Check Your Messages Make Sense
Online selling platforms like eBay include some great automation tools, as eBay magician Matt Clarkson pointed out on the weekend at the eBay workshop he and wife Amanda presented on the Gold Coast.
For example, Selling Manager Pro includes a handy feature to help automate the messages sellers can send out during the buying process once an item has been sold.
I got one of these emails today from a seller, for an item I purchased for my wife Mel on the weekend.
It started like this:
Subject: Thank you for your payment. eBay item #____________ “name of the item”
Dear (eBay user),
We hope you enjoy your purchase. Your payment has been received for the following item:
(A table showing the Item title, Web Address, Item number, Buyer User ID, Seller User ID and total price.)
Thank you very much. Your business is much appreciated.
Please send payment for eBay purchase.
I accept the following payment method: PayPal, Money Transfer, Money Order/Cashiers Cheque
Please go to the URL below to complete payment: (linked eBay payment address)
Did you notice the error?
First of all, it starts off by saying thanks for my payment. That’s a good automated email to send as a courtesy, which establishes a little rapport (even without a personalised message).
And then it describes the payment received and the related item.
That’s great too — confirmation I did pay for the correct item as a buyer.
But then, it falls apart.
The message tells me to send payment, the acceptable payment methods and a link to paying via eBay.
I’ve already paid! So asking me here to pay again doesn’t make any sense. (For some inexperienced users, that may cause confusion and affect the buyer-seller relationship).
In fact, it would have been better from a marketing perspective to have a link back to the seller’s other items (or their store if they had one — in this case they do have an eBay store) … to encourage further purchases.
If you’re going to use automated templates (or any other manual or sequenced series of messages), make sure you check and verify yourself that the messages make sense from the buyer’s point of view.
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