When Treesizeverse sells handbags, like this one, he never asks for feedback
Every few weeks, I see a familiar forum post on Etsy. It always has a title along the lines of “getting buyers to leave feedback,” or “should I ask buyers to leave feedback?” I have seen similar forum posts on other websites, such as Folksy.
I know that in the online shopping world, positive feedback is the most powerful tool for building a shop’s legitimacy. Negative feedback early in a shop’s life is the kiss of death. This goes back to the days when Ebay was first founded.
Luckily, most feedback is positive. However, attracting feedback is difficult. There are several reasons for this. First, it takes a significant amount of time to receive an item after it has been ordered – usually, a week for domestic shipping and several weeks for international. During that time, the thought of leaving feedback might leave the customer’s mind.
In addition, many people who buy from online sites are not regular users. They might set up an account in order to buy one item. This person will most likely not return to their account until they want to buy something again, which might be months or even years later. My Ebay account use is a perfect example. I buy something from Ebay about once a year and by the time I sign on again to buy something, leaving feedback just doesn’t come to my mind. In some cases, when users want to buy something from the same online shop again, they will have forgotten their username and will create a new account.
Hounding these people to leave feedback is not professional. When you buy something from a major store, are you hounded to leave feedback over and over again? No. You might receive a form once, but after that, they leave you alone. Pestering a customer is a good way to make sure they won’t shop from you again.
Furthermore, it is rude to use someone’s personal email address to ask for feedback. Not only does this come off as desperate, which is never good, it also comes off as spam, which everyone hates!
I realize that when you first start selling online, the desire for feedback is overpowering. Asking someone to leave feedback is not the right course of action. There are better ways to improve your rating than to harass customers for feedback. Be patient and in time, your feedback score will go up as long as you deliver a good product in a polite way.
Posted by Silver Drops Designs Blog
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