Customer focus breeds proactivity
“One advantage – perhaps a somewhat subtle one – of a customer-driven focus is that it aids a certain type of proactivity. When we’re at our best, we don’t wait for external pressures.”
Investing
Jeff Bezos's 2012 letter to Amazon shareholders, one of the letters in Day 1: The Amazon Shareholder Letters, 1997–2020.
Customer focus drives improvement even when leading
“We think [customer focus] earns more trust with customers and drives rapid improvements in customer experience – importantly – even in those areas where we are already the leader.”
Proactive refunds cost more but earn trust
“[Refunding customers] proactively is more expensive for us, but it also surprises, delights, and earns trust.”
Making money on use, not purchase
“Our business approach is to sell premium hardware at roughly breakeven prices. We want to make money when people use our devices – not when people buy our devices. We think this aligns us better with customers.”
Long-term view aligns customers and shareholders
“Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align.”
A rising stock is not a smarter company
“We don’t celebrate a 10% increase in the stock price like we celebrate excellent customer experience. We aren’t 10% smarter when that happens and conversely aren’t 10% dumber when the stock goes the other way.”
Pioneering leads down many blind alleys
“Our passion for pioneering will drive us to explore narrow passages, and, unavoidably, many will turn out to be blind alleys. But – with a bit of good fortune – there will also be a few that open up into broad avenues.”