Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is taking a hands-on approach, using complaint emails to improve the company’s response and better learn the business.

AWS head Andy Jassy succeeded Jeff Bezos when the Amazon founder stepped down in July 2021. While Jassy was obviously very experienced and capable, running the entire company involves far more than just running its cloud division. Evidently, according to Business Insider, Jassy is using complaint emails to better understand the inner workings of the company he now runs, and improve its customer service in the process.

A recent email from Visa tech chief Rajat Taneja, reporting suspicious activity on his Amazon account, is a case in point. Taneja emailed Jassy directly, who then sent it to his “escalations” team in an effort to resolve it quickly.

“Can we help him asap?” Jassy wrote, emphasizing who the email came from and the close relationship between Visa and Amazon. “Could you pls email when resolved (hopefully today)? Thx!”

Evidently, this behavior is not uncommon for the new CEO, with him reviewing a slew of customer support emails on a regular basis and getting personally involved.

Jassy’s approach highlights lessons all CEOs can learn.

• Jassy doesn’t consider responding to a customer’s email as something beneath him. Instead, he looks at it as an opportunity to better understand his business and improve customer relations.
• Jassy is setting the tone for the rest of the company, and especially his customer support personnel.
• By personally getting involved in the support process, Jassy is able to use what would otherwise be a negative experience as an opportunity to build closer relationships with strategic partners.

Overall, Jassy is providing a case study in good leadership.