Amazon Customer Experience: how much and what can we learn from the American giant? We’ve often emphasized how crucial user experience is for a company. If a customer has a positive experience, they are more likely to be retained by the company, return for future purchases, and recommend the product or service to their social circle.
Amazon was one of the first major companies to fully invest in customer service years ago. This visionary investment has been its fortune and has led the e-commerce brand to become what it is today.
There are many lessons we can learn from their journey. Let’s explore the decisions related to the Amazon customer experience that can be valuable.
Customer Service at Amazon: Why Is It So Important?
As mentioned earlier, Amazon was one of the first companies to completely focus on customer service, which has contributed to its success. What Bezos understood at the time, other entrepreneurs underestimated: the impact of customer service on a company’s revenue.
Let’s talk numbers. Approximately 73% of consumers consider switching brands and choosing a competitor after just one negative customer service experience. This demonstrates how much investment in customer service can make a difference for a company.
Investing in effective customer service:
- Allows you to establish a genuine relationship with your customers.
- Contributes to customer loyalty over time and encourages repeat purchases.
- Turns each customer into a brand ambassador, promoting positive word-of-mouth.
- Increases revenue and grows your business.
Here are some “lessons” we can learn from Amazon’s customer experience management strategy.
Team Support
One of the fundamental principles that Amazon has made known is full support for its employees. Bezos’s philosophy is to think of employees as if they were the first customers. This is because by focusing on employees, they tend to do the same for customers.
Amazon selects its employees worldwide and provides them with flexibility in terms of working hours, even allowing them to handle emergencies from home. This attention allows employees to work with greater peace of mind and, consequently, focus more on the user experience.
Bezos’s vision aligns well with that of Freshworks, which we’ve discussed previously: if employees are happy, customers will be too.
First Contact Resolution Optimization
First Call Resolution (FCR) is a crucial metric for customer service. The FCR index indicates how many times the support service was able to resolve the customer’s issue on the first contact, without the need for follow-up. The higher this index, the better the performance of the customer service.
Amazon places a strong emphasis on this indicator, aiming to resolve customer issues in a matter of minutes. This can eliminate frustration and stress for customers, encouraging them to continue shopping.
Data-Driven Analysis
Another significant pillar of Amazon’s customer experience is data analysis. This analysis is based on both metrics derived from artificial intelligence and active customer listening through simple surveys to assess satisfaction with the service received.
Having accurate data as a starting point ensures that the service improves every day. As Bill Gates said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Division of Responsibilities and Autonomy
For Amazon, every person is a leader. This means that each individual has clear responsibilities within the company. Each role is defined, and individuals have the autonomy to manage their daily activities. Amazon has made known “leadership principles” that each employee should aspire to. Some examples include:
- Customer centric.
- Ownership.
- Curiosity.
- Think big, long-term.
- Bias for action.
- Results-oriented.
All of these principles can be adopted by any company to improve process efficiency.
If you want to implement the most effective customer service strategies, the first step is to choose a customer service software like Freshdesk. For more information and to digitalize your company, contact us now.