Auction 411

Everyone knows the Golden Rule in customer service: The Customer is always right. Since we all know how to deal with the perfect customer, let’s talk about instances when you have one of the worst customer issues ever, and you don’t think that the Rule should apply.

Don’t lose your temper. One important thing to keep in mind is that you are running a real business through eBay, and no matter how well you conduct your business, there will eventually be a problem customer here and there. Just expect it — and whatever you do, don’t overreact to the situation. Let’s be real here, it’s going to happen, you will just need to be prepared for dealing with those difficult customers. Losing your temper over problem customers will negatively affect the way you conduct business only if you let it!

You may also run into buyers that don’t send payment right away, some of which become true “deadbeat” bidders. However, there are a few buyers that just become forgetful for a number of reasons - accidents, computer problems, family, etc. Always give the buyer the benefit of the doubt. Be polite when sending email payment reminders (space about 3 days apart), and give them enough time to respond. If you haven’t heard anything from the buyer within about 8 - 10 days after the auction ending or received payment after 2 weeks, you can file eBay for a fee refund. Just make sure to let the buyer know that you’re canceling the auction transaction. eBay should eventually issue a credit to your account for the amount of the final value fee.

Keep in mind that you can also cancel undesired bids if you suspect the buyer could be a problem. However, it is up to you if you want to contact the bidder to explain to them why you canceled their suspect bid. If you truly feel this bidder is bad news, you can block them from bidding on any of your future listings from the Block Bidder link within the site map.

Another recommendation we have is to never ship to an alternate shipping address unless you can absolutely verify that the buyer is the one requesting the shipping address change. Hackers can break into accounts and re-route shipping information, which in short, can leave you losing your product and your payment. Double-check the payment information with PayPal or wait until the payment has securely cleared to send the item.

We also recommend including a Return Policy in your auction listings (an option you can choose during the listing process). There’s almost no chance that the buyer will actually return the item, however, it will give them the security of knowing that you fully back up your product with a money-back guarantee. Just make sure to mention that the refund is for the purchase price of the item “minus the cost of shipping.” The buyer should understand that they can’t just buy something and send it back without paying a penny. Consider (to yourself) that the shipping cost to the customer is their trial fee that they forfeit if they return an item. We recommend browsing through some of the PowerSeller accounts and reading the different types of language they use in their return policies. If they are a PowerSeller, most likely they will have a well-written, clearly detailed return policy.

So here’s where good word of mouth comes into play. If you have a customer that is demanding a refund or return, and there is not a major loss for you, you might want to consider giving them the refund (which might not work for everyone, but will work for most eBayers). This may sound like you’re wussing out, but actually you’ll probably be doing yourself a favor. If you stand your ground with the wrong customer, the customer may lash out and leave some very nasty feedback. This could turn into very bad word of mouth advertising for your potential customers. Always keep in mind that there will be another sale. And besides, you do want the customer to truly be happy in the end anyway, right? That’s just good business.

So we have all this talk about problem customers…we know you might be feeling a little uncomfortable right now. However, remember that these cases are few and far between, and that you just need to be an alert Seller when dealing with real or potentially problem customers. But the reality is that most of your customer transactions will go smoothly. So how do you make buyers happy buyers? By always providing great customer service.

Most likely you’ve heard the saying “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Well this also goes for customers. If you’ve ever had a horrible customer service experience, you know that you would never want to make your customers feel that way — for one, you’ll be making them feel just like you felt! And two, they will probably never buy anything from you ever again. Right? So, make sure to communicate clearly and concisely with your customers, provide good shipping service, and make your dealings personable. If a bidder has a question, answer it quickly. Communication is key!

The most important aspect of an eBay business is developing trust with your customers, so that they can help build your brand through word of mouth advertising and also to ensure they come back to purchase more items from you. One of the easiest ways to build trust is to show that others trust you and that is how eBay maintains such a healthy marketplace.

