Our inventory system crashed right before a big client visit in Denver

I was at our Denver office last month, setting up for a meeting with a potential client who wanted to see our full product line. About 30 minutes before they arrived, our whole inventory management software just froze. The screen went blank, and our warehouse guy radioed in saying the handheld scanners were showing zero stock on everything. My boss was freaking out, so I ran to the back and grabbed a physical clipboard and a pen. I spent the next 20 minutes frantically writing down SKU numbers and counts from the shelves by hand. When the clients showed up, I had to walk them through the warehouse with my handwritten list, pretending it was just a backup system we 'preferred' for accuracy. They actually loved the 'hands-on approach' and signed the contract. Has anyone else had to fake it with old-school methods when tech fails?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_cooper1mo ago

The clipboard trick works until someone asks for a real-time stock check. You just bought yourself a massive manual data entry job for the next week.

kevin_carr1mo ago

Actually, the clipboard trick works fine for real-time checks too.