If free delivery and an online e-commerce site that offers millions and millions of products and service are not enough, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has released numbers showing that Kindle Fire HDX customers who used the Mayday button to get customer service enjoy a response time of an average of 9.75 seconds.

The Fire HDX is Amazon’s high-end tablet. It sells for as little as $299 for a version with 16GB of storage and operating on Wi-Fi. The price can rise as high as $409 for a version that has 64GB of storage and works on both Wi-Fi and a 4G system provided by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

Amazon management released a statement about the Mayday button’s success:

Eight months ago, Amazon launched the Mayday button, connecting you to live, on-device tech support 24×7, 365 days a year — for free. Today, Amazon announced that the Mayday button is now the most popular way for Fire HDX customers to contact customer service, and the average response time is just 9.75 seconds.

“When we set out to invent the Mayday button, we wanted to revolutionize tech support—and we’re happy to report it’s working!” said Scott Brown, Director, Amazon Customer Service. “75% of customer contacts for Fire HDX now come via the Mayday button. Even as the Mayday button has grown to become the most popular way for customers to ask questions, the team’s been able to beat the response time goal of 15 seconds or less–our average is just 9.75 seconds.”

Amazon has released several products into crowded markets for which customer service may be the differentiating factor as it battles competition from large rivals. Among these are the premium video and song services bundled with Amazon Prime. And Amazon is expected to release a smartphone within days. The handset will compete with entrenched companies that hold a huge portion of the market already — Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Prime and Amazon’s smartphone are commodities. Customer service may be the sole edge Amazon has. And it has proven it can provide service in a fraction of a minute if the Mayday service is expanded across more of its products.

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