Hi everyone! I have an idea but I don't know if it's any good, so I thought I'd ask you all. I received an email from a supplier, actually minutes after my order was dropped off by UPS, asking if everything was ok with it. I was impressed, and started thinking. Does anyone check delivery on their shipments and send a message asking if everything is ok? I was wondering if this might open me up to more problems than it is worth? Anyone have an opinion? Thank you!

- Cher

Cher,

I completely changed my AW2000 shipping notice email and request the buyer let us know when their goody arrives. For the most part, buyers will notify us back as a reply to the shipping notice.

I think it is a personal preference if you wish to send out "is everything okay" emails to buyers if you don't hear from them. Some buyers do not like the additional communication and find it annoying. Others like the personal attention and respond well.

I use to send those "is everything okay" emails if we had not heard from the buyer in about 10 days after shipment. It got to be a headache for my staff as it did require additional work on their part. Going through the Invoices and then responding again to the replies to our inquiry just took too much time.

Unless the buyer emails us for reason, our final communication is the Feedback Thanks email.

So that's what I do

Judy/blue

Hi Judy! How are you doing today? I guess I was wondering if it would end up being more work than I can handle. It would have to be at least partly automated anyway! Thanks for your reply!

- Cher

Cher,

I am fine. How are you doing???

We used a template we created in AW2000 so that was easy. It was just the extra step of sending those emails out. I never did get the process fine tuned or a good workflow established. Me and my methods and workflow

You'll have to keep us "posted" on what you do

I know, that's bad!

Judy/blue

Cher:
If I send items to my customers via Priority or Express Mail or Registered mail I check on it with an email as soon as I know it is delivered. To do it I log onto http://www.usps.com. Then I click at the to on Track & Confirm. I have copies of the tracking numbers of course from the post office receipts. I plug them into the form that is supplied on the track and confirm page. It will tell you there is nothing there yet to report. But if you want they will send you email updates. So I put in my email address and check off send me everything in connection with this tracking number.
WHen the email comes that it has been delivered - and it is usually about 1 hour after delivery - I send off an email that is sorta like "just checking, that you found everything in your package to your satisfaction". "Hope the stamps are exactly what you were looking for and I want to thank you so much for eBaying. If there is anything at all in the future that we may help you with please call or email.

Then depending on the stuff they purchased there may be other stuff said. Howver, remember this is for the larger dollar amount invoices. Also I have a collectors club - the highter dollar amount people get a montly email of special items for sale pre-eBay listing. So that email asking if all is OK includes an explaination of the collectors club and how they can let me know if they wish to participate.

And, Cher, this really WORKS. I have had great response from this technique. You might want to try it on one or two customers just to get the feel of the reply etc.

Garry

Edited by AquilaStamps on 09/13/06 10:47 PM (server time).

Garry,

So you only send the email "check up" to the larger dollar buyers? Humm, now that's a thought. What about International buyers? Do you always check the arrival status of those packages? Tracking is no longer available unless the package is sent USPS Global Express. Which none of my buyers ever use.

Judy/blue

Judy:

You're correct the international buyers hardly ever want Registered mail because of the cost. Sometimes they are willing to pay for Global Priority Mail but that isn't trackable. If I have an instance of a larger international buyer (ummm that's dollars not weight) I follow up with an email after a week from the date of mailing. Everything I mail gets a Certificate of Mailing. I use the Bulk form so it is inexpensive. Once I get home from the Post Office I scan and PDF the form (however many pages it is). Then ole sneaky me - a week after the mailing I clip from the PDF the section that pertains to them and attach it to an email telling them by now I'm certain they have received their stamps. And the followup email goes on from there. It is surprising how many want to be part of the "Club" - I guess it is a thing where everyone wants to be part of something special. But what it gives me is an additional outlet for material that I don't have to break down and put on eBay such as a small collection of stamps from India or whereever. I put it on the "CLUB" list and email it off. First to come up with the money gets it. I'm toying with having a special "club" section on the web site with username and password and list the items there with paypal buyitnow buttons on it. Have played with the design but haven't implemented it. Currently I think the club email works just fine.

Long way around to answer your question huh? But you are correct. The larger dollar amount international customer gets a follow up email. The method for this is: If they are to get a follow it is all done when I process their items for shipping in AW2K. I print the paid invoice the regular way then print it to a PDF that has as the title the invoice number and their name and it is filed in a directory (folder) that is labled with month and year and sub folder of day (one week in advance). So every morning I check the folder for the day - such as today I've checked Sept 14 - and send them the email that is done from a template in AW2K. Sounds confusing but is very easy.

