of a registry where you can select gifts from a preselected list by future mom is a fabulous idea, so I knew I was going to have fun.

What was quite perplexing however, was the way the site was set up. First, I saw that the stroller model that the new parents wanted was not available by delivery to their home, but only store pickup. When I looked at the stores around their area, the message that came back was that the item was not in stock and not available for reorder. I looked in my own area and the same was true there. It led me to believe that the item wasn’t available at Babies r us anywhere!

So I did a Google search for the item and found it – guess where? On Toys r us, which is the same business as Babies r us. I clicked on the item, which incidentally was available, and was able to select “home delivery.” A message came up saying “you already have a cart at Babies r us, would you like us to add this item to your cart?”

Of course, I said yes, excitement mounting. I then went back to Babies r us, half afraid that site would kick the item out or tell me the same thing it had said previously. But no! The stroller went into the shopping cart, as a home delivery no less! I deleted the previous stroller entry and completed my order, still worried that they were going to notice they didn’t have it in stock or something. But no, the order went through, smooth as silk.

I waited a half hour to see if I got a disappointing email, and no, nothing, just an email confirming my order. This morning I went into my office and voila! The order has shipped!

Can you imagine my excitement? Just by finding Toys r us online, I was able to circumvent the seeming lack of inventory at Babies r us, and the computer system that wasn’t able to locate another stroller in the entire country, nor was able to ship for home delivery!

The bottom line is that Babies r us and Toys r us do not play friendly with each other. With all the talk we do about collaboration, this is a failure to communicate that could have cost the parent company money, goodwill, and the customer the loss of a chance to get an item they really wanted – a no win all the way around.

Is there a message in all this? Yes. Collaboration = communication.

Tags: ,

Categories: Cloud, collaboration




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