I've found that leaving positive feedback upon payment gives buyers less incentive to leave positive feedback in return. eBay customers are not very disciplined about leaving feedback, unless its negative, so we've used a 'soft sell' approach to coax buyers into communicating back to us. Here's a few best practices that have worked for us:
1. Surprise the buyer with a great shopping experience. We usually ship our items within 1-2 days of final payment, then get feedback referring to our 'lightning fast shipping'. LOL! Now sure why. If we have the item in stock, shouldn't we ship it right away? Sounds like many sellers ship once a week.
2. Make sure the buying experience is overwhelmingly positive. This includes responding to emails quickly (within a day) to packaging the purchase well.
3. Include a note in your listing terms that you'll leave feedback upon receipt of feedback from the buyer. This way if the buyer is hungry in increase thier feedback score, they know up front that they must give you feedback first. Sugar coat the policy by saying something to the effect that you want to ensure that the buyer is fully satisfied with the purchase, or something to that effect. Many sellers at eBay Live this year were complaining about no return feedback and many follow this policy.
4. Include a card or sheet in your package explaining the new feedback system and ask the buyer to contact you prior to leaving negative feedback, so as to give you a chance to correct any problems they may have. There are some sellers in eBay that sell these cards, in you need an example of what to say. Or do a Google search with various keywords around this subject to check the many blogs that discuss this. If you would like to see the card that we use, send me an email directly at sales@jeansboutiqueandwigs.com.
I hope this gives you a good head start and helps you out. Cheers!
Bill
Jean's Boutique
www.jeansboutiqueandwigs.com