Kindle Customer Service – Battling for Brand Loyalty

A long time ago when I was a product manager, the CEO brought into a new VP of Marketing, who on day 1 declared, “I am here to build our brand.” He subsequently, when on to hire a creative firm and spent a lot of money on a new logo. In the mean time we went and won new customers, delivered value and serviced them exceptionally well. You can guess what built the brand. Building your brand takes all departments, understanding your position, value proposition, and executing on it. Brands are built on how to deal with customers, Killian Branding has an excellent, succinct post on this.  There is also an comprehensive article from Marketing Profs on spreading customer experience through a company’s “performance chain.”

Last week I had an outstanding customer experience with Amazon. My recently purchased Kindle had an issue with its screen freezing. First I checked numerous web sites, and the support pages at Amazon, trying to fix it myself. Finally I phoned the customer support line. Unfortunately, when I phoned the rep wanted me to step through some diagnostics , however, I did not have it with me. He offered to call me back later – huh? When does a call center offer to call you back? Furthermore he asked what time would be good. Sure enough later that evening I got a call, and after some tests, told me he would ship out a replacement. He took the initiative to call me back. In almost every other situation, they would tell ME to call THEM back.

It fits with Amazon’s overall value proposition – convenience, online shopping, personalized purchase suggestions…