Today in the second part of “Essential Communication Skills” I’m going to try and impress upon you how important it is to deal with any customer requests – quickly and efficiently. Yesterday I wrote about getting the basics right – making sure that the image you present of yourself is the right one. It’s very easy to become sloppy and not care about things such as grammar, spelling and punctuation, especially when your customers or potential customers don’t worry about these things. However it is vital that you present a professional image, all the more so when a lot of your competitors don’t. Here’s why speed in dealing with customers is also critical….
Let’s look at this from the viewpoint of selling on eBay for now, although the same principles also apply off eBay. Most of us are either selling digital products on there, or thinking about it. You will get questions from potential customers on a regular basis. Contrary to what some people say questions are good. In fact they are better than that – they are great. If someone goes to the trouble of asking you a question, then this means they are getting ready to buy from you.
In the majority of cases they want to buy from you, if you can overcome their objections. You should welcome this with open arms – they have gone to the trouble of asking you a question which in a lot of cases narrows down to “if you can answer this for me then I am ready to buy from you”. For every 1 person who has asked a question of you there were maybe another 10, 50 or 100 who also viewed your sales page but didn’t send you an email, they didn’t send you an eBay message. These people haven’t bought from you but…..you don’t know why they haven’t bought because they didn’t get in touch with you.
This is in contrast to the person who has gone to the trouble of sending you a message asking about your product. So you should actively welcome questions from prospective buyers. What this means in practise is to act quickly and reply truthfully to their question. It does not mean wait a day or two until you have more time, or there isn’t anything on the TV that night.
The question might be simple (“can I have a discount if I buy 3 items?”) or it might be more complicated (“why should I buy from you when this similar looking product I have seen elsewhere is cheaper?”). If the question is straightforward enough for you to be able to answer it immediately do so! You’d be amazed at the number of people who will email you straight back expressing surprise and complimenting you on the speed of your response.
I keep writing this over and over again but this is a point I want to stress to you – MOST eBay sellers do NOT do this. Not only the part time eBayers who are only clearing out their attic but also many Power Sellers are guilty of waiting 2, 3 days before they send a reply to a seemingly standard question. DON’T be like this – stand out from the crowd!
Now, on the other hand if the query you have received is a little more involved and may take a while to answer what can you do? Very simple – write back to them immediately thanking them for their correspondence, state that you will look into their request and get back to them by a particular date or time. Imagine how professional that looks! Of course if you have written that you will reply within 24 hours, then make sure you do.
Tomorrow I’ll give you a working template to use when replying to customers – the essential elements you must include for your messages to be effective.