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Let’s talk about communicating

If there was a theme to this year’s eBay Live, it was “talk to us”. “We want your feedback.” “We could have done a better job of communication; we’ll try harder in the future.” “We crave information about what people think.” (John Donahoe, Brian Burke and Jamie Ianonne respectively) By the time that Ryan stood up in the PowerSeller Panel to tell us about his innovations for Customer Service, and in particular about some changes which should match eBay customers with agents who can answer their question the first time, without multiple irrelevent cut and paste emails beforehand, eBay was sounding like a company that had really changed: I thought they not only wanted to speak to their customers, but they were busy figuring out just how to do that.

By coincidence, that same day, I received an email from a PowerSeller (who we’ll call Mike). He wrote

I took a look over the account and unless there are some PayPal issues he’s not telling me about, I don’t see why Mike’s been suspended. But more importantly, I don’t see why eBay haven’t told him why he’s been suspended.

As eBay take steps to clean up the site, most sellers who lose their accounts are going to know exactly why that’s happened: but some, the dolphins, the “edge-cases”, are not going to understand. If eBay are going to suspend selling accounts for a neg or two, or a small handful of neutrals or 1s and 2s on DSRs, they need to be prepared to deal with that properly: they need to explain to sellers exactly what the problem is, and what they need to do to rectify it. We need out-bound customer service calls, not just for those with account managers, but for everyone. And if they are going to put people on a month’s warning, that too needs to be followed up with a phone call, explaining you’ve had too many PayPal complaints, or your DSRs have slipped badly. eBay need to communicate when we need to communicate, not just when it suits them.

Someone, somewhere at eBay is now reading this and shaking their head and asking if I know how many CS agents that would take. No, of course I don’t because I don’t know how many sellers you’ve suspended. But I would respectfully suggest that if it is more sellers than half a dozen agents could deal with in a week, then you’ve suspended too many people. In your rush to do the right thing, you’ve caught up too many innocent sellers in your net. Change the criteria. Get rid of the really bad people first, and then you can look again at your edge-cases and see if they’re really deserving of suspension, or if they just had a bad month last month.

This morning, I had another email from Mike, telling me that his account had been reinstated. Good news, but he still didn’t know why he’d been suspended. Though eBay support had phoned him, they “were totally unprepared to give any explanation as to their actions and flatly refused to discuss the matter any further”.

eBay’s upper management say that they are committed to communicating better with their members. They ask us to let them prove that. But they seem to have a problem themselves communicating this to the rest of their staff, who act in the same Kafkaesque arbitrary way, totally failing to communicate with the ordinary users whose livelihoods are being put at risk by these policies.

Yes, eBay talk a lot about communicating, but where they really need to start doing it, is amongst themselves.

Never mind, JD, you won’t have to do another one til 2010

Danna’s video of JD’s keynote speech, eBay Live Chicago 2008.

Live from the Live keynote

• Live tweets from the eBay Live! keynote. Reporter Dan Wilson is at the scene.
• Trying to count empty seats… there is a whole unoccupied block. Possibly thousands of bumless seats. But there are donuts and coffee.
• John Donohoe takes the stage. Bit starchy. eBay Live attendees sold $1.3bn last year. Collective feedback - 20 638 040. His feedback? 172..
• How touching that JD’s Parents are in the audience. And he’s showing us childhood snaps… more like a wedding than a keynote.
• JD has a strange selection of messianic hand gestures. Lots of out-stretched arms and hands clasped as in prayer.
• JD: eBay’s values haven’t changed. But buyers are more sophisticated and have so many choices. Change is difficult but essential.
• Anyone watch the West Wing? JD is very reminiscent of Arnie Vinnick in season 6 & 7. He’s offering ’sensible solutions’.
• JD: eBay works for the ‘collective good’ and will ‘do right by people who do the right thing’. 20 minutes in. No substantive announcements.
• JD is saying Thank You. He thinks we should all say Thank You more. (no John, thank you!) Run VT. Lorrie Norrington is on next.
• Whooooossssshhhh…. Lorrie Norrington bounds on to the stage. Lively. Girls do keynotes better.
• Saints preserve us. Norrington has just shown us a picture of her dog. Half an hour in. No substantive announcements.
• In the film of ebay Live, Alan Alda is playing JD and Jodie Foster is Lorrie Norrington. Hugh Grant is the non-paying bidder.
• Fast Facts: 2007 GMV was $60bn. 84m active buyers. Lorrie Norrington’s dog is called Lucy.
• Seller Protection to be available on all items paid by PayPal for US sellers. No cost. No limits. Available when buyer overseas.
• DSR visibility and discounts are working. Average rates are up. 33% have 4.8 or better, up from 15%.
• Powersellers with 4.9 on DSRs will get extra 20% FVF discount from July.
• Postal services discounts for PowerSellers. Coupons for buyers. Top buyer phone support. Fee changes coming up?
• Lorrie Norrington booed over the removal of the right of sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers.
• Mutual Feedback Withdrawl back on the table. Encouraging buyers to remove the negs and neuts they leave.
• Full buyer protection when you pay with PayPal…. on eBay.com. Lots of people leaving the hall… Norrington hasn’t finished.
• So many people have left the hall because they thought it was all over… it isn’t.
• Community Hall of Fame award winners. All very nice but Meg really did do this better. Lorrie, John: smile like you mean it.
• Keynote ends. Not a classic. Exit Music? Saturday Night’s Alright for Fightin…from Elton John. Prophetic?

