Sometimes all you need to read is the first paragraph in an article. Here’s the title from Business Insider: Amazon charges sellers as much as $5,000 a month for customer service if they want a guarantee that they’ll be able to talk to a real person.
The first paragraph reads:
Amazon charges third parties who sell goods through its online marketplace as much as $5,000 per month to access its optional management-growth service, Jay Greene at The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The service guarantees quick help from a real person, according to The Post, and deciding not to pay can have devastating effects on sellers’ businesses, especially in instances where quick customer support is required.
In this world of AI and technology, of smart phone customer service, and the world according to Google, people are willing to pay $5,000 per month to…talk to a real person!
Why? Because these dedicated representatives can “solve problems before they blow up.” Because true, personalized, useful service is compared to an experience where it’s “almost impossible to get support help from the mostly automated Amazon systems.” Because people provide value. Because having a dialogue and quick resolution with someone empathetic, smart, caring, and knowledgeable has value.
In other words, you have value – literally – to your customers. You may be in a role where you serve others, but your customer allows you to do so because they know your worth.
Studies decades ago used to quote that customers would spend 10% more for the same product with better service. Today, that metric is put on steroids in this $5,000/month dedicated customer service representative story.
But both metrics suggest the same thing – you, your team, and what you do have value. You have worth.
Know your own worth to the customer.
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The week of October 7 is National Customer Service Week. No, this wasn’t another holiday invented by Hallmark, so you have to go to work. Hopefully that’s the good news!
A recent article in The Charlotte Observer got me thinking about a concept, a premise that is suggested all too often in society. First, the article: The story was about lawn care, and some of the people quoted in the article talked about what customers want today. They noted how customers want to be good stewards of the environment, they want sustainable solutions, they want to protect pollinators like bees, and they want pesticides used with discretion.
