Dear Members,
As promised earlier, in this session almost a month back. On Gautam’s behalf, I am posting an update on the next steps on the topics discussed.
For most of the issues raised, the teams have arrived at an action plan to address the issues. Some of these plans are already being actioned or will be actioned in near future. You had also asked for few features, and for those we have provided the timelines by which we expect to roll them on site.
•CS issues – CS responses are delayed and often not up to the point.
Action Steps –
•Greater and Easier access to Customer Support:
o Increased Live Chat link placements and also increased their visibility for easier access by users.
o We are also working on a project to improve the Contact Us interface, so as to increase the ease of usage of the section. We expect that project to go live on site by middle of next year.
•Improving Quality of Responses:
oWe have already hired and are in the process of hiring more Customer Support Reps (CSR), so that each CSR is able to give more quality time to user queries, and therefore give better responses.
o We continue to invest in greater training and development of individual CSRs so that they are more aware of site processes and are able to help the user better.
o We have made already made certain changes, by virtue of which; going forward, a CSR will be able to read the verbatim feedback received from the user. This will help them understand their mistakes easily and take corrective action.
•Increasing Community and Customer Support interaction:
o Customer Support team members are now participating in various user meets that we hold in various cities. This direct interaction with users help them in understanding user issues better, and therefore can lead to better resolutions.
o To continue this direct interaction with our community, Customer Support members will be also interacting on the discussion boards on a more regular basis.
•TnS issues - Difficult in understanding TnS actions. Email communication from TnS not satisfactory.
Action Step –
•Improving Communication from Trust and Safety team:
• We are in the process of revamping most Customer Support mails to make them more relevant for the users. We are reviewing the mails based on the priority, however, you will appreciate that given the number of mails itself, this will be a huge task. We are expecting to complete this project over the next three months.
• We are also reviewing and revamping some of the most commonly used Policy help pages to update them with relevant examples. 50% of this task has been already completed. We are expecting to complete the other half very soon.
•Site Policy and Suspension reinstatement
o In the past, we have heard of cases where genuine sellers were having difficulty in getting reinstated. We are currently in the process of reviewing the proofs required for reinstatement such that we accept the ones that are normally available with sellers.
o Some of you raised the topics of whether a policy itself was right one. Based on your feedback, we will continue to debate the policies. While we can debate various policies, we also need to ensure that we are adhering the existing policies.
•Fraud concerns - Tighter Seller and Buyer verification
Action Step –
o As Sharat announced in his workshop, we will be soon adding a landline based verification method for new sellers. Currently a new seller may verify himself basis his mobile phone, snail mail on physical address and credit card.
o We have also started work on identifying certain areas where fraud is more prevalent and we will be targeting to clear those areas. However, given the sensitivity of this project, I will not be able to discuss this further.
•Difficulty in finding information - Easier access to information for new users / Direct source of help:
o Direct Help from existing Sellers - We recently concluded a successful pilot of a new program whereby existing sellers are able to train new sellers thereby giving them greater guidance on the becoming a successful seller on eBay. The initial results have been very interesting. We are very excited about this new program and based on the pilot results, we plan to roll it out to various cities. Stay tuned for more on this program.
o Account management - As some of you might be aware, most of our Power Sellers already have a personal account manager. We are piloting to extend a similar support to even medium level sellers to help them improve their business on eBay.
o Video conferencing sessions - In past, we had piloted video conferencing sessions to increase education and awareness about various eBay features. We have seen positive results of the program and we intend to conduct more such sessions in future. This will help us reach out to sellers from various cities and towns.
o Help pages revamp – As mentioned earlier, we are revamping various key help pages, to make them user friendly and relevant.
•PaisaPay – Direct transfer of PaisaPay amount to sellers bank account and Buy it now – immediate payment required via PaisaPay
Action Step – We expect to have this feature on site in later half of 2007.
•Product related - Integrated check out and making seller contact details more visible to the buyers.
Action Step – We expect to see this feature on site by middle of 2007.
We hope the above actions will help us improve your experience on site. Once again, thanks you for being part of the ebay community and do keep contributing to help us jointly build the ecommerce market in India.
Regards,
Sapana