Mozilla, Zappos talk at DevCon keynote

The keynote at the end of day two of DevCon had three industry leaders providing very different, if parallel, visions of the future. Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s chief evangelist, talked about love: how the web loves us, and we love it right back, illustrated with photographs of his exceptionally cute baby daughter. Mozilla’s own practice of setting the information free, and making it easy for users to change platforms, leave you and come back to you, is something that all developers should hear: the days of locking people into one platform forever are gone.

Tony Hsieh from shoe company Zappos talked about creating a culture where customer service is not what the company does, but what it is. Defining your culture from day one and hiring people who have not only the expertise, but the personalities to fit, should make for a happier workforce. And companies should be transparent: “be real, you have nothing to fear”. I hope eBay’s upper management were listening.

Finally, a very short speech from eBay CEO John Donahoe made three key points:

• “You are very important to our success”: developers have in the past increased user engagement and improved the user experience, and that will remain the case going forward.
• “We’re excited about Echo.” It should drive innovation.
• “We’ve only just begun.” eBay want developers’ thoughts, ideas and feedback: “it’s a kinder, gentler form of feedback than that eBay community can be sometimes”.

There may be trouble ahead…

It’s available on listen again if you want to hear it all for yourself.

Open thread: what do you want from JD?

On Friday morning John Donahoe will be giving his first Live keynote speech as President of eBay. There’s been some speculation about what he might say, though frankly, many sellers are hoping there’s nothing else left to come.

So for a bit of fun while Chris and I are on the plane, two questions for you:

1. What do you think JD will have to say on Friday?
2. What would you like him to say on Friday?

Microsoft Live Search cash back live on eBay.com

Microsoft have revealed more of their Live Seach cashback initiative confirming that all fixed price listings on eBay.com are eligible for a rebate.

When a buyer clicks through from Live Search to eBay and goes on to make a purchase, when they check out they’ll be presented with a screen telling them exactly how much cashback they can expect. Payment for the purchase will have to be via PayPal to qualify.

The cashback offers are now live on eBay.com, but currently Live Search cashback is only available in the US. It marks a departure from Google’s stategy where advertisers pay for exposure, on Microsoft Live Search, merchants can offer cashback direct to the buyer with eBay paying rebates for products on their site.

If Live Search cashback proves popular in the US doubtless it will filter across to the UK in the future. One to keep an eye on and no doubt JD will be announcing it to US sellers at eBay Live! next week.

eBay Media Marketplace is off air

eBay have pulled down the shutters on their Media Marketplace which was intended to match advertisers to radio and TV stations who had spare airtime.

The site now simply states that the “Pilot” program has ended and points radio statoins and advertisers users to Bid4Spots, the company that powered eBay Media Marketplace. The Cable TV side of the business has simply closed.

It’s not surprising that in the new world of JD another business has closed: divesting itself of diversions and focusing on revitalising the core business is the direction of the new eBay. Whether it be dabbling in specialist media auctions or fun stuff like eBay Matchups there’s no resources for it in JD’s world.

