Amazon.com Community Relations

          

After doing research I have discovered that a strong community relations program is not the number one priority for Amazon.com.  There is a community relations page that outlines what they are doing for the local community and almost all of the help they give is in charitable donations and not hands on work.  However, they have been criticized by many Seattle newspapers and nonprofit officials that have said that Amazon is uninvolved in the community.  Amazon’s core mission is to deliver exactly what the customer wants, when they want it, and ultimately satisfy them.  It has nothing to do with giving back or making the world a better place so it is understandable that community relations is lacking.  Amazon has shipping centers all over the world and the website is available to over 220 therefore, the target audience is very large. Although Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 company, it is one of the few companies who are less involved with the community.

  Started in Seattle, a city known for its big-time philanthropy, Amazon has been a small time donor.  Last year Microsoft gave four million dollars, Boeing gave three million dollars, and Nordstrom gave 320,000 dollars, while Amazon gave zero. It was said that many nonprofit officials have a difficult time reaching anyone at Amazon when regarding giving, and business leaders have said there are few times when they have seen Amazon play a role in public issues.  Jan Levy, the executive director of Leadership Tomorrow, which teaches civic leadership skills, talked to several Amazon employees who attended the program but had paid for it themselves.  Jan said “that’s unusual. Most large corporations pay for their participants’ tuition… my colleagues in the nonprofit community have made similar comments about Amazon – they are noticeably absent from civic involvement.” Although Amazon has a very large physical footprint in Seattle, Washington, the community relations is definitely lacking.  

                Not until this past year did an Amazon executive join the boards of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Seattle Association.  This is especially important because the thousands of employees that will now be working in Seattle are going to want the area to be safe and a good place to raise a family. Not only has Amazon not given money or attention to Seattle but it has actually refused to participate in local charities and events.  

 Last summer Jeff Bezos was interviewed by a former city council member who asked him about Amazon’s community involvement.   Bezos responded by saying "our core business activities are probably the most important thing we do to contribute, as well as our employment in the area." This shows that Bezos is not interested in helping the growth of Seattle or donating to charities, only the growth of his business. His thoughts against philanthropies were again brought up in 2010 during an interview with PBS where Bezos expressed doubt that philanthropy was the best way to solve social problems when he said "I'm convinced that in many cases, for-profit models improve the world more than philanthropy models, if they can be made to work." While although this could be true, it has also been proven that a company’s community relations does help a company grow and spread awareness. 

 What Amazon has done is since 2009 is they have given over 80 writers’ groups 25,000 dollar grants and given over 51,000 dollars to the University of Washington.  However, many have said that helping the writers have only helped the growth on Amazon’s publishing business.  Amazon.com does have its own community relations page where it discusses the importance of “going green” and how they have changed the company’s daily tasks to being environmentally aware and cautious. The homepage opens with a statement about how online shopping is already more ecofriendly than shopping elsewhere.  Below that on the webpage are three new, environmentally friendly ways of packaging that they have recently started.  There are illustrations of the packaging and detailed descriptions of the three different types.  Amazon also discusses their program named the Kaizen Program which means “a change for the better” in Japanese. This program is designed to improve the facilities and processes at the packing warehouses all over the world.  There is a long list of locations throughout the world who have adjusted the way they work to be more ecofriendly.   Examples include minimizing electricity usage and designing a more efficient way to load trucks and with more items.  There are also pictures of the packaging and before and after shots with how they improved the factories.

The webpage also mentions the building materials that the headquarters in Seattle is made of.  They stress that they are very environmentally friendly and use sustainable, energy- efficient materials.  On the bottom of the page are a few companies such as USDA Organic, and WaterSense that Amazon users have selected as the best green products that Amazon offers.  This recognizes other company’s hard work and shows they have the same mission as Amazon.com.   

 Amazon also has a link on this webpage to “Amazon in the Community.”  The first statement reads, “at Amazon, if we do our job right, our greatest contribution to the good of society will come from our core business activities: lowering prices, expanding selection, driving convenience, driving frustration-free packaging, creating Kindle, innovating in web services, and other initiatives we'll work hard on in the future.”  This is very different than other company’s community relations pages that talk about how giving back is a duty that must be done.  Underneath that statement there is a long list of local contributions that Amazon has given to in the past years.  All that is stated is the name of the organization and the location.  It does not discuss the amount given.  Therefore, it could be no more than 10 dollars and viewers would never know.  There is also a different tab that talks about the funds that Amazon has provided to disaster relief and individuals over the years. Thousands of dollars have been given almost every year since the company was started.  The amount and name of disaster is given. The last part mentioned is called “supporting the writing community” that was discussed earlier.  There are at least 80 organizations that are mentioned and fully explained that have received grants. There is a statement that says that Amazon is dedicated to helping writers reach their dreams of being published. 

