Amazon interview - PDF
Some customers can be tough. Please walk me through such an example and tell me how you handled
it. - correct answers Situation: When I was MSA at the SRC, I had a mom of a 15-year-old boy who was
not a student, call and curse me out because I could not allow her son in to play basketball with his
cousins.
Task: I was working the front by myself, so I was solely responsible for handling customer inquiries and
complaints. I knew her reaction was out of frustration and not personal, so I wanted her to feel heard.
Action: I listened carefully and apologized. I explained that I could not allow her son past the front desk
because it was facility policy, but he could stay in the lounge area and do homework, eat, drink while he
waited for her to pick him up.
Result: The mom calmed down, and the boy waited in the lounge. Essentially, she just didn't want her
son to wait by himself while she was working. Communicating that these rules are in place for his safety
but that I still wanted to help them both was key.
Tell me the key thing to be successful at dealing with customers. - correct answers Attentiveness - the
ability to truly listen to customers is crucial to providing great service.
The ability to communicate clearly because miscommunications can result in disappointment and
frustration.
Tell me about a time you overcommitted to a customer and was not able to meet his requests in the
end. How did you solve the situation. - correct answers Situation: When I was at Bolthouse Farms, I
promised a sales associate she would receive her shipment of assets, swag, products & more
importantly the Innovation products that she had requested last minute.
Task: As fulfillment coordinator, it was my job to develop and maintain relations and direct
communications with sales, even if they did not always meet our time frames for requesting innovation.
Action: I had accidentally sent her Innovation that expired the day before. I was embarrassed that I had
overlooked something so simple, but I called her right away to keep her from serving expired product to
potential clients and offered to overnight ship Innovation.
,Result: While she was not able to sell the product without a taste test to a few clients, she appreciated
that I took ownership of my mistake. I learned a huge lesson that day and would not repeat a mistake
like that again.
Stakeholder management. Go. - correct answers To maintain a great relationship communication is a
vital part.
So keeping the line of communication constantly open to discuss numbers is key in building trust and
satisfaction.
How do you manage your team to track goals? - correct answers Communication is key. You need to be
in touch with your team all the time. Weekly meetings and status updates ensure that the team &
company are in synch.
I like to really get to know my team by finding out what motivates them. Is it money? Time off? A
shoutout?
Also, when conflict arises, I sit down with my team member and try to solve the conflict with him.
How do you optimize your time and your resources? - correct answers 1. Plan my day in advance
2. Get everyone to agree on the priorities
3. White a check list
4. Multitask
Tell me about a case of one simple solution you came up with to a problem where other people were
lost in complex planning to solve it. - correct answers When I worked at Bolthouse farms as a fulfillment
coordinator, I would ship assets all over to different sales associates for tradeshows, meetings, etc. I'd
always provide a return label inside the boxes as a convenience to them. For a while, my supervisor and
I noticed our returned assets were coming back damaged. It looked as if the sales team was kicking the
boxes around and tossing the items carelessly.
I documented all the broken merchandise and calculated how much it would be to replace everything,
and it was well over $10,000.
I waited at receiving to see how FedEx was handling our returns. They were stacking heavy boxes on top
of our lighter boxes. I took pictures of this, brought it up to my supervisor, who called our FedEx contact.
, After that, our items were stacked more carefully and I even suggested purchasing "fragile" stickers.
How do you go about simplifying problems? - correct answers 1. Break the problem into smaller chunks
2. List the parts i do not understand
3. I'll ask for help with the parts I do not understand
4. Look at the big picture - thinking longterm over short term
5. Delegate
How do you see behind the corners. Walk me through a case you solved by thinking outside the box. -
correct answers In my previous role at Houchin Community Blood Bank, I was preparing to send out
important press invites for our Mys-tree ornaments giveaway and Santa Claus appearance.
I noticed the envelopes had arrived in the wrong size, but to ensure they were sent on time, I had to
improvise. I found old invitations to a previous event that had not been sent, opened them carefully,
took out the existing invites and placed the new ones in.
Luckily, my recycling process paid off and they looked good as new.
What is your thought process to automating tasks that are normally done manually? - correct answers
Tasks such as assembly work on the manufacturing floor, inventory mgmt., billing, are examples of rote
and repetitive business processes that are predictable and manageable through automation.
By reducing the manual work in these business processes, the tasks can be done uniformly and with a
dramatically reduced chance of human error.
Do you have a case where you changed the view of management on a particular problem they were
stuck with? How did you persuade the leadership? - correct answers Situation: At Houchin, Winter
months are notoriously low for blood donations. Management wanted to run the same promotion, "Get
Fit and Donate" all month long. Come in and donate, get a Star Wars shirt & be entered to win a free
gym membership for the year.
Task: This approach, which they have done time and time again, was not working. So, I had to devise a
plan to incentivize donors to come in, while sticking to the original promotion.
Action: Sticking to the same budget, instead of running the same promotion, I suggested we have
winners every week instead of 1 winner for the whole month. So the winners from the first week would
win Airpods, the second week a gift card to Nike for new gear, the 3rd week a gift card to Jamba Juice
for some post workout shakes.
