Can I get some help re. raising DSR for ship time?

[coxengines]

OK,

Today Xena's smug little bubble burst and her DSR for ship time dropped to 4.7, snivel LOL!

It was the FB from Italy that did it (7 weeks in transit) but it also demonstrated that I was teetering on the brink anyhow.

I always ship within 24 hours of receiving payment and send out a ship confirmation and request to leave FB when the package arrives.

I will be re-writing that mail to reflect a ship time clarification.

Could I get some input as to text? Your ideas, together with my thoughts will form part of my new confirmation email.

I am looking for ideas that make sense to the buyer without sounding condescending. Sine the DSR's will be a rolling 30-day window in the future, I believe that it can make a difference if we can "educate" the buyer".

Xena

[katiusciav]

I always ship within 24 hours of receiving payment and send out a ship confirmation

holy cow if i see this sentence again on these boards!! i think we all (or most of us) ship within 24 hours, but that makes NO DIFFERENCE...they're not rating us on when we've shipped the item-they'll never know that anyways, they're rating us on THEIR perception of how long they think they should wait to get a package...if their expectations have been exceeded, they will leave a good score...if they have high expectations and they're not met (even if they're unreasonable expectations), they'll still leave a bad score...

...this area will never change in the fact that we will have very little control over this rating...of course, there are ways to 'deal' or educate the buyer about this section....sorry, if no one else jumps in to give you good ideas, i'll try again tomorrow, since today my brain is dead-very little sleep lately...but you sound like a very articulate person-i'm sure it won't take you more than 10 minutes to come up with something for the buyers that won't sound condescending...i'll have to create one of my own soon if i ever get back to selling...

[whoscloset]

I'm going to work on one of these letters tonight to send out when items are shipped. I'll post whatever I come up with here so we can bat it around a little.

[montrealmaps]

I am in exactly the same situation (and just mainly becasue of Italian buyers!)
I shipped always the same day and never overcharged for shipping. And I got 4.7! What is my response? Now, I overcharge and ship once a week (saving a lot of time). Additionally, I raised all prices in my store. I am sure that buyers will be very happy with the changes I made. 😉 I am! Still have 4.7 and the same level of sales (However, to minimize the impact of my changes, I upgraded store from Basic to Premium).

Can "education" help? Sometimes - yes. Read my old post:
I get this from a buyer who left 4 stars: There was no malice or ill intent in annotation of 4 vice 5 stars. The E-Bay prompt indicated that 4 stars was reasonable price for S/H. I thought that your pricing for the S/H was fair and that by annotating 4 stars I was providing positive feedback. If I had known that 4 stars is viewed as a negative hit, I would gladly have annotated it as 5 stars. Again, I apologize if you have taken a hit for it. It was not intentional, as my intention was to leave only positive feedback.

Andrew

[katiusciav]

send that email to ebay

[montrealmaps]

Good idea. I will do that.

A.

[coxengines]

Thanks everyone!

Lamenting that things will not change can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is what it is and I can only try to improve on what I have.

According to eBay, 15% of sellers qualify for the max. discount and I have made it my mission to belong to that 15%, period.

With that in mind, I will focus on solutions. Although I can write myself, I do believe that one should elicit other opinions.

Many of you posters have great ideas; please share them and let us all try to make this work for us.

Xena

[whoscloset]

Funny, my shipping time DSR dropped to 4.7 today too. LOL

[coxengines]

It's all your fault, Monique:-)

[coxengines]

Or should we start a new conspiracy theory?

Have not read about one for a couple of days LOL!

Xena

[westernstargifts]

Maybe we could wish upon a Star that our DSR's will all be 5..........:O;-):^O

[recped]

According to eBay, 15% of sellers qualify for the max. discount and I have made it my mission to belong to that 15%, period.

You will! On occasion you will get a low rating either from a picky buyer or one that has to wait for a long time due to the slow moving mail.

The good news is that for the discount this will only affect you for one month since the discount is based on only the previous 30 days rating.

Now, how much is that extra 10% worth (remember it's only on FVF's), probably not enough to get too worked up about.

[coxengines]

Recped, I ran the aprx. #'s.

I create about 120 auctions/month with a 99% sell-through rate and have about 50 successful SCO's on top of that.

Comparing today's fees with "tomorrow's" fees, the difference for me is actually only $14/month between the 5% and 15% discounts.

You know I never before did calculate this through....

Yeah, it's not that much in my case although sellers with higher end prices may not fare so well.

At 15% discount my total fees actually go down.

Xena

[coxengines]

OK,

Since I am asking others for their input I might as well post what I have come up with so far.


Subject line: Your item(s) has/have been shipped today!

Dear Maria,

Your package has been shipped today via Canada Post; your merchandise carefully packed and fully insured.

Please let me know when you have received your package and that everything was to your satisfaction.

Once that you have received your package, could you be so kind as to leave me feedback on eBay and I will gladly do the same for you?

A NOTE TO FEEDBACK:
eBay has implemented a 5-Star rating system. When rating me for “shipping time”, please keep in mind that this refers to how quickly the seller ships after receiving payment (I ship within 24 hours) and NOT how long the package takes to arrive to you, as the seller has absolutely no control over Canada Post’s delivery times.

It has been a pleasure serving you, thanks again for your prompt payment and I wish you a terrific day!

Xena Look

[recped]

I create about 120 auctions/month with a 99% sell-through rate and have about 50 successful SCO's on top of that.

To me this simply SCREAMS your prices are too low, forget about trying to get the discount, add $1.00 to your handling and you'll come out way ahead even if your sell through slips a little bit (which I doubt).

[coxengines]

your prices are too low

Virtually every auction I start @ 98 cents.

I am already adding just over a buck to actual shipping and packaging costs and, since I never had to pay a claim so far, a little fund is building up to the tune of at least 150 bucks a month LOL!

The 15% aside, it is pride in what I do. Together with my ambitious thinking, the min. of 4.8 is just a goal, even if the $14 difference is not appealing anymore (I thought it would be more than that).

Xena

[recped]

it is pride in what I do

Nice concept but while swallowing your pride is often recommended it really doesn't provide much nutritional value.

I notice you start everything low which is why I suggested raising your shipping/handling. If you were not running 99 cent listings I would have suggested raising your starting prices.

[whoscloset]

Well Xena...I think you nailed it!

[coxengines]

Nailed it with which statement, Monique?

Xena

[coxengines]

doesn't provide much nutritional value.

Don't laugh, but it actually does.

If you have a high level of satisfaction in what you do (eBay in this case), your mood and feelings will be reflected in your listings, your emails, your packaging; the whole way you approach your business

Buyers "sense" this and, no, I have not been smoking LOL!

Conversely, if you are down, you only see the "bad" and it will affect revenue. Marketing psychologists have been advocating this for years...

Xena