As the longtime CEO, Bezos has always been known for his relentless focus on customers. In fact, he famously kept an empty chair at meetings to represent the customer, reminding everyone in the room who truly mattered most.

That philosophy — that the customer should always come first — has been central to Amazon’s culture from the beginning, helping the company grow into a retail giant now worth more than $2 trillion.

During one meeting, Bezos realized that some senior employees had let Amazon’s customer-first standards slip. They had been claiming that customers could reach a representative within just one minute — a statistic Bezos found suspicious.

Given the growing pile of complaints that said otherwise, Bezos wasn’t buying it. He knew something was off, and he decided to expose it right then and there in front of everyone.

Jeff Bezos was aware that his employees had let-slip his firm’s impeccable reputation of always putting the customer first, and he ruthlessly proved it Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

“I have a saying which is: when the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right,” Bezos explained. “It doesn’t mean you just slavishly follow the anecdotes then, it means you go examine the data.”

“It’s usually not that the data is being miss-collected, it’s usually that you’re not measuring the right thing.”

He chuckled as he recalled how the room fell completely quiet while they waited — and waited — for someone to pick up.

After ten long minutes, the call finally connected. By then, Bezos didn’t have to say much. The awkward silence had already made his point for him, and it was clear that their “one-minute wait time” claim wasn’t exactly accurate.

“That is an example of truth telling. That is an uncomfortable thing to do but you have to seek the truth even when it is uncomfortable.”

Bezos’ little demonstration quickly became one of those legendary company stories that people can’t help but talk about — and the internet had plenty to say about it too.

Another joked: “Imagine working in the call centre and Jeff rings you himself hahaha.”

“Sounds like someone massaging the numbers to please the boss,” wrote another user, summing up the awkward but hilarious scene perfectly.