Buyers not leaving Feedback, how to

What is frustrating is that I do my part, they get the item fast as verified by tracking, I leave them positive feedback, but 90% of customers never leave me any positive feedback.

Is there a simple way to send them a reminder to leave feedback (politely) without having to individually message 100 people? It seems like their should be a very simple click of a button that you can use to send an automatic reminder to buyers to remember to leave feedback (like an option beside each sale in the listing).

I'm sure other sellers here can relate where you have to spend 30 minutes or an hour writing messages to every single customer dating back from 30+ days ago. It seems like a very inefficient and waste of time management. I would like to be able to have an automatic message that I create, and then just click a button to send it to each sale I made that hasn't left feedback after 30 days or so, without having to individually hand write to every person.

Does such a thing exist in ebay or does ebay yet screw sellers again by making us have to follow up with hundreds of customers?

I know that feedback rating is not counted towards seller performance, but I do believe the amount of feedbacks you have affect how high your listings show up in searches. For example, I may have sold 1,000 successful items but only 80 people left feedback so my seller feedback score is 80 and it makes me look like a small-time seller. A) my listings may not show up higher in the searches and B) sellers may see my 80 score and lack confidence in me. If 800 ppl of the 1000 left me feedback, I'm sure my 800 score would attract more business. This is what I mean.

To increase feedback, I have pre-printed reminders to leave feedback that I throw into the package. When users get their package right away and are happy, plus they see the reminder to leave feedback, they are much more likely to do it right away.

seller manager pro auto sends a reminder after 30 days

speeder33 said:

To increase feedback, I have pre-printed reminders to leave feedback that I throw into the package. When users get their package right away and are happy, plus they see the reminder to leave feedback, they are much more likely to do it right away.

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This is a good idea, similar to what restaurants do on receipts.

I do not know eBay seller's rules, but perhaps considering adding a coupon code for those who leave any feedback at all if they allow it.

oatmeal said:

What is frustrating is that I do my part, they get the item fast as verified by tracking, I leave them positive feedback, but 90% of customers never leave me any positive feedback.

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According to eBay rules no feedback = positive, and positive or negative feedback has no affect on your account standing other than other people can read the feedback. Also anyone who isn't 100% satisfied is 100x more likely to leave a negative if bugged about it, so my policy is to "let the sleeping dogs lie"

Yes, why should a customer be forced to leave a feedback. I for one am very picky, so most of the time will land up giving neutral reviews and then the seller stands hounding me, so I avoid it completely.

globalseopoint said:

Yes, why should a customer be forced to leave a feedback. I for one am very picky, so most of the time will land up giving neutral reviews and then the seller stands hounding me, so I avoid it completely.

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One thing to mitigate this is putting "if you are happy with our product please leave us feedback. If you unsatisfied for any reason, please contact us anytime at __________" This lets the happy buyers leave you positive feedback and stops unhappy users from leaving negative feedback. Instead, I have found many of them contact me first because of this note.

Seller manager pro was the answer I was looking for I guess. I have a "basic" store. Not sure if I have seller manager pro or if I have to pay more fees for that feature?

Also, I agree in not hounding customers to leave feedback, but I'm talking about just asking them ONCE and that's it. I don't call asking someone ONE TIME as hounding. But it is bothersome for sellers to have to ask every customer one time each if you have over 100 customers a month. That's a lot of tedious messaging and just thought there would be a smarter way of doing it. I guess Seller Manager Pro is what I was looking for.

What I have even found is that many buyers don't even read their messages. Many times I ask them questions and they never ever reply. For example, when shipping out packages, it would be very helpful for every buyer to also include a phone number in their shipping address. The main reason is because sometimes it gets held up at customs or the delivery carrier needs to text or call to clear something up. There are so many great reasons why adding a phone number to the shipping address would come in handy. Of course, I would never use that phone number to exploit them in some spam/cold calling advertisement or schemes or sell that information to others, but unfortunately, many out there would and that's probably why buyers don't want to give their phone numbers.

oatmeal said:

Also, I agree in not hounding customers to leave feedback, but I'm talking about just asking them ONCE and that's it.

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I think you're missing the point here. An unhappy buyer is 100x more likely to go out of their way to leave a negative vs a happy buyer going out of their way to leave a positive. (Especially if you are a dropshipper) You should want least customer interaction as possible. You want people to give you their money, take the merchandise, and leave you alone. You don't want to have to provide an hour of your time doing customer service to keep a customer you make two bucks off happy. That's a total waste of your time. Your time should be spent on sourcing, listing, and shipping, not baby sitting customers.

oatmeal said:

For example, when shipping out packages, it would be very helpful for every buyer to also include a phone number in their shipping address.

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Why would I want to give you my phone number? So I can get on some mailing list?

oatmeal said:

The main reason is because sometimes it gets held up at customs or the delivery carrier needs to text or call to clear something up.

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That's your job. The seller is responsible to get the product to the buyer's door. (Especially if you are a dropshipper) Why would I buy something off you and find out that the product is coming from China? Do you think I'll go out of my way to leave you a positive feedback if I find out that something is coming from China when customs department calls me?

oatmeal said:

There are so many great reasons why adding a phone number to the shipping address would come in handy.

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None of these reasons is for the buyer though considering that it's 100% seller's responsibility to get the item to the delivery address.

Tom, I think you are making a lot of assumptions to prove your point (which if the assumptions were true, you are right).
For example Tom, in the month of May, I made 50 sales. 40 of them had tracking numbers. I followed up on the tracking myself to see if it got delivered. They all did successfully. I only got 5 feedback from them. What happened to all the other people who received their items and then didn't bother to leave feedback? I don't want to hound them and I won't because I don't have time to spend doing that. But that also means then my feedback score remains low, and that directly affects how high my listings appear in the search. Once or if someone finds my listing, they might see that I only have 70 feedbacks total at 100% but not feel as confident to buy as oppose to someone who has 200 or 500 score at 100%.

