WOCAS made Amazon great

I'm going back into CRM mode. Our project launch looks like its finally going to happen! So my radar is up to find messages that will resonate with our implementation team, who will need to be my first converts to customer-centric thinking.

Here is a simple but power concept I found in my inbox this morning from crmguru.com. An article called Harness "What Our Customers Are Saying", written by a former Amazon customer support leader, Bill Price.

Whenever I start a new project, I want to get as close to the customer as possible, trying to discover "what our customers are saying" (WOCAS). Even though our clients can share reams of data on customer contacts, usually via hundreds of reason or contact codes, most of that data is worthless because agents often pick the first-listed code or contacts are multi-issue.

He goes on to share how by sitting in with support people, he was able to see things from the customer's view, and then get things done to improve their business. He also encouraged regular WOCAS reports from the support department.

For me, I hope that stories like this can help remind my team that what we are doing is ultimately for the customers and how we implement CRM needs to focus on their expectations.