Online-Auction-Success

Why should you bother?

The life blood of any business is good customer service. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business will secure many more customers through word of mouth and you should always keep in mind that if you are not taking proper care of your customers there is always a competitor that will.

A customer satisfaction survey will help by not only identifying problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

Where to start?

Objective - As a first step decide what the main objectives of the survey are, in that way you will be able to retain focus and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - Consider how you will analyse the answers having completed the survey.

Bare in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where the respondents are asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than questions that are ‘open’ (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).

A great deal will depend on the likely volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – As well as obtaining valuable market research data keep in mind that customer surveys are also a good way to publicise aspects of your service that your customers may not be aware of.

Before you publish the survey confirm that the questions you have asked will provide you with market research data that when analysed will help you make informed decisions.

Then, from a marketing view point read through the survey, confirm that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?

The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-

• Market research - provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business
• Marketing - promote aspects of your business
• Information/Education - advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?

By asking this question not only will the store receive good feedback on the facility they provide but they will also advertise their baby changing facilities and promote themselves as a family friendly store beyond those customers who have a specific need for the facility provided.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept the worst.

A well designed customer satisfaction survey will enable you to identify problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and give you early warning on where you might be losing out to your competitors initiatives.

What are the questions you should ask?

Although it is a given that each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online internet store or a service industry. The following are some key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication - What do you do to make it easy for your customers to communicate with you?

When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? A good business will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, politely, quickly and fairly.

If a problem cannot be resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?

Use a customer satisfaction survey to ensure that all your staff are considered by your customers to be helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.

Location – Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, does it have good access and is it conveniently located?

Making it pleasant, making it easy - For a virtual business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Physical store or online website, is the store properly laid out, can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – In addition to measuring the quality of the service that you provide you should ensure that the products and services that you provide match your customers’ requirements.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is rarely a good measure, value for money is.

Do your customers consider that the products you sell or the services you provide are value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – The majority of customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively.

Are you doing everything to prevent any delays?

Customers like to be treated as individuals, how do you treat your customers? Attention is important but so is a quick and satisfactory resolution of the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example what is their age group and where do they live?

The more knowledge you have of your customers the more information you will have to better target your business.

Provide your customers with an opportunity to document any specific problems that they may have had and provide contact details so that problems can be resolved and followed up.

What is next?

Having completed the survey analyse the results.

Trends – Identify common and specific areas where the service needs improving.

Ask yourself if any criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are the staff properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?

Where employee training programmes have been implemented have they made a positive contribution to the business and improved the customer service?

Follow-up – If a customer has raised a specific issue through completing a survey ensure that they are contacted and that their complaint is properly addressed.

Do not lose the opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor - Based on the survey results make changes and then re-measure by issuing further surveys.

To view a sample customer satisfaction survey for a store that demonstrates some of the above advice please visit:- Sample Customer Survey

So as you can see customer surveys are a great way to get inside your customers minds, & get valuable feedback to help you improve your business. Wether your business be online or offline, customer surveys are something that any business can use to their advantage.

Auction Profit Streams by John Thornhill

Will this eBook really bring you a multiple stream of income?

The secrets to this eBook are not as straight forward as you would think. It is not a case of simply selling an eBook and making a profit from eBay, job done start another one. There are many factors to consider when selling eBooks on eBay which I have just recently found out after reading Auction Profit Streams. Some of these factors are:

The importance of a mailing list

The readability of your eBook

Your auction title

Your eBook title

The contents and how you display it to the reader

Your feedback and how it plays a massive role when selling on eBay

The importance of the after sale process

And much more…

I found out very quickly how John reveals all his secrets to his business without a thought to what it will do to his business with so many people copying him. He most definitely gives you what you need and holds nothing back in this highly comprehensive eBay eBook selling guide.

John walks you through the eBook process showing you step by step how to create your eBook, how to structure it, how to sell it, how to setup the download to send it to your buyer, how to maximise your eBook potential whether it’s a resale eBook or none resale eBook, you get the full run through from start to finish.

After reading John Thornhill ’s new eBook, Auction Profit Streams John is perfectly clear about why and how the majority of people fail when it comes to selling eBooks on eBay and online. Why is this? Simple, people simply don’t take action! This is something we are all guilty for, even me. We simply leave whatever we are doing sitting in the desk or in tray and there it will stay for weeks and weeks.

If you are serious about selling eBooks on eBay, then I can give Auction Profit Streams two thumbs up. It has everything you need to get you started and make your eBook business a great success, I urge you not to leave this one in the in tray or on your desk as the information is just too valuable. To make this eBook even easier for you to follow, John has provided his eBay id so you can follow him following his own business model (genius).

Auction Profit Streams is one of those eBooks you will return to time and time again for ideas and suggestions.

“An all round excellent eBook well worth a read”

Will this eBook bring you a steady stream of multiple incomes?

“Yes it most certainly will!”

Paul

A great way to start selling online is by using drop shippers, because of the many benefits to not keeping an inventory of products. Do some looking to make sure you have chosen the best drop shipping company that is available. You need to examine a few things when shopping for a dropshipper.

