Joe Nocera at the NYT had a similar Amazon customer experience to the one I had -- and it sparks a great column that touches on a few topics dear to my heard -- the true value of great focus on customer service, and the fact that often Wall Street devalues that same service. As he notes:
But I couldn’t help wondering if maybe there wasn’t something else at play here, something Wall Street never seems to take very seriously. Maybe, just maybe, taking care of customers is something worth doing when you are trying to create a lasting company. Maybe, in fact, it’s the best way to build a real business — even if it comes at the expense of short-term results.
and then:
Wall Street, however, has never placed much value in Mr. Bezos’ emphasis on customers. What he has viewed as money well spent — building customer loyalty — many investors saw as giving away money that should have gone to the bottom line. “What makes their core business so compelling is that they are focused on everything the customer wants,” said Scott W. Devitt, who follows Amazon for Stifel Nicolaus & Company. “When you act in that manner many times Wall Street doesn’t appreciate it.” What Wall Street wanted from Amazon is what it always wants: short-term results. That is precisely what Dell tried to give investors when it scrimped on customer service and what eBay did when it heaped new costs on its most dedicated sellers. Eventually, these short-sighted decisions caught up with both companies.
He also gets in a fun dig at the notoriously awful customer support folks at Apple, saying "I shudder to think how this entreaty would have gone over at, say, Apple, where customer service is an oxymoron." Love it. :)
This disconnect between what customers want in the real world (great service, good prices, good products) and what Wall Street's finest often prioritize (short term profit, year over year revenue growth) is sobering -- it makes me wonder if we're seeing three bubbles at once -- the Web 2.0 bubble being filled by faith in Google; the housing bubble that vanished (mostly) in the past year; and the overall stock market bubble based on on transitory profits at the expense of long term value creation. Worth thinking about...