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One of the major complaints of eBay Sellers is that Buyers don’t read the item description, and are too quick to use Ask The Seller a Question. This creates more work for the Seller as he has to read through an enormous volume of email, most of which could be answered if the Buyer had read the View Item page.
I’ve talked to some Sellers who are afraid to have additional auctions since they know it will create more email. That’s a scary thought. You’d like to sell more, however you’re afraid of getting more Buyer questions that you can’t handle.
Most Sellers care deeply about their customers and want to make them happy. However, the volume of email can become unbearable, and many times questions go unanswered. Not because it can’t be answered, but because the Seller simply doesn’t have the time.
Put yourself in a Buyer’s shoes. If you got answers to your questions, wouldn’t you continue to buy from that Seller?
Here’s a few tips that will help you with Buyer questions:
Answer it thoroughly. If the Buyer is asking what is a simple question, such as where do you ship, be sure to say where you do and don’t ship. This helps to avoid the follow up question. If you respond with “We ship in the USA,” that may not answer a person in Alaska. The answer may be, “We ship in the USA, and to Alaska and Hawaii for an additional $5.00 surcharge.”
Answer it quickly. The Internet has made people impatient. Buyers want instant answers to questions. If you wait 5 days before responding, the Buyer may have felt ignored and moved onto another Seller. Buyers generally want an answer within a few hours.
Keep a database of Buyer contact history. There’s nothing more frustrating that a he-said, she-said situation. If you can maintain a database of Buyers email, you can check back to what you said last week, or last month.
Offer multi-channel support. The telephone will always be with us. But you should think of how you can provide customer support in a way desired by a web-savvy customer. Self-service solutions such as auto-response emails with an answer are quite effective. Remember, the email should contain the answer to their question, , not “Thanks for contacting us. We’ll get back to you shortly.”
Keep customer support open 24x7. We’ve all seen messages that say, “Customer Support Hours 9am to 5pm (PDT).”. eBay never closes, and you never know what time your Buyers will have questions. This doesn’t mean you need to hire people to answer Buyer questions 24 hours a day. It means using some type of “self-service” tool that will answer Buyer questions automatically.
Answering customer questions and providing fast, accurate customer support is critical for retaining customers so they come back and buy from you again in the future. It’s not enough to give a Buyer a discount, or throw in a free item. If you can’t help them with their purchase, next time they’ll buy from someone who can.
Happy Buyers talk to each other. So do unhappy Buyers. Bad news travels fast, and good news travels slow, so you have to work harder to keep them happy.
And of course, the happier your Buyers are, the higher your Buyer Feedback Score will be!
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