I just finished reading a business book gem titled Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It (2017) by Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg.

The book calls attention to the Four Pillars of Amazon:

ONE. Customer Centricity.

TWO. Continuous Optimization.

THREE. Culture of Innovation.

FOUR. Corporate Agility.

If a company just gets the first of the four Amazon Pillars right, they will experience success.

I am a residential real estate agent serving buyers and sellers in Cambridge and Somerville, MA. I visited a property with a buyer client on Wednesday morning for a final walk through for a Friday closing. A number of items were still to be completed by the seller. I followed up with the listing agent (she did not attend walk through) to report on the issues. I followed up with the listing agent again on Thursday on multiple occasions.

Only on Friday morning did I learn from the listing agent that the items were completed. I went back on my own (my buyer client could not make it) to confirm via my visual inspection. I noted a few items still to be done and reached out to the listing agent to get the items sorted.

At the last moment, my buyer remembered there was no doorbell. Given that getting the listing agent to do anything in the transaction required multiple emails and text messages and phone calls, I decided to solve this matter myself by ordering a Ring doorbell for my client. Amazon delivered it to their new home on their first day there.

The listing agent did not know where the keys to the property were, but I tracked them down.

The stager left some items at the property, so I sorted out a plan to have them picked up.

Customer Centricity is about serving one’s customer. There is a reason it is the first of the four Amazon Pillars.