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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers
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Last Post Oct 9, 2007 2:05 PM by: deirdre@ebay.com
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 1, 2007 12:54 PM
Topic: Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers of All Sizes

Host: hostedsupport
Date: Tuesday 10/09
Time: 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific time
Location: Workshop Discussion Board

Description: In this workshop, Steve Yeich, CEO of Certified Solution Provider HostedSupport will discuss why customers don’t always look for the cheapest price or largest selection, but how they are treated, and why it’s worth millions. Learn how you don’t have to be the least expensive to get buyers.

Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 12:56 PM
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Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:00 PM
Welcome and thanks for joining us today! We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.

Our eBay ID is hostedsupport and HostedSupport is an eBay Certified Solution Provider. We have been in business since 2000 and have an eBay Compatible Application that is built exclusively for eBay Sellers. I am very excited to share with you our experiences and knowledge regarding customer service, and how it can help you have more listings (and increase your revenue), without receiving an exponential increase in buyer email. We’ll provide you with some easy tips and solutions designed to save you many hours of answering repetitive buyer questions, and give you more time to increase sales and revenue.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:01 PM
The Internet, and in particular eBay, has changed the way people shop. Customers often want to buy products, obtain information, and receive real-time support anytime of the day or night. This has increased the demand for quality customer service, or as we call it, customer relationship management, or CRM for short.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:01 PM
CRM is not new. Decades ago the corner shop would deliver groceries for free, and the owner greeted you by name when you walked in the door. Believe it or not, that’s CRM.

Your eBay buyers are the same. They want to feel important, and have questions answered. If not, another seller is only a mouse click away. Not only do you want to keep this buyer, you want to attract more. The more buyers you attract, the more listings you can hold.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:01 PM
However, buyers ask questions. The more listings you hold means more buyer questions. And these questions will probably be the same, over and over again.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:02 PM
HostedSupport has talked with hundreds of eBay sellers, and they’ve told us it’s the amount of buyer questions that prevents them from increasing their listings. Not only is that a powerful statement, it also holds sellers back from growing their business and maximizing revenue. These sellers think they spend far too much time answering buyer questions, and they want to know how to manage it better while increasing sales.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:02 PM
For example, if a listing generates an average of 5 buyer questions, and you have 50 listings, you’ll receive 250 buyer questions. If you had 100 listings, then you’d get 500 buyer questions. However, you may not be able to keep up. As a result, your sales don’t grow as high as they could. You may also not want to have 100 listings since you’ll spend too many hours answering those questions. What you need is a system that will allow you to have 100 listings, and keep you from getting buried in buyer email questions.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:02 PM
Here are a few tips and solutions to help you with buyer question overload.

We’ve talked with many eBay sellers who said, “If my buyers would just read the Description, I wouldn’t have to answer this question over and over again.”
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:03 PM
A proactive CRM system will help answer the repetitive buyer questions. Your Description may provide an answer, however it may be buried in the third paragraph. Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. Would you really read five paragraphs of text unless you absolutely had to?
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:03 PM
One solution is to create an introduction sentence that lists the item’s most important features. For example, if you’re selling a living room lamp, the first sentence might be, “This navy blue lamp stands 24 inches tall, uses a three-way light bulb, and is only sold in sets of two.”
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:03 PM
This would avoid questions such as, “How tall is it?”, “Does it take a three-way bulb?” and “Can I buy just one lamp?”

The more detailed information you can include in this introduction sentence, the fewer buyer questions you’ll have to answer.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:03 PM
You can also divide the description into labeled paragraphs, such as color, height, weight, etc. This will make it easy for buyers to navigate through the description and quickly find the information they want.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:04 PM
When you write your Description, you should be direct and to the point. Our high school English teachers wanted us to be long-winded and flowery when we wrote. Don’t do this with your Description. Be succinct.
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Member Workshop: How Customer Support Levels the Playing Field for Sellers

Oct 9, 2007 1:04 PM
In our conversations with eBay sellers, we’ve been told of many tips that have helped them increase listings and sales, and avoid repetitive Buyer questions.

Smart Sellers put themselves in the buyer’s shoes. You’ve probably sold the same item many times, and already know what questions a buyer will ask. Don’t just add it to the bottom of a Description, or About the Seller Page. Put it near the first sentence where it’s easy to find.
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