Coming Soon: Email Response Rates
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Good afternoon, fine sellers! I wanted to drop everyone a line about a new bit of info we will be providing to our buyers as of next week: the email response rate and turnaround time for questions asked to sellers. As you can see in the prototype image I've included at right, we will soon begin tabulating the percentage of item questions that a seller has responded to, so a buyer can get a sense for how likely a given seller is to respond to their question about an item. The idea is that active, engaged sellers are recognized for their participation, while absentee sellers become more apparent.
Our ultimate goal is to provide our users as much transparency as possible into a seller's level of engagement on Bonanza. Sellers that consistently respond to buyer inquiries in a timely fashion should be recognized and rewarded for that.
Here are some of the finer points on how the new system will work:
Why is this necessary?
A buyer who asks a question and hears crickets in return is a buyer who has had a bad experience on Bonanza. We want to provide as much transparency as possible to potential buyers about which sellers are likely to respond to them, so those sellers get the credit they deserve.
What is the system measuring, exactly?
We will be measuring the percentage of buyer questions that get answered. This includes only whether the seller responded to the initial question that a buyer asked about an item (not whether the seller responded to follow up bmails, which may or may not be questions).
If a user sends a seller a message from any page other than the item detail page that is not counted, since it is assumed not to be a question about a particular item. We only count the bmail as a "question" if it was generated by clicking on the "ask seller a question" button on the item detail page (next to the "Add to cart" button).
What if the message sent from the item detail page isn't a question?
Again, general-purpose bmails are not counted toward the "email response rate" percentage -- only bmails that are sent from the "Ask seller a question" button. We presume that in the vast majority of cases where the buyer clicks that button, they are indicating that they have a question they would like to have answered.
How long do I have to respond to a buyer inquiry?
If a message has not been responded to within three days, it will be assumed as a "non-response." If the seller subsequently responds to the buyer's question after three days have passed, we will change the "non-response" to a response, and increase the seller's email response rate. Though the "average email turnaround time" will factor in the average time it takes the seller to respond. If the seller averages 7 days to respond to buyer questions, some buyers will be dissuaded from asking questions in the first place.
Will this take account of my past excellent/terrible record of responding to buyer inquiries?
No, our response rate will begin tabulating as of next week. Until you have been asked a question by a buyer, the "email response rate" and "average response time" will be hidden.
What if I'm on vacation or unavailable to answer emails?
That's fine -- you can put your booth on vacation at any time. This will only measure whether you respond to inquiries from buyers about items that are currently online. The assumption is that if a seller has items available for sale in their booth, then the seller should be available to answer questions about those items.
Other questions?
Feel free to ask below, we will attempt to address them!
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74 responses to Coming Soon: Email Response Rates
Putting your booth on vacation
If you go to your “Sell > Advanced Options” page you will see a setting to put your booth on vacation. Putting your booth on vacation will put the items on hold but it will not delete them. Then when you return you can go to your “Sell” window and there will be a link to put your booth back online.
THUMBS UP!
Good Thinking
thanks guys!!
I LIKE !
Will sellers who respond quickly as opposed to dead beat sellers get a boost in search as a reward for providing the buyer with an excellent bonanza buying experience?
No plans for that AntiquesRGreat. But sellers who respond quickly to their emails will most likely see an increase in conversions based on buyers favoring sellers who answer their questions promptly
Awesome!
Okay so what if you do such a great job of writing descriptions that buyers don’t need to ask questions.
What will appear for response time? if anything at all? Will that hurt my chance of a sale? If they compare lets say Sofy’s booth against mine and she has a response rate and I don’t? How will this affect me?
Sellers who have not had a question asked will not show anything. The stat will only show once a question has been asked.
So for the sellers who have never had a buyer ask a question how is that information going to work for them? Will it show as 0 percent?
Sellers who have not had a question asked will not show anything. The stat will only show once a question has been asked.
