Introduction
Amazon is one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the world, and it owes a substantial part of its success to its customer-centric approach. Since it was founded, the e-commerce giant has set an example across the retail industry on customer service excellence. Customer service plays a key role in the success of any business as it is a key strategic factor that influences consumers’ behavior and repurchase intention. If a company provides excellent customer service, the expectation is that it will increase its sales and ultimately obtain its customer’s loyalty. Different authors describe various strategies that help Amazon improve customer care services.
This essay discusses how Amazon has exploited three elements in its customer service philosophy: Transparency and customer empowerment, effortless experience, reliability and responsiveness, and how their success has changed the way the retail industry conducts businesses. The three aspects are constituents of Amazon’s customer-centric approach to customer service that makes other organizations want to emulate Amazon as a benchmark for the industry.
Literature Review
Customer experience is an essential aspect of promoting the quality customer service of an organization. Henersen (2019) describes the different sections in which Amazon has excelled. Amazon offers a variety of great products and services. Amazon’s success is based on excellent customer service and competitive customer experience. Innovations in delivery and returns of logistic operations ensure fewer efforts in getting products from the warehouse to the doorstep, implying that consumers can return or buy products with less energy yet highly convenient (Henersen, 2019, para. 4).
Services like free shipping with Amazon and the latest self-service kiosks facilitating easy access for pickup have promoted customer experience. Digital service has also enhanced customer experience. Henersen (2019) also highlights how the Amazon app enables customers to preview sale products and get notifications of availability while social media such as the @AmazonHelp Twitter allows the company to respond to customers in less than an hour.
Although it is significant for a company to build its brand and business model, customer experience is also essential. Collomb (2018) describes how Amazon has successfully emphasized the importance of being customer-centric hence placing clients at the center of every activity. Amazon’s customer-centric approach promotes various business elements. Amazon facilitates customer experience through multiple services like fast and easy ordering and delivery. The system enhances customer empowerment since the firm listens to customer feedback to improve its products. Amazon provides a unique customer experience, and giving preference to their feedback enhances customers’ loyalty (Collomb, 2018).
A company can become customer-centric through various strategies, including listening to the customers and extending boundaries to meet consumer demands. According to Collomb (2018), understanding customer buying habits is essential to enhancing customer satisfaction, and as such, the approach has contributed to Amazon’s leadership in customer satisfaction. Effective customer service involves various activities. Customer focus describes placing a customer at the center of every action. Collomb (2018) indicates that offering fast, hassle-free ordering and delivery, using data to personalize and help shoppers with the selection of products, and assisting the customers in getting the best deal are among the strategies that promote customer focus strategies.
Innovation is significant in promoting customer services. Colemen (2018) describes various strategies that a retail business can provide an outstanding customer service experience. Improving the ease of doing business through a convenient customer support system promotes customer loyalty. Amazon predicts the direction of customers by suggesting products to consumers. Embracing feedback that includes customers explaining their behavior helps enhance its services (Coleman, 2018). Therefore, different procedures are appropriate for a company to achieve a high level of customer service experience and satisfaction.
Companies with effective customer service strategies can act as examples and offer various lessons from their customer service practices. Rutherford (n.d) identifies five lessons other companies can learn from Amazon’s customer service strategies. Five techniques are effective in helping a company to position itself in the market competitively. Analysis, understanding, and interpretation of customer concerns are essential. Rutherford (2020) states that Amazon embraces the customers’ concerns and hence enhancing customer satisfaction. Informing customers comprehensively helps a company to develop mutual trust with its clients.
Interaction and connecting with customers through various products and services improve customers’ relationships (Rutherford, 2020). Clear and concise communication is vital when addressing customers’ concerns. Amazon uses straightforward communication approaches that limit misinterpretation. Additionally, an organization needs to accept mistakes and ask for apologies to develop transparency with its customers, and Amazon has used these strategies to improve customer service and experience.
The leadership of organizations such as the Chief Executive Officers and Directors is critical to promoting organizational customer service and customer experience. Baldacci (2013) discusses several lessons that other companies can learn from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s philosophy, an image of the customer-centric approach of the Amazon Corporation. It is essential to understand customers besides listening to them. Companies also need to prioritize serving consumers’ needs by offering products and services to meet consumer needs. Baldacci (2013) also states that Amazon endeavors to ensure 100% customer satisfaction while also respecting the existing customer since poor customer experience can potentially impact its standing.
