Recently I’ve been posting about hiring employees and I’m quite grateful for my customer service manager who has now taken over 100% of my customer services for my online business. It’s ok to receive a few emails each day that need your attention however when your business begins to increase, customer service can become a full time job for someone. The goal is for ‘that someone’, not to be you.
Of course customer services is an extremely important part of eBay and ecommerce and it needs to be supervised and managed however you shouldn’t be the one doing it.
If you are serious about your business, your time is worth much more.
I can’t tell you how much time it has saved me and to be honest how much of a weight was lifted from my shoulders. Customer service is not difficult (no disrespect to customer service people), because it is time consuming and requires effort and can drain your brain when you are constantly keeping customers pleased.
That brought me to another problem. I have customer services covered and as I mentioned in a previous post ‘How much is your time really worth’ my fulfilment is managed externally. That leaves me with more time to grow my business. I’ve had success with a customer services manager however finding and keeping a good web developer is another animal altogether.
I have hired and fired 4 web developers in one month and hopefully the guy I have working on my websites now will be the one, ‘fingers crossed’. Apparently it wasn’t totally the fault of the 4 guys I had to let go. You see hiring employees was relatively new to me and I was looking in the wrong places for that type of qualified worker who I could rely on.
How do I know?
Because I asked an expert. I asked a mentor and coach who had already been there and done it a successfully a thousand times over.
Did I pay for that advice?
I certainly did.
I believe there is a lot of good free information floating around out there, but how do you know who to trust. How do you know they really have been there and done it. Another thing is valuing your time. I value my time and instead of wasting hours trudging the forums, I would much rather pay up front for the right information when I need it.
I wish I had taken my own advice and asked an expert BEFORE attempting to hire 5 web developers.
OK, so my point is..
Save time and pain by asking an expert who’s been there and who can answer your specific questions right when you need them answered. There are many eBay sellers and e commerce businesses who ‘spin their wheels’ far too long and the Personal One-on-One eBay coaching is available if you find your climbing boots are glued to the starting line.
Like I do, If you need a question answered that could save you months and want to get traction, find a coach and get the answers you need right there and then. A coach not only provides the answers, an accountability partner can prevent temporary insanity in the sometimes ‘crazy’ world of the internet!
To Your Success!
Hi John, glad you found a good guy in the end.
I haven’t got to the stage of needing people to work for me yet but will take your advice for when i do.
I’m another one that doesn’t really visit to many forums. I find many of them time magnets, however i still call into the masterclass forum on a regular basis.
I’ve got a bit of a challenge going on at my blog John and wondered if you’d be up for it?
Catch up soon John,
Barry