Dive Brief:
- Amazon is making cuts to its global customer service organization, impacting less than 1% of the division’s workforce, the company told sister publication CX Dive in an email Thursday.
- The workforce reduction aims to shrink the distance between consumers and customer service leaders, and increase focus on team growth and development, Amazon said.
- “As part of a shift in how our Worldwide Customer Service organization is structured, we’ve identified a relatively small number of roles that are no longer required," Amazon Spokesperson Montana MacLachlan said in a statement. "We did not make these decisions lightly, and we are committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected during their transition."
Dive Insight:
The role of the call center agent is changing as customer habits evolve and technology advances.
Rising interest in digital self-service prompted L.L. Bean to cut its call center hours starting in July, though a large majority of its 500 call center staff will remain unaffected. Earlier this year, American Airlines said it would lay off 656 customer support workers as it streamlines the inquiry handling process.
Generative AI is having an impact on operational strategies as well. The technology can help customer service teams manage stress and burnout by powering self-service options for simple inquiries, leaving agents to handle fewer, but more complex, calls.
Amazon global customer service cuts arrive as its cloud arm is injecting intelligence into its contact center technology. One AWS tool, Q, is a chatbot that recommends actions to help agents answer customer questions in real-time.
“Gen AI is and will continue to be an area of pervasive focus and investment across Amazon, primarily because there are few initiatives, if any, that give us the chance to reinvent so many of our customer experiences and processes,” CEO Andy Jassy said during a Q1 2024 earnings call in February.