The description of Baldacci (2013) and Rutherford (2020) on customer service and experience are consistent. They both describe how Amazon has promoted satisfactory customer experience, and hence the procedures serve as lessons to other organizations. Both discussions reveal various addresses of Amazon’s approach, all of which revolve around the customer and activities that can satisfy the consumer to develop loyalty. Both authors assert the importance of establishing customer-centric philosophy that prioritizes customer satisfaction over profit-making.
Effective strategies in supply chain and logistics that compete with other companies are significant, ensuring customer satisfaction. ABC Supply Chain LTD (n.d) describes the secrets that Amazon has adopted in its supply chain and logistics process. Amazon’s aircraft fleet has allowed Amazon to create its delivery system. The company has also purchased over 20000 Mercedes vans that help transport products to the customers on the ground. This network service plays a significant role in enhancing customer satisfaction and, as such, better customer experience.
The customer service strategies of a company can offer lessons and mentorship for other organizations to emulate. Alton (2016) explores and discusses lessons that one can retrieve from the customer service practices of Amazon. A company would retain a customer even when they raise charges for specific services as long as they keep doing certain things appropriately to satisfy their customers. Amazon introduced the subscription fees of Amazon Prime Services, yet the customers retained their membership. Building connections with the clients make Amazon’s customers feel valued (Alton, 2016). Therefore, treating customers with respect and taking accountability for any failures while also working to rectify enhances customers’ experience.
A business that intends to enhance its customer service needs to learn several strategies from the leading companies in customer service. Janapala (2020) explains the success of Amazon in their industry, giving excellently quality customer service programs and not only the wide variety of its products. All the strategies that Janapal (2020) discusses are customer-centric. Incredible product experience through innovative approach help the customers to search for products on their websites.
Japana (2020) also states the importance of making customers happy by placing them at the center. Amazon also enhances experience and service provision by understanding consumers’ needs. Additionally, Japana (2020) shows how digital service experience using software technology and phone applications has been essential for Amazon to promote customer experience. Other companies can emulate these procedures to facilitate customer service and hence effective customer satisfaction.
A business organization that has attained significant customer service levels has tapped various aspects of customers that other institutions or individuals fail to recognize. Mello (2017) identifies the factors that Amazon has identified with the customers that other competitors and individuals cannot realize. Amazon goes an extra step to help customers and hence win their loyalty. Customer reviews on social media networks are accessible by many people and thus the need for companies to recognize consumers’ power.
A company that places more emphasis on its customers than its competitors can realize customer satisfaction and, hence, a good brand image. According to Prematck and Cheong (2020), in their discussion on the success of Amazon, the company’s success is due to a secret that includes an obsessive focus on customers over rivals. The customer obsession policy helped Amazon to achieve high revenue that has surpassed one trillion dollars. Customer-centric culture, that bases decision-making on consumer needs and demands rather than concentrating on other market players’ activities, has been significant to Amazon. A missionary business strategy is appropriate since a company creates goods and services to meet customer needs and demands, unlike the mercenary approach that focuses on profit-making and not customer satisfaction.
Amazon’s Customer-Centric Approach
No company has had more success in prioritizing its customer’s needs than Amazon. Customer service refers to the assistance or advice provided by representatives from a company to the people who purchase or are interested in purchasing their products or services. Customer service plays a vital role in any business’s success, as it is a critical strategic factor that influences consumer behavior and repurchase intention. If a company provides excellent customer service, the expectation is that it will increase its sales and ultimately obtain its customer’s loyalty. Amazon has employed various broad approaches that have transformed the company to be a customer-centric organization.
Transparency and Customer Empowerment
Transparency and customer empowerment have been effective strategies for Amazon’s success in becoming a global leader in customer service. Achieving success in the market’s current ever-changing demands requires a company to innovate products and services according to its preferences. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in his speech, quotes Amazon’s perception of its customers as guests, with Amazon acting as their hosts.
The CEO asserts the need for the business to continuously better every piece of customer experience (Baldacci, 2013). The organization focuses on selling products specifically and looks for ways to help customers in decision-making during shopping. Amazon has permitted customers to give feedback on a product page, empowering customers with information to their liking. Amazon has a transparent- e-retail space that provides customers with readily available awareness during purchase while also holding manufacturers accountable for their quality (Collomb, 2018). These procedures have also enhanced transparency. All of these have developed trust among the consumers and, hence, increase Amazon’s products while creating loyalty.
Effortless Experience
Customers would prefer having an effortless experience when making purchases or returning products to stores. Amazon has innovated various logistics operations that ensure a customer gets delivery of products with minimal struggle. Amazon uses multiple options to facilitate easy delivery to clients. Free shipping, Amazon Lockers, which involves free service, is an example of innovations that have initiated effortless customer experiences (Hunersen, 2019).
