The Amazon Standard

Good morning!

I have a goal for you; something to shoot for.

Regardless of whether you love or hate Amazon, you have to admire their efficiency, ease of ordering, turnaround time, and especially their level of communication.

It’s that communication piece I want to talk about.

I think we can all learn a lesson from Amazon and make it a goal to achieve Amazon-like communication.

First, they are responsive. Regardless of what you need, BOOM! They are right there. You can emulate that by responding quickly to inquiries. (I’ll qualify that statement by noting it is okay to simply let a customer know you got their message, then ask if it can wait.)

Second, they push out information like acknowledgements and delivery dates. Similar to Amazon, your customers should never have to call you and ask, “When will I see it?” Keep them informed.

And finally, you know a package arrived immediately. This is rarely a priority, but it does close the loop on the order process. Similarly, a day-of-delivery message to a client will be well received.

As for follow up, Amazon includes a “How did we do?” question with the delivery information. It is this step most ignored by sales people. They might think, “No news is good news” or perhaps don’t believe it is important. Gang, you should absolutely take this additional step via a call or an email.

Like it or not, Amazon has set the standard for many aspects of our lives and like it or not, we are measured by our clients against those standards.

In other words, Amazon has upped the game. Up yours.

Bill Farquharson can be reached at 781-934-7036 or through his web-based sales resource, The Sales Vault at SalesVault.pro.