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Improving Customer Service Operations at Amazon.com

Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843
Amazon.com, 605 5th Avenue South, Seattle, Washington 98104
keblis{at}tamu.edu
mchen{at}amazon.com

The success of the Internet retailer Amazon.com depends on its providing high-quality customer service. Amazon.com’s customer service operations consist of internally and externally managed contact centers. Amazon.com must size its contact centers appropriately, deciding about hiring and training at internally managed centers, and the volume of voice calls and e-mail messages to allocate to external service providers. We developed an approach based on mathematical programming that Amazon.com uses in planning capacity, reducing the average cost of handling a customer contact, and increasing the service level provided customers.

Key Words: organizational studies; manpower planning; programming; integer