Amazon’s relentless efforts to provide customers with ‘the things they want and the things they don’t know they want’, in combination with proactive market interpretation, has largely contributed to Amazon.com’s successful results and achievements (Guglielmo, in Schlegelmilch, Diamantopoulos and Kreuz, 2003, pp.17-33).
Amazon.com’s goal is to meet the needs of customers, but also to appeal to customers who want their product fast (Gennusa, 2004, p.44). From the first day of business operation, Bezos was insistent on the theory that ‘the customer is always right’ and he knew that customer loyalty had to be established quickly (Spector, 2004, p.79).
Since then, Amazon.com has been ‘obsessively, compulsively, anal-retentively focused on customer service’ (Spector, 2000, p.126). Consumers today have a wealth of product information at their fingertips and can move from website to website with a click, therefore Amazon.com is committed 100% to putting time, energy, focus and money into building customer service and experience.
Amazon.com established that there are three areas that are of most significance to customers: selection, convenience and price. These elements were therefore emphasized and cemented in Bezos’ vision for the whole customer service experience, based on the Golden Rule: ‘How would you like to be treated as a customer?’ (Spector, 2000, p.129). Customer service within Amazon.com is defined as ‘fulfilling the promises you make to your customers’ (Bezos, in Spector, 2000, p.150).
Customer feedback was an element that was added to the Amazon.com website as a way of improving customer service. Online replies from customers or site visitors allow Amazon.com to understand problems with the website and develop ways to improve customer service quality, ultimately leaving customers more satisfied.
Amazon.com’s customer driven company is founded on the idea that the online shopping experience is impersonal (Spector, 2000, p.151). The face of an online company is the homepage and it replaces the human contact that once generated customer loyalty. Amazon.com is customer obsessed because it is much harder to satisfy customers that you do not have face-to-face contact with, as there is a barrier (ie. computer server) that exists between the company and the user. Customer service, loyalty and ultimately retention are the aims of Amazon.com, therefore most of the company’s energy is entered into continuously developing and innovating ways that customers can be served and satisfied.
“Amazon.com is not a business about selling things, but rather a business about helping people make purchase decisions. That is a more customer-centric way of looking at the world…We’re not trying to be a book company or trying to be a music company – we’re trying to be a customer company (Bezos, in Spector, 2000, p.156).�
Gennusa, C. (2004) "Putting customers first," Video Business , vol. 24, no.4, retieved October 19, 2004, from http://gateway.proquest.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?
url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal
&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000538662481&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=text
&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=14394
Schlegelmilch, B., Diamantopoulos, A, and Kreuz, P. (2003) “Strategic innovation: the construct, its drivers and its strategic outcomes,� Journal of Strategic Marketing , vol. 11, no.2, retrieved 31 August, 2004, from http://search.epnet.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/direct.asp?an=10779277&db=bsh.
Spector, R. (2000) Amazon.com: Get Big Fast, New York: Harper Collins, ISBN 073226796X.
Stephanie Spann 09:11, 9 Sep 2004 (EST)