Below you will find five characteristics to watch for in a good dropshipper:

1. No dropshipping fees - A few genuine wholesale drop shipper companies do charge a fee for each order they ship for you, but a good number do not. To save money, and increase profits, you are better off using a dropshipper that doesn’t charge a fee.

2. Recommended drop ship sources - You should really do business with a dropshipper that comes recommended. These may come recommended by a fellow online seller, or they may come recommended by another source you trust.

3. Quick shipping - One thing that is critical is that the wholesaler you do business with quickly fulfills any order you put in with them. The longer it takes for them to ship the product to your customer, the worse your business looks, so you need them to be speedy with processing orders.

4. Easy to check inventory - You should work with a drop shipping company that has an easy system to verify what they currently have in stock. It makes no sense to offer for sale an item that is out of stock at the drop ship warehouse, because your customers may never get what they order.

5. Good customer service - If you have questions about orders or inventory items, you need to be able to simply get a hold of someone at the dropshipper. Easy and efficient lines of communication are of great importance to your ultimate success.

If you want to be a successful Internet retailer, then you need to do business with suppliers that are willing to help with your success. Find the best dropshippers to work with and all parties involved will be happy.

An up and coming way to go into business for yourself is by starting an e-commerce store. One of the more desired places to have an online shop is eBay, with their easy to use, high traffic Internet marketplace. Undoubtably the quickest method to start making money on eBay is through the use of an eBay dropship company.

Below can be found five of the many reasons to think about using dropshippers when selling on eBay:

1. Low startup cost - With using a drop ship wholesale supplier to supply your product, you are not actually inventorying any products. Without the need to maintain an inventory, you have no money tied up in product which greatly reduces the cost to get into business.

2. Product variety - Because you don’t stock what you sell, you can have a large variety of products for sale on eBay. By using a dropshipper for eBay, you find out what items are your best sellers, and then put your effort on that assortment of products.

3. Purchase product after it is sold - When dropshipping on eBay, you never pay your supplier for the product until you have received payment from your customer. This means you never have any money out of pocket. The customer places the order and pays you through eBay, then you immediately place the order with your dropshipper.

4. Shipping is not your concern - Shipping is done exclusively by your eBay drop shippper, which gives you one fewer item to be concerned with. Packing and shipping can be an incredibly labor intensive ordeal, so by using a dropshipper, you have one less thing to deal with.

5. Minimal risk involved - Using a drop shipper offers one of the least risky ways to start making money on eBay because you do not spend money to stock products. Your only expense is the fees to list on eBay and you only pay for the product once you have the customer’s money.

By using dropshipping companies, you are lowering the monetary entrance to sell on eBay to about as low as it can go. By wisely choosing the correct eBay dropshippers to do business with, and by picking the best items to sell on eBay, you are well on your way to having a profitable eBay business.

In this post:

New Social Network - Make contacts & earn commission for referrals.

Follow Me On Twitter - A great viral follow system to grow your followers fast.

——-

New Social Network

Here’s something that can help your business, & help you make some contacts. You may of heard about it, it’s the new social
network site that pays you $1 for every referral? It’s basically the Internet Marketing version of Facebook, & it’s only $1 to join.

Get Your Account Here!

Thousands will flock to this over the coming
weeks, so I wanted to make sure you knew about
it early! I actually joined a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have time to check it out, but now I have I can tell you it’s a good friendly place & I’m glad I joined, well worth the $1 I paid.

See you there soon!

PS. Add me as a friend when you join,
my ID there is Paul J L

=========

Follow Me On Twitter

You can also follow me on Twitter if you have an account, & if you are going to do so, do it through this link to help you gain more followers — http://ViralFollowers.com/Paul_J_L/vu

It’s a great viral follow system, you just have to input your twitter user & pass & retweet the message, you will then be placed at the top of the list in the link that you retweet. All you need to do then is advertise that link.

It’s got me loads more followers since I applied it, & without me having to do much at all.

If you follow me I always follow back out of kindness. Well until I hit the 2000 mark, the people at Twitter have put a cap on how many you can follow after you hit 2000 followers.

Anyway have fun with that.

Here’s my normal Twitter link http://twitter.com/Paul_J_L in case you aren’t comfortable putting your user & pass on that viral follow site, you are right to be concerned, what I do is change my password to something else temporarily, then change it back afterwards.

I’ve just found a cool site, & you can get FREE access to ResellRightsMastery.com by clicking the following link –> Click here for your FREE Membership

You will also have the chance to earn some affiliate commissions once you’ve signed up

It’s also a great source to grab some products to sell on eBay.

Have fun!

Here’s the latest story to hit the news concerning transactions on eBay, feel free to add your comment.

Quoted from BBC News :

A Flintshire teacher who duped 200 people into buying fake football shirts on the auction website eBay has received a suspended prison sentence.

Paul Davies, 34, of Mold, admitted four charges of fraud and one count of obtaining money by deception - with 196 offences taken into consideration.

He was sentenced to 52 weeks in jail, suspended for 18 months, and he was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.

Mold Crown Court heard among those sold were David Beckham shirts.

He also sold Cristiano Ronaldo tops and replica Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur shirts, claiming they were genuine.