Overall Amazon does do some community relations but they could definitely improve their program and give more to charity.  This would help the overall image of Amazon and put Jeff Bezos and the employees in a better light.  Amazon does not seem to have a great relationship with Seattle because so many other companies do much more.   The website makes viewers think that they are doing a lot to give back and work with locals when many articles from local Seattle newspapers say differently.  As successful as Amazon.com has become and as wonderful as it is, community relations can definitely be improved.  They should create programs that educate individuals to read or use technology.  If their core mission is to make sure the business aspect is done properly then it would be an option for teams to educate entrepreneurs how to start their own business successfully.  There are many options that are available to them that go along with their core mission.

Amazon.com Social Media

Posting pictures of your friends and family, statuses about what you are doing today, sharing information about your life and finding out news all through the internet is the newest trend today.  Social media has changed the business world dramatically.  It can help spread awareness, increase customer base and allow people to find out the latest updates with a company.  It is almost a demand today that companies have a large presence on all social media channels if they want to keep up with competition.  Among many other businesses, Amazon.com is active online, but unlike any other organization it uses the online- social world in a very unique way. 

Amazons social strategy revolves around two big topics- “customer reviews” and “similar products.” Amazon’s “similar products” tool appears at the bottom of the page when you buy a product.  When a customer buys for example an Apple iPhone 5S, accessories and other Apple items that other customers who purchased the iPhone 5S also purchased shows up. Using this information and going one step further, Amazon uses algorithms that decide what products customers will by based on their previous purchases and then sends emails with those items.  This is very similar to a Facebook fan page that lists popular items. For example if Apple has a Facebook fan page for the iPhone 5S, on the bottom of the screen would appear five other top selling items that people are then exposed to.  Amazon is using the successes of social media and turning them into their own way of a successful business. 

Amazon has also utilized customer reviews which is a way for customers to see how other users liked the product they are about to buy.  Almost every single item has a customer review and rating.  They are allowed to put up honest reviews about when they received the item, if it worked the way it should, and if the price was worth it.  Using this, customers can know which ones they should buy and which ones they should not.  This is a social strategy that is beneficial only to the consumer and has allowed Amazon a competitive edge. Amazon does not try to hide the negative reviews.  Even the bad ones are left up there for other customers to know about. 

Similar to sending personalized emails targeting customer’s latest purchases and items suggested they buy in the future, Amazon uses search engine optimization as a tool to reach customers on a mass scale.  Search engine optimization is critical for the new social era and businesses need to use this to their advantage.  The more pages you have on your website, the more pages your site prospects to find you in search engines and more chances to rank for your business' top keywords.  Amazon has 248,000,000 pages stored in Google's index. Each of these 248,000,000 pages has the opportunity to rank for any number of keywords in search engines which means that more people are likely to be linked to the Amazon.com website. 

Amazon.com has made it possible to access your account through Facebook. This business tactic is called cross selling because it is selling and advertising products through a difference channel. Cross selling with Facebook is especially efficient because it is possible to see product reviews of items that their Facebook “friends” bought in the past and items that are put on their “Wish Lists.” Wish Lists are a way for Amazon shoppers to collect and save information about products they would like to have. Wish Lists can be marked private, but Amazon’s default setting for Wish Lists is for them to be public and viewable by anyone. For example, if a Facebook connected customer is looking at the Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet, Amazon may show them reviews that their social connections have written and a list of their social connections who have put the tablet on their Wish Lists. Amazon may also use the consumer’s Facebook “Like” information to show their products that they may want to buy. For example, Amazon may show a consumer who on Facebook says they like the Beatles, the latest boxed set of music.

 Amazon has used social media to its advantage and partnered up with Facebook as a benefit for both companies.  Amazon.com also has their own Facebook page where employees are posting latest discounts and sales, raising awareness about certain products, and recruiting great people to work at Amazon.  Amazon also has their own Instagram where they post pictures of new products and places where individuals can visit on Amazon local, a website where individuals can buy discounted meals to restaurants and fun activities in their local area.  Amazon also uses Twitter to spread the word about their newest products and upcoming sales.  Amazon uses traditional social media outlets as well as the new innovative ideas they created.

Amazon also has an app that can be installed on any device where individuals are linked right to their accounts and can order items from anywhere with internet access.  This allows people to order items when they are traveling, in need of something fast, or do not have access to a computer.  This app includes all features of the website and you can even input credit card information. Allowing individuals to have access anytime, anywhere makes Amazon a fierce competitor. Part of the app is the “scan it” feature which allows individuals to scan a bar code of an item they are holding in their hand at a different store and it will tell them how much it costs at that store.  It also shows similar products on Amazon.com and gives the price, pictures, and customer reviews about those items.  All the information will pop up about the item to give the customer everything they want to know so that they can make an informed purchase decision.  Personally I almost always end up buying items from Amazon.com because it is a better quality item for a lower cost.

