What this means is that we often have the power to make a difference in the efficiency, usability or general usefulness of these products because we can leave feedback. Obviously our ideas aren’t always going to make the difference, but companies care what customers think about their products (though there are certainly exceptions), and will listen to what users have to say, often leading to the implementation of suggestions.

A couple of examples of this our currently being hilighted on company blogs. A post from Christina Holsberry on the Facebook Blog discusses creating "the best experience" on Facebook, and doing this through the open communication between users and the company.

"At Facebook, we think it’s important to listen to the people who are using the site, since you are our biggest fans, experts and critics," she says. "We’re dedicated to making sure your feedback is incorporated into the decisions we make in order to create the best experiences for you and your friends on Facebook."

Examples Holsberry touches on include:

- emails from users

- product testing sessions (they take people to their offices and observe how they use Facebook [they even use eye tracking])

- Advisory board – trusted group of people who routinely provide thoughts on features

- feedback pages

- reactions

Talk about new features on blogs, forums, Twitter, etc. Companies have people keeping an eye on what is being said about them. If they find out many people feel strongly about certain things, there is a chance they will acknowledge them.

The second example comes from a post at the Yahoo Mail Blog. Here Rick Pal shares user feedback and Yahoo’s responses. Feedback has influenced features like:

- social updates
- the movement of news over connections and suggestions
- new address book

How many Google products do you use on a regular basis? That is another company that is constantly seeking user feedback. Andy they have plenty of ways for you to share it. You can find email links on their blogs, use Google Groups, and like I said before, talk about your thoughts on products and features in blogs, social networks, forums, etc.

The point is that they’re listening. There are so many ways to communicate with companies and potentially influence tools that make your life and lives of others easier every day. Don’t be shy. They want to know what you think. They might not always respond, and your ideas will not always be implemented, but you never know until you try.

Jack Sheng, founder and CEO of Eforcity, an electronics accessory company has had all four of his eBay ID’s surpass the one million feedback milestone, marking the first time any single eBay User Ids have reached that amount of feedback from transactions completed on the site.

To recognize Sheng’s achievement, eBay is adding a new feedback star to the site. Sheng will be the first seller to have the new silver shooting star, denoting a feedback score of one million or more, appear next to his four user ID’s on the site.

Sheng’s Horatio Alger like eBay career began in his friend’s garage eight years ago. With a modest $500 investment, he and two of his childhood friends began selling cell phone and camera accessories. Two years later his focus shifted to building the Eforcity empire. In 2006, Inc. magazine name Eforcity the 90th fastest-growing company in the United States on the Inc. 500 list. Today, Eforcity, based in EL Monte,CA, is one of the largest eBay retailers for high tech gadgets.

"Jack represents everything we believe about delivering amazing value to eBay buyers, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate this accomplishment with him," said John Donahoe, eBay Inc. president and CEO.

"That’s what makes this Feedback milestone so special for Jack and for us – millions of people have voted with their wallets."

Sheng started as a part-time seller and leveraged eBay’s global marketplace to build his business. Eforcity grosses annual revenue of more than $40 million, has nearly 170 employees, ships almost 30,000 orders per day, and has operations in Hong Kong and China.

"In just eight short years we have been able to grow our business from a mere idea into a reality that far exceeds our original expectations of success. We have achieved the American dream," said Sheng.

"Central to this success has been customer feedback. It has helped us evolve our business to meet our customers’ needs and stay one step ahead of the competition. Every small business owner should develop a system for collecting feedback from their clients. It can mean the difference between a $4 million business and a $40 million business."

Sued! For $10k for using a system that eBay implemented to encourage feedback!!!

Shellhorn bought some Morgan silver dollars from a man in North Carolina. The price was fair, but Shellhorn says the coins were packed poorly.

“The coins were hanging out of the envelope, loose, with no packing whatsoever around them,” he said.

The seller wanted feedback. Shellhorn couldn’t honestly say the deal was good or bad so he took the middle ground.

“This is neutral feedback, not even negative feedback, but neutral. He sued me for $10,000,” he said.

The judge in Buncome County, NC did dismiss the law suit, but it still raises a serious question about the future of consumer feedback, if the consumer is fearful of leaving any feedback at all.

It’s amazing that someone would sue an individual for one “neutral” rating, but that goes to show just how important ratings are on eBay. It’s also scary that an attorney was willing to take on the case. What if the judge hadn’t shown any common sense? What if the court had ruled in favor of the plaintiff?

It may not have happened this time, but you can bet that this case will inspire someone to think they can remove legitimate negative (neutral?) customer feedback by taking them to court. And it will be a scary time for all, should a naive judge rule in favor of the company.

Comments

Lower insertion fees for the first three tiers of media categories give sellers a little relief, as they made enough complaints to prompt eBay to move quickly on that issue. But eBay will not back off its feedback changes.

Sellers can kick and scream all they want about the new feedback system, but that isn’t going to change. The best discounts for sellers from the Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) program means sellers will have to impress buyers on several points.

One of those points directly hits sellers in their wallets. Buyers can rate shipping and handling charges as one of the DSR factors.

As pointed out on the Bits Blog, buyers have long complained about huge shipping fees. Ebay’s Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations, said in a message from the company the changes focus on improving buyer trust in the marketplace.

A noble statement, but Norrington left out the other part of the shipping fees issue. Sellers routinely jack up shipping fees in order to skirt eBay’s Final Value Fees, which are a percentage of the closing price.

Shipping fees are not part of the Final Value equation, and sellers quickly realized they could offer an item at a lower price and make up some profits on shipping. If you ever wondered how a $6 shipping fee for a book manifested itself as a $1.38 stamp on an envelope, in an example I’ve seen, now you know where the other $4.62 ended up: in the seller’s pocket and out of eBay’s reach.

eBay will turn buyers into a de facto shipping police force through the DSR program. If sellers price shipping as a profit center, buyers who deal with those sellers may choose to knock the shipping cost portion of the DSR down in response.

A survey at Auction Bytes found sellers consider feedback changes as having the most impact on their business. 98.3 percent said this impact would be negative.

eBay did not have much of a choice but to finally act on buyer perceptions about high shipping fees making eBay a bad deal. Norrington said they will monitor the data associated with the program, and eBay will take action if buyer trust fails to improve.