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Griff: Our first hour I thought was pretty good, Lee.
Lee: Excellent.
Griff: I love having Jason on.
Lee: Yeah, he’s great.
Griff: He’s so dry. He’s pithy.
Lee: He is. Great sense of humor comes through in certain ways and he’s just an all-around nice guy. He’s going to do a good show.
Griff: I hope so. You know, we want to expand out this roster of very good and entertaining informational content.
Lee: Today two shows, tomorrow a network.
Griff: Oh yeah, I should hope so.
Lee: eBay Radio Network.
Griff: I love it.
Lee: I do too.
Griff: We just need more talent.
Lee: Yes we do.
Griff: Not that the talent we have isn’t good, but we need more.
Lee: Yeah, well I have lots of ideas for a network for eBay.
Griff: You do?
Lee: Absolutely. You know, like you have a collectibles show and you have an antiques show, oh yeah, why not.
Griff: I’m making a logo right now.
Lee: Okay.
Griff: Well you know, small ideas grow into big things.
Lee: That’s right.
Griff: If you were listening last hour Jason Miner told us that he had put some listings up and Lee, it’s something I’ve been looking for and I knew he had.
Lee: Did you…
Griff: I put a bid in.
Lee: You put a bid in.
Griff: Yeah, of course I did.
Lee: What’s the listing?
Griff: I won’t give you the item number, but I’ll give you his seller ID so you can search it.
Lee: Okay.
Griff: It’s clarkent32. He has two items up. One is the complete set of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was very funny. What they do is take old movies and then there’s commentary going on in front of them.
Lee: Yeah, with these characters, I see it on TV.
Griff: It is hysterically funny. The other thing he’s selling that I didn’t realize is kind of rare, a DVD of “This Island Earth.” Remember that movie?
Lee: Oh yes.
Griff: Great science fiction. So check it out. I don’t mind plugging people. Later on when you call if you’ve got a user ID and you want to plug your listings, plug away, it’s all for the better. Based on the requests from the community our next guest, Christophe Gillet, product manager for the product development team has introduced new customized frequently asked questions for sellers. Christophe, welcome to eBay Radio.
Christophe: Thanks Griff, how are you?
Griff: Very well, thanks. Tell us about this new feature.
Christophe: Okay. As you said, it’s called Custom frequently asked questions and with this feature sellers can create custom frequently asked questions and put that in front of the buyers before they actually ask the seller a question. So, on the View Item page when the buyer clicks on “ask seller a question” they’ll be presented first, if the seller chooses, frequently asked questions, as well as item specifics and questions and answers posted on each listing.
Griff: I have to tell you, Christophe, I’ve already received two emails from sellers, both testimonials who said their email queries have dropped dramatically. It’s not that their sales have dropped; it’s just that they don’t have to answer as much email because of the FAQs that they’re using.
Christophe: Exactly. So this feature enables sellers to put in front of buyers the questions that they receive most frequently and allows them to essentially reduce the flow of redundant or common questions that they receive.
Griff: Now how does this work? I know that in the past we’ve had this feature where if you’ve received an email question you can post it to your description at the bottom where other people can see it. Is it the same way with the FAQs?
Christophe: Well, that’s actually a portion of this project. The first portion is seller-specific frequently asked questions and with that you can pre-create the questions that you most commonly receive. You can put that within seller preferences and display that to buyers before. But you can still also post the questions and answers posted on each listing on the Ask Seller a Question page as well. So that goes on top of the form. So what we’ve done is basically pushed down the content box where the buyer types in a question and above that will appear the frequently asked questions and the item specifics.
Griff: So that information already appears in the listing description, it’s just kind of reiterating it?
Christophe: That’s right. What we’ve found based on our conversations with some sellers was that these questions were in the item description, but they were still getting them. So we just wanted to present it to the buyers one last time. And it’s the seller’s choice to display it if they choose.
Griff: Now where do people go if they want to learn more about this.
Christophe: There’s a help page and search for frequently asked questions.
Griff: So just go to Help and search for frequently asked questions. Can you search for just FAQ?
Christophe: I believe there are a lot of different types of FAQ’s on the site. So to set up the feature you can actually go to Seller Preferences and then Ask Seller a Question and there’s a help page as well, so you can learn about it there.
Griff: You mean through My eBay?
Christophe: That’s correct.
Griff: So if you want to learn how this feature works go to My eBay, make sure you’re logged in, and then on the left hand side of the page scroll down to under Accounts. And then under that look for Personal Information or Business Information depending on how your account is set up. And then on the next page there’s a whole area for Seller Preferences and there’s a particular preference with an edit link for Ask Seller a Question and that’s where you can set this up. It doesn’t cost anything, right?
Christophe: No, it’s completely free and it’s one area where you can present your information to the buyer one last time before they ask you a question. So hopefully it will reduce the number of emails that you receive from buyers.
Griff: And we love that. And this is going to be a whole new theme on eBay Radio for the whole summer. We’re going to be kind of focusing a lot of what we’re doing on cost and time saving for sellers. A lot of sellers on eBay are doing really well, but tools like this frequently asked questions can really help cut down on a lot of unnecessary work and that will help sellers not just spend their time more efficiently, but it also helps you be more profitable as well. What’s a good example of an FAQ?
Christophe: We have a couple of pre-created questions already when you go into your preferences. So we have, do you combine shipping? Do you ship internationally? And you can see there are a lot of shipping questions.
Griff: Yeah.
Christophe: But what works best for you is the questions that you receive most from buyers. So you can really tailor it to your buyers. We, as eBay, won’t know what works best for you, but we’ve created what we’ve found works for sellers overall.
Griff: You know, this is one of the more exciting features that have come down I think for a while. And if the testimonials I’ve received, Christophe, are any indication, this should be very well received by the seller community.
Christophe: Right. I also displayed this at eBay Live and the response was overwhelming. It was live for a week and sellers already found impact and we feel this is a great benefit for sellers.
Griff: Christophe, thanks so much for stopping by and telling us about FAQ’s on eBay.
Christophe: Thanks Griff.
Griff: You’re welcome. We’re talking with Christophe Gillet, product manager for the product development team at eBay and they’ve just introduced a new customized feature called Frequently Asked Questions and you can check it out on My eBay. You can also search Help for the words “frequently asked questions” and there’s a whole help page that will explain how you set it up. If you’re a seller and you aren’t using this, you got to take advantage of it. From what I’ve heard, it’s going to cut down your email inquiries and that’s important. More information out there for your buyers. This segment has been brought to you by Skype at talkonyourcomputer.com. Up next, we’ll introduce you to two women who will offer unique ways to stir up charitable giving and make eBay sellers real heroes. That’s next when we continue on eBay Radio.
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