I've found that it really pays off. Sooooo Sorry to be extra long winded on this - my fingers got carried away.

Garry

Garry,

Not long winded at all. I understand exactly what you are doing. I may give that a whirl. The after-marketing I am currently using is working but I can see how the "Club" concept could be very effective.

I use permission email marketing. And I have more than one list with some buyers on all the lists depending on what the buyers want. It works really well. I use a little email program called Mail Bomber. Not at all fancy but it works. I get excellent response. I also use Constant Contact for email campaigns. That is extremely effective. The last campaign I did generated a huge increase in sales.

I am will look at giving your idea a whirl. That's what I'll do. I'll steal Garry's idea

Judy/blue

Judy:

LOL - steal away. I hope it works out well for you. And yes, my email list is permission based also - the club emails that is. They have to join the list. If I don't hear from them by return email then that's it unless they purchase something on eBay or Ostock at a later date. And those emails any winning bidder would get. This way I don't get accused of spam.

I used constant contact at one time also and liked it. Also used another product called PC Reminder. But that had limitations and the emails it sent were just too cute. So I let my subscription expire. Maybe I need to steal from you now and re-evaluate constant contact.

Garry

Garry,

I use Endicia and the Certificate of mailings are not available through them. But I can grap all the shipping information from the Dazzle program and do the same thing by PDF it and stick it in a directory by date on the shipping computer. Or in a Shared folder on the network so anyone can access the directory.

Hummm, I will give this some serious thought.

Judy/blue

The Certificate of Mailing is a form supplied by the USPS and is downloadable from their websitel It allows for 8 names and addresses per page and the charge is $0.90 per page. Every time I go to the postoffice I bring a filled out form with me. It has an entry for every item I'm mailing. Sometimes I have one sheet or I may have 10 sheets. It all depends on the amount of itemsgeing mailed.

I downloaded mine and then cusomized it with name etc. and made it possible to cut and past info into it. I cut and paste the info into it just before I print the shipping label

Works great - the original idea was when I had people saying they never got my package. I can then email them a copy showing their invoice number, name and address and date of mailing.

But it has evolved into additinal uses since then.

You can dowload the form at: http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps3877.pdf

Garry

Garry,

We use to use the Certificate of Mailing until Feb of this year. For the exact same reason, people said they did not get their items. Endicia does provide us with another set of Customs numbers which works fairly well for getting something done if the package is lost. So far we have not had a great deal of trouble with packages. Other than taking much longer than the USPS estimated delivery indicates.

Judy/blue

Something many folks do not know about USPS delivery times for international stuff...those times are for how long it takes to reach the other country's postal/customs system not the addressee...still I find Global Express gets processed much faster then other mail classes...so far anyway.

Hi,

Do you find many buyers request Global Express? I can' seem to get anyone to pay for it. Invariably the buyer will select Economy Surface Post which is extremely slow and then wonder why in the world the package didn't arrive in a week.

Judy/blue

I do a very nice automatic aw2k email when I post feedback. It includes tracking info (I cut/paste all tracking numbers into aw2k), a big "thank you", and an email link should there be any problems at all. I also mention that I've given them postive FB, and that I hope they do the same after their item arrives.

If someone is having a problem, quick and friendly resolution seems to be key to avoiding bad FB. Most of the replies I get are extremely positive. I think buyers like the pro-active offer of help - it puts them at ease before they've even seen their item.

It works for me. 3000+ FB, 2 negs, 2 neut, 4400 pos. over 7 years.

HI,

Is the email link to a diferent email address for problem resolution? Or a link to your regular email addy?

Judy/blue

Hi:

My customers are split about 50/50 on Global Priority Mail. For some I think it depends a bit on the dollar amount they have purchased. Also because I am selling postage stamps - a lot can travel for a basic USPS Airmail rate. I have found that an envelope traveling USPS Airmail takes just about a week to be delivered in Europe. Asia takes almost two weeks. Canada & Mexico is just a few days.

The few times that I have had to send something larger than a regular envelope I notice the delivery time starts to take longer. So it may be part of the problem is in handling of the item.

Also I only offer a few delivery methods. USPS First Class, USPS Air Mail, and Priority both domestic and Global. If someone wants to pay the freight for Express - either domestic or Global then I will ship that way. Consequently I don't have people picking the slow boat method and then complaining. As it is they sometimes complain about a week to Europe.

Garry

My regular email.

