Frustrated, the customer care group took matters into their own hands, creating their own version of the Andon Cord. When customers began complaining about a problem with a product, customer care simply took that product down from the website and sent a message to the retail group that said, in effect, “Fix the defect, or you can’t sell this product.” Needless to say, in the world of retail, halting the sale of a product is a pretty disruptive step—the equivalent of shutting down an automotive assembly line. Yet Jeff was adamant in supporting the system. “If you retail guys can’t get it right,
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