Here are a few suggestion to help eliminate some of these issues and the frustrations of members and probably for support staff too.
1. Communicate about ideas for changes prior to making them. In other words, get input from the people actually using Auctiva...your paying customers. Tell us what you are thinking and planning. Don't just drop changes on us to figure out after the fact.
This last issue with the template layouts was 4 weeks that could have been completely and totally avoided had there just been some communication from Auctiva. Instead it caused a lot of anger, frustration and extra work on both sides just to take it back to where it was to begin with.....and now seller, your customers will need to go back to every listing and fix their templates once the options are restored.
The lack of communication hurt sellers/your customers and Auctiva.
It all could have so simply been avoided had there been some communication.
I am not even going to get into the blaming of eBay for this....that goes without saying..and simply wasn't true.
2. Do not make any more updates, do not add or remove anything else until some of these older issues have been resolved and fixed. Ignoring them and jumping on to other things is making it worse.
3. Listen to your customers and what they are telling you. Doesn't matter how they are telling you as much as what they are telling you. The frustrated impatient tones are because issues are being ignored, some for far too long and they effect our business.....and many of us sell on eBay as a primary source of income, so many of these things have major impacts to our income. Let's remember who the customer is and who job it is to give customer support here.
4. Lets remember Auctiva offers and advertises "Top Rated Customer Support".
That does not include ignoring what is being said and giving scripted responses like clearing cache, cookies etc. Most of us do that prior to even mentioning issues. It is rather insulting / it is taken as being rather insulting when support tickets are submitted and within "minutes" we all get the same responses no matter the issues.
Also stop putting blame everywhere else. These are not eBay issue. It is not eBay's fault.
99% of these issues are on Auctiva's end.
Also eBay is not required to accommodate Auctiva, however, Auctiva needs to be compatible with and accommodate eBay and their programming.
5. Answer the questions that are posted on the board....on the boards. It is not Customer Support to tell member to post support tickets and not to share the answers. You have a Customer Support manager and other admin members on the boards. They should be able to post answers and not just direct people to file support tickets, which they then turn around and respond to off the boards. The information/answers are not top secret and many times it is faster to read the boards looking for answers than waiting "days" for a support ticket to be answered with a scripted response and then longer to get an actual answer.
This would save members time and would cut down on the number of support tickets, manpower etc. and it would cut down on some of the frustrations and anger. Again that is part of the purpose of the boards....to be able to help each other.
6. Apply a bit of common sense to answers. For example I was just told to leave listings that transferred over incorrectly (listing were made to show free shipping) and not correct them on eBay so someone here could see them which puts me at risk of losing hundreds of dollars if someone were to purchase one of these items....as it can take days to get a response from a support ticket.
Basically we all want the same things...no matter how it comes across and most of us are running business and don't have time to fight to be heard or to get issues addressed or fixed.
This is something that is supposed to come with Top Rated Customer Support....and Top Rated Customer Support is part of what is offered and what we pay for.
People just should not have to fight for weeks or months to get issues heard or addressed.
We all are in a Customer Service oriented business and should know how that works and it doesn't include ignoring customer issues or complaints or making it look as if they don't exist. Without our customers we would have no business to run which is why customer service is paramount.
So let's take a step back and please please please start over and lets work on addressing and fixing these issues so that Auctiva members won't be so frustrated and angry and so that Auctiva as a service is what it should be and top rated. This can be done and we can work together instead of working against each other.
The boards are a wonderful resource when used for what they are supposed to be used for what they are advertised for. They are a place to let Auctiva know about issues...shared and individual issues. Eliminating members from using it is not the answer. The issues are still there but there are now very few people using the boards at all to post. Ebay's boards get more Auctiva related questions than Auctiva's boards do.
This is basically what everyone wants on both sides of the issue. We want a product that works and serves our needs and I am very sure that Auctiva wants a product that works to serve the needs of it's customers
Issues happen. Glitches happen. It is what it is but it looks a lot better to show the issues are being heard and resolved and Customer Support is doing what it should and supporting it's customers publicly on the boards as well as when support tickets are sent.
That is the best advertising any business could ask for....as is word of mouth.
Thank you for considering my suggestions
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