For new newsgroup readers, these are not our forum posts. Any comments to the posters below should be made on the applicable thread, marked in bold below.
After minimum effort, eBay will be launching their New Search on users.
eBay Presentation, Merrill Lynch Conference February 13 2007
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ebay/96103743x0x75856/c3e92e6e-19f6-4c15-b0e7-fa02a9c36bcc/eBay_MerrillLynch_Feb07_FINAL_web.pdf
The New Search is villified by many, with comments to match.
Though I'd share the tail-end of the discussion.
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http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000338138
Test: Making Buyers More Efficient - A Redesign of Search Results
wandererbornagain (573 ) Feb-20-07 11:55 PST 2118 of 2125
''Overall purchase process satisfaction'' is, what, 70%? Is eBay actually proud of that number?
Oh, but they're ''leveraging our loyal customer base.'' So that's a rosey number. If they leveraged THE ENTIRE customer base, I'm guessing it would be around 50 or 60%.
Do the Great Gods of eBay actually consider a 30-50% dissatisfaction rate acceptable?
Anybody want to lay bets on what next year's numbers are going to be?
sko74517 (519 ) Feb-20-07 15:37 PST 2122 of 2125
I administer employment and training programs for a living. A few years ago,we adopted the same customer satisfaction standards that are used by top businesses around the country who are concerned about the issue. The standard is up around 85-90%. If the 70% is based on eBay's "loyal primary customer base", it will definitely be lower when you factor in the people who buy once or twice a year.
Furthermore, companies who are really concerned about customer satisfaction, don't use their customers as guinea pigs by foisting a search on them that they didn't volunteer to beta test.
Companies who really care about their customers, conduct surveys frequently. They are brief, direct and to the point....not designed to "pull out the answers we want". In most cases, changes are only made when a consistent pattern of dissatisfaction begins to show up over time and then only to correct those concerns addressed by the customer.
Over the years I've visited and participated at a lot of websites. Most of them are graphics sites....all designed to build a sense of community among the users. One of the things that these sites understand that eBay apparently doesn't understand, is the importance of the user interface. They rarely change the appearance of the site or where things are located, without thoroughly involving the members of their on-line community. People by nature are inclined to not like change. They frequent websites where they feel comfortable and where things are familiar. They don't want to have to "re-learn" the site every time they go there. And that's exactly what eBay is doing to people.....changing things constantly and for no obvious reason.
I wonder how Meg Whittman Billy Cobb would feel if they went home one night and discovered that some unknown person had rearranged their entire house....moved the furniture, repainted the walls some ugly color they didn't like.....and hid the remote control!! I'll bet Billy boy would be pretty ticked if he couldn't find his remote or that six pack he just put in the fridge!!
That is pretty much what eBay is doing to its users.
The entire approach used by the finding team, flies in the face of any sound approach to customer satisfaction I've ever seen.
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