Ebay Tips & Tricks (part 3 or 4): Customer Service

Whether you run a full blown Ebay business or you are just selling off some junk in your house, your reputation is key in the Ebay community.  If your reputation is bad, then you will have an extremely hard time effectively selling on Ebay.  Ebay does a great job at keeping track of seller and buyer reputations through their feedback system.  My only beef with the feedback system is that both parties have the option to leave negative feedback, even when one party has done nothing wrong.  For instance, I ship you something and the shipping was horrible so the product gets destroyed.  You can give me negative feedback, but I can equally give you negative feedback solely for you giving me negative feedback.  You can challenge the negative feedback, but most people only look at your feedback percentage when they are checking out a seller.  Anyway, keep that in mind before you go giving everyone negative feedback.

Practicing good customer service on Ebay is very simple, but often overlooked on Ebay nowadays.  It is more about the quantity rather than the quality on Ebay.  However, YOU can stick out in a community with millions of sellers by providing over-the-top customer service.  Here are some tips for providing great customer service that will give you great feedback and attract peopel to come back and look at your stuff at a later date.

• ALWAYS respond to bidder’s questions in a timely matter.  Even if you do not know the exact answer to their question, make sure that you respond within 24 hours.
• After the auction has ended, send an invoice and follow up with the buyer to let them know when you sent out the item.
• provide a packing slip in every item that you ship out.  The buyer can print out a receipt whenever they want, but it’s nice when you do it for them. 
• Take pride in your packaging.  You can do it cheaply, but make sure the item is adequately secured.
• Be HONEST!  Do not make your used item sound like it’s brand new, unless it really does look and function like new.  Buyers don’t mind buying used or refurbished items on Ebay, but they HATE it when they find out the real condition after they have purchased it. 
• Overall, be kind and courteous like you would if you were running a business and you were speaking with a customer face-to-face.  Be flexible and work with the buyer if there are some special circumstances that are within reason.  Never negotiate the terms of payment.  Make sure all transactions go through Ebay in some way, because there is a ton of fraud that goes on when people try to pay without using Ebay. 

I hope these  tips help!  Next Topic will be shipping your item. 

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