Obsessing Over Customers

A few words from Amazon’s Founder, Jeff Bezos

Okay, my new favorite book is Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos.com). So what does that have to do with Amazon … besides the fact that in 2009 Amazon acquired Zappos for about $1 billion? — I’ll get to that…

There are several reasons to love this book, but if you know anything about Zappos.com, it’s probably that they are a benchmark for customer service. In fact, their company tag line (deservedly so) is simply, “Powered by Service™.” They are world famous for their free shipping (both ways!) and their uber-liberal 365-day return policy, but there is so much more to this company. Their innovative approach to customer service is revolutionary and their success secrets … well … aren’t really secrets. In fact, you can read all about their approach to business, leadership, teamwork, innovation and of course world-class customer service in the book.

On to Jeff Bezos

In Delivering Happiness, Hsieh tells of the long-standing positive relationship that existed between Zappos and Amazon well before the partnership ensued. In the audio version of his book, which the author reads himself, you’ll also hear the voices of many Zappos employees, a customer or two and that of Jeff Bezos all reading to you.

In the following quote from Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com, he explains that your energy is far better spent focusing on your customers than on your competitors…

“The first thing I know is that you need to obsess over customers. I can tell you we have been doing this from the very beginning and it’s the only reason that Amazon.com exists today in any form. We’ve always put customers first – when given the choice of obsessing over competitors or obsessing over customers, we always obsess over customers. We pay attention to what our competitors do but it’s not where we put our energy; it’s not where we get our motivation from. We really like to start with customers and work backwards. And again, that is the key thing that I know and it covers a lot of other mistakes. If you’re truly obsessed over customers it’ll cover a lot of errors.”

(To watch Bezos discuss this and other top strategies (for world domination), you can watch his 8-minute video on YouTube)

Your Turn

Are you obsessing over your competition … or your customers? I’d love to hear from you.