How Amazon Optimizes Post-Purchase Experience with Funnel-Thinking

In the game of customer satisfaction, Amazon undoubtedly sits on the throne.

For the past few years, the company has managed to top the list of American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) in the field of internet retail. Besides Prime membership and all the other wonderful services, however, what exactly has Amazon done within a customer journey that leads to high customer satisfaction and that we as marketers can learn from?

One thing that is worth studying today is their adoption of funnel-thinking throughout customers’ post-purchase experience.

Basically, funnel-thinking is a mindset for narrowing down targets and getting to the core of a problem. What Amazon actually does is that they create a user-friendly auto-support system with a funnel-like structure to help customers identify their problem and navigate through the self-service process without actually reaching out to a customer service representative.

As shown in the example below, Amazon helps customers identify their issues by asking questions step by step in the customer support page. It provides options (which I believe are based on data analytic results) in drop-down boxes where customers can always find one that describes their needs the best. According to the answers, it would offer instant solutions that lead people directly to the page that can fix their problems. So even before a customer reaches the bottom and selects a contact way, he or she probably has solved the problem.

This is an extremely good function not only because it lessens the workload for customer service representatives and therefore minimizes the company’s labor cost but also because it exceeds customers’ expectations by saving them a lot of time for reaching out to a real person and waiting for replies.

Thinking from a digital analyst’s perspective, running a funnel-structured inquiry can also help the company better answer the “What and Where to improve” question. By comparing what customers’ difficulties are and how the functions on the website are currently organized, Amazon is able to identify the gap and therefore make adjustments.

Anyway, this is just one way that Amazon is using in terms of customer support. Customers’ post-purchase journey is definitely more than that. How to improve consumers’ experience with the data and skillset we possess is what we marketers need to continuously work on.