All I'm saying is, buyers who just forget or are lazy to leave feedback DOES affect the seller's reputation and business. Since Ebay is a system based on feedback score and seller performance ratings, then these things are IMPORTANT to sellers and we need them in order for our business to grow. That's all I'm saying. There should be an automated way that ebay provides to remind buyers to leave positive feedback if they received their product in fine order (such as a pop up box that opens up once they login so that it's the first thing they see and they have to deal with it to close the box).

Nevermind all the assumptions you are making about this and that, if I didn't do something right. I'm talking about all the ones that were 100% success. These feedbacks that are never received are wasted and go down the drain. Once again, this system (ebay) is based on reputation and reputation comes from feedback scores. If ebay didn't have any such thing as feedback scores, I wouldn't give a rats ass about them. When you go to your local shopping mall and buy an apple product or samsung product, does it have a feedback score beside the price tag? No. It doesn't. That's because in the real world, reputation is based on other things and not a number of feedback scores that Apple has or Samsung has. Ebay is based on this. That's the only way customers can know if they want to trust in this seller. How many feedbacks at what percentage do they have? What's their seller performance rating? Customers on ebay have no other way of knowing who you are as a seller and if they can trust you.

Feedbacks are very vital to any person who is offering services online. They are like your selling point and it is the reason as to why it is a good move for them to leave. The best way you can do is design and place a reminder on every package that you offer, sometimes people just forget and therefore reminding them will help. Be sure to also create a good rapport with the clients so that leaving a review is like a must to them. Give them an experience.

oatmeal said:

Tom, I think you are making a lot of assumptions to prove your point (which if the assumptions were true, you are right).

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Okay, let's see if my assumptions are correct

oatmeal said:

For example Tom, in the month of May, I made 50 sales. 40 of them had tracking numbers.

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You realize that this is below acceptable eBay standards, right? eBay standards are 90% tracking #'s verified within shipment window provided in the listing and 97% for Top Rated.

oatmeal said:

I only got 5 feedback from them. What happened to all the other people who received their items and then didn't bother to leave feedback? I don't want to hound them and I won't because I don't have time to spend doing that.

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? You know that feedback does not matter other than what other users can see, right?

oatmeal said:

But that also means then my feedback score remains low, and that directly affects how high my listings appear in the search.

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I'm almost 100% sure that sellthrough and defect rates and account strength matter way more than feedback for product listing.

oatmeal said:

Once or if someone finds my listing, they might see that I only have 70 feedbacks total at 100% but not feel as confident to buy as oppose to someone who has 200 or 500 score at 100%.

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But by maximizing increasing the total number of feedbacks left by reminding customers to leave feedbacks for every transaction, you dramatically increase the chances of receiving negative feedback which is far worse. Having 70 feedbacks at 100% is WAY better than having 200 feedbacks at 98%, which is the point I'm trying to get through to you and you seem not to be getting.

oatmeal said:

All I'm saying is, buyers who just forget or are lazy to leave feedback DOES affect the seller's reputation and business. Since Ebay is a system based on feedback score and seller performance ratings, then these things are IMPORTANT to sellers and we need them in order for our business to grow.

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You know that customer feedbacks stopped counting toward defect rate as of February 2016, right? Customer feedbacks are FAR less important in the big picture than you are imagining.

oatmeal said:

There should be an automated way that ebay provides to remind buyers to leave positive feedback if they received their product in fine order (such as a pop up box that opens up once they login so that it's the first thing they see and they have to deal with it to close the box).

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Since eBay is set up to cull sellers with low ratings in relation to other sellers, you realize that this puts you as a drop shipper in a worse condition than someone like me who ships direct, right?

oatmeal said:

Nevermind all the assumptions you are making about this and that, if I didn't do something right.

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So let me get this straight. You are not being hurt by the feedback system as is and you want them to impose a system that will make it HARDER for people like yourself? Dude, stop playing the victim. People not leaving feedback is not something that is materially harming you.

as a rule of thumb 1 in 3 people leave feedback, which is ok. what you can try is sending out automated email with every order politely reminding your customers to leave feedback as it is very important to your business, etc.

I wonder if a drip reminder wouldn't be too annoying. Maybe send 3 reminders automated and see if it helps. I do a lot of email campaigns and about 80 percent of the responses and actions come from emails after the first one. Just an outside the box thought.

If you get 20% feedback, I'd be happy. That is the average. I, personally, do not like the idea of bugging people with reminders. The sale is done. Item delivered. Transaction over. The best practice I have found is leave Positive FB immediately upon printing of shipping label. And nothing cute, just business-like Thank you.

jimbob2888 said:

If you get 20% feedback, I'd be happy. That is the average. I, personally, do not like the idea of bugging people with reminders. The sale is done. Item delivered. Transaction over. The best practice I have found is leave Positive FB immediately upon printing of shipping label. And nothing cute, just business-like Thank you.

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Should be A/B tested to see if we can get higher then 20%

I was curious so I just counted up my feedback rate; 44% for the month of june with 156 transactions on my main account.

Ive included a section under shipping that basically says feedback is important, and once you receive your item and are happy please leave us possitive feedback, and we will do the same. I used to wait to give feedback to the buyers but I now just give feedback as soon as tracking is uploaded. Apparently people like this.

I sell virtual goods wich takes 10 days to complete.
I always when pming about finishing delivery ask about feedback. Simple -
ps. I will be very thanksfull if You dont forget about feedback.
Thanks in advance.

That way gives me 73% of feedback left (all positive).
If You realy need feedback - Meybe try pming after sucesful delivery sending thanks for purchase.