The power of owning our screwups - what my days in the Amazon call center taught me

Whenever I pull out the “Oh yes, I got my start in the industry with Amazon.com in the late 90’s” line, some part of me feels a little guilty, a little fake, for not completing the statement with “…as a customer service rep in the call center”.

It wasn’t a glamorous job, but the couple years I spent “de-escalating” angry customers and trying to “make things right” taught me some quite valuable, relevant job skills - and ingrained in me a service-oriented business perspective that I use every day.

More often than not, I am disappointed with the way my complaints/issues/requests are handled by the companies I do business with as a consumer.

Take for example, baby stuff. We have bought boatloads of pricey baby swag for Emma - stroller, car seat, bouncey vibratey things, boob pump, you name it we bought it (or our generous friends and family did!)

The other day, the sun hood thing on Emma’s car seat broke. You have to realize this was horrifying, as we were in the middle of a nasty DC heat wave. Peg Perego told us we’d have to pay for the part because the seat’s manufacture date was over a year old. Even though we bought the dang thing 4 months ago!

After much complaining, they agreed to send us the part, but we had to pay for shipping. The part arrived today, thrown in a box, with no padding or protection. Sam called and asked why it was packed so carelessly. The response was something like:

I see in our notes the last time you called you were very rude to the customer service agent….

Not my problem…..

Nothing happened to the part, did it? Then why do you care if it wasn’t packed right?

At Amazon, I was taught to do whatever necessary to make the customer happy. To use my judgment, whether that meant sending them a gift certificate, upgrading their shipping to next day, etc… the focus was to always take ownership if the customer was not happy, and do whatever I could to make them FEEL like we took care of them. I’m not sure Amazon still teaches their reps to behave this way (I hope so).

It’s an attitude I’ve tried to take into my own business and dealings with people.

I love (OK, only after I actually do the deed, it’s scary making that phone call) owning my mistakes - it takes people off guard. Most people expect the standard “not my problem”, “you did it wrong”, or just plain denial type response.

I have no pride or problem saying “Oops - my mistake, I’m so sorry. What can I do to make this right?” Most times, that’s enough, and the client and I feel resolved, even closer as two humans just sorting something out together.

In the 8 or so years of working with clients, I’ve screwed up a lot. Those clients who have had to endure my mistakes have often been the same clients to refer me to their friends & associates. If I would have tried to hide behind my mistakes, I’m sure that would never have happened.

So own your screw ups - and always pack your replacement baby seat parts with care.