Amazon Makes Real-time Phone Service Available, For Real This Time

Zachary McGeary | January 23, 2006, 03:12 PM

Have you ever needed to call Amazon.com for customer service? I bet you found that there was no 800 number on their website. Except that they do have both a call center AND an 800 number: try typing "Amazon 800 number" into Google.

Well, in a very strategic move, Amazon now offers callback functionality on their "Contact Amazon" page. Consumers may leave their phone number and a timeframe within which they would like to receive a call (in 5 minute increments from 0-15 minutes).

This move is strategic because it doesn't open the flood gates for inbound customer service phone calls, many of which are likely to be basic and informational in nature (e.g. billing, order status) and the solutions for which are already provided by their very robust account and order management functionality. Instead, this service delivery paradigm also allows Amazon to manage their own service levels more efficiently.

So, to me the move is ultimately a concession on Amazon's part that phone service is simply required, even for online businesses. Of course, we've long maintained that the phone has and will remain the most preferred customer service channel for consumers.

I think this is a great move, both for Amazon and for consumers. In some senses, with the ubiquity of their 800 number on the internet, it was just a matter of time before they opted for a more formal phone offering.

Just one word of advice for the folks over at Amazon. Try allowing consumers to type in their question before submitting the callback request. Run that question through the knowledge base and give consumers one more chance to self-serve before finally escalating to live phone. This has been proven successful with email, as companies have seen drops in inbound email on the scale of up to 40%. See Optimizing Knowledge Management: Extending Investments Across Service Channels for more on this topic.