Social media will continue to be a vital part of the world and will continue to help businesses grow.  Although it can be very helpful, it is important to learn how to do it correctly so the results are positive.  Amazon.com has used popular ways as well as designed upcoming and creative ways of capturing the public eye through online social media. I look forward to seeing what Amazon comes up with next to attract individuals to purchase their products and what makes them stick out from the rest of the competition.

Introduction: Amazon.com

From what once started as an online bookstore in 1994 in Jeff Bezos’s garage, Amazon.com has now grown into the largest internet retailer and 56^th largest company in the United States.  Listed as number 49 on Fortune magazine’s “Fortune 500” and making 61 billion dollars in revenue in 2013, Amazon is predicted to make a huge mark on the business world.  My name is Justina Hartman and I am a senior at Union College and for the next for the next 3 months I will be discussing Amazon.com.   I will be talking about the ups and downs of the business, new products, events, trends, customer service, employee relations, social media and much more.  I chose Amazon.com as the target of my research because I believe that one day it may be the only retailer. As crazy as that seems Amazon.com is unlike any other business today.  The business design goes back to the age- old industry of retail where the goal is to “getting the products from the people who make them to the people who want them” (Matthews, TIME).  The idea behind this is that customers can purchase anything they want from anywhere in the world all from one website.

            Known as the fourth  most successful startups of all time, Amazon.com is an e-commerce company that sells DVD’s, VHS’s, CD’s, music, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, toys, jewelry, and food.  In 2007 Amazon introduced the Amazon Kindle e- reader and later the Kindle Fire tablet computer in 2010. This ground breaking technology created a competitive advantage for the company and increased its reputation and revenues. 

The biggest department of Amazon that has given it the excellent reputation that it has today is the customer service department.  Searching and purchasing an item on Amazon.com is fast and efficient.  If a customer finds an item on a different website but it is above their budget, if they search for the same product on Amazon, chances are that they will have it and it will be much cheaper. Deliveries are fast, reliable and possibly free! Another tactic that Amazon uses that makes it number one in customer service is the refunds they reimburse customers with if there is a problem.  They make it easy, fast, and with no hassle. Fast response time is extremely critical for an online retailer and when a customer feels that the company cares about them, it leaves a positive image in their mind. Amazon answers in no less than an hour with a response that will completely satisfy the customer. Giving them the opportunity to track their package, find out exactly when they are going to receive it, or to see if it gets stuck along the way is another positive strategy of Amazon’s. Many individuals find the idea of computer tracking “cookies” to be intruding their privacy but Amazon has done an outstanding job of utilizing this information by creating full customer profiles that help customers find the products they are looking for. The CEO Jeff Bezos says that there is a difference between customer service and customer experience.  He says that “customer experience begins when the customer begins shopping for a product on Amazon and ends when that product is delivered and meets all the expectations of the customer… Customer service is a part of the customer experience that involves the direct contact customers have with employees of the company. Customer service is an important component to building customer loyalty.” (Estep, Examiner).  I believe that this distinction makes Amazon a leader in the business world.  Customer service is a form of public relations because that is the communication between the company and the public and the image the public has of that company.  Positive customer service really does impact the way a customer views the company and if they will return.

            In 2010 an article was released by the Huffington Post which discussed the working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers.  The article talked about a job advertisement that was released in a local newspaper in Coffeyville, Kansas asking for help during the busy winter season. The post “specifies that people involved in "Picking/Order Selection" are required to stand on feet for 8-10 hours, and walk 10-15 miles a day… To do shipping, potential employees must be able to stand on feet for 8-10 hours… And workers in 'receiving' are required to stand fairly stationary throughout shift for 8-10 hours, while they also have to lift, bend, stoop and squat repetitively" (Bosker, Huffington Post).  This is an example of a public relations issue that the staff has to deal with.  Another example was when an Amazon worker sued the company for shorting at least 2,100 warehouse workers nationwide overtime pay. Other issues include workers complaining that they were refused sick leave, made to work a 10- hour overnight shift, given quotas for amount of packing needed to be done within the hour, penalizes those who do not meet quota, and given only one break of 15 minutes every eight- hour shift. These are current issues that have been dealt with in the past and continue to be worked on. Customer relations are a big part of the company and customers are interested in knowing that where they receive their merchandise from is treating their employees well. This gives Amazon.com a bad reputation and the public relations people need to work towards improving it.