Online Workshop: Creating a Quality Listing and Managing Buyer relationship

[sapana@ebay.com]

Dear Sellers,

On eBay, to be a successful, two important elements for a seller is to ensure that:

1. Ensure that his online salesman - the listing - is well groomed, informative for a buyer.

2. After the item is sold, the next step is to manage his buyer relation such that the buyer is converted into a repeat buyer.

Join Category Manager - Sainath Pai and Trust and Safety Manager - Anil Shenoy when they share some tricks of making great listings and managing your buyer relation better.

Workshop Time: 11 - 12 AM

Workshop Date: 23rd September 2009

Workshop Day: Wednesday

To participate in this thread, please click on post reply button. You can also post your question in advance. Hoping to see you here on 23rd September, 11 AM.

Regards,
Sapana

[amitava123gems]

Good effort by Sai. First of its kind.

[sai@ebay.com]

Thanks amitava123gems.

Glad you liked it . Hope you tried using the listing meter. If there is any query on using the listing meter please feel free to ask.

[dsparklezz]

Dear Sai,

Thank you for sharing us with those valuable points.

I did test the meter and I got 95%! So that means there is room for lot of improvement and I am always willing to.

I believe my images in the listing are of good quality digtal imaging with high resolution and with proper lighting.I dont use any highlighting unnecessarily.What I follow is 'What You See Is What You Get' policy.But sometimes some buyers try to leave neutral or negative saying the item looks different from the picture even when the item look exactly as in the picture.After that they wont be able for any further communication also.Kindly advise on how to deal positively with such buyers.


I do use Captial lettrs for the titles , but not regularly.Please tell me how it can look rude. I thought Capital letters make your listings stand out. But I think capital letters inside the description for the title is ok.

Kindly give your valuable suggestions.

Thanks
Laya.

[anil@ebay.com]

Hi All,

I would be discussing on how on Creating Loyal Buyers.

The formula for a repeat buyer is actually simple.
A satisfied buyer = repeat buyer.

One of the key elements of buyer satisfaction is communication. Visualize yourself as a new buyer – He is a person who has heard about internet buying, comes to eBay, sees a product photograph, he hasn’t seen the product nor the seller, takes a leap of faith, pays for it and hopes that the goods will arrive on time and as described. The only solace he has amongst all this is your word that the item is great and will be shipped on time. To keep up the trust, communicate often:

- Communication via Item description: Doesn’t necessarily start after the transaction takes place, effective selling starts with
o Mention contact details in listing – this is a first step towards building buyer confidence
o Communicating complete product description in the item title, as Sainath as discussed in his earlier post.
o Accurately describing the product condition
o Including detailed shipping and handling information,
o Highlighting your Warranty/Return policies in the description details in the listing


- Communication post transaction:
I know of a seller in Jaipur, who sells gemstones to US buyers. Every time there is a transaction, next day the buyer gets a call to inform him about the shipment status and time within which he can expect the shipment. He follows this practice even if the cost of product is $2. Imagine a buyer’s delight to receive so much personalized attention and comfort of having spoken to the seller. His buyer loyalty rates are high, but his phone bills are not :-). He has subscribed to skype, where at $ 6 (Rs. 350 approx) per month he gets unlimited calls to US (both landline and mobile) and for $ 13 (Rs. 650 approx) unlimited calls to any where in the world.

Here are some dos on your communication post a transaction:

a. Set yourself a time within which you will respond to a user query, and communicate that clearly in description and email communication to buyer.
b. Give him feedback as soon as he has paid for the item. He has honored his part of the commitment. Also, by giving feedback first, you increase his chance of giving you a feedback.
c. Be polite and courteous with your buyers. Treat them as goodwill ambassadors for your brand.
d. Never ignore a buyer call. If you are busy, take the call and inform him that you will call him later
e. Explore options of cheap internet telephony to communicate with your buyers often.
f. eMail him at every step of transaction – Item bought, Item shipped, Item shipment delayed, Item received by buyer
g. Send you business card with the package. It will help your buyer reach out to you in case of any difficulty and remember you for later purchase.
h. Managing New Buyers: This buyer needs maximum attention since it is his first time that he is buying without touching the product. Shower new buyers with attention and communication.
i. When a problem arises, don’t assign blame. Work with your buyer to resolve the problem quickly and professionally.