Before you can ever set up your eBay Store, you’ll want to build some Positive Feedback for your account — this is almost standard practice and advice for anyone just starting out on eBay. It’s going to cost you a little bit, but the easiest and fastest way to get positive feeback is to buy stuff from trusted eBay members who have lots of feedback. You might recall us telling you that it’s best to keep your Buyer and Seller accounts separate; well that rule still applies. However, just think of these purchases as leverage-building tactics.

Once you’ve received 10 positive feedback ratings, you’ll receive your first eBay star, and at that point you should start selling (and don’t make anymore purchases with your Seller account). Make some small Buy-It-Now purchases so you don’t have to wait until the auction ends, and leave positive feedback for the Seller. You can’t force your future buyers into leaving you positive feedback, but if you ask them nicely after leaving positive feedback, they may or may not do so, but it’s up to you if you want to ask them.

Now there’s a debate on eBay as to when you leave feedback for the buyer. It’s your choice if you want to leave feedback immediately or if you decide to wait until you receive positive feedback (after you sell an item). Here are a few ways to contemplate each situation:

1. Leaving Feedback Immediately After You’re Paid

Some sellers follow this rule as standard practice to encourage other buyers to buy from them — it’s just good business. You won’t leave the buyer wondering if you’re going to leave them feedback or not.

2. Leaving Feedback Only After the Buyer Leaves Feedback

Does this sound petty? Well imagine leaving the buyer positive feedback 10 minutes after receiving their payment, and the bidder subsequently fails to contact you regarding a problem, and leaves you neutral or negative feedback. Had you waited to leave them feedback, they may have thought twice about leaving the comment and possibly contacted you privately first. You cannot rescind your positive feedback, nor delete the negative feedback you’ve received. The buyer has just tarnished your beautifully perfect 100% rating.

Should you have used the feedback as leverage? Some say yes, that you should wait to leave feedback. But the problem is that if an issue does arise, then at what point do you leave the feedback, positive or negative? If you wait to resolve the problem and leave them feedback after it’s been resolved, they still have an opportunity to leave negative feedback, or the fact that you’ve waited to leave them feedback could leave a bad taste in their mouth, leaving you no opportunity to win back their business. This decision is really your call.

3. Leaving Feedback On a Schedule

If you get to a point where you are selling a lot of merchandise, pick one day out of the week or the month to leave feedback all at once. This can resolve the “first-or-last” issue mentioned above. Just make sure that the customers understand this is part of your policy, so they are not offended if they don’t see the feedback right away.

Regardless of when you leave feedback, remember to always be professional.

Tip: Leave the package tracking information in the feedback comment itself. Making the tracking information public shows everyone that the item was shipped.

So how do you handle negative feedback? First, you want to avoid receiving negative feedback from buyers. Always be professional, and don’t leave negative feedback first. This will almost guarantee you will receive negative feedback in return. Even if the bidder doesn’t send payment for the closed auction, you can file a non-paying bidder claim instead of leaving negative feedback. What if you don’t receive payment and the person was in the hospital visiting their dying grandmother, only to come home 3 days later to negative feedback? You will be blasted for that one. Submit your claim to eBay, do not take out your frustrations on the bidder. Leaving negative feedback is always a risk of receiving negative feedback — always.

If you actually do receive negative feedback and you feel it was unjustified, you can respond to it by going to your member profile page and click on the Reply to Feedback Received link. Your negative feedback won’t be removed, but you’ll be able to speak in your own defense to your potential buyers who are viewing your feedback.

If you absolutely feel the negative feedback was unjust and should rightfully be removed, you can submit a request to eBay and press your luck. Just remember that it is not standard practice for them to remove negative feedback.

One of the oldest, but most effective business practices is to save money where you can in order to maximize your profits. Well, when starting your eBay store, the best thing to do is to start off on the right foot by choosing the right payment system to protect both your customers and most importantly, yourself!