Microsoft Live Search Cash Back for browsing

Microsoft is expected to offer cash back to users of it’s Live Search platform, when they go on to make a purchase. In an effort to bolster their share of the search market an announcement is expected at the advance08 event today.

Microsoft Live Search Cash Back is to be launched in conjunction with eBay’s PayPal and John Donahoe has recorded a taped message to go out in conjunction with the announcement.

Microsoft’s official statement reads “On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model.”

Microsoft will use the technology obtained from the acquisition of JellyFish, where buyers who make a purchase through the service receive a portion of the advertising revenue Jellyfish receives from the seller. Soon instead of visiting Jellyfish the cash back will be available on the Live Search site.

The big question is will you switch from your current search engine for some hard cash? Will you make Microsoft Live your default search engine? Most important of all, can they deliver the same quality of search results as Google and if not will cash convince browsers to put up with an inferior experience?

eBay opens new green offices

eBay open a brand new energy-efficient office building today, reports the Mercury News. The five-story building on eBay’s North First Street campus has the largest commercial solar roof in San José, as well as soft furnishings that use post-recycled materials, and water-based paint that you can “safely lick”, though Wes Washburn, eBay’s facility operations manager, says it doesn’t taste nice. Outside, a large pool helps keep the building cool by water evaporation, and lots of windows let in lots of natural light. Sensors monitor light levels, and only turn on fluorescent lighting when its needed and when rooms are occupied.

EBay says the building meets the gold standard for green buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating.

The building will be dedicated in a ceremony featuring eBay CEO John Donahoe, PayPal President Scott Thompson and San José Mayor Chuck Reed. It will be the working home of 800 PayPal employees.

JD speaks to sellers through Pierre

I’ve looked at eBay Ink a few times, and really wondered what’s the point? Up until today there’s been very little content that couldn’t be found elsewhere, but today RBH posted some genuine insider stuff.

It’s three pretty interesting video clips from a longer conversation between JD and Pierre Omidyar, which was broadcast to eBay employees at the beginning of April. The segments address the level playing field, handling the community especially when they’re vocal, and the eBay marketplace and feedback.

The timing is impeccable, tomorrow is the 1st May and the latest eBay seller strike is due to kick off. It would be easy to think JD might be prominent and answering a few questions on why the changes sellers are complaining about are good for the community as a whole. That’s not what happens in the videos though, JD simply asks Pierre questions and lets him answer and tell it how it is.

I can almost imagine JD thinking “Hey I’m the new CEO and I have these things to say that sellers won’t like - I know… I’ll get Pierre to say them for me!”

The timing could be a coincidence but you have to admit, that on the eve of a seller strike, wheeling out the founder of eBay really isn’t a bad move.

Q1 earnings call: has eBay turned the corner

 The upshot of the call was that the changes implemented by the new management team are starting to make a positive difference. Listings are up with conversions holding at acceptable levels, overall revenue for eBay is up 24% with PayPal revenue up 32%.

The figures aren’t as interesting as the tone of the call, the message coming across is that “We’ve turned the corner and the future is looking bright”. JD went to great lengths to distance current management from the past (Are investors pleased that Meg is no longer at the reins?) and that the current management have their fingers firmly on the pulse. Examples were given (e.g. category specific pricing for media sellers) of how they are listening and taking action where necessary.

Possibly the most important part of the entire conference call was right at the beginning when JD said eBay “need to grow revenue from existing customers”. Is this an admission that eBay are finding it hard (or will in the future) to grow active users? Certainly in the UK 14 million active users out of total UK population of around 60 million will be hard to grow much further.

Bob Swan, eBay CFO, came to the obvious conclusion that the best way to grow the active user base is not to lose existing buyers. That isn’t something eBay have majored on in the past but activity in the future will focus more heavily on retention. It’s hard to grow your user base if you lose buyers faster than you gain new customers.

Overall the message is quite simple, buyers are the most important commodity that eBay have and they’re going to look after them better than ever before.

eBay appoint new SVP of Corporate Communications

eBay have named Alan Marks as their new Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications. Reporting to President and CEO John Donahoe, Marks will be responsible for leading the communications strategies for all areas of the company, including business and consumer media relations, employee communications, executive positioning and issues and reputation management.

JD said “We’re delighted to have someone of Alan’s caliber join our talented executive team and lead our global communications efforts.”

