Etsy are running an interesting test on communications between buyers and sellers. They won’t be interfering with the Etsy Conversations content, but will enable buyers to begin labelling Conversations with the aim of highlighting to Etsy sellers the types of topics that buyers communicate on.
Typical labels applied to Etsy Conversations will include ‘Sizing’, ‘Custom, and ‘Returns’ and the buyers themselves will select the label for the Conversation that they deem most appropriate.
This is a test running in August so only a percentage of buyers and sellers on Etsy will see the new labels.
The interest for sellers should be both the ability to see which messages are on which topics before they even read the Conversation thread. If different teams handle different requests – e.g. one team deals with returns whilst another handles pre-sales enquiries then this could be a useful way of classifying Conversations on Etsy. Many sellers will already have ways of tagging Conversations, perhaps in their email programs, in order to direct queries to the member of staff most able to assist the customer.
The labels will also provide insights into the numbers of each type of query that sellers receive and could provide guidance on where to improve selling processes to lower the number of Conversations opened. For instance if there are a lot of requests for sizing information then perhaps this could be highlighted on the listings to answer buyer’s questions in advance.
There is of course always a danger that sellers try to address every question a buyer has ever asked in the past on their listings and this leads to bloated listings full of information which isn’t really relevant. Caution and a dispassionate assessment of questions is indicated to determine if a buyer is asking for information which would genuinely assist other customers or if it’s a one off query never likely to be repeated.
Would you value the tagging of Conversation with labels and the ability to deal with messages in bulk by type of query, or do you prefer to deal with messages in inbox order regardless of the type of query the customer has?
