CHRIS: This whole B2B eAuction platform is based around credibility and serving, like you said, the buyers and the sellers. And what is it that we can do to really optimally serve? Well, we can put mechanisms in place that guide them and direct them, and kind of say like, "Hey, if you make this choice, this is probably going to be the outcome.”
This is really important whenever it comes to refunds and returns, because this can be sort of an ethical thing for the seller and the buyer. So you want to put yourself in their shoes and engage with experts who have been working in this field long enough to understand some of the dynamics and the realities. Fundamentally, what we're dealing with is laying out the lanes are to stay in, and showing both the sellers and the buyers what is okay and what isn't okay.
You would be surprised at how much just basic clarification and basic guidance and basic enforcement really makes a difference. It's an exponential payoff, especially in this area. Generally speaking, whenever there are refunds or returns, we want to default to a over-focused client satisfaction, the customer is very happy. This can be make or break for the whole credibility of the online eCommerce auction platform.
As far as notifications are concerned, we can fully automate this process essentially. This is a very standard part of this industry overall. So you can take advantage of best practices from platforms that are literally a hundred or a thousand times bigger as far as revenue going through their system, and employ those within your system.
CHRIS: This is going to include things like being able to provide an easy access for the buyer to notify both the platform and the seller if there is an issue. Being able to select from a very discrete, specific list of options that really go into all the potential scenarios that could have occurred. And we want to make sure that's a complete list for your industry and really think through all the different scenarios.
Next, have a workflow for eAuction software—and there's a difference between a damaged item versus the wrong item was sent. I mean, those are very different situations. We have a pretty major problem on our hands if the seller doesn't resolve a wrong item sent. I mean, that's a pretty major issue, right? And so there should be consequences for the seller on your online auction system.
Similarly speaking, if an item was damaged in shipment, that's a very different issue too, because it's possibly not the seller doing anything wrong. But unfortunately, the buyer is not getting what they need. So there are a lot of other types of auctions with their own situations. Maybe the seller wasn't responding quickly enough, and so the buyer had to go with a different option. And that can be really frustrating as a seller. But, that's why we have all this communication talking about what the guidelines are.
CHRIS: We want to have governance in place in the enterprise auction bidding software that can handle this so that, whenever the buyer says, "Gosh, I have an event that I have to have this item for in a week, and if I don't have it by then, I'm going to have to go buy it for twice as much. I'm going to be frustrated, but I've got to have it, it's non-negotiable.” And if the seller doesn't respond quickly enough and fulfill the item on time, what is the buyer supposed to do? These are the kind of things that we can mostly automate through the platform.
The other thing is we do need to be able to have a safety release valve. If needed, we can inject a direct override, or even direct human interaction. And this is really helpful as well, so that your internal team is receiving notifications too. So you can essentially take advantage of the notifications to improve customer satisfaction with the platform. And whenever it gets to a point—and this will happen occasionally—where the automation just doesn't really encompass the specific scenario, then it makes perfect sense to inject someone manually from a customer support perspective to be able to address that issue.