Some customers can be tough. Please walk me through such an example and tell me how you handled
it. - correct answers Situation: When I was MSA at the SRC, I had a mom of a 15-year-old boy who was
not a student, call and curse me out because I could not allow her son in to play basketball with his
cousins.
Task: I was working the front by myself, so I was solely responsible for handling customer inquiries and
complaints. I knew her reaction was out of frustration and not personal, so I wanted her to feel heard.
Action: I listened carefully and apologized. I explained that I could not allow her son past the front desk
because it was facility policy, but he could stay in the lounge area and do homework, eat, drink while he
waited for her to pick him up.
Result: The mom calmed down, and the boy waited in the lounge. Essentially, she just didn't want her
son to wait by himself while she was working. Communicating that these rules are in place for his safety
but that I still wanted to help them both was key.
Tell me the key thing to be successful at dealing with customers. - correct answers Attentiveness - the
ability to truly listen to customers is crucial to providing great service.
The ability to communicate clearly because miscommunications can result in disappointment and
frustration.
Tell me about a time you overcommitted to a customer and was not able to meet his requests in the
end. How did you solve the situation. - correct answers Situation: When I was at Bolthouse Farms, I
promised a sales associate she would receive her shipment of assets, swag, products & more
importantly the Innovation products that she had requested last minute.
Task: As fulfillment coordinator, it was my job to develop and maintain relations and direct
communications with sales, even if they did not always meet our time frames for requesting innovation.
Action: I had accidentally sent her Innovation that expired the day before. I was embarrassed that I had
overlooked something so simple, but I called her right away to keep her from serving expired product to
potential clients and offered to overnight ship Innovation.
,Result: While she was not able to sell the product without a taste test to a few clients, she appreciated
that I took ownership of my mistake. I learned a huge lesson that day and would not repeat a mistake
like that again.
Stakeholder management. Go. - correct answers To maintain a great relationship communication is a
vital part.
So keeping the line of communication constantly open to discuss numbers is key in building trust and
satisfaction.
How do you manage your team to track goals? - correct answers Communication is key. You need to be
in touch with your team all the time. Weekly meetings and status updates ensure that the team &
company are in synch.
I like to really get to know my team by finding out what motivates them. Is it money? Time off? A
shoutout?
Also, when conflict arises, I sit down with my team member and try to solve the conflict with him.
How do you optimize your time and your resources? - correct answers 1. Plan my day in advance
2. Get everyone to agree on the priorities
3. White a check list
4. Multitask
Tell me about a case of one simple solution you came up with to a problem where other people were
lost in complex planning to solve it. - correct answers When I worked at Bolthouse farms as a fulfillment
coordinator, I would ship assets all over to different sales associates for tradeshows, meetings, etc. I'd
always provide a return label inside the boxes as a convenience to them. For a while, my supervisor and
I noticed our returned assets were coming back damaged. It looked as if the sales team was kicking the
boxes around and tossing the items carelessly.
I documented all the broken merchandise and calculated how much it would be to replace everything,
and it was well over $10,000.
I waited at receiving to see how FedEx was handling our returns. They were stacking heavy boxes on top
of our lighter boxes. I took pictures of this, brought it up to my supervisor, who called our FedEx contact.
, After that, our items were stacked more carefully and I even suggested purchasing "fragile" stickers.
How do you go about simplifying problems? - correct answers 1. Break the problem into smaller chunks
2. List the parts i do not understand
3. I'll ask for help with the parts I do not understand
4. Look at the big picture - thinking longterm over short term
5. Delegate
How do you see behind the corners. Walk me through a case you solved by thinking outside the box. -
correct answers In my previous role at Houchin Community Blood Bank, I was preparing to send out
important press invites for our Mys-tree ornaments giveaway and Santa Claus appearance.
I noticed the envelopes had arrived in the wrong size, but to ensure they were sent on time, I had to
improvise. I found old invitations to a previous event that had not been sent, opened them carefully,
took out the existing invites and placed the new ones in.
Luckily, my recycling process paid off and they looked good as new.
What is your thought process to automating tasks that are normally done manually? - correct answers
Tasks such as assembly work on the manufacturing floor, inventory mgmt., billing, are examples of rote
and repetitive business processes that are predictable and manageable through automation.
By reducing the manual work in these business processes, the tasks can be done uniformly and with a
dramatically reduced chance of human error.
Do you have a case where you changed the view of management on a particular problem they were
stuck with? How did you persuade the leadership? - correct answers Situation: At Houchin, Winter
months are notoriously low for blood donations. Management wanted to run the same promotion, "Get
Fit and Donate" all month long. Come in and donate, get a Star Wars shirt & be entered to win a free
gym membership for the year.
Task: This approach, which they have done time and time again, was not working. So, I had to devise a
plan to incentivize donors to come in, while sticking to the original promotion.
Action: Sticking to the same budget, instead of running the same promotion, I suggested we have
winners every week instead of 1 winner for the whole month. So the winners from the first week would
win Airpods, the second week a gift card to Nike for new gear, the 3rd week a gift card to Jamba Juice
for some post workout shakes.
