Long story short, I work for a company handling our Amazon and eBay account and I always try to respond to messages on my Amazon iOS app within 5-10 minutes… any time of the day including weekends. I feel like I might be overstressing myself but I feel like there really isn’t any other choice because otherwise customers might file a A-to-Z claim or leave negative seller feedback if I don’t.
So I’m curious, do you make it a priority to respond ASAP or do you just wait until the next day to respond to them all?
It’s on the top ten list of things to do, but I’m not running over a group of small children or get up at 2:19AM on a Sunday morning to respond. I’ve got 24 hours, so if the customer needs to wait a few minutes or even twelve hours, it isn’t the end of the world.
You needn’t have a coronary providing great Customer Service.
We monitor and respond every day but do not stress to respond withing 5 - 10 minutes. If we are mowing the yard and it takes 3 hours, then the email waits 3 hours. When we go to bed, then it waits till we wake up. We just make sure we do not go over 12 hours (even though we are allowed up to 24 hours). Our average is probably under 2 hours and seems to be just fine with the customers.
I would say so, yes.
When I am in the office, I respond right away, as soon as I see the message and find the correct answer, and have a moment to spare. When I am out of the office, I make sure to check periodically in case something comes up that needs to be dealt with before I get back to the office, but I don’t feel remotely guilty if 15 hours go by between when I check Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Selling on Amazon is a job, not a lifestyle.
The policies are quite clear and we have never had an issue replying at hour 23 the few times it has happened. We don’t go out of our way after close of business, but do have someone check daily on weekends/holidays.
Negative feedback always exists so don’t burden yourself trying to prevent it, so we simply ignore most feedback, as we have negative feedback for items we don’t even sell.
The A to Z stuff is simple. Authorize the return, refund, or let it close, so you can use the buy shipping protections. If a seller goes off script and starts asking for photos or other things, without doing the return authorization or the refund, they can expect to lose.
Fellow employee here servicing our Amazon customer support. I check our inbox hourly 8-4 PM Mon-Fri. After 4, they get a response at 8 AM the next day. However, as I am the only one providing customer support, on the weekends I take full advantage of the 24 hours. It can range from 1 hour to a full 23 depending on what time they message after Friday.
P.S. I was super hesitant to post under our store on the NSFE, so I am so glad you guys made a place for everyone to connect and get help!
I am also an employee and not the business owner. I wonder if there is a difference in attitude toward these messages between employees managing the messages, business large enough to have multiple employees, one man shows, or businesses where the owner handles the customer service.
Since I am selling handmade personalized items, my volume is “low”, and it is just me, I answer as soon as I see the message no matter what day it is. There have been several questions that answered “immediately” have directly lead to an order within an hour later.
My phone is downstairs on the kitchen counter at night so anything coming in between 11 PM EDT and 7 AM EDT gets answered later.
I try to treat customers the way I want to be treated when I am the customer.
As to the Customer Service Dashboard, Amazon can’t even be in the green. Another case of their choice of “good”, “needs improvement”, and “bad” being ludicrous.
We generally answer them within a few hours when awake only. We do sleep, and if up in the middle of the night we may answer.
We make it a point not to answer ASAP for one type of question.
If the question is an INR, and it comes in the afternoon or evening, and the package looks like it will be delivered the next day, we wait overnight. As long as it has not passed the delivery date. When we see the package “Out for Delivery” then we respond.
It just saves a lot of time, and I feel is more satisfying for the customer than trying to rush the answer out. The response we get, when we do is one of joy and excitement.
Great seller !!! I thought at first that I got the wrong shampoo because the bottle didn’t look the same. I was SO UPSET because I thought this shampoo had been discontinued and something completely different had been sent. The seller was kind enough to provide me a link explaining the new packaging. I sadly took out my frustration on Sundance and yet they turned around and were so nice. !!!
Yes, they have the ability to hire someone who has enough restraint not to tell people to pound sand compared to some owners. We have a two person reply policy for most interactions with customers both on and off Amazon. If we don’t have a second person available we defer to telling people we will get back to them when we have more information like product specific details or inane questions only a inept consumer can conjure in their mind.
You know, like idiots that will ask if a part will fit their tractor, without telling us what kind of tractor they have or even what part they are asking about. They think we have the Sword of Omens from Thundercats and can see what kind of tractor they have. “Give me sight beyond sight!”
I get these constantly.
Will this capacitor work on my motor?
Does this compressor fit my fridge?
Is this the right pump rated for my boiler?
How should I know? I don’t even know what item you are asking about, much less equipment you have. I get these so often I have a form response for them.
I am responsible for all customer communications, at my insistence. I hate it, but nobody else in this company can be trusted to talk to a customer without lying, triggering an AtoZ, infuriating the customer, spouting a bunch of things that are against Amazon policy, or typing up a bunch of gibberish that isn’t recognizable as a form of communication, much less English. Fortunately, I have a pretty good filter when dealing with the kind of buyers that get under your skin.
Funny you brought this up. I came in to 10 emails from one customer on eBay. He wanted to cancel an order, wait cancel both orders, ??, ???, PLZ!!, I needed two…etc. On the ninth email, he finally sent a cancellation request for one of the orders. I went ahead and canceled both order and emailed him just 1 email to let him know. I then get two more emails with a thanks, and Will I get my $50 back??
It’s too early for this snitz…
Our average response time is 4 hours, but we do not go out of our way to respond if the business is closed. I only work when I am getting paid, lol
One of the co-owners suggested we reply with a simple “no” to that kind of question, because the odds are they could not install it correctly anyway resulting in return abuse and bad feedback/reviews. We gave that idea some weight a few years ago.
upper right) correct?