The Customer

02004-08-05 | Uncategorized | 1 comment

Fast Company, Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos:

“And ‘sometimes we measure things and see that in the short term they actually hurt sales, and we do it anyway,’ he says, because Amazon managers don’t think the short term is a good predictor of the long term. For example, they found that their biggest customers had such large collections of stuff — especially CDs — that they accidentally ordered items they had already bought from Amazon years ago. So they decided to give people a warning whenever this was about to happen. Sure enough, the warnings slightly reduced Amazon’s sales. But it’s hard to study the feature’s long-term effects. Would it reduce sales over a 10-year period? They didn’t think so. They thought it would make customers happy and probably increase sales. ‘You have to use your judgment,’ Bezos says. ‘In cases like that, we say, ‘Let’s be simpleminded. We know this is a feature that’s good for customers. Let’s do it.” “

[vedana.net]

I am glad somebody thinks beyond tomorrow…

1 Comment

  1. Carolynn

    People appreciate good customer service. I guess the question here is, what is the value of a company’s integrity in the long run compared to the value of a dollar in the short run? Hmmm…

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives

Images

Concert Dates

Thu, Apr 23 2026 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
@ The Parker

Fri, Apr 24 2026 in Clearwater, FL
@ Bilheimer Capitol Theater

Sat, Apr 25 2026 in Orlando, FL
@ Judson’s Live, Dr. Phillips Center

Sun, Apr 26 2026 in Ponte Vedra, FL
@ Ponte Vedra Concert Hall

Wed, Apr 29 2026 in Old Saybrook, CT
@ The Kate

Thu, Apr 30 2026 in Wilmington, DE
@ Baby Grand

Fri, May 1 2026 in Newark, NJ
@ NJ PAC

Sat, May 2 2026 in Riverhead, NY
@ The Suffolk

Social

@Mastodon (the Un-Twitter)