Would you let Amazon handle customer service on your behalf? Amazon already does this for sellers who use its FBA fulfillment service, which makes some sense since sellers' inventory is stored in Amazon fulfillment centers and Amazon is the entity that ships sellers' FBA orders to the customer.
But Amazon is reportedly planning to offer a service that will allow sellers to use its customer service for non-FBA orders as well.
A seller took an Amazon survey that asked, "What type of customer inquiries do you see as the most challenging?" Sellers were given the following options from which to choose:
- Where's My Stuff or fulfillment status related inquiries
- Return related inquiries
- Cancellation related inquiries
- Pre-purchase related inquiries
- All equally challenging
- Other, please specify
The seller described another survey question that outlined Amazon's description of a service it is working on along with the benefits:
Amazon is creating a service where we take care of customer service on your behalf for your self-delivery orders. We will direct customer inquiries for these orders to Amazon Customer Service so that you do not need to handle them yourself. Amazon will also provide you with customer satisfaction reports based on buyer data.
Benefits include:
- This service helps improve customer experience by providing high-quality customer service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
- This service supports customers in the Marketplace supported language via phone and chat in addition to Email.
- This service's high-quality customer service can help you reduce A-to-Z claims, Order Defect Rate (ODR), and negative reviews.
- This service can help you remove your customer service burdens by managing customer service in response to changing demands (e.g. holiday period).
- This service helps save time and can reduce customer service cost.
Several readers expressed concern that Amazon would be too generous in dealing with customer problems, with one writing, "I suspect Amazon will just refund everything, all of the time, from our accounts, "on our behalf.""
Another seller said Amazon customer service reps wouldn't be able to answer their buyers' questions. "I sell lighting products that require ACTUAL technical knowledge to assist a customer," the seller wrote. "They ask wiring questions, cross references, image differences etc. No way anyone without lighting technical background could ever help any of my customers! If this happens it will hurt us WAY more than help."
A third seller went further: "I actually think good sellers should be able to apply to provide MORE customer service, even with FBA. We know our product much better than Amazon ever will. They can still have control over things like return policies. Amazon’s reputation for customer service is overrated, they are extremely fast to ship and issue returns, but in terms of actually helping customers with problems, they can't help you."
If Amazon does launch the service, why limit it to sellers alone? The company has a pattern of taking a task it must do itself and then offering that service for a fee to other companies (some examples: fulfillment, shipping, web-hosting,...). Could Amazon be planning a "Customer Service as a Service" offering beyond its own marketplace?
How would you feel about letting Amazon (or other marketplaces on which you sell) handle customer service for your orders? Would it make a difference if you had to pay for using the service?
Would You Let Amazon Handle Your Customer Service?
by: COVID-19 
by: iheartjacksparrow 
by: NoMoreEbay