Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

Schoemaker is just plain wrong. When I need just about anything, my first stop is Amazon.com and has been for years. They sell just about anything (or link to it) and their customer service is dynamite--from questions, returns, and a great website to competitive prices and free shipping. I suspect I'm not alone. They are also my benchmark for other online merchants--most don't come close, and few get my business.

As a customer service consultant I found this a little hard to read.

There is a lot of truth to this, however I think it's a question of expectation.

He told his customers not to expect anything other than a return. Google and Amazon are so (arguable) great product providers we overlook it.

This is just like Mcdonalds, the biggest restaurant chain is the one with the worst food. If the NOW experience is strong enough, you don't care about anything else.

The comments raise interesting questions. I don't think for one moment that Jeremy Shoemaker is dismissing good customer service as something positive from the customer's perspective, just that the lengths to which one goes must be cost effective. There's always a point at which extra effort does not deliver added value. The problem is knowing where that point is, because if we get it wrong then it will cause problems. The policies described by Mr Shoemaker will only make economic sense if it is backed up by decent product functionality, delivery processes etc.

He is more or less saying (I hope) that a problem is such an exceptional circumstance, they need not adopt specific headline policies to cater for it, on cost versus benefit grounds. This policy will work only if the following statements are true:

1. Problems are fairly exceptional
2. Reputation is already pretty good
3. Consequences of failure are an irritation rather than life or death

For a start up I can't see such a stance working. An early problem and a few wobbly on line reviews can seriously affect the confidence of the potential buyer. Once the "quality" is built into the service delivery, maybe there is a reduced argument for "add on" customer care services

Whilst the comment may raise hackles we do need to think sensibly and economically about it

So far as Amazon goes, people do care. There was an article slagging them off on Curious Cat just a few days ago, and a few days before that I was singing their praises

http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/blog/CustomerRelationshipManagement/_archives/2008/1/9/3456425.html

shaun

Believe it or not I found a post on a similar theme today. Check out my summary of the points made

http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/2/5/3506508.html

shaun