I've been an active customer of Amazon for quite a number of years now & have a fair experience of their service quality. In addition, having tried and tested a number of on-line retailers, from tesco.com to sears.com, I wanted to share with you some interesting perspectives gained as an avid on-line consumer. Hence this piece has been written from my perspective as a Customer.
If we look at one area where Amazon specialises in the UK, it is predominantly in the selling of books. We see a number of competitors who have cropped up with somewhat comparable offerings, each one hoping to take a slice of the cake; the likes of waterstones.com,whsmiths.co.uk, bookshop.blackwell.co.uk and so on.
Taking books as an example then, its interesting to see what Amazon have done to have me going back again and again. And be warned, I can be a pretty ghastly customer to deal with! When it comes to wearing the customer hat, I expect quality with no-frills & no cheap-thrills; I'm hard to please. I'm the kind of customer who enters the supermarket looking at how clean the shopping trolleys are. And leaves the supermarket looking at how friendly the cashier was and whether I got a little welcome 'hello' when it came to my turn.
So how come then, for such a fussy customer that I am... then many-a-time when buying books, I don't even bother to check the competitor websites? What makes the Amazon experience so addictive for me? What makes it tension-free & fun? And why do I remain loyal to them year-after-year?
So let's dive straight in; let me start with sharing what I believe makes Amazon different & where based on my experiences, they outstrip the competition:
What I like about Amazon.Com
1. Overall Good Service:
Amazon has grown from it's humble roots as a simple on-line bookshop back in 1994, to a business phenomenon today, offering a fairly wide portfolio of products and services.
Selling books is still most likely what they do best. However, the amazon service offering now extends to offer a book self-publishing service, Cloud-computing based storage and computing resources, home-delivered groceries, advertising options, jewellery, golf clubs, laptops, DVDs, clothing items, office supplies, pet supplies, audio books and the list goes on...
If you have a chance to read thru the customer reviews, you find that the general impression surprisingly, is that customers are overall satisfied with what they're getting.
So what are the things I like about my shopping experience with them?
Well firstly, the diversity of products available on-line, from the comfort of my armchair. Generally I only buy things I know and trust. So often, I've already bought the item before from a toy-shop or a some department store at some point or another. I already know what it feels like, how big it is and what it can do.
In addition, I get free home delivery to our family home in the UK. The amazon packaging is good, especially for delicate items (although it can be a little excessive sometimes). It seems amazon expend a fair effort into pricing, since their costs are generally the lowest across-the-board. Sometimes the difference can be just a few pence, but that combined with the free delivery is enough to get me to place the order.
Although amazon is on the weak-side in terms of brand offerings, this is offset by allowing any market trader to sell through their site. And this widens the buying options for the consumer.
I've never been sold an item which has been damaged, or where it looked like a return-item from another customer or a book with dog-eared corners. At least 70% of my buying is directly from amazon; and the trader-purchases I've made have been to an acceptable standard.
2. Reliability:
Isn't it annoying when you spend your precious time selecting things to buy on-line, and find after a browser crash that the site has lost all of the cart-items?
You'll be intrigued to know that over the years I've used Amazon, it has let me down personally(i.e. the site has been down) a staggering number of... 1 time!
So here's my total complaint list (and keep in mind the kind of customer I am!):
- There was an incident a some years ago where a PDF e-book I'd bought mysteriously disappeared from my purchased items record. About a year later, it re-appeared once again. Of course losing the book was rather annoying, and that without any sort of explanation from their side. The Customer Service staff were not able to locate any record of the purchase and this only added to my frustration.
Consider now my experience overall using the amazon website; although the site can be sluggish from time-to-time (which may not always be due to the website, but can also be internet congestion on my side of the fence), I've never had a session cut or items disappear from my cart or anything so interesting happen while shopping on-line. The search has always worked and funny things haven't happened in the browser window (irrespective of which browser I use), as has been the case with a number of the competition's websites.
Contrast a book purchase once made on a UK competitor's website; my order was accepted, seemed quite reassuring. Then some days later a surprising message popped into my InBoxmentioning that somehow the book was out of stock! After 5 months, they automatically cancelled the order explaining they couldn't fulfil it & refunded my payment. Amazon by contrast link their warehouse inventory with the order at the time of placing, so if an item is not available, the website tells you up-front.
Once a large book order I'd placed didn't arrive. Following my complaint, they re-sent the entire order. The delivery was to an oversees address and I'm still convinced the poor quality postage service at the receiving-side was more to blame than amazon. Nonetheless, they duplicated the order, no-quibbles, no-questions asked.
I find them to be diligent with packaging all of the bits and pieces that usually come with the item; once I bought an Asus netbook from amazon & sure enough, it arrived duly along with all the different leads, guarantee card and other paraphernalia you'd expect with it.
3. Website Experience:
Despite a huge amount of information contained within the amazon site, the use of a crisp interface means I never feel bogged down. Even though some of the content can be superfluous to my needs in that particular visit (I'm quite a focussed buyer; usually when I go on-line, I'm already fairly sure what it is that I'm looking to for).
Somehow the design is smart enough for me to keep a visual focus on what I want in that particular visit. The same goes for the different screens presented during the order fulfilment process, for example the invoice design; I see what I want & presented the way I want.
I have the same Natwest debit card interest-free account since my University days; it's details are stored by Amazon, but only a number of the digits are visible with the remaining having asterisk place-holders. So no 'human' gets to see my number, not myself, not Amazon staff & not even resellers who use Amazon's fulfilment and payment services. That feeling of security and trust is important when you're shopping on-line.
I like the way amazon provides recommendations. Based on my browsing history the homepage presents items I've visited, or similar items of interest and promotes those which are on special offer.
If I choose a particular product description page, a scroll and click gallery near the base of the screen presents what other Customers viewing this item also purchased. This is psychologically powerful since what other people bought has an alluring element to it.
While using amazon, a number of methods are used to make it feel you're getting a bargain and at the same time, motivate you to spend more! For example when viewing a product description, you get a number of 'bundle options' - so if you buy this item with such-and-such other item, then look how much discount you're eligible for.
I find the customer reviews helpful, although some other on-line merchants use 3rd party review sites (such as Review Centre) which add to their credibility.
The immediate notification following order placement gives me peace of mind and gives me another chance to review the purchase (and cancel it if I have changed my mind). The subsequent notifications sent at the time of delivery, from my experience are always reliably, are timely & have just about enough information squeezed onto them to be acceptable (there are links to similar products which can sometimes clutter the page).
Every two to three weeks I get an interesting mail with items (especially those on discount) similar to what I've bought in a previous transaction.
The 'Today's Deals' page is good for the bargain hunter, although personally I'm quite a focussed buyer so I usually won't visit this page.
A couple of weeks after each significant purchase, I get an email asking for my experiences with the purchase. By that time the ordered item has been received & I'm in a position where I can provide some useful feedback on the overall experience.
All of these unsolicited messages are sent frequently enough to be potentially useful, while at the same time not to the level where they become an irritation.
Well, that's my take on the main things I like about Amazon; in the next post I'll discuss some of the places I see they can improve on...
Regards,
Musab Qureshi
