Here's Why Your Backend Matters

Just a few days ago, Hurricane Ian devastated parts of Florida and my blood type is O negative, so you know what that means. Or perhaps you don’t.

According to The Red Cross website, O negative is?“the blood product of choice”?because anyone can safely receive it. I and others with O negative blood are considered “universal donors." In a hospital, when minutes matter and a patient’s blood type is unknown, medical staff immediately reach for bags of O negative. To further illustrate its importance, a single car accident victim can require up to 100 units of blood.

Multiply that scenario across thousands of hospitals and trauma units across America and it’s easy to see why even under normal circumstances, O negative is in high demand. To make matters worse,?only 7 to 8% of the total population is O negative, so blood supply can become?dangerously low on any random Tuesday.?

Now factor a natural disaster like?Hurricane Ian, Superstorm Sandy, an earthquake, a tsunami, or a tornado into the mix. Type O negative blood — already in high demand?— becomes an urgent need and?The Red Cross ramps up their already frequent donor outreach.?They send text messages and they email their database members, offering gift cards to anyone who donates today.?

For decades I’ve known the importance of O negative blood, so I strive to donate as often as I become eligible, which is every eight weeks.?Two days after Hurricane Ian tore across Florida, I received an email from The Red Cross with an urgent request for O negative blood. It contained a hyperlink button that said,?“Book Your Appointment Today.”?

"Oh my gosh, what perfect timing!” I thought. "I’m eligible to donate right now!"

I clicked the link and it took me to The Red Cross website. I was hoping to schedule for that same day, so I entered my zip code and searched for an available time slot at a donation site near me. This is where the tragedy begins.?

Making a donation appointment required signing in to my account with my user name and password. No problem. I entered the?same email address where my Red?Cross emails are sent, but it didn’t work. Hmmm. That was weird.?

I tried another email address. Nope.?No dice.

Next, just for kicks, I tried a user name I found stored in my digital password manager. No luck. Nothing was working.

Now I understand sometimes passwords get funky, so I clicked?“Forgot user name or password”?and again entered the email address where my Red Cross emails are delivered. I got a pop-up window that said "that email address doesn't match a current account." Hmmm… that was even more weird, as?I had just opened an email that was sent to that very address.

Next, I tried entering my other email address?(even though I knew it wouldn't work)?and of course got the same result. We have no record of that email in the system either.

I couldn't log in and I couldn't reset my password.?Okay, now what?

In a last ditch, hail Mary effort, I clicked?“Create New Account”?figuring I’d sort it all out later. After all, the important thing is there was just a major disaster, they’re desperate for O negative blood and I have juicy veins full and ready to donate!?

I entered all my personal information including a brand new fancy password, then I hit?“Continue” and watched the progress bar fill in red all the way across the screen from left to right as it created my new account. Yes! Success!?

But wait. There was no joy down that road either. <<< sigh >>>?

Nothing happened after that. Nothing. It didn’t actually create the new account, or if it did, it was a secret. I had nowhere to click; it was a dead end.?

"I must have done something wrong,” I thought. "Maybe I missed a digit and the passwords don’t match, maybe they need a middle initial, or Mercury is in retrograde, or something."

So I started over, entering all my information again to create a new account from scratch, only to get the same result.?Ever the optimist, I?even?tried logging in, resetting my password and creating a new account using a whole different browser.?

No joy.?I couldn’t sign in, I couldn't reset a password and I couldn't create a new account no matter what I tried.

This champion was not to be deterred. I called the toll-free number at the bottom of the website. Surely I’d be able to speak to a human being who would make me an appointment to donate and we’d figure out the web credentials another time.

The recorded voice told me they were experiencing high call volume?(not surprising after a disaster)?and my approximate wait time would be greater than ten minutes.?Awesome. No sweat. I put my phone on speaker and continued to work on other things.?

Roughly 94 minutes later and still on hold, my phone rang. It was a call I absolutely had to take. With a heavy sigh, I reluctantly hung up on the Red Cross hold music to take the incoming call.?

This piece is not about a website being frustrating. It's also not about me being annoyed and inconvenienced, nor am I attempting to school The Red Cross on how to fix their system,?because I’m not an IT expert by any means.?

What I am is a human being who despite multiple efforts to respond to an urgent request for blood, was unable to.?For context, lest you think this problem is related to bandwidth or user demand, it's not. It’s been this way for months when I've tried to donate, but until now, it hasn’t been an emergency.

I know I’m just one person in one city in America with one pint of blood to give. But if you extrapolate across the country, how many other donors in other cities aren’t able to give, because what?should be a simple website backend didn’t work?

We’ve all experienced technology challenges, whether with email, online shopping, ordering UberEats or registering our cars. Yes glitches are part of life, and nothing is perfect but in cases like this, functioning technology matters -- a lot. If you're begging people to donate, for Pete's sake let us donate. It’s not about our convenience, it’s about addressing the unnecessary barriers between donors willing to give blood and the people who desperately need to receive it.?

As of this writing, I'm still in possession of all ten pints of my blood and that’s a shame.

Monica Ricci spent 20 years as an organizing and productivity consultant, speaker and trainer. Today she coaches busy professionals and business teams, replacing unproductive habits with powerful ones so they can create the life and business they desire and deserve. Monica enjoys public speaking, strength training, cycling, baseball, road trips and high quality butter.