Shipping time and Handling charges:
 Charge reasonably for shipping. Remember your profits need to come from your item price and not from shipping. Also, most buyers know / easily find out, how much it costs to courier an item within India. They will appreciate you charging them actual.
 Offer discounts for shipping multiple items in one order. It will also help you sell multiple items to the same buyer.
 email the number of courier company’s customer support to your buyer. He will not have to hunt for it in case he needs to coordinate with them.
 Offer free shipping. There are multiple benefits of offering free shipping.
o All inclusive cost is easier for buyer to comprehend and fastens his decision making process and increasing your sales. In fact buyer’s preference for free shipping items have been growing strongly.
o Greater visibility on US / UK sites if you are selling on those sites. The Best Match search gives higher preference to items that have free shipping

DSR scores a means to measure your buyer satisfaction. Your DSR scores are accurate data points of what your buyer thinks of your accuracy in item description, your communication skills, shipping timelines and shipping costs. If your DSR scores are not what you think they should be, then speak to your buyers, find out the gaps and plug them.

Speak to your Repeat Buyers:Ask them what about your service / product makes them come back to you. Try and highlight that to all buyers

Here is a short checklist that you has summarized the action points above. You can copy this and save it on your machine for your future use:
Happy Buyer Checklist (Tick yes/ No for each option)
- Contact details in Item Description
- SLA (service level) in Item Description
- email to buyer on receiving order
- Feedback to the buyer after receiving payment
- Business card in the package
- eMail to buyer after shipping order
- eMail courier company customer support number to buyer
- Call / eMail to buyer after he received the item
- Save buyer email for future activities

Regards,
Anil

[aberacadabra1]

Dear Sapana,

i will, thanks.

Regards
reddy

[amitava123gems]

Some sellers,I suspect,do anticampaign against me to discourage my repeat buyers.I cant prove it because buyer will not disclose ID of anticampaigner.But I request cosellers to maintain professional ethics.

[anil@ebay.com]

Hi aberacadabra1

Thanks for writing in, as you would be aware with PaisaPay, buyers gets an opportunity to inform eBay & the seller that he has not received the product which the seller has shipped. When a buyer raises a item not received request, seller will be communicated about the same and would be requested to provide proof of shipment to eBay for further investigation of the item not received claim. If the document provided indicate that the buyer has received the product the item not received claim will be rejected by the PaisaPay team.

I hope you have provided the necessary proof of delivery to the PaisaPay team, if not request you to send it at the earliest. In the mean time i have escalated the matter to the concerned PaisaPay team who should get in touch with you shortly

Keep writing in with your views 🙂

Regards
Anil

[dsparklezz]

Dear Anil,

That was very very informative.I am copying your entire discussion and going to keep it as a checklist for the buyers!

Thank you
Laya.

[anil@ebay.com]

Hi Amitava123gems

I do agree that, trying to discourage buyers of co sellers is not an ethical & professional selling practice, and would strongly urge all sellers to avoid this.

However at the same time, as a Seller, you should not worry about competition stealing your buyers, if you provide the best possible shopping experience to your buyers. Suggest you to speak to some of your buyers and gain feedback from them on areas where you could improve, and at the same time if the buyers are happy with you, you have no reason to worry about this.

Regards
Anil

[sai@ebay.com]

Dear Laya (dsparklezz)

Happy to know that you found the listing meter useful. 95% is a good score keep it up. i am sure you now know specifically which element of listing is possibly missing in your listing. Ensure that you add this missing element and further enhance your listing.

I quickly checked few of your listings. While there are multiple images in your gemstone listing which surely deserves accolade ,the lighting can be better. There are dark regions/shadow around the image which is possibly why the colour of the gemstone is not coming across clearly.
Here's a link to Tips on Jewellery Photography
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/jewelry_photography.htm

On your question on Capital letters, using capital letters while communicating on internet is considered bad etiquette . By using Capital letter you might actually be putting off a prospective buyer. So please try and avoid Capital letter in your listing
To make your listing stand out you may use any of the eBay features viz Bold, Border, Highlight