AMAZON + AMEX: AN UPDATE ON AREAS FOR SERVICES IMPROVEMENT



Here follows an overview of what happened since my article from last week.

American Express
Immediately the person who is responsible for social media reacted via Twitter. She put me in contact with their @askamex people to help me further.
She was very helpful and did find out that there was indeed a software problem (Safari and Chrome access didn’t work). That is what I told the Amazon people in the first place, but they wouldn’t listen.
Then she said that she could not assist me any further as my card was issued in the EU and she could only work with US issued cards.
As a global customer however I expect global, seamless service. But that is not the way they are currently organized. So, I would suggest renaming their account into @AskAmexUS.

Amazon
Via Twitter I did receive no reaction at all, although I copied them on my Tweets. Also there was no reaction to my negative ratings on their service performance.
So, why do you ask your customers about their satisfaction, when you take no action to follow up?
And why do you have a Twitter account if you do not react on issues?
This means that I had to be very creative in order to get my issue solved. I did mail a very valued Zappos contact and she introduced me to Amazon customer relations.
She was very helpful. After some time she confirmed that some browsers were not supported and that they are working on the issue.
Then she informed me later that the Membership Rewards Program was only eligible for in the US issued Amex cards.
Aha, this was not mentioned in the beginning and it is still suggested on my accounts page.
So, why are they making a difference between US customers and everybody else? Apparently I am good enough to order and pay with my (EU issued) card, but I don’t get the benefits for it.

Conclusion
If you are a global company then you have to make sure that you design your service in such a way that you can really support global customers.
If you provide service, then your goal is to help the customer to his or her satisfaction and not to get rid of them as fast as possible or pass on the responsibility.
If you ask for feedback, than follow up or don’t ask.
If you want to be a customer centric company than you have to make sure that the customers can reach you easily and effortlessly, by phone and by email.
If you use social media, than monitor what is being said about you and follow up.

And above all, if you make a mistake....... admit that you have done so!


GROW YOUR PEOPLE, GROW YOUR BUSINESS!

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