Jeff Bezos called Amazon customer service in the middle of a meeting and it was 'uncomfortable'
He was trying to prove a point
Jeff Bezos once put Amazon's customer service to the test to make sure things were running as they should.
In the early days of Amazon, way before it became the e-commerce giant we know today, there was a hitch on the customer service front.
On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Bezos shared the story of how he personally called Amazon’s support line during a weekly business review.
The issue was that the data didn't match the customer feedback.
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"I have a saying which is: when the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right," the 60-year-old explained.
At the time, metrics showed customers were waiting less than 60 seconds to reach support, but complaints about long wait times suggested otherwise.
Bezos assured that it wasn't a matter of 'miscollected data' but that the company wasn't 'measuring the right thing.'
The tech mogul previously coined the phrase: “Start with the customer and work backwards" so his way of doing things certainly isn't out of character.
Taking matters into his own hands, the billionaire approached the head of Amazon's customer service and said, "Let’s call."
He recalled: "I picked up the phone and I dialled the 1800 number and called customer service.
"And we just waited in silence."
The boss of the company soon found out that he was right. The wait time for customer service turned out to be 'way longer' than expected: "More than 10 minutes I think."
That painfully long wait made it clear something wasn’t adding up with the data collection.
Bezos called this a lesson in 'truth-telling.' And while this approach is uncomfortable for many, Bezos regards it as a powerful way to prove a point and get people on board.
Responses to the YouTube clip agreed with Bezos, saying that Amazon isn't the same now.
"Amazon’s service has gone WAYYYYYYY down since Bezos stepped aside. I used to buy nearly 95% from Amazon and that has gone down to probably less than 50%. They are not who they used to be," one viewer commented.
"Imagine sitting in the boardroom waiting in silence for 10min for customer service to pick up after you just told Jeff the data shows it is only 60 seconds and everything is fine lol," another user described.
Noticing how times have changed for the worse, one other viewer added: "Kind of ironic that, these days, they make it very difficult to interact with a real person."
Another user joked: "Imagine working in the call centre and Jeff rings you himself hahaha".