Creative Customer Service Tips to Address eBay's New DSR Importance

We can make these new DSR star rankings work for us if we get busy now and make some changes in our techniques and strategies. It is not about the actual description and content of the star ratings, it's more about the buyer's "perception" of what the stars mean to them!

Now that eBay has announced their extensive upgrades and overhaul of the site in many areas, the Detailed Seller Ratings are becoming more and more important to the eBay sellers! Especially if you are a power seller for the DSR's will determine if you will still be able to keep your powerseller status after the final changes take place in July of 2008. They DSRs will also imapact whether a power seller receives his discounts, be it 5% or 15%.

If you are a powerseller (any level), and ALL of your DSR's are 4.8 or above (for the past 30 days cycle), you will receive 15% off your seller fees for the prior month.

If you are a powerseller (any level) and ALL of your DSRs are 4.6 or above, (for the past 30 days cycle), you will receive a 5% discount on your seller fees for the prior month.

This is a good incentive for sellers to provide outstanding, continuing, GREAT service all buyers across the board in order to achieve the maximum discount available. If you are not already a powerseller, urge you to meet those qualifications ASAP so you can take advantage of the new discounts offered! If you incorporate these DSR powerseller discounts with the new reduced listing fees and the free gallery, eBay fees take a nice reduction for most sellers.

This is an explanation of DRS's from eBay's help pages.

What Feedback might "DO" to you from eBay pages.

Feedback Scores and Your eBay Reputation

This is an explanation from eBay's help pages.

This is an explanation from eBay's help pages.

January 29th, 2008, eBay posted on the announcement board A Message from Bill Cobb - New Pricing and Other News. Among the news was a list of changes being made to Feedback.

Check your seller account after April 1 to hopefully view your discounts.

If you are a powerseller, you can check in the MY EBAY view, on the left hand side of the page, to see the beginnings of your new seller dashboard. Click on it and you can see your DSR totals for the past 30 days and it'll help you determine the forecast for your discounts. The full dashboard will be reviewed in the next few months to everyone.

The first month of eBay discounts began April 1st and many powersellers have saved LOTS of money on their eBay fees by having 4.8 and above DSR's to receive the top level discount of 15%. For those of you who only received the 5%, you have an opportunity between now and the end of April to get those DSR's up to the next level of 4.8 DSRs or above to receive the 15% discount. It definitely reflects your most current ratings by rolling the numbers over each and every month. So, keep working if you need to get those DSRs up before the end of the month.

Because we have over 13,000 shooting star feedbacks here at Grandpa's Trading Company, and our DSR shipping rating began at 4.6 when the new changes were announced, it took us awhile to bring them around. We WERE, however, able to qualify for the 5% powerseller discount the first month and by the second month, by implementing all the changes that we began back in February, we now have qualified for the 15% powerseller discount. The more feedbacks you have, the harder it is to change those DSR numbers, but be patient, it CAN be done as we ourselves can attest!

Of course, it goes unsaid, that maintaining those happy customers from month to month is extremely important, as it is a continually changing, rolling total with each new month, you have an opportunity to raise your DSR scores.

Put on your buyer's hat and put yourself in their shoes, as well. Begin thinking like a buyer instead of a seller and brainstorm what would make YOU happy as a buyer.

It comes to mind that first you must educate your buyers as to what the DSR's ARE and what they can mean to a seller. You can do this subtly in your auction listings, your about me page and in your emails that you send to the buyers, by educating them in the reality of the DSR's and what they mean to sellers. Keep mentioning a 5 star experience and emphasizing how YOU want them to have that type of experience. You can even put a 5 star graphic and paragraph in each auction listing you create so that from beginning to end, your buyers are hearing about the 5 Star experience they will be having when they deal with you.

Perhaps including a small gift with your shipment would be a way to enhance their buyer experience? Something with your name and the 5 DSR stars on them might be appropriate yet branded with your specific advertising and contact information. A useful item that they will keep around and possibly cause them to recall the great experience of purchasing from you and encourage them to make a repeat purchase. This could be a small notepad, a pen or pencil, a purse mirror, anything that will be useful to your buyers and keep your name right out in front of them.

Be a hero to your customers. Make yourself stand out in a positive way!

Are you giving the buyers their best possible experience? If not, think of making changes NOW!

If you are looking for ways to source new merchandise for your eBay store, please visit my blog for a great tip! This link will take you to my blog.