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How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

Seems there are many members frustrated with the feedback system.Here is just one of the techniques we use to optimize our feedbacks. This is just a rough guide so your mileage will vary of course.

The NUMBER 1 method we have is good old fashioned customer service from beginning to end. What exactly do I mean?

• Pre-purchase emails - answer these ASAP! One thing that bothers the **** out of me is when a seller does not reply to emails quickly. We strive to answer emails same day if not ASAP. The buyers are VERY grateful and we usually get a reply like..."WOW! Thanks for the speedy reply!". That already suggests that many sellers do not reply to emails within a reasonable amount of time.
• Post-purchase emails - SAME THING. Reply ASAP. Buyers want answers quickly (especially if it's a high priced item).
• ALWAYS be friendly and courteous in your emails. NEVER pick a fight in any way. You want your buyers to like you.
• Use selling manager's custom email feature. We have about 12 pre made templates that we use for various purposes. I will list just one that is most relevant to this post.
  • We have a template called "Post Sale Follow Up". You could name them whatever you wish, but it's much easier to name them with specific titles so you know quickly what the template is about.
  • Once a week, we look at our shipped items and sort them by whether feedback was received or not. For all the sales that we didn't get feedback (we used to use Auctiva for the auto feedback), as long as you didn't have an existing problem with the buyer, we would simply check off all the sales without a feedback and send them all the same "PostSale Follow Up". You can do this in bulk.
  • The wording goes something like this..."Dear ___, Thank you very much for your recent purchases of _____, we really appreciate your business. We never forget about our customers, and we always follow up to make sure that everything is ok. We know that time is precious, but we would very much appreciate it if you could just reply and let us know if everything was as promised. We hope to hear from you soon and once again, thank you for your business, we really appreciate it.
    • IMPORTANT! DO NOT ASK FOR FEEDBACK AT THIS POINT. When/if the buyer replies, during the conversations, you can discreetly ask for feedback once you know for a fact the buyer is happy. We found this to be a better technique than to ask for feedback "if everything is alright..." Gaining the trust of the buyer is more important and buyers will be more willing to leave the feedback if not asked to. If the buyer still does not leave feedback, move on and do not repeat the process. You may have a psycho on your hands that might snap and just leave you a negative for annoying him/her.

This is by no means the ONLY way of course, but a little customer service goes a LONG way for getting postive feedbacks.

Your replies need not be a novel. We found that most buyers simply want a quick answer. And if you think about it, how long does it take to reply to an email anyway?

Hope it helps someone out there.

PS: As I write this, I am getting very angry at eBay again. :rant::rant::rant:

Indeed!

Most ppl who ask questions dont buy, and yes, be urgent with the emails after the auction has ended.

I ask for feedback 2 times - When I told them it has been shipped with the tracking number, and a nice reminder in their package to do so - cause some ppl just go to ebay one time to buy and never log back in for a while.

This way 95% of my customers leave feedback.

The ebay fb system is rotten to the core. It has sellers spending all their time & energy jumping hurdles and sneaking under barriers to maintain good fb when they should be using their energy to sell product and make money.

Its like being in the army or military school or even prison where they use bulls&&&t rules to divide and conquer and encourage sneaking and snitching.

Many smaller sellers quit working for bad employers because they wanted the freedom to run their own business. This last year selling on eBay is just stress and no longer enjoyable. Any seller who has not invested in their own webby and investigating other platforms is crazy.

yeah I'm stuck in a spot right now. a buyer bought an item. didn't receive it. then I said I'd ship another. well now they ordered the wrong item to begin with and now wants me to substitute the item for a different item. smells like BS to me. but if I don't do it I get raped on feedback and possibly loose my account.

eBay needs to send a mass email to the ebay community about the importance of feedback. Buyers just don't seem to get it. The feedback system drives me crazy, esp. with the 21 day holds when your trying to establish accounts but you get nowhere if people aren't leaving feedback!

Not only that, but it gives you closure to a particular order so you can move on. I repeatedly email buyers and kindly ask them to please leave feedback and letting them know I am leaving them positive FB as well. It really makes me uneasy when I have 10-20 items out and only 5-6 orders have received any feedback. Many buyers just ignore the request. I noticed that leaving feedback is starting to get worse.

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

i see i have to lern a lot :) .. but this page is perfect for me thanks @all

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

we would very much appreciate it if you could just reply and let us know if everything was as promised... When/if the buyer replies, during the conversations, you can discreetly ask for feedback
I repeatedly email buyers and kindly ask them to please leave feedback

Wow! Just... wow!!!

Conversations? Plural? Multiple conversations? I want to BUY A WIDGET!!!

Who the h*ll wants to have their inbox flooded with this c**p?

Everywhere I go people are begging for reviews. The lawn guy, movers, restaurants, even the auto repair shop! It's insane.

Customer service isn't begging for reviews - it's getting the customer what they paid for promptly and correctly.

Trust me, if they had a problem, they'd be contacting you.

I'd leave you feedback, all right, something like "emailed me relentlessly until I just couldn't stand it any more: buy from this seller if you want your inbox flooded"

The best feedback is no feedback at all. No feedback is calculated in your dashboard as 100% and 5 stars across the board. No feedback is perfect feedback. Why ask for less?

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

Exactly. I don't care if I ever get another feedback!

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

Amazing search of an old but gold thread :)

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

Can understand the benefit of fb for getting an account going and gaining buyer trust.

A single straightforward message worked for myself. In essence, "feedback helps more than you know." If they're not going to leave fb, they're not going to leave fb. Spam is probably less effective, and might even diminish repeat buyers.

Re: How to get buyers to leave feedback 101
 

Thanks, great article! :)