Pardon me, ma’am.
Don’t you hate asking a service industry employee at a store a question and they look at you with that deer in the headlight look? Worse yet, they don’t even look up from their text message device and kind of mumble a semi coherent answer. I feel real stupid when I, out of habit, say thank you. For what???
What happened to the idea that the customer comes first?
My biggest tip when selling on eBay or selling anything online is that customer service is of THE utmost importance. This is the number one quality of a successful seller – great customer service.
Be professional AND friendly always. I think folks like ya a bit folksy, but also realize you are engaging in a business transaction so remember to value another person’s time and money throughout the whole process. In other words, never promise anything you can’t do and always give them more than they expect. List your product thoroughly and accurately, try to email and answer any questions and final sale follow up promptly, pack with care and consideration, get the package out very soon, and follow up. That’s my customer service policy in a nutshell. The communication follow up can be loaded into an auto responder and done without your having to touch it. I have a service which uses code and customizes each email according to what the customer bought, and in which step they are at on bidding, checking out, being informed on their package shipped or follow up for feedback and list sign up.
On the note of professional and friendly communication you will once in awhile experience the unhappy customer. In the phone company they call them irate calls and escalate them to top of the priority list. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. We can learn from a company that has been in business for over 60 years. Even better, let’s kill them kindness in making them feel as if you are here to serve them. It’s an attitude of respect no matter what frame of mind your customer is in. Make it your mission to make him happy by the end of the interaction. Avoid at all costs getting spun up in their emotions and reacting. You will feel much better and be happier by the end of the transaction if you stay in control and deflect the emotionalism. A professional mindset is the key here. No the customer is not always right, sometimes they are very selfish unfriendly people. I believe this to be the minority of people who will buy for you though. So this mission to make them happy is a better goal than lying to yourself and trying to convince yourself that this unreasonable person is right. Sometimes they are wrong.
We do have a 100% money back guarantee. Our guarantee states that our customer can ask for a refund and be given it without a hassle. No one has taken advantage of us thorough that thus far. We have over 1600 transactions online. Yes, I have refunded money in full, but have not had anyone insist I refund them due to our policy. I have always been the first to offer a refund. I think folks feel secure buying from us since we have some sort of integrity backing. Isn’t it a turn off to read someone’s auction that says something like if you have a feedback rating of 25 or less don’t bother bidding and all sales are final? I don’t think my trust flag would be waving very high at his auction.
We must think about the trust factor *from our buyer’s point of view* when creating our sales policy. This is our terms of service or TOS. Again, sellers shouldn’t start the whole transaction by leaving it on their buyer’s end to earn the seller’s trust. If you a seller has difficulty trusting people to pay and to be decent transaction partners then maybe that seller should reconsider their interest in making money online.
To sell online isn’t an easy pie in the sky living as some would suggest. Rather, in many ways, it requires a higher call to action, and a more disciplined mindset. One of expectations of good from people and respect of others so they feel as if they can trust you.
