Communication thoughts

[brandeentertainment]

So if I set up Q&A I can block potential buyers from contacting me . ( I plan to do this when everything is revised and in description so there is nothing for me to answer if buyer reads so I can cut down on the dozens of captain obvious questions that waste my time..

Now I have bought from sellers that do this .. Then after I purchase I can contact but after I purchased I made the decision to buy it regardless of the whatever the answer may be at that point I have commited .. So I never Contacted them at all after because like I said I have already commited and they get 5 star communication ratings..

What are your thought or experience with doing things this way ?

[bb_cool_stuff]

?????

Brande, you need some sleep my friend.

Try posting again in the morning after breakfast.

[brandeentertainment]

I am on nights shifts but also running the business and staining all my kitchen cabinets because my kids are gone to the babysitters today so I am on 0 sleep for 2 days and got a big plan for abuot 4 hrs when I get home today woooooohooooooo .....

I slept 12hrs the other day which was my first time sleeping for more then 4 or 5 hrs in over 2 years and when I woke up I was sore nd had a pounding headache ... What your guys experience with that LMAO ..

I am just trying to gifure some stuff out well I am at work and still up and going ....

My wife starting working now so I want to cut back and perfect every aspect of my store to my and my buyers needs ...

My needs are simple .. Stop asking if there is french audio when it is in the second line of my description ... Stop asking me if it's plays in a DVD player if it is a blu ray . O ya and stop asking me for things I do not offer .. LOL ..

I get about 20 messages everyday about things that are in my description and I have to respond or I will get bad DSR and I just want it to stop ... Leave my time for paying customer with actual questions that are no in description.......

[brandeentertainment]

Has anyone else done that ... My guess is no because people with no time to answer there customers probably don't come on the form too much ..

IT is a setting more or less for high volume sellers but I wanted to do it with my store once I have revised everything because there is really no need for all the messsages I get after I revise all my descriptions and add all the Q&A into my listings .. In which I plan on compiling a list of questions that drive me nuts and putting them in the Q&A section ..

Basically when I set it up it will only allow people who have bought something the ability to actually write me a message ... Leaving all the windows shoppers looking in the window and not coming in to bug the owner about an item they or not going to buy ...

I think it would be good for communication DSR because if there is no communication you get a auto 5 star BUT I fear it would be bad for sales but I am not convinced it would be bad for sales just a feeling it might be ..

I mean let's face facts femmes customers read because well if they didn't femme wouldn't have customers .. Now My customer well I would bet 75% of them buy movies because reading is like torture for them which means there are not going to read my desctiptions and even if they do read without any illustration how much will they really comprehend or even remember by time they get to the last of my ten lines of my short form description ..

The other thing I think of is baout 99% of customer I respond to within the hr buy the item but if I take too long to respond they do not buy the item ... If they couldn't ask do you think they would just buy anyways or walk away. Keep in mind I sell movies not kits to build your own Nasa space station..

I doubt I will find anyone on the boards who has done this or is doing this but if you have done this I would like to here how it affected your store .. Sales up or down.. Angry customer up or down ... Wasted time on pointless questions up or down ... .

[cumos55]

It was many, many years ago that I had a potential buyer apologized for asking questions.

My answer ---

There are no silly questions...  just  silly people not willing to ask questions...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It may be better to set up the list of questions and answers on eBay... and still answer questions p[personally.

Your list of Q-A should be a help.

I get the impression that if a potential buyer wants to ask a question, and is unable to ask that question... you may lose buyers.

--------------------------------------------------

You are setting up a list of Questions-Answers.--- That plus answering questions personally could work

and ....Then  you could setup a template of answers to many questions in a special file.. .... and....use a copy and paste approach --- to answering questions.....

People do like to get some form of communication  even if it is in a standard/template format.... They do not know that is so, and it shows that you are responsive to their needs.

-------------------------------------------------------

There have been several times when I saw an error, sometimes a very BIG error,  in a listing  and have communicated with the seller to let them know that is so.

Even in such a situation, if I am blocked from communicating with the seller... I do experience a measure of frustration

-----------------------------------

A final comment in the form of a question.....

What do your competitors do?.....  That may be the best indicator of what should be done.

[rose-dee]

Hi 'brande' -- I may not be the best seller to comment because I too have fairly sophisticated buyers who can (and will) read.  Very few ask me questions, probably because my buyers read and understand my detailed descriptions.

I agree with 'cumos'  that you may lose buyers if you don't respond properly or consistently, but I think the combination of:

-  FAQs for the really obvious and really frequent questions;

-  "Boilerplate" responses that you can copy and paste from your computer as an "answer" for the more complicated but fairly frequent questions; and

-  Personal responses to the really unusual questions;

will work together to keep buyers happy and make them follow through to a purchase. 

I keep a Word file on my computer desktop with a number of responses to typical questions that I can just plug into an eBay reply.  Much simpler than having to say the same thing over and over again.  Besides, I can spend time on my "boilerplate" replies when I compose them, making them very friendly and helpful, so I don't have to worry about the tone of my responses when I send them. 

By the way, 'brande', the "Communications" DSR no longer counts toward seller performance ratings, although the statistics for that DSR will still be shown on your Dashboard (for your own information).  So you don't have to worry too much about communication ratings directly affecting your status. 

You should still remember though that your responses (and your tone) will be important if a buyer who asks you a question ends up actually buying something, and can therefore leave FB for the transaction as a whole (neutral or negative), either of which FB is now counted as a defect.

[pjcdn2005]

I think that it is a good idea to set up your questions and answers to hopefully limit the amount of questions asked. I have never blocked customers from asking questions but I don't get a ton of questions and my volume is much lower than yours.

But as a customer....I doubt that I would ever buy from a seller who would block me from asking a question before a purchase. I get the impression that sellers who won't answer questions don't really want my business. Also, I would question whether or not I would get any answers if I had a question or problem after a purchase since the seller would not communicate before a purchase.  That's me....I don't know how many others would feel the same way.

Regarding communications stars, you only receive a 5 if there is no communication after a sale and if you advertise a maximum of one business day shipping time and upload tracking within one business day.

[decal-fx]

I've done the Q&A route and it has cut down on questions about my supplied tracking info from 20 a week to 2-3 a month, So I'm happy with that. It has not slowed my sales at all, that I can be sure of any how. I also don't block any further inquiries.

[mr.elmwood]

Back in my retail days, customer would say "This is a stupid question". I would say "Not if YOU do not know the answer". Then, I would put myself in their position for the question. Sure enough, view was totally different.

I have had Cpt Obvious questions, and then, I re-read what I wrote. I put a different cadence in, imagine a comma, and BOOM BABY, a totally different meaning to what I have written.