5 More Ways to be a Successful eBay PowerSeller
by Ryan Dube on March 7th, 2008
In the last article, 5 Ways to be a Successful eBay PowerSeller , I talked about the huge benefits that achieving PowerSeller status can bring to your business, as well as 5 ways you can make your eBay listings stand out and bring in more buyers.
In this article, I’m going to tell you about 5 more ways to achieve that all important PowerSeller status - this time by focusing on customer service. Your customers are how you make sales, and no matter how pretty your pictures are, or how well written your titles and descriptions are - if your customer service skills aren’t up to par, you’ll still lose sales.
1. Customer Service
This cannot be stressed enough. Nothing irritates a buyer more than sending a query about an item to a seller and not getting a response for several days. This delay could even result in the buyer deciding not to buy your item at all. Customer Service is absolutely key to obtaining and keeping a perfect, or near perfect, feedback rating. On eBay, feedback is a Seller’s only way of assuring a buyer that they are trustworthy and respected. Second only to quality Photos - your Feedback rating is also critical to becoming a successful PowerSeller - so make sure to dedicate enough time and focus every day to your quality of Customer Service.
2. Personalized Service
A buyer is a person too, with emotions and feelings. They need to feel as though they are more than just a number. Most buyers expect to be treated as just another number, so when you go the extra mile to focus especially on them, it makes them walk away with a smile on their face. Not only do you end up getting another positive feedback rating, they will end up coming back for more!
The key to effective personalized service is to create an email template that can be personalized for each buyer without taking up a great deal of time. An email template should be ready to use for when an item sells, to thank the winning bidder for bidding on your auction and provide them with the final costs and options to pay. This is typically done through eBay’s Invoice service, so your template would simply be pasted into the comments. Most of the time the only edit you need to make is to address the specific buyer by their User ID.
The next phase of personalized service comes when the buyer has paid, and once you’ve shipped the item. Always issue an email to the buyer informing them that the item has been shipped. Take this opportunity to thank them for providing you with their business, and telling them that you hope they will return in the future. You do not need to retype the entire email for every buyer - just initially write up a creative and well-written template letter, and then insert the appropriate User ID or Name, and the correct email address.
If you take a small amount of time to provide the appearance that you’ve gone that extra mile, your buyers will greatly appreciate it. Far too few sellers do it - and when they learn that you do, you will be guaranteed return customers, and your profits will soar.
3. Make a Personal Seller Profile Website or Blog
Another important way to let your buyers get to know you and your expertise is to create a personal website or blog. This doesn’t have to be anything complicated, but you should at least offer a single webpage with a short bio and outlining the sort of items you sell and why. Also include photos of yourself, your family, or pets using the same MyPhotosHub.com account as you used for the photos in your listings. This way there is no additional cost, and you can use and reuse these same photo links anywhere on the internet, including any forums or blogs that you visit.
When a buyer can see that you are a real person, and not just another faceless eBay user ID, they will feel much more comfortable giving you their hard-earned money in exchange for your product. Remember, it’s all about building relationships and trust - and ultimately helping the customer feel comfortable buying from you, not only this time, but over and over again.
4. Communication is Critical!
This can’t be stated often enough. When a buyer emails a question while the auction is listed and running, answer it as soon as you can. When a buyer asks about costs for shipping, even though you posted shipping costs on your listing, take the time to reply to them with the shipping costs to their zip code. They may be an older person who doesn’t understand how the shipping calculator works, or they simply may not have seen it. So always take the time to help people understand your listing, and you’re that much more likely to get not only one bid, but also multiple bids - and a high final price at the end of the auction.
While items are en-route to buyers, they may become nervous if there is a delay, or a storm, and will write to you with concern. Always take the time to reassure them that the item was shipped, and it is safely on its way. Add that you are certain they will love the product when they receive it. The power of suggestion is a reality, and when they receive it - they will love it!
Also, communication becomes most critical is when there are problems. An item might have broken or become damaged during shipment. You need to work with the buyer to resolve submitting insurance claims - or if you happened to have packaged the item poorly because you were in a hurry, accept the responsibility and simply issue a refund. It isn’t the end of the world - you will have made plenty of profit by this point. It will also prove to them, and to other buyers, that you are a trustworthy seller, and that you stand by your word and your products.
5. Essential Investments to Succeed as a PowerSeller
While you don’t want to be blowing too much of your profit on services that support your eBay business, there are a few services that are not only a must, but they also will save you a great deal of costs in the long-run.
You need to sign up for a full-service Paypal account (not the free version). This will cost about a 3-4% fee on every payment that is sent to you - but the increase you see to both your volume and your final sales price by offering Paypal makes up the difference and then some. Remember - for any serious eBay PowerSeller, Paypal is an absolute must.
You will need to make some purchases that will reduce your time and energy during shipping - this includes a decent digital shipping scale that will weigh packages up to 10 pounds. You will also want to pick up a bulk supply of inexpensive clear packing tape, a high-quality packing tape dispenser (this is a lifesaver), and rolls or sheets of bubble wrap as cheaply as you can find it. Furniture or department stores often throw away reams of the stuff…just go in and ask if you can take it off their hands.
And finally you need to sign up with an image-hosting service that is flexible, fast, and provides quality and personal customer service. It is difficult to find image hosting services that are reliable - and the last thing you need are all of the beautiful photos that you’ve taken to turn into a big red "X" just before your auctions are about to close. While you could spend $150 to $200 a year on web hosting with moderate bandwidth - a much more cost effective and efficient approach is to sign up with a service like MyPhotosHub.com. For only $6.95/mo you can host 80 MB of photos (at 80k per photo - about 1000 photos!). The service is reliable and fast - and I haven’t been able to find any other service out there that can serve up auction photos as quickly and reliably.
Turn your Free Time Into Profit
The fastest way to quickly become an eBay Powerseller, or to ramp up a slow eBay business into a powerhouse of volume and sales, is to carefully follow the steps that I’ve provided above. There is no more enjoyable way to spend spare time that most folks waste watching television…and it is wonderfully rewarding the moment you receive that first notice from eBay that due to your remarkable sales over the previous three months, you have qualified for PowerSeller status!
Good luck - and may good fortune shine upon your auctions!