However, they were all counterfeit and had been imported by Davies from Thailand, the court heard.

‘Financial loss’

A specialist financial investigation will now be launched under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which has the power to seize money made illegally.

Debra White, prosecuting, said Davies, a father-of-two, had been working as an English teacher in Thailand and made about £5,000 from the venture.

Sentencing Davies, Judge Dafydd Hughes said: “What you have done is cheat a large number of people and companies.

“Individuals thought that they were buying the genuine article but they were not.

“They were false, they were counterfeit and sadly these people were deceived and suffered a financial loss.”

Miss White said Davies had four eBay accounts and between September 2006 and March last year advertised various soccer shirts for sale by auction.

The court heard people paid between £20 and £43 by for the shirts.

Nic Parry, defending, said Davies was now working in the UK.

A reference showed he was highly thought of, but he would lose his job if he was jailed.

eBay have just announced their own version of Pay-Per-Click advertising, it’s just like google adwords where you will bid for certain keywords, & your adverts will appear on ebay’s search results page when the keyword is searched for. Here’s the announcement quoted from ebay.co.uk:

19 March, 2009 | 01:16PM GMT

If you’re a seller on eBay.co.uk looking to increase the visibility of your listings, eBay AdCommerce is a new tool to help you do just that. Adcommerce is available on eBay.co.uk. See below for further details

About eBay AdCommerce:
eBay AdCommerce is a pay-per-click advertising programme that lets eBay sellers promote their listings and eBay Shops via ads (’sponsored results’) on eBay search result pages.

AdCommerce is another powerful advertising option for eBay sellers who want to drive more traffic to their listings and eBay Shops. Your ads will be shown on search results pages to buyers that are searching for a keyword, which covers your item.

How AdCommerce works:
Let’s say you sell laptops and want your ad to appear when buyers search for the keyword ‘computer’ on eBay. You would need to decide your maximum ‘cost per click’ bid for the keyword ‘computer’; that is, how much you’re willing to pay each time a buyer clicks on your ad after running a search for ‘computer’.

If you’re one of the highest bidders in terms of cost per click for that keyword, your ad - which can include a title, a short description, and an optional image - will appear near the bottom of the search results page when a buyer runs a search for ‘computer’.

When you create these kinds of advertising campaigns with AdCommerce, you can specify the maximum you want to spend on clicks. Once your budget is used up, your ads will stop appearing or you can add to your budget if you want to continue advertising.

With AdCommerce, there are no setup fees and no minimum payments: you pay only when a buyer clicks on your ad and goes to your listing or eBay Shop.

Get started now
It only takes a few minutes to register and create your first ad. To get started now, or read more about the service, go to www.adcommerce.co.uk.

Regards,

The eBay Team

Some good news in March for private sellers (that’s any seller that has not registered thier ebay account as a business account)

This is quoted from the ebay.co.uk website:

From 12th March 2009, there’s no Insertion Fee if you’re a private seller and you list your item in the auction-style format with a starting price of up to 99p (eBay.co.uk) or €1.49 (eBay.ie). Final Value Fee rates are also changing.

Fees for business-registered sellers using the auction-style format will be unchanged.

Pay only when you sell

In 2008 we made it free to include a picture for your listing. We’re continuing our commitment to moving the cost of selling on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie away from front end fees so that the majority of fees are paid only when you successfully sell an item.

Learn more about the new zero Insertion Fee on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie.

Regards,

The eBay Team

So pretty good news then eh? My advice is if you aren’t yet a regular seller, take full advantage of this & find some stuff to sell, you really haven’t got anything to lose.

Thanks for reading.

Hello

I haven’t had much sleep over the last 24hrs, so just a quick post today.

Now you may or may not know this, but you are allowed to change your ebay ID, so if you don’t really like the decision you made with your nickname when you signed up you can take more time to think of a better one. I think this may be the case for a lot of people, it’s certainly a problem I found when creating a new account at eBay. The problem is most of the names you come up with have already been taken, leaving you with not much option other than to run through various decent sounding names until you find one that isn’t taken already. At the same time you will also be most likely eager to just get this whole sign-up business over with & make you first bid… etc. So you may end up picking something that you are not entirely happy with just to speed the process up, hence it’s a good idea to change it to something better, easier to remember, & more importantly if you are a seller, something that helps to brand you.

So if you are a seller a good tip I can give you would be to choose a username that relates to the item’s that you sell in some way. Or if you are selling a variety of different types of items you could go with something like ‘Johns-General-Store’ for example. Just remember that this time round you have more time to think about it, best thing to do is brian storm on paper & write down your favourite ideas & check to see if they are available by editing your ebay ID.

To do this you need to click:

‘My eBay’ tab –> Account Tab –> Personal Information –> Edit User ID

And there you have it, although it might take a while to find an available username that is available, it is worth it if you currently don’t have a great sounding one. Just remember to write you new login info down & save the new username in your password manager if you use it.

That’s all for now, I did say this would be a quick post, but it actually took me quite a while to type all that LOL… But it woke me up at bit so that’s alright

It’s turned midnight where I am, so I bid you goodnight.

Paul.