Failure demand

I recently changed my energy supplier, I expected it to be a straightforward task. I was wrong. It all started with a brief email…

I received it from EDF, my new energy supplier, saying they had a message for me. They didn’t tell me what the message was, they simply asked me to visit their website, where I would be able find out what their message was. This was oddly exciting, perhaps I had won a year’s free electricity in competition I hadn’t noticed. So I went to their website. However, when I tried to login, I found that I had forgotten my password. To reset it I needed to remember my memorable date, and I couldn’t!  I tried all the memorable dates I could think of without success.

Now virtually every other site for which I have a password has a facility to reset the password by e-mail. Sadly, not this one and I have to phone them. This did not sound good, call centres of national companies are rarely fun to reach. I was not to be disappointed. When I phoned them, I got a message that said EDF are improving their call centre and that they are experiencing excessive delays. The recorded voice suggested I use their website… which of course I can’t log in to, which is why I am phoning them. And so, I send an e-mail, and receive a promise that they will reply to me within 10 days.

Meanwhile of course I have no idea what their original message was. I then find out – I receive a letter telling me that my first direct debit had not gone through on time and I owed them some money. In order to pay this I need to use my account number, which they state I can find from my last statement or bill. But I’ve not had one, since I just joined them. Oddly they didn’t include the account number on the letter they have just sent me. This reluctance to supply me with information I need is beginning to look like  pattern.

I try phoning again, and again, and again, and again. I email them again. I owe them some money, and I don’t want my power to be cut off . Though still I get no reply to either my phone calls or my emails.

Coincidentally, I am then at a seminar at the Royal Society of Arts. John Seddon, the noted systems thinker, is there and is talking about what he calls ‘Failure Demand’. I know something of this. In the case of EDF my electricity supplier, the demand is the number of calls and e-mails I have made to their call centre, which was increased by the failure of their processes to allow me to reset my password.

I can imagine the conversation in EDF’s head office:

“Let’s reduce the demand on our servers by getting our customers to reset their own passwords without bothering us. We’ll make them remember a memorable date as well as their password.”
“And then let’s make it really difficult for them to reset their password if they forget their memorable date. We’ll make sure they remember their password the next time!”

I’m prepared to bet that the department that made the decision regarding the passwords has nothing to do with the call centre, and cares nothing about the call centre’s excessive workload, or the way they have just increased it still further.

Little wonder EDF feels the need to improve their call centre. Perhaps it would have been cheaper to improve their processes. Which of course is what systems thinking and Seddon’s concept of failure demand is all about.

Post script: The EDF call centre recorded message and I are now on first name terms, and I still haven’t been able to pay my outstanding bill.