The right payment system can help prevent lost sales due to a poor user experience. The right payment system can also protect your sensitive customer data which protects you from any law suits from privacy issues. The right payment system offers the flexibility to accept all forms of payments ranging from wire transfers to credit cards. The most important aspect of the right payment system is that it protects you from fraud.

The one and only payment system we recommend that fulfills all the above mentioned criteria is eBay’s own PayPal system. PayPal’s industry leading business security has the lowest loss rate of all the top merchant sites, state of the art encryption to protect your data, the ability to accept all types of payments and most importantly, they have a whole team of eCommerce Fraud Experts to help you predict and prevent fraud from happening on your site. Because PayPal is a trusted entity on eBay, being able to display the PayPal logo on your store can help build a level of trust to help convert visitors into customers at your eBay store.

Much like your new eBay account, we recommend that you start a new PayPal account as well to keep your personal purchases separate from your business. The main advantage of keeping a separate business account is to minimize the amount of confusion between funds, so you can better analyze your business.

To Set Up Your PayPal Business Account, Click Here!

Once you have determined the products you are going to sell on eBay, the next step is to provide your business with structure. Structure is extremely important to establish in the beginning phases of your business because it is the guiding light that will keep you from going astray via marketing ideas or the ever scary word — greed!

So, let’s get out a pen and piece of paper (yes, we actually still use paper these days!) and get ready to write down the following:

1. Your Vision Statement

Here is where you will write down your ideal vision of how the business succeeds. i.e. “To become the most popular eBay seller of Children’s Rubber Duckies!”

2. Your Mission Statement

Here is where you will write down the purpose of your business. i.e. “I want to supply the highest quality and most fun rubber duckies on eBay.”

3. Your Goals

Here is where you will write down the short and long term goals of your company. Of course, these will have to be changed once in a while (we suggest every 3 months). i.e. To sell 100 Rubber Duckies per Day / To sell 10,000 Rubber Duckies per 3 Months / To be a Top Seller in 6 Months.

Remember to be realistic and if you don’t know, it’s OK. We will go over how you will give yourself projections based on a few weeks worth of work! It’s really not as hard as it sounds, so don’t worry — we’re doing this together!

4. List Your Financial Resources

This one is simple. You need to learn how to keep a simple balance sheet so that you know where your money is coming from and where it’s going to. It might be great to make $10,000 a month, but if it’s costing you $15,000 a month and you don’t know it, then you will have a problem.

5. Targeting your Customer Base

Research your competition. Understand your Product. Become an expert in your product. Learn who will buy and why, so that you can expand your target base as much as possible without becoming too general.

We cannot stress this point enough: Do your research!

Find out what people are buying on eBay, what items they’re bidding on, and what they’re willing to pay for them. One way to do this is to browse the Completed Listings - you’ll see how many people bid on an item, what they finally paid for it (eBay is a truly great example of a free market, because the true value of the item lies in what the buyer pays), the length of the auction (starting and ending dates and times), the item description details, and if they offered Buy-It-Now.

Another reason to do your research is to see if you can really sell your product. For example, if your product is in a collectible category, make sure that you familiarize yourself with all aspects of the product to extract key selling points you find important. You wouldn’t want a Disney Pin Collector turned off from a sale because you didn’t take the time to educate yourself on the item to fully divulge the right information.

One of eBay’s great tools is their monthly Hot Categories Report, which lists the best categories to sell in. For a nominal fee, you can also search eBay’s Marketplace Research Database, a pool of various essential statistics. You can view and analyze top searches, average start prices, average sold prices and so on. (Click on the Marketplace Research link from the home page for detailed information.)

Other third-party companies will sell eBay research tools for a small fee. Andale.com provides supplemental reports detailing the hottest-selling items, tracking pricing trends, and analyzing your sales data. AuctionIntelligence and HammerTap also provide research tools for a monthly subscription fee.

The point here is, do your research. No one said this was going to be a simple one-step process. There are never any gains in life without sacrifice, so if you want to succeed, think about sacrificing a couple of hours of your day to research.