If a buyer goes to one booth and sees the stats and then goes to another booth that does not have the stats, doesn’t that give the seller who has the stats favoritism? I know that I would wonder why one seller had the stats and one did not.
You should start out with every seller the same, then adjust their stats as time goes by. That is the only way to give every seller the same chance … if they don’t respond, lower their rating.
It will only show that one seller has answered their emails in a timely or not so timely fashion. All sellers start out with the same, nothing shows. It is not until they are asked a question that the stats show. Having a starting rating of perfect could give a buyer the wrong impression and result in a not so good experience for a buyer if they do not get their question responded to in a timely manner.
Perhaps a (hover over) pop up window should be place educating the buyer that no stats doesn’t mean that this seller is a risk as opposed to a seller with stats.
Will Bonanza be alerted to and suspend booths whose owners routinely leave inquiries unanswered?
Most likely not sparkemotion. We do not require that sellers answer emails but you can bet that the seller will be missing opportunities for sales by not responding to product inquiries.
Is there anything in place to see if sellers are asking questions of other sellers to help them get a better ranking?
Good question. Bill and Jordan both come from a gaming background so you can bet that we have many safeguards in place to avoid this from happening.
I guess I am the only buyer who would wonder why one seller has stats and another seller does not. You don’t think that the buyer would go for the seller who has stats? I would.
I answer questions within an hour because I have my iPhone with me at all times but a buyer doesn’t know that if I have no stats showing.
Hey Shars,
It’s a good question, but based on the number of emails that get sent on Bonz every day (thousands) I think it will take very little time until most/all of our sellers have had the opportunity to answer a question. Especially with a booth as popular as yours, I’d imagine you get asked questions routinely?
Having a one hour response time would be extremely impressive…! Don’t expect to see many sellers that have that kind of quick response, but it will be fun to see how the response times differ for folks with mobile devices
@ellie, IMHO, that would be a difficult ‘call’. As many of us buy from each other, and ask questions prior to purchasing, I would think that would be quite difficult and extremely time consuming to monitor.
Is ‘one day’ the shortest amount of time that will be indicated? As many online shoppers are impulse buyers,to some, waiting for one day to get a quick response might turn them off. Is there an “under one day” or “instant” response that will show up as well?
By the way, GREAT idea!
The response times will be displayed in hours or days. So if you respond within one hour on average, buyers will know that and have more confidence when asking you a question.
I think this could be great, however, new Bonzers who just come in from GPS, may not even notice or understand it. In that case, it may not help at all.
Having a low number of hours response time is good, although with the various time zones, it can surely look better for some sellers. I am on Bonz time, so if I wake up to a question from someone on the east coast, or in Europe, it looks like I’m not as fast as Shars!
I use the ASQ to message sellers often, if I see an error in their booth, or when I’m helping to critique listings. I’ll have to start using a different method to contact them, because they’ll either have an awesome response rate, or a terrible one. I certainly don’t expect someone to respond to a dozen or more bmails in one day, just pointing out an error or suggestion.
Interesting concept!
Can we opt out?
On the surface it looks great. But I just went back and looked through my messages. Every one that came through from ask a seller a question button were from buyers wanting me to make an exception to my booth policies. I really don’t want to encourage people to ask me to change my policies. All my other bmail was from other friendly sellers, thank goodness or I would dread getting messages!
We do not have a way to opt out of this at this time. If it were me, I would send a quick note back to them thanking them for their suggestion/no thank you or something like that
Cards, do you not answer those questions? If you do, it will show you respond quickly.
Most NEVER do I get questions through the Ask the seller button. Everyone always bmails me. UGH! I am lucky to get a question that way maybe 1 out of 100 or so questions. Sure do hope that 1 does not occur while I am away for a day or so without internet service.
Is there a system in place so sellers don’t game the system, such as asking questions on their own items (haha) or having one id ask a question on that same person’s listings under another id/booth?
We do have systems in place to prevent gaming. We are also committed to making improvements to make sure it continues to not be gamed.
