Customer Service, Amazon-Style

Amazon is the largest internet-based retailer in the world. Hard to believe it began life as an online bookstore. Nowadays, it sells just about everything.

One of the keys to Amazon’s success: its obsession with customer service. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is famous for having an empty chair at company meetings. It represents The Customer: the most important person in the room.

I did some research, and identified 10 key elements of Amazon’s customer service. I used them to create this infographic:

Here’s a larger detail image:

A few thoughts on each element. Most of them overlap:

1. Make it easy: if a customer has to struggle to place an online order, you’ve lost that person.
2. Understand the customer: Amazon managers, including Bezos himself, attend 2 days of call center training every year. It’s a dramatic reminder that company success is tied to understanding customers and their needs.
3. Respect the customer’s authority: today’s customers vent their frustrations on social media. Bezos, quote: “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”
4. Serve the customer: ask how you can make that person more successful. Why obsess with good service? Auto maker Henry Ford put it this way, quote: “It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money… It is the customer who pays the wages.”
5. Involve every employee– not just those on the front lines of customer service. Everyone in the company needs to be committed to the needs of the customer.
6. Align your goals with the customer’s: Bezos on customer focus: “We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon… and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.”
7. Be accessible: if customers can’t contact you when they have a problem, you’re sending them a clear message: don’t bother us, we don’t care.
8. Be accountable: Amazon tracks every customer exchange to make sure issues
   are addressed. Department heads get a WOCAS report: “What Our Customers Are Saying.”
9. Apologize for mistakes: nothing diffuses a situation like a heartfelt apology– like this one that Bezos himself posted back in 2009.
10. Have a plan: Bad reviews and complaints will happen— be ready for them. Never fail to respond, and always thank customers for their feedback.

Oh– one more thing: always carry a little chair with you so you can offer people a seat.

You might also enjoy these infographics on content marketing and how to choose the right visual artist for your brand.

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Do you worry about customers posting negative comments online? Are you prepared to respond?