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Growing
eBay Sales With Top-Notch Customer Service
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by:
Phil Dunn
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Painters were at our house this weekend,
doing the trim outside and a few rooms inside. My wife provided most of
the direction, but I asked the head guy (and owner of the company) to
pay attention to a few details for me.
The whole experience reminded me of how critically important it is to
pay attention to customer requests when dealing with eBay sales. On the
Web (and with email) it's easy to lose contact with customers and
forget to address their concerns.
Make sure you don't fall into this trap. You may not see the results
directly, but your customers will become upset and you'll eventually
lose business - like my painter has. Not only did he lose business, he
lost a valuable referral source.
He started to lose me when he failed to record my suggestions and
concerns. I didn't get into interior design much, choosing between
mauve and tope, but I did have some input as far as the whole project
goes.
I wanted them to make sure they cleaned up the "misses" on the outside,
where some black trim paint accidentally hit the white house paint. I
needed them to unstick some of the windows and put all the screens
back, as well.
When the project started wrapping up, it was obvious that the lead was
ignoring some of my requests -- namely the screens and window
unsticking. I loved the work, but I wasn't so hot on their finishing
skills.
From a customer service perspective, the timing couldn't have been
worse. Just when the painters wanted to consider it a job well done, I
was having second thoughts about their competence.
That sinking feeling should not have come at the end of the project.
The lead should have been going out with a celebration rather than with
some gripes. He should have lead me around, showed me how great
everything looks, showed me the extra work he'd thrown in, and gone
down my list of requests one by one, demonstrating that he met my needs
and respects my wishes.
If he performed these "finalizing" customer service/marketing steps,
he'd have my 100% recommendation. I'd rave about him to friends, pass
out his business cards and even write up a testimonial for him. I'd
offer to help him out with his advertising materials, in fact. We'll
certainly have more painting jobs in the future, and I'd like to stay
on good terms with him.
On eBay, the same steps need to be followed in order to build business
and collect loyal customers that rave about you. You need to send
customers follow-up emails that confirm what they bought, what kind of
deal you're giving them (on shipping, bonuses, etc.), and how you
appreciate their business and would welcome any questions they may
have. You need to offer them targeted cross-sell and up-sell items as
they bid and shop. And, you need to quickly address their concerns as
they come up. All this attention and service ensures that your
customers refer you to others, leave positive feedback, and return to
do more business with you.
Don't be like my painter. Pay attention to detail and your business
will grow at a healthy pace.
About the author:
Phil Dunn, author of The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing
(McGraw-Hill, July 2005), is a marketing writer and strategic
consultant. He helps people persuade, influence decision making, and
close business with the written and spoken word. His business, Synapse
Services Co. (http://www.qualitywriter.com), produces direct mail,
brochures, scripts, newsletters, white papers and related collateral
for Fortune 500 companies like Pitney Bowes, Hewlett Packard, IKON and
Microsoft.
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