The Disconnect Between Automation and Reality

Automation is one of the ways businesses are able to cut costs. When a system is automated, that means a person doesn’t have to do anything. That person can then focus their energy on something that requires a human to complete. But machines can only do what they are programmed to do, automation can only take place according to the rules set around it. There is always a disconnect between automation and reality because machines don’t know what’s happening in the world, they only know how to respond to programming. But when there are extraneous circumstances, that disconnect can cause major problems.

The IRS shut down for a time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The shut down resulted in delaying the date tax returns had to be filed and payments had to be made. But because the IRS was shut down, there is a backlog of unopened mail that has yet to be processed. Because that mail has not been processed, the IRS’s automated billing system is sending out it’s usual notices to tax payers who haven’t paid their bill. Except many of them have made those payments via checks that are sitting inside unopened envelopes in an IRS office.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is not a normal occurrence, this problem illustrates the disconnect between where things sit in the real world and what happens once automation is set up. If no one has built a way to pause or hold automation systems when things happen that throw them out of alignment, and/or automation systems are based off of the wrong triggers, relying on manual processing at entry and exit points instead of system integration, reality and automation can be completely out of sync.

The down side of needing a human to start and stop the automation process is that it often results in customer service escalations. Automation that was intended to save you money (and probably still is) ends up costing you money, resulting in less savings because you have to get multiple people involved to reconcile problems. Especially if the issue is a sprawling flood of automated misalignment because that will translate into a customer service flood and cause reputation damage at scale. Even when issues occur because they are based off of a manual process entry, there’s now a very angry customer on the phone. Why? Because, as a business, you’re telling a customer that reality is incongruent with your systems.

The first step any customer service representative should take when dealing with a customer problem is to acknowledge the customer’s point of view. They should repeat the problem in their own words so the customer understands that they are being heard. The problem is that we, as humans, believe that computers are infallible. So when a rep tells a customer that they don’t see something because it’s not in their system, the customer becomes agitated and angry and arguments ensue.

What ends up happening in this scenario is that the client or customer is told that you need to investigate the problem. They are told that they will receive a call back by a certain time, usually a week or more. Or, worse, the problem is ignored until it is deemed that there is actually a problem (in the system), which leaves the angry customer in limbo. This often results in the erosion of trust in the customer relationship, which leads to decreased business.

The IRS updated their website on 8/13 to reflect their current problem as a known issue:

Pending Check Payments and Payment Notices: If a taxpayer mailed a check (either with or without a tax return), it may still be unopened in the backlog of mail the IRS is processing due to COVID-19. Any payments will be posted as the date we received them rather than the date the agency processed them. To avoid penalties and interest, taxpayers should not cancel their checks and should ensure funds continue to be available so the IRS can process them.

To provide fair and equitable treatment, the IRS is providing relief from bad check penalties for dishonored checks the agency received between March 1 and July 15 due to delays in this IRS processing. However, interest and penalties may still apply.

Due to high call volumes, the IRS suggests waiting to contact the agency about any unprocessed paper payments still pending. See www.irs.gov/payments for options to make payments other than by mail.

Note that they are not saying they will stop their automated system. This is likely because they have no way of knowing who has paid and who hasn’t. Again, this disconnect between automation and reality can prove to be a troublesome problem. While the pandemic isn’t a common occurrence, there are other instances where there is a disconnect between automation and reality. Do yourself and your business a favor, when you set up automation, make sure it’s more reliant on system integration than a human.

About the Author

PWV Consultants is a boutique group of industry leaders and influencers from the digital tech, security and design industries that acts as trusted technical partners for many Fortune 500 companies, high-visibility startups, universities, defense agencies, and NGOs. Founded by 20-year software engineering veterans, who have founded or co-founder several companies. PWV experts act as a trusted advisors and mentors to numerous early stage startups, and have held the titles of software and software security executive, consultant and professor. PWV's expert consulting and advisory work spans several high impact industries in finance, media, medical tech, and defense contracting. PWV's founding experts also authored the highly influential precursor HAZL (jADE) programming language.

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