Prior to joining eBay, Alan Marks was director of global corporate media relations for Nike Inc. He had previously held communications positions with Gap Inc., and Avon Products Inc. He began his working life as a journalist.

It’s interesting times for eBay’s corporate communications at the moment, as their new blog is due to launch later today. Alan Marks starts work on 28th April, which should be just in time to deal with coverage of another seller strike starting 1st May. We wish him luck.

John Donahoe and the eBay circus

Talking at the Catalyst conference at Pinehurst Scot Wingo today revealed his thoughts on how eBay will change under JD. When asked how eBay would change from a buyer and sellers viewpoint under JD, specifically in comparison to Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb, Wingo explained that the site is likely to become more business orientated.

Speaking of eBay Live!, due to take place in Chicago this June, Wingo likened JD to taking the “CEO of a fortune 100 company and seeing him run a circus”. Mentioning a square peg and a round hole he said one of JD’s challenges will be engaging with eBay buyers and sellers - something that Meg Whitman and Bill Cobb have excelled at.

Whilst Meg and Bill are exceptional and talented business people, they have always connected with the eBay community and appeared to enjoy contact with eBay buyers and sellers. This is something which to date JD has appeared uneasy with; eBay Live! in Chicago will be his first opportunity to set the tone for the eBay of the future.

Here today, gone tomorrow

What short memories people have. Just a couple of weeks ago eBay users and the media alike were either praising or (mainly) blaming Meg Whitman for her management of the eBay site. Now just a few days after she announced she’s stepping down Seeking Alpha carry the headline “How Donahoe Broke eBay“.

I guess it’s a refreshing change from blaming everything on Meg, but has she been forgotton so quickly? Surely she oversaw all of the changes recently announced? Or was it really all JD’s idea which he kept under wraps to announce the minute Meg stepped aside?

Is JD worth $25million?

While eBay sellers spend the morning counting pennies to see if we’re better off or worse, Valleywag asks the question that really matters. Some quick numbers:

• $900,000 annual salary
• $1,125,000 “target annual incentive bonus”
• $23 million in stock options and restricted stock units

Nice.

Meanwhile, Meg’s reluctance to check out of the Hotel California will cost the company $600,000 in salary and the same again in bonus, plus additional payments from the incentive plan, office space and secretarial services. Never has quitting looked quite so lucrative.

All the details, for those who want them.

Will Meg stay, or will she go now?

Yet again rumours are rife that Meg Whitman is about to retire, reports in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and Reuters say that she has recently “begun delegating more daily responsibilities and was completing succession plans”.

The front runner to take the reins is still John Donahoe, that would signal a change from a leader who puts the community at the fore to one who appears to be more interested in stocks and shares then the humble eBay seller.

Rumours of Meg leaving eBay are nothing new, and have been circulating on a regular basis for a few years, based on an old statement that “no CEO should stay more than a decade in the job”. That comment has been following her for years ever since her ten year tenure was achieved.

Many are saying that it’s time for change as the eBay group of companies is not in particularly good health. The share price is down, sellers are spreading their wings to Amazon and other auction sites and setting up their own websites. Skype wasn’t a great buy and was written down last year. I prefer to look back at the fledging company Meg joined when the eBay was still called “Auctionweb”. Just as she’s overseen the sight change from a dull black, white and grey site to a rich multicoloured multimedia site she’s also overseen the growth from a small startup to a company that’s created more self employed traders than any other in the history of commerce.

If Meg does leave eBay many will count it as leaving a failing company in need of revitalisation, and in some ways they’ll be right. I’ll look back on her management of eBay as the golden era when ecommerce became available to the man in the street and the age of opportunity and entrepreneurship.

Keynote: Griff and Meg

They keynote speech kicked off in spectacular style with the much awaited live debut of Twisted Lister - eBay’s very own band. Bryan Wright, Steve Corral, Steve Slater, Brandon Jones, and Domenic Paolo are eBay employees by day and musicians by night. They entertained the audience while they took their seats, which took some time as thousands entered the auditorium. Between songs there were drummers and acrobats on jumping stilts.

Griff - Jim Griffith, Dean of eBay University, was there to entertain the audience with his repertoire of eBay stories, and sallied forth into the audience for ad hoc interviews with unsuspecting eBayers. With his silver sequined jacket he is every bit the loveable rogue as he purposefully picked those who