Also, I know my sold listings still appear in Google. If my booth is on vacation, will the sold item’s listing page be non-viewable, thus not allowing a buyer to click the “send the seller a message” button?
Sold items will show regardless of your booth status. Our email response rates will only include messages on active items.
Someone made an excellent suggestion on the forum thread about this. It was to show the “last time seller checked in” on the front as well. This would be SO helpful, and perhaps more so to buyers. I have been caught up in buying here, from a seller who had not checked in for a long time. I paid for the item, never received it, and had to file a claim for a refund. I had not remembered to check the last time seller signed in area.
Remember there are many more sellers who buy without questions, than those who ask questions. It would be so helpful for the buyer to see right away, the last time the buyer actually was in his/her store.
I agree with MTT that the last visit should be more visible.
I love this idea. I wonder, after reading all this if some people read previous posts.
loves birds, Mark pops in and inserts answers after we’ve read the post, so some may not see those added in responses if they don’t go back and re-read the whole comment section.
I agree with MTT too. Those who have their profile set to private are hiding the last logged on date. I know that I will always email first if the seller hasn’t logged on in a while. If I can’t see that date then I won’t buy at all for fear the booth is abandoned.
As for the new feature, It might be interesting. I know I have purchased a couple of times from one seller, love the product but hate the lack of communication. I have asked questions and made requests and have never received one response. Maybe this feature would prod this seller to respond to her customers.
LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. where will this be displayed? Needs to PROMINENT and someplace where a customer would never think to look.
2. Also would like to see last day signed in , in the same area.. transparency.
3. 3 days to answer a question seems to be a lot..if we want to be the best in customer service sorten the time to at least 2 days. If someone can’t answer a message in 3 days they should have put their booth on vacation.
4. Is it possible to start getting time stamps on our bmail? I hate not knowing when someone tried to contact me..usually have to back to my email to see when it came in.
5. Gladys.. the race is on girlfriend
1. Same place your feedback rating shows (see Bill’s “seller information” screen shot above).
2. Suggestion noted.
4. This suggestion is gaining interest (noted on our side).
Excellent!!! We get good marks (in a round about way) for speedy service. In the future this will help out when I am out and about shopping, too
AntiquesRGreat said "Okay so what if you do such a great job of writing descriptions that buyers don’t need to ask questions.
What will appear for response time? if anything at all? Will that hurt my chance of a sale? If they compare lets say Sofy’s booth against mine and she has a response rate and I don’t? How will this affect me?"
Wow, she made me think on that one lol. Any way of maybe putting when we were last logged onto Bonanza in a more prominent area such as where you plan to put our response time to customer emails?
I try to do all descriptions where the buyer will not have questions. I’ve only ever gotten maybe 5 emails the whole time of being on Bonanza and those questions were about what I would charge to ship to an international country or if I’d break apart the listing and sell only one item, etc.
It does concern me a little bit in the fact that a buyer might visit one seller’s booth and see a good response time and then visit mine and see no response time.
Is there something Bonanza can do to help make the ones shine that are also here everyday but will not yet have a response time rating on customer emails?
Thanks. I do like what you all are trying to do
Quoting Bill’s above response to Shar: “It’s a good question, but based on the number of emails that get sent on Bonz every day (thousands) I think it will take very little time until most/all of our sellers have had the opportunity to answer a question.”
thought of 2 more
1. Instead of leaving some people blank how abt a note that no questions have been asked of the seller at this time (or something to that effect)
2. Have to do something abt people that put their settings as private.. I don’t see that as something that should be available to any seller..we need the transparency! PLUS when set to private date last seen is hidden..pretty neat if you just want to use Bonz as a holding tank for your items
1. Noted
2. The information will show on the item detail page (upper right corner). So a users profile being private will not matter.
I was the one on the other forum thread who said:
I think the Last Seen Date should be visible on the booth page, not the profile page. In addition, it should show in each of the listings. I think most sales go direct to individual listings and not booth views or even profile views.