Ordering options can also affect customer experience. Amazon has innovated one-click ordering that allows consumers to purchase goods and services using pre-set programs such as ex. Credit cards and shipping addresses (Hunersen, 2019). Amazon has availed the options on the web, in-app, using voice activation, and through Alexa. The company has also developed easy ways for consumers to return items through online return portals.
Amazon has also recognized the importance of digital service experience in promoting its customer service and contributing to its success. Amazon app specifically for Prime Day enables customers to preview sale products and get notifications of availability. The app also helps in placing orders using the conventional means or Dash buttons. On the other hand, social media such as @AmazonHelp Twitter enables the company to respond to customers in less than an hour. According to Hunersen (2019), such high user interactions are hence enhancing customer service.
Moreover, developing great products promotes customer experience. Amazon has created products that have appealing components to the customers. Amazon has established “searchability” using Google-like capability to help customers select Brands, Reviews, Prices, and products’ availability (Hunersen, 2019). A business intends to make sales. However, Amazon prioritizes product education to help a client identify a product’s features and suitability in meeting individual needs using product ratings, reviews, and a recommender system (Hunersen, 2019). The components of both digital customer service experience and product experience have promoted one of the goals of Amazon in ensuring customers face minimal struggle during transactions and hence earning customer loyalty.
Reliability and Responsiveness
Businesses, in some instances, purchase products but decide to return when they perceive they would not meet their need. Customers also feel valued when an organization responds to their concerns about products and services. Consumers also get satisfaction when they get help during decision-making in making purchases of products or upon returning the items that fail to meet their needs and demands.
The customer service team is helpful to Amazon in various ways. The representatives provide 24/7 support to their consumers, assisting in every step of the process like answering questions about products, making a purchase, or listening to their complaints or concerns after receiving the products (Rutherford, 2020, para. 2). Customer service representatives know that their job is not completed until they have achieved customer satisfaction, which should be any company’s goal. Amazon has a team that acknowledges a customer and addresses them by name to apologize for any inconveniences.
This process is essential because it builds trust with the customers. After they realized that the company truly cares about their satisfaction and treats them with respect, most of them will be more than willing to continue to do business with that company.
Many business organizations fail to offer timely responses to customers’ questions, while some fail to react. A company cannot grow to become a leader in e-commerce without identifying methods to appeal to the customers. Amazon uses the understanding it has with the clients to develop plans and then exhaustively inform them about the ideas (Rutherford, 2020). The company gives information on the procedure of action to solve a problem and meet consumers’ needs. Therefore, revealing information to the customers is significant as it enhances trust and loyalty. Amazon has improved the connectivity and interaction levels to help clients with any issue (Rutherford, 2020). Personal interactions with the customers develop a relationship that promotes sales. The interactions and connections also enhance customer loyalty which translates to success in business.
Communication is significant in ensuring customer satisfaction. A company like Amazon has a clear and concise communication strategy that helps customers understand what to expect in problem resolution. Consumers desire an assurance that a company will address their needs, and Amazon has been exemplary through communication (Rutherford, 2020). The strategy is essential as it limits the chances of disappointment due to having different expectations.
Conclusion
Customer service is a crucial feature in the success of any establishment. Amazon’s founders created a customer-centric organization that has prioritized achieving customer satisfaction over profitability. As a reward, the organization has received its customers’ loyalty, which has elevated the company as the most successful e-retailer company and one of the world’s most profitable companies. Three customer service elements have been fundamental to Amazon’s success in building its brand and include transparency and customer empowerment, effortless experience, reliability, and responsiveness.
Despite the enormous success, Amazon has maintained its focus on the most significant aspect of its success: the customers. Amazon’s customer-centric approach and innovative approach have changed the way of business operations for retail companies. Moreover, it makes other companies look at Amazon as the benchmark of the industry following its strategies and initiatives.
References
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Collomb, J. (2018). 3 customer-centric lessons from Amazon. MyFeelBack. Web.
Grant, M. (2020). Good customer service matters. Investopedia. Web.
Hunersen, C. (2019). Why Amazon is a leader in customer experience. Qualtrics. Web.
Janapala, V. (2020). 4 customer service strategies every business should learn from Amazon. Customer Think. Web.
Mello, T. (2017). What Amazon gets about customers (That you probably don’t) The surprising thing? It’s so crazy simple. INC. Web.
Prematck, R., & Cheong, W. (2020). Jeff Bezos credits Amazon’s trillion-dollar success to one “secret sauce” — an “obsessive compulsive focus” on customers over competitors. Insider. Web.
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