Deadline disasters

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We had a marketing deadline yesterday for our dealers and they were using a new system to order their materials and it was pretty disastrous. I created a video that showed how to use it and we sent it out in an email. We sent out an email with specific instructions twice prior to the deadline. Deadline day we got phone calls and emails saying how do I do this? I can't access it? Where do I upload my addresses?

I will take ownership and say I could have done a better job communicating and there are things we should have done to make it easier. The other thing that was good is we had our vendor taking phone calls as well and answering emails. So they see the things that have to change in the near term and long term.

Deadlines really show you how good your system is. When everyone that waited until the deadline to get the task done tries to do it you see really quickly where the weak areas are. I also called dealers back yesterday when they called in and got a chance to help them out. Sometimes I think to myself I really don't know if I can help them, but in every case where I called them, I had an answer to get them what they needed. Sometimes I assumed that I wasn't going to be able to get them the answer, but I called them anyway and I actually was able to get them what they were asking for. 

I'll be opening my email in a few minutes this morning and we'll see what the damage is after an evening of a deadline. I'm hoping it's not too bad, but you never know.

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