But last seen should be visible right up under the sellers name in each listing and let the buyer make the decision whether they want to shop with them based on that. After all, that’s the whole reason behind the new email block…We want people to know we are here on a regular basis.
Plus, as Froggie pointed out there, Many sellers have private settings for their profile, so you have no way of seeing when they were there last.
We bmail each other all day long using the Ask Seller a Question…how can Bonanza weed out actual buyer inquiries? Sounds like an accountability nightmare. Though I appreciate the effort being made to raise confidence by showing a seller is active here on the site.
OK, I have no android phone(can’t afford one), and sometimes I am out hunting all day for things to sell. If you post hours, instead of by the day, I will be sorely lagging on some days. I always check my booths when I get up, and when I come home. Not liking that I will have to check in hourly. I have other things to do.
Here are the two posts I did in the forums on the subject:
I have to go with the Last Seen option instead. While I always answer questions and quickly, they are too few and far between for my stats to be making me look like a deadbeat seller while others are being shown to be responsive to buyer questions.
So, if you’re not going to put everyone on the same POSITIVE status from the get-go, then why not just use the Last Seen date instead? It is highly unfair for those of us who’ve been spinning our wheels to get our Bonz booths noticed only to be degraded by some NEW stat that doesn’t take into account past activities, which could potentially hurt our already dismal sales.
It sure sounds like it would have been a LOT easier to move the Last Seen date to the main booth page and within listings than to create a whole new potentially problematic tabulating program. Couldn’t that time have been better spent on, say, getting the drop-down lists for sizes done for women’s clothing… you know, your favorite category? LOL
Not only that, but what happens to those of us who are used to using the ASQ link to help fellow sellers with individual listings? Are we going to be punished in some way for doing so out of habit now? I’m sorry, but this just sounds like a very bad idea all around.
____________________________________________
I’m not necessarily suggesting everyone start out at 100%. I’m just trying to make the same point as Shars. If a buyer sees the stat in one booth, but not another, then what sort of an impression is that going to give the buyer?
Like I said, I’m here ALL the time and would answer questions FAST. However, I don’t get that many questions. I think I’ve had a mere handful in the 2.5 years I’ve been here. Could that be because I provide detailed descriptions? Why would I want a tabulating system that doesn’t take that into account? Maybe I should leave some info out just so a customer will ask a question. NOT!
Plus, how long am I going to be made to look like I’m less than some other seller who is already doing better than I sales-wise? I’m trying to build a business here, not be potentially ignored simply because maybe I provide detailed descriptions that don’t require questions.
I still say putting the Last Seen date in that spot would be far more effective and without issues and glitches that I foresee popping up — and that system can’t be gamed, so no oversight required. Plus, it would put everyone on the same level rather than playing favorites and, thereby, having a negative impact on sales for those who ARE active.
Maybe if they at least put the Last Seen date and a note that no questions have been asked of the seller in the meantime, I would feel better about it. However, even then, it doesn’t put us on the same level or take into account past activities or, as in my case, the reason why we may not be asked any questions.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for letting our customers know who is and isn’t an active seller. I just think this system is unfair because it plays favorites among those sellers who ARE active and it can give the wrong impression when it shouldn’t. It’s difficult enough to get sales here without being made to look like you’re less than someone else.
What PurpleIris said…..
I’ve been on here since 2010 and I don’t remember ever getting a question asked via the Ask the Seller button… My buyers just buy. It doesn’t seem fair that I would show no Stats for response time.
A Last Seen Here would be much more informative and more understandable by a buyer. And much less work on Bonz’s end.
The last seen metric would only tell a buyer the last time the seller logged into the site. Maybe the seller has not had to logged into the site for a week for whatever reason (vacation, etc), or maybe because they have had no inquiries. It would seem that the most important stat (compared to when they last logged in) to a buyer would be an email response time. That is a more targeted metric of how the seller responds when called upon. That would help a buyer make a better decision vs. showing the last time a seller logged in.
