A Good Buying Experience is the Best Holiday Gift You Can Give Your Buyers

***Update on 2/11/08: We are adjusting the processes noted in this post. Existing restrictions that limit sellers to a percentage of sales will be lifted. For more information about the seller non-performance policy, please read our Frequently Asked Questions.***

Last time I spoke to Lynda Talgo, Senior Director of Global Policy Management in Trust and Safety, she answered some of the most common questions our Community had about our Seller Non-Performance (SNP) policy. This policy now considers the number of negative and neutral Feedback ratings a seller has received in the last 90 days, along with Item Not Received claims. Sellers who have a greater than 5% buyer dissatisfaction rate are subject to new enforcement actions. (Read the policy for more details.)

In this latest letter, Lynda provides some tips and “best practices” that sellers may want to pay special attention to during the holiday season.

Lynda's message to sellers can be summed up this way – “Build positive relationships with buyers.”

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I’m back to offer a number of tips to help sellers ensure they’re satisfying their buyers on eBay. For many sellers, these will just be a review, since the vast majority of our sellers meet or exceed their buyers’ expectations.

This list combines the best advice from teams around eBay, such as Customer Support, Seller Development, and PowerSeller Support.

• It doesn’t hurt to “over communicate” with your buyers.
  • Let them know you’ve received their payment.
  • Send detailed shipping information, such as tracking numbers, or the date you plan to ship the item.
  • Send a follow-up e-mail to check that your buyers have received their item and have had a positive experience.

• Remain positive and professional in all communications with buyers. There is nothing like a positive attitude to soothe ruffled feathers!

• Follow up on all buyer complaints immediately. Make sure that all buyer complaints are addressed promptly, and make every reasonable effort to satisfy the buyer. Most buyers will not leave negative or neutral feedback until after they have given the seller the opportunity to fix the problem. The longer it takes to resolve a problem, the harder it will be to turn that into a good experience for the buyer.

• If you do get a negative feedback, the first thing you should do is contact the buyer, and find out what you can do to address the problem. If you are able to satisfy the buyer, and if the buyer agrees, you can use the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process. If the buyer is still unhappy, and doesn’t want to use the MFW process, be sure to be professional in your reply to the negative feedback. One way some sellers make their buyers happy is to leave them positive feedback as soon as they have paid for the item; this sets a nice tone for the overall transaction.

• Be accurate in your listing description and honor your selling terms. Make sure your item description and terms of sale are clear and accurate. And don’t “change horses in midstream” – honor those terms after the listing ends.

• Have a customer service infrastructure in place. PowerSellers and high-volume sellers should consider offering phone support for buyers.

• Build a reputation for yourself in the categories in which you sell. Share your knowledge as an expert and build buyer loyalty. Create an eBay Blog, write Reviews and Guides on the subject, or contribute to the eBay Wiki. You can also provide guidance to other sellers (and, of course, buyers) by answering their questions in the Community forums.

• If a buyer does not pay, file an Unpaid Item dispute. In cases where buyers do not respond to the dispute, eBay can remove feedback left for the seller.

• Be crystal clear on shipping costs and times. Don’t promise anything in your listings that you may not be able to deliver due to 3^rd party arrangements. Plus:
  • Remember; shipping and handling is meant to represent actual cost to ship and actual cost of packing materials – nothing more.
  • List actual number of days to deliver rather than “business days” to avoid buyer confusion. Many buyers assume that, because eBay’s website is accessible 24/7, every day is a business day! 
  • When shipping internationally, use a shipping service that offers tracking numbers.

• Respond to all Item Not Received/Significantly Not as Described disputes. Prompt response, plus the willingness to work with the buyer through the dispute process, can turn a bad situation into a positive one.

• When something goes wrong, fix it. Good businesses are always looking for ways to be more efficient and make processes work more smoothly. Think of a problem as an opportunity to make an improvement that will pay off for all your future transactions.

Above all, be professional! Sometimes things go wrong – there’s no avoiding that. But if you stay friendly and helpful, and take responsibility to fix the problem, your buyer is much more likely to stay happy, and come back.