Amazon.com and Customer-Centric Service

This morning, I ran out of my pomade, digging the last of it out of the jar. I headed to the closet to grab another, thus ensuring that my nasty cowlick in the back stays put tomorrow. Unfortunately, while the shelf proudly displayed my stash of extra shaving cream and an extra tube of toothpaste, there was no pomade.

Since I don't know when I'm going to get to the store to pick up some more, I made a quick check at Amazon to see if I might be able to just throw it into my next purchase.

That's when I discovered a feature of Amazon that I hadn't seen before. Apparently, you can subscribe to get stuff like pomade delivered on a regular basis. So, every month, 2, 3 or 6 months, if I subscribed, another couple of jars would show up. They discount it as well and I found myself reflecting on how well Amazon serves its customers.

I've been a customer of Amazon's for so long I had to actually go an look at when my first Amazon order was (1998). In that 10 years, I've gone from buying the occasional book to Amazon being my default choice for buying something. I often only bother looking for a local store that carries the item if Amazon can't get it to me in time or doesn't offer it. I've even become a member of Amazon's "Prime" program, giving me free 2-day shipping on everything from their warehouses.

Over that time, I've consistently been impressed with how they've smoothed out the road in front of me as a customer. Between setting up easy wish lists, carts that don't flush out when I close my browser, one click shopping, Prime shipping, making customer reviews central to purchasing, finally getting me DRM-free MP3s for purchase, etc. it's clear that they're focused on customer satisfaction.

This Christmas, they even went WAY above my expectations on a package mixup.

I had ordered a bunch of stuff as gifts and nearly all of the items had been delivered. However, one shipment was listed as "delivered" that I hadn't ever seen. I fully expected to be handed off to UPS to file a claim of some sort, to wait for a followup call from them, etc. After all, that's what every other vendor I've ever worked with has done when something goes wrong with the shipment.

However, with no questions asked, they just sent me another shipment, totaling something like $90 as a replacement. When I found the package, in the back yard, between the garbage cans, buried in snow, I felt terrible. But, you've got to be impressed with a company that just keeps looking for ways to keep customers coming back.

And, now, apparently, I don't have to ever run out of pomade again.