Good communication is the key to encouraging your auction buyers
to leave you positive feedback. Such communication also helps
avoid most negative feedback on eBay.
1. Good Communication Prevents Misunderstandings
Good communication helps to avoid misunderstandings. For
example, if surface shipping takes six to eight weeks but the
customer doesn't know this, he may expect almost immediate
delivery. When such quick delivery doesn't materialize, he may
feel that he has been cheated or that your service is slow and
poor.
Thus, try to spell out delivery time frames and other details as
much as possible. Is your refund policy clear? Is your product
clearly and accurately described in your auction ad? Does your
product's quality meet or exceed the expectations created by
your auction ad?
2. Prompt E-mail Response
If, for whatever reason, your e-mail response is slow, the
customer may assume that you aren't delivering on your promises.
Prompt e-mail communication can help reassure the customer and
gives evidence of good customer service.
3. Encourage Queries
Basically, state in your auctions: "If you have any questions
about this auction, please e-mail me." If a person is expecting
instant delivery of an e-book but instead you send him the
information via the postal service, he might be disappointed.
Nip all such problems in the bud by encouraging your prospective
buyers to ask questions.
4. Ask for Positive Feedback
How can you encourage buyers to leave positive feedback for
you? Simply state that you'll leave positive feedback for them
after you've received theirs.
Since they are leaving the feedback first, they will hesitate to
leave you negative feedback, knowing that you may respond in
kind. If you leave positive feedback for the buyer first, they
may never return the favour.
5. Reversing Negative Feedback
With good communication, you can often avoid receiving negative
feedback. Try to do everything that is reasonable to make your
customer happy.
However, what if you do receive negative feedback on one of your
auctions? What can you do about it?
Under certain, very limited circumstances (such as an extortion
attempt), eBay might reverse negative feedback unjustly given to
you. In most cases, however, eBay will not reverse negative
feedback.
You can use eBay's "Mutual Feedback Withdrawal" procedure. This
is where both the buyer and seller agree to withdraw negative
feedback from each other. Thus, the negative feedback will be
removed from both of your total scores (thus improving both
feedback ratings).
The negative comments themselves won't be removed by eBay.
However, your comments left in response to a negative feedback
will also stay to tell your side of the story.
Yes, good communication can lead to more positive feedback from
your auctions. Such communication can also help you to avoid and
even reverse negative feedback. So, by all means, promote
positive feedback on eBay through good communication.
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