From its incorporation nearly two decades ago, Amazon.com has become a tour-de-force in the business world, both online and in the real world. Creating a retail empire from an online start-up, Jeff Bezos combined high-tech ingenuity with top of the line customer service.
Amazon began its life as a nondescript little online retailer, with Bezos using his garage as a warehouse. Initially dismissed due to it’s slow growth and lack of profits, Amazon, like its eponymous river, began to wind way through e-commerce’s collective consciousness. Amazon owes much of its success to keeping abreast of technological advancements and offering its customers humane, high tech customer service.
Amongst their most important developments in the customer satisfaction field are their e-commerce innovations which make it easier for the customer to interact with an otherwise impersonal online environment.
One important step was refining the shopping cart feature to create a customer friendly purchasing environment. By making it easier to use and edit, as well as adding a wish list and one-click purchases, Amazon was able to help customers maximize their time use. Instead of having to continually search for items, a customer can now simply add them to their wish list or select from a list of similar items at any time.
Also vital to its success is the tracking feature. After completing a purchase, Amazon keeps customers in the loop by allowing them to to track their purchases. This creates a feeling of empowerment for the customer by keeping them apprised of their transaction along each step of the way.
Another important customer service device was their addition of a customer rating systems. By offering customers a chance to rate their transactions and glance at customer reviews of products and other sellers, Amazon contributes to a feeling of community and transparency. In doing so, they manage to shrink themselves from an anonymous retailer into a virtual marketplace of individual customers and vendors.
Arguably, though, the most important feature of Amazon’s customer-centric approach is its desire to never hear your problems. As bad as this sounds, despite their legion of customer service representatives in online, web chat and telephonic format, the company strives to give 100% customer satisfaction, hoping you won’t ever need to talk to their reps. This commitment to satisfaction includes automatic and low-hassle refunds, free shipping on orders over 25 dollars, and fixing the price of pre-ordered items.
If you do encounter problems beyond this, there are several methods to contact them, including live chat and a web form which asks you the best time for them to call you. They also have several large call centers staffed with actual human beings willing to promptly answer your concerns.
By keeping abreast of convenience technology and applying old fashion customer service values, Amazon.com has catapulted itself into the upper eschalons of the business world.