An interesting thing about an American Express-sponsored customer service award is that four out of 10 top winners in customer service in 2011 were online businesses. The top winner itself was Amazon, my favorite bookstore.
Falling in at No. 3 and 4, respectively, are Zappos and Overstock.com. If you’ve bought anything from any of these companies, then you likely know what I’m talking about.
It’s not hard to see why these companies are customer favorites. Amazon, in particular, can win awards all day long in customer service. I’ve never had a bad experience with them and I’ve been buying books exclusively from Amazon for 10 years. These days, I buy mostly for my Kindle.
I believe Amazon is at the top of the list for customer service (and it’s important to note that this poll doesn’t just measure online customer satisfaction; Amazon is the clear winner among ALL businesses) because of one thing – fulfillment. Amazon’s business processes are built around delivering products to customers in a timely manner and at a competitive price. They’ve done it so well they’ve put some of their top offline competitors out of business.
The key to doing business online and winning with your customers is to deliver a positive customer experience every time. That means making ordering easy (Amazon does that well), handling customer service issues in a timely manner (again, Amazon gets major points), and delivering your product affordably and timely (and once again Amazon gets top billing). And behind Amazon’s success in customer service is the technology behind its website. The company can take orders, fulfill them, manage their delivery, and more, all from its online technology suite. And that includes allowing third party sellers to sell their products through Amazon’s system.
Online customer service involves ensuring your technology and your ideology are in concert with one another. If you’re serious about doing business online, treat your customers well. Learn from the companies online who are doing it well, companies like Amazon and Overstock.com.
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