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Customer Support Relief for eBay Sellers
HostedSupport.com, a leading provider of affordable automated
online customer support solutions for web businesses, today
announced ezSupport for eBay, its new automated customer support
solution customized specifically to the needs of eBay sellers.
ezSupport for eBay helps sellers deal with the overwhelming
volume of repetitive email questions from buyers by
automatically answering 80 percent of incoming questions.
With 135 million users worldwide, eBay has become the standard
in online auctions and the vehicle for millions of entrepreneurs
looking to build their own businesses. HostedSupport.com has
established a unique partnership with the online auction company
and is the only developer of automated customer support that has
integrated into the eBay API to support 'Ask the Seller a
Question.'
ezSupport for eBay is a web-based, hosted solution with no
special software or hardware to purchase. Targeted to eBay
sellers and ecommerce companies that sell on eBay, ezSupport for
eBay enables sellers to focus on increasing sales rather than
dealing with redundant customer emails.
"eBay sellers deal with hundreds, and in some cases thousands,
of email questions on a daily basis that are redundant and easy
to answer," said Steve Hartert, vice president of marketing. "As
the volume of email grows, the time devoted to responding to
these repetitive questions hinders the sellers' ability to focus
on the needs of the business. ezSupport for eBay is proven to
respond to a very high percentage of these repetitive emails
faster than would be possible manually by the seller."
Typical questions received by sellers include inquiries on
shipping policies, and specifics about products like size,
weight and color. Through a set up wizard, sellers develop their
own list of questions and answers and ezSupport for eBay can be
up and running in less than 20 minutes.
One example of an eBay seller that found himself bogged down in
the volumes of buyer emails is Bob Allen, co-founder of
MyGolfBallStore.com. MyGolfBallStore.com is an online retailer
of sporting goods and an eBay platinum power seller. Allen and
his customer support team utilized email, spreadsheets and paper
files to attempt to track customer issues. As the business grew,
this manual process became too time-consuming, complex and
costly. Allen turned to HostedSupport.com to automate his
customer support process and adopted ezSupport for eBay.
According to Allen, "HostedSupport.com was the answer to my
prayers. We were suffering severe growing pains trying to keep
up with our customer support workload. Since using ezSupport for
eBay, 70 percent of our workload has been eliminated by the
system, and our customer relationships have never been better."
Allen now uses two HostedSupport.com products - ezSupport for
eBay and ezSupport Pro for his stand alone website, and has
realized the following results: - Less than 10 emails per day
require manual review and response - 75 percent reduction in
buyer phone calls - 70 percent reduction in overall customer
support tasks - No need to hire additional support staff to
manage high volumes of emails - Improved customer communications
channels resulting in greater customer retention. - 90% of buyer
emails automatically answered.
ezSupport for eBay is priced at $9.95 per seat per month and
is available on a month-to-month subscription basis. ezSupport
for eBay supports Windows and Macintosh and is compatible with
Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and Safari web
browsers.
HostedSupport.com offers two products customized to eBay -
ezSupport for eBay and ezSupport Lite for eBay, a free
introductory solution that also integrates with 'Ask the Seller
a Question.' HostedSupport.com also offers ezSupport and
ezSupport Pro, their automated online customer support solutions
for any online business. ezSupport and ezSupport Pro feature
auto-answer email, FAQs, ticket tracking, live chat, advanced
reporting and POP email importing, as well as free training and
set-up assistance. Pricing is $49.95 per seat per month for
ezSupport and $79.95 per seat per month for ezSupport Pro.
About HostedSupport.com HostedSupport.com is a leading provider
of affordable customer support automation for web businesses.
Its easy-to-use system can be set up in 20 minutes and
eliminates many of the support "pains" involved in answering and
tracking customer questions and problem tickets. Businesses
using HostedSupport.com's products automate most customer
support tasks while improving customer retention.
HostedSupport.com is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
Its clients and partners include: eBay, PCMall, E! Online,
TicketWeb, NetMagazines.com, Salesnet, Yahoo! Search Marketing,
BrandMuscle, MyGolfBallStore, eBoz, Roving, Bravenet, and
ePublicEye.
About the author:
Steve has more than 20 years of marketing management experience.
His professional background includes running his own marketing
consulting firm, where he worked with clients such as The Walt
Disney Company, Blue Cross of CA, and ABC Television. He
recently served as the marketing director for an electronic cash
card project in Sydney, Australia. Steve has a BS in
Communications from California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona, and an MBA in M