Jeff Bezos Uses a Clever Stunt to Prove a Point About Customer Service
Running a billion-dollar business means staying on top of every detail to make sure everything works smoothly. Even the biggest companies can fail if they don’t pay attention to the little things. Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon, focused on making sure everything was running well when he first took charge.
A Stunt to Prove His Point
In a December 2023 interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Bezos shared a story from Amazon’s early days to make a point to his staff. He had been told by data that Amazon customers only waited 1 minute to reach customer service. However, after hearing complaints that customers were waiting much longer, Bezos wasn’t convinced.
During a meeting, a team member tried to assure him that everything was fine, but Bezos didn’t agree. He decided to prove his point in a memorable way.
The Wait That Changed Everything
Bezos explained on the podcast: “I have a saying: when the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right.” He added that when this happens, it’s not that the data is wrong, but that it’s measuring the wrong thing.
To make his point clear, Bezos personally called customer service. He and his team silently waited as the phone rang. After about 10 minutes of waiting, Bezos finally got through.
He smiled, knowing he had just proved that the data was wrong, and said: “That dramatically made my point that something was wrong with the data collection.”
A Wake-Up Call for the Team
This experience led to changes in how Amazon measured customer service wait times. Bezos referred to this as an example of “truth telling,” explaining that sometimes it’s uncomfortable to uncover the truth, but it’s necessary for improvement.
Social media users had a lot of fun with the story. One person wrote: “Imagine sitting in the boardroom waiting for 10 minutes after you just told Jeff the data shows it’s only 1 minute!” Another joked: “Sounds like someone massaging the numbers to please the boss.”
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