Garry,

For the most part, I am limited in what I can offer as my products tend to be heavier. So the item will not fit into Global Priority envelopes and won't go Airmail Letter because of the weight. The other services although offered are usually not selected as they are simply too costly for the buyer. So they pick the slow cheap and wonder why it takes 30 to 45 days

Judy/blue

Do you think the link to your regular email works better than having the buyer simply "Reply" to the email itself?

Judy/blue

Hehe...no.

I just want the email to be as proactive as possible. It's just a matter of tone and professionalism.

Rich

Rich:

LOL -- I have tried the email reply thing the two different ways. Finally I settled on a combo-email. They can simply reply and I give them a clickable link at the end of the email for a reply. This way which ever is easier for them they got it.

Also if a customer is a repeat customer (meaning at least the second time they have purchased) their email template has a FAX number at the bottom of the email. I've found that this works in that some times they will fax a want list or an image of something they are looking for.

I've stopped short of putting in the phone number. I have a line that could be put to that use but I'm afraid that I'll spend even more time on the phone and not get anything done. The phone itself has one of those electronic voice answering machines built in and I suppose I could use that - however that would really defeat the purpose of putting in a phone number. So that idea is still on the back burner.

Garry

Garry,

If the buyer elects to use the email link, How do you deal with the association issue. Do you respond back to the email from the buyer after associating the reply? Or do you create a new message on the buyers Invoice?

You know, now I am wondering if we all ought to share some of our email template contents. It might be helpful to new users and the "old" users could get new ideas. Things to do, things to do

Judy/blue

Judy:

The easiest answer is "it depends" because if they reply to an email and their invoice is still active I reply back and it is associated with the invoice.

If, as some people are famous for doing, they keep the email well past the end of the transaction and they use it to get in contact with us - well then there is no association made. The invoice from that email has long been archived and it isn't possible to associate it anyway. So in this type of instance the email is handled - replied to etc. After it is sent it is filed in the email area of aw2k in a folder called awaiting action or non-live-auction messages.

Usually that type of email is "i want another one" or "here is my want list for stamps from Japan" etc. That is where the FAX number in the email template has helped - one less email to deal with.

I've found that the customer does get tired of emails after a while. It all depends on their definiton of spam. About a month ago I changed a couple of templates to try to fix that problem. For years when a customer paid they got a "Payment received" email that gave the amount of payment, payment type, and the ususal verbiage of thanks and hugs etc. Then once I went through the remainder of closing out the sale - feedback left and all ready to pack and ship they got a Shipping eMail. That had the expected date of shipping, the method of shipping, the address we would be using, and a clickable link to any tracking information if it applied to them. Then it finished off with more thank yous and hugs.

I've now combined them into one email. After all is done and everything is ready to ship the one email is sent and it is a combined version of the two. It took some getting used to here as I had a rhythm for checking out and was used to the two emails being sent. Once I got over that hitch it seems to be going smoother. I can choose between 5 different "Final Shipping" emails. They are dependent on tracking, repeat buyer, etc. I try very hard to treat a repeat buyer differently by letting them know I'm aware they have returned to us (of course aw2k has their address already and that sure helps impress them) and their acknowledgement of purchase, and shipping emails are different.

Whew, lots of unnecessary info there I guess. Sorry, got carried away. You're right - sharing templates may make a difference in that it could help out someone else or give all of us an idea that we may not have stumbled across without having looked at someone elses email template.

Garry

Garry,

I do about the same thing as far as replying to emails. And even if the email is not associated with the Invoice, we will manually associate it. I created a simple "letter" email template so my staff can type out personalized response to very specific requests. Which works well. Only field tags included in it are the user's name, the Invoice number. Then I have all our hyperlinks in it, etc. But the main message body is blank so the staff can type in messages. They use it quite a bit.

I have also toyed with the idea of combing Payment received and Shipping notification into a single email. I will have to say, for the most part, I find buyers like the communications informing them of where their goody is in our system and when it has shipped. That is as long as they don't have an AOL email addy. grrrrr to AOL I bet 95% of AOL addy buyers, experience difficulty receiving email. Irks me to no end. My listing templates even request they add my bluepennylady email addy to their address book. Do they do it? Nope and then wonder why they are not receiving email from me. I have not yet changed my emails as it will require some re-arranging of our workflow and work assignments.

We also deal with our repeat buyers differently. Repeat buyers are pushed to the head of the line, so to speak. We package their products first and address their inquiries ahead of others. And they do love being recognized even if it has been an extended period of time since their last purchase.

Well new thread is on its way then. I think this could be real helpful. sharing the email content. More brains mean more ideas!

Judy/blue