Newsmakers

L.J. Skaggs Distinguished Professor of Marketing Kirthi Kalyanam was quoted in an article about Amazon’s new trial in their home services sector regarding the hiring of direct Amazon housekeeper employees. Amazon Home Assistants is a service, and Kalyanam emphasizes the distinction between Amazon’s current delivery system versus that of customer service associated with these services. Amazon’s goal during the home service trial is to link their brand to the service and later be able to expand into other service related industries. However, as Kalyanam states, Amazon will need to focus on customer service and branding of those services.

"Any products that require additional services beyond opening a box, Amazon doesn’t do well," Kalyanam said in the article. "The possible rationalization of hiring housekeepers is they are hitting a wall in selling products where service is important. They need to add end-to-end services to enter more categories, and that service needs to be branded. With independent contractors, you don’t get that."

Read the full article.

Learn more about Professor Kirthi Kalyanam.