Plus, maybe if Bonz would require its sellers to log in every now and then and suspend those accounts that don’t get logged into, we wouldn’t have this problem to begin with. We are losing sales because we are losing buyers to deadbeat sellers. That I totally agree with you on.
What I don’t agree with is how you’re handling it. There are much better and easier ways than this system that isn’t all-inclusive. There are far too many factors that aren’t being accounted for here and it could very well hurt our sales even more.
What’s worse is that it seems to reward those who could be doing a better job on their descriptions. No offense intended towards those who do get questions. I know how easy it is to overlook something for even those of us who do try to cover everything, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of products. Plus, I also understand how and why some are under the impression that less is better.
No, I’m sorry…I just can’t get behind this particular feature. Especially when there’s a much better and easier way to have a more positive impact all around and not just for some.
As a buyer, I believe it would be most helpful to see the last date a seller checked in prominently displayed on the item page.
I am more concerned with purchasing and knowing if the seller is there and active to ship the item …more than I’m concerned about how quickly I’ll receive a reply to a question.
If I saw that a seller is actively on the site by the last date checked in, it would tell me everything I need to know…whether feeling confident that I’ll receive a timely reply or making the purchase.
love the idea love questions and even love phone calls lol so my next question can be to Bonanza
can be a promotion as like tv commercial about BONANZA ?
In 3 years I think I have had 5 or maybe 6 “questions for seller”. [One was how the heck do I work this cart thingy? ..another, how do I buy 2 items on here …I want that other one, too?] I think the last question was last summer.
I have had the ask seller system used by other sellers but not about buying, in several cases to tell me that the item has been included in some HPL or just a comment.
Two of the 6 actual buyer questions came thru my e-mail that I have posted so that would not count for the rating. Every dang one was answered within that day or hour.
The average time spread between buyer questions for me is about 6 months. Others may be getting 1000’s a day, I’m getting about 2 a year. I try to leave no stone unturned in my descriptions, so all of the questions I have diligently fielded were for details that could not have been anticipated/answered in the description [and 2 of those were about Bonanza buying system failures].
I agree with Purple Iris and others – the emphasis should be on availability and presence – the last log-in – and not the rate of speedy reply since those of us who don’t get questions, but just simple straightforward sales should not be made to look like slackers.
Actually, as I think about it, the rate of reply to SALES should factor into this speedy reply data. If there is a sale, how soon does the seller ACKNOWLEDGE the sale with a “message” and/or shipment data. [altho a snag in that idea is that a seller can reply to a sale thru the PayPal or Google payment notice in their e-mail. I always acknowledge a sale immediately one way or the other…]
I have “asked seller a question” in a few instances and got no reply …or a week later …or only after asking again a few days later. It is very frustrating. I didn’t buy in either case and it left a bad impression. So I can see what you are trying to do, altho I don’t think any “shaming” factor will have an effect on the true miscreants anyway. Just leaves a bad impression with a buyer before they even try.
Do you really want to be saying in essence: “Here we have this Bonanza seller with great items who we support on our site, but don’t get too excited about something you may want because this seller doesn’t.”
I respond to messages in a good time, so am not concerned persay. I do see a potential pitfall.
Sometimes a seller will receive a followup message that doesn’t necessitate a response. An example might be a thankyou, or a customer acknowledgement of some sort that just doesn’t require a response. “Their” message being the cut off point of the back and forth process.
It IS possible to become a PIA from too much messaging. How are “these non responses” going to be factored into the mix?
I very RARELY ask a question before I buy something. Case in point, I recently tried to buy some soap from a booth that was listed in a rush. The seller never sent it, and when finally contacted the seller said they had closed the booth4 months prior. The “Ask Question” thing would not have helped at all. “Seller last checked in” MAY have helped, except the seller HAD logged into Bonanza two weeks prior to the rush.
I don’t at all like the concept of hours. Some sellers here have full-time jobs outside the home, and surely we are not asking them to cheat their employers to keep checking to see if there is a question to be answered on Bonanza?
Days — okay, because we will presuppose that people do not generally work 24 hours a day at their ‘outside’ jobs.
Just my opinion, of course.
Carolyn
I agree that it shouldn’t be narrowed down in hours. If your going to do that than you might as well included minutes and seconds. Most of us do have employment outside of the home.
But since I am logged in all day and check many times I guess I’ll be ok.
I like the “last seen” being on the item page & more exposed. I had put 2 items (dated coupons) in my cart until I remembered to check & at the time it had been 2 weeks since they were on.
I didn’t purchase them but now have a cart on the top of my page I don’t know how to get off.
Well alrighty peeps! You need to start asking me some questions so I can show how fast I answer, LOL.
Seriously, this sounds like a good idea…. but I rarely ever get any questions asked because I do try to include every possible detail in my listings that I think somebody might want to ask about and I include pictures of every angle or side of the item. So after a while, it will look like I don’t have a track record of answering questions after people with less descriptions get a bunch of questions. Of course I could leave out details and hope I get asked about them, but that’s just a waste of time and not good listing practice either.
I am here everyday and some times hours at a time, so I can answer questions really quickly, problems is, I think my descriptions are too good and I never get any questions. so now I will not have the ratings showen on my page. really not fair at all….I think the last seen here is a much better approach if it was more visable. I read already sellers talking about this in the thread and going to ask each other questions to get a good rating… again not fair…just saying not whining…
Even with descriptions that are 100% complete, buyers will still contact you, just to gauge your response to their questions, even if those questions are already covered in the description. It helps them feel more comfortable when purchasing online.
You guys Rock Bonanza Will Rule the Earth~ Ovyee jewels
Another question
when a customer does ask a question I usually respond to the EMAIL from Bonz, as it seems to actually make it back to the customer. Now will that count or do we have to respond directly from our messages on Bonz which has a much higher rate of not being opened by the customer (that make sense?)
We send a copy of the same message sent via Bonanza to your private registered email address. Answering the message there will count, because you have to be logged in to your Bonanza account to respond.
FANtastic! You guyz are really on TOP of things…this will relieve a LOT of anxiety for me, not knowing a Seller. AWEsome idea!
Purlpeiris For President!!!
At first I loved this idea, then as I was reading I too had more questions then Purpleiris said it all!!!
I’ve been here since there was only 7000 people and been through all the changes, and probably have only had a dozen sales and I don’t recal any questions. Though I’m here everyday, and work my ass off to be noticed, only to again get droped outta loop because no one asks questions. I understand that you guys work hard to make Bonanza the Best Market Place, but with all the techy stuff it puts off older people ( 50+) that don’t understand some of the ins and outs and they are just wanting to buy.
LOL Coins…I don’t think I’d want that position! Somebody would probably try to knock me off for making huge changes that don’t feed the pockets of the already wealthy and greedy. LOL
Mark said: “Even with descriptions that are 100% complete, buyers will still contact you, just to gauge your response to their questions, even if those questions are already covered in the description. It helps them feel more comfortable when purchasing online.”
Really? That would be true if they actually do ask a question. Plus, they can get a good feel for us as a seller by our complete descriptions, last log-in date, and even our profile and endorsements, if they find them.
As many have stated, many of us rarely get questions. We’ll get even fewer questions and sales when somebody with a less than 100% complete description gets a good rating for answering questions that should have already been answered in the description.
So, in essence, you would be rewarding those sellers who provide very little info in descriptions and making those sellers who work hard on their descriptions look like slackers. So, Mark, as a buyer not knowing the inner workings of Bonz, what impression would you get when comparing two sellers — one with a 100% rating for answering questions and one with NO rating or even a statement that says no questions have been asked? Who would you choose to buy from?
ACTIVE sellers answer questions, if they ever get any. So, wouldn’t it be safe to say that providing the last log-in date would suffice in letting a customer know that a seller is active? Why make some of your hard-working sellers look like slackers when many of the ones getting good ratings for answering questions are those who don’t work very hard on their descriptions?
Again, no offense intended towards those who do get questions. We all know how widespread the problem is with insufficient descriptions — and now it looks those sellers are going to be rewarded for being a slacker while the rest of us who don’t get many questions because we do work hard are going to be the ones made to look like slackers. How bass ackwards is that? LOL
Copy and pasted earlier response to the question about putting the metric for last log in vs email response time: The last seen metric would only tell a buyer the last time the seller logged into the site. Maybe the seller has not had to logged into the site for a week for whatever reason (vacation, etc), or maybe because they have had no inquiries. It would seem that the most important stat (compared to when they last logged in) to a buyer would be an email response time. That is a more targeted metric of how the seller responds when called upon. That would help a buyer make a better decision vs. showing the last time a seller logged in.
I agree with BotanicalBookshop. When buying I look at the last date checked in and also their feedback. I just hate to see the site get more complicated for a few deadbeats. There must be some way that staff and monitor those that never check in or have really bad feedback and issue cautions.
I also have more questions about combining shipping, etc. than descriptions.
Also just because a seller responds to a question doesn’t mean that it is helpful. I recently asked two sellers about sizes and fiber content and from one got a sarcastic answer, “look at the description” (read it 10 times,no fiber) & the other answered but didn’t answer my questions, just quoted their description back to me.
We do monitor users who have not logged in for “X” amount of time who have items live on the site. We do receive reports at support with some who have managed to slip through our system and we address each and every one of them. So please, if you happen to see a user who has not logged in for a abnormal amount of time, let us know, we would be happy to check them out and make sure all is well.
Maybe the ‘hours’ response time could just say – responded in less than 24 hours, or something, to not make it look like you aren’t here 24/7 – for those who do work, and to account for different time zones.
I could ask JustSparkles a question in the early evening, Bonz time, but she will just have gone to bed, in Greece. That’s unfair to her to expect an answer in an hour or two.
“That is a more targeted metric of how the seller responds when called upon. That would help a buyer make a better decision vs. showing the last time a seller logged in.â€
You’re not answering my questions. Plus, for many, your idea of a targeted metric is completely irrelevant to us and does NOT account for who SHOULD and SHOULDN’T get rewarded.
I can’t tell you the last time I got a question from a buyer. So, with this system, I’m going to be sitting there for months and months waiting for a question to be asked so I, too, can look like I’m a responsive seller. All while those who don’t have very good descriptions are made to look better than me and those like me.
So, Mark, can you for one second put yourself in our shoes and stop with the irrelevant statistics? Look at this from a different angle. How do you think this is going to effect the sales of many of your active and hard-working sellers when they’re being made to look like slackers?
“How do you think this is going to effect the sales of many of your active and hard-working sellers when they’re being made to look like slackers?” If there are no questions asked, then the stats will show as they always have. Buyers are going to focus on what they can see. If a buyer comes to your item detail page, they are going to review your feedback. If there is also an email response time, they are going to review that too. If the email response rate is not there then they are going to focus on what is there. So your feedback (which yours is a most deserving 100%) will become the stat that they are drawn too.
I do not like the concept of hours either. I’d rather it just be simple an say “responded within 24 hours.” That is a good norm for internet sales. I hear “within 24 hours” all the time. It is widely accepted. Let’s not rock the boat and set unreasonable expectations for the site at a later date. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.
Thank you for all your comments and feedback. We are going to close the blog for commenting. Please review all comments above (we responded to a bunch of questions) and review Bill’s main blog above. If you are still not finding an answer to a question you may have, please contact us at support so we can help.
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A couple modifications we’ll be making in response to the concerns about emails that aren’t received:
@ If a question has gone unanswered for one day, we’ll send a reminder email to the seller to ensure they heard about the email
@ We will soon offer the ability to get notified about your incoming messages via SMS. How high tech is that?
Thanks again for the many ideas to help us craft this as perfectly as possible.
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