#190 BLACKOUT 2026 is an internal stress test, and also a test for me.

Every year around this time, we hold our annual BLACKOUT SALE. This year, the difficulty is higher than previous years because we have several times more styles than before. In short, it's hard to manage and prone to errors, practically an internal stress test. Compared to last year, we added a barcode system in the store to scan products and reduce errors, and we also have an additional colleague dedicated to shipping in the back office. However, despite these measures, there were more shipping errors this year than last, which has really given me a headache and caused me much distress. I understand that people are not robots and cannot be entirely faultless, but how to make fewer mistakes, this is the question.

What's done is done. Currently, the priority is for the back-office customer service (which is me) to try and resolve issues for customers as much as possible, send out the correct products to customers promptly, and avoid causing further trouble, since the mistake has already been made. It's best to fix it quickly. After these few days, my colleagues will investigate the reason for each error to understand why mistakes happened internally and how to prevent them in the future.

I also feel that after receiving complaints about incorrect shipments, especially on the first day when many errors were observed, there was a moment when my tone towards my colleagues was perhaps not ideal, saying things like, "What's wrong? So many mistakes." (Although I immediately apologized to my colleagues afterward), I believe I could have handled it better. This is often the performance of young people who can't hold back. I truly, truly want to provide excellent shipping service, but after all, my colleagues certainly aren't "deliberately making mistakes" or "deliberately trying to cause me trouble." Therefore, why should I blame them? It won't help resolve the issue quickly and might even increase their stress, making it harder for them to do their job well. Besides losing my temper, I actually didn't do anything to help the situation. Apologizing doesn't really help much either; it's just better than not apologizing...

On the front lines, the BLACKOUT SALE also tests whether colleagues can serve customers well, especially when the workload increases, whether communication between stores can be effective, and whether there will be any omissions or problems in handling customers. This is the test.

In addition, over the past six months, I have been gradually implementing various software tools to automate back-office work. I believe the future world will become increasingly automated. It's like in the past, there weren't as many products to make life better, and resources were scarcer. In the next decade, I think software will make significant progress, allowing many tasks to require less human involvement and making people's lives smoother. And if we don't embrace and adapt to this era, I fear there will only be one consequence.