How to Sell on eBay | How to Make Money on eBay | Answer Your eBay Customer’s Question Before it is Asked

Answer Your eBay Customer’s Question Before it is Asked

November 7, 2007

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-Joli & Marshall

We are not suggesting that you learn how to read your customer’s mind, nor employ a full-time crystal ball reader. What we mean by this post’s title is that you need to anticipate questions your customer is going to ask. The only way you are going to be able to do this is through experience.

When we first started selling on eBay, we had no idea what kind of questions we were going to be asked. We soon started to get a feel for what to expect. After our first $1000+ day where we were swamped with the same questions over and over again, we decided it was time to answer our customer’s question before it got asked.

eBay has a very handy feature in your eBay Store for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). There is a custom page you can create specifically for the FAQs, and there is space for 15 of the most Frequently Asked Questions your customers may ask. The questions will also display anytime a customer goes to the Ask Seller a Question email page. Hopefully, your customer will see this FAQ section when they are starting to email you their question through eBay and see that you have already addressed their question.

The whole idea is to answer the customer’s question before they go through the trouble of typing it out and sending it to you. We have found that having the FAQ page, and thus having these questions show up on the Ask Seller a Question page, has resulted in a decrease in the volume of questions we are asked. Your FAQs will not answer every question a potential buyer has, especially if they do not bother to read your FAQs, but it definitely helps cut down on the repetitive questions.

We have also gone to the extent of duplicating the Frequently Asked Questions on our About Me page. This is just one more place that a customer might go to find that we have already addressed their question.

You may be surprised to find that a lot of potential customers will ask you a question to see how, and when, you respond. Consider this to be a test; one that you will want to pass with flying colors. If you take too long, they may move on to the next seller. Do not let this happen by delaying your response to their question. Time can be of the essence when it comes to nabbing that prospective customer.

By creating an FAQ page in your eBay Store (and by default on the Ask Seller a Question email page), as well as on your About Me page, you are taking a big step in reducing the number of repeat questions. Anything you can do to reduce your workload is going to pay off for you in the long run.

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4 Comments

Comment by jessica
2007-11-08 00:32:01

Hello again - really like your site. Watched you video and subscribed to your RSS. You posts are simple, clear, and accurate. Do you sahre anything about what you sell or your eBay Store name, etc on the site, or have you decided to keep that private? Hope to get to know you better. Jessica

Comment by Lizard Wisdom
2007-11-08 10:03:22

Hi Jessica,

Thank you for your kind compliments regarding our blog! We certainly try hard to be as simple and clear as possible. As far as being accurate, we believe it is time for someone to be more truthful about what selling on eBay really entails. It isn’t as easy as some make it seem! :shock:

We will occasionally share a little about what we do sell and what we have sold. However, we will do this as more of a case study about what we have found to work or not work, rather than as suggestions as to what you should be selling.

Finding product to sell on eBay is, in our opinion, the hardest part about running an eBay business. You will find that most sellers are very secretive about where they source their products from, because once you find a good supplier, you hope nobody else will find it. :grin:

We thank you for frequenting our blog and we look forward to seeing you around Lizard Wisdom!

 
 
Comment by eric
2008-01-16 15:21:05

Can you guys help me set up the sale of an ebook. There are numerous ebooks that i would like to resell on ebay. Im not understanding the process of setting up my own website too do it. Will that make the digital delivery? Im really confused about it. Ive bought a couple ebooks on how too do it, but they seem to skip those important steps. I need basic instructions on how to get it ready to sell on ebay.
thanks
eric

Comment by Lizard Wisdom
2008-01-16 19:34:20

Hi Eric,

We have a little experience selling e-books on eBay, though we don’t currently do it and haven’t for a while.

We used a service from a company called E-Junkie which facilitates the delivery of electronic media, including e-books. Their help section on setting up digital delivery for eBay can be found here: http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.ebay.php

We just followed their directions and did some e-book sales on eBay. The trick is to set up your account per their instructions, then the delivery of the product is automated once payment is received via PayPal.

This should give you a very good idea about how to do the digital delivery of products you want to sell on eBay.

Good luck and we hope you have many sales!

 
 

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