Amazon unveiled their latest Kindle Fire HDX tablets this week. Typically I wouldn’t really care since I’m not in the market for one. But Jeff Bezos did show off a new feature that caught my eye.
Called “Mayday”, it’s a little button in the main system tray right next to the home button. Push it and less than 15 seconds later you’ll be in a live video chat with an Amazon tech support person. You can see them and talk to them. They can hear you but they won’t see a video of you. The Kindle expert can even take control of your tablet to show you how to do something.
I’ve been thinking more through this over the past few days and wanted to share some that.
Customers will love this.
Especially the non-techy people like your aunts, uncles, moms, etc. You can give them a Kindle Fire and not be bombarded with calls and emails on how to do something. It’s a Kindle expert at their fingertips whenever they have a question.
The video feed actually showing the expert is genius. It makes each interaction more personal. You get a name and a face to go with it. You get to actually see that they’re enthusiastically there to help you. While they’re drawing on your tablet or showing you a feature, you’ll see them every step of the way.
But the real genius with the video is that they can only hear you. It’s all voice to them. They can’t see what you’re wearing (or not wearing I guess). It’s total piece of mind on the customer’s part. A customer doesn’t have to make sure they look good before reaching out for help.
When all this goes right, it’ll be a great support experience for the customer.
There are a few challenges with this.
First – does it scale to Amazon’s size? They’ve got a lot of Kindle Fire users out there so scaling this might be a challenge. Imagine the amount of Mayday calls they’ll get Christmas morning as new customers set up their Kindles. That volume’s going to be much higher than during the middle of the summer. It’s got to scale up and down in a way that’s very quick and very flexible.
Did you notice that the video ads show the Kindle expert with a perfect video setup? Perfect lighting, perfect video, perfect sound. I’d be surprised if every expert the same quality of video feed as seen in the commercials. It looks like a very high-quality setup that’s tough to pull off in the actual call centers.
The biggest challenge I see right now is the security part. The Kindle experts can see your screen. Supposedly they can turn off their view when you need to enter a password or such. But did they really turn it off? You get a banner notice saying they did but it’s still a lot of trust on the customer’s part.
Overall, when this works it will rock.
Amazon will get those challenges figured out as the Mayday support grows. What’s more is that it shows Amazon is committed to their customers, especially when the customer needs help.
What’s your thoughts on the new Mayday support? Would it sway you into buying a Kindle Fire for a family member?
What if it really works and becomes extremely popular? Do you think people will expect the same kind of service everywhere else?
I think some of those people will. I get questions from customers asking “Why don’t you have phone support like Company XYZ or live chat like Company ABC?” After I explain why we don’t, they usually understand.
But for bigger companies like Apple, Microsoft, etc., they do have the resources to pull off a support channel like this. I’m sure they’ll see some pressure to have a similar option.
It works ! Mayday is the best no matter how insufficient you feel your
Problem is they ask permission to take over, FIX the problem and thank. You.
I was researching to see if possibly Mayday could be bought for non Kindle devices?
Cost? Mayday should be an option for each electronic device made. Mayday is a 10+!