The Tesco’s of Cyberspace
Engraved on the doors of the Amazon warehouse entrance is Jeff Bezos’s motivational phrase to all his employees ‘Work hard, have fun, make history‘. Just below this notice (and written in invisible ink), is the following addendum ‘and thanks for making me a multi-billionaire in the process‘. The growth of Amazon has been truly phenomenal. From a two-bedroom house in Seattle in 1994, with extension leads running into the garage to power the servers, to a global business now serving 45 million customers.
When I’ve run e-commerce seminars, one of the questions I regularly ask delegates is ‘What do you think is the secret of Amazon’s success?’ Almost everyone says – ‘ the low prices’ or ‘the range of stock they carry’. I then bring up the quote from Jeff Bezos himself, which underpins the Amazon philosophy – ‘Amazon.com is obsessively focussed on great customer service‘. It is a sentence that should be enshrined in the heart of every e-commerce entrepreneur.
It is hard to believe that when Amazon started receiving its first online orders, the programmers coded a small electronic beep to sound in the office every time an order arrived. Every beep was greeted with a loud cheer in the Amazon office. It wasn’t long before they had to switch it off. Permanently.
Tags: Amazon, Customer Service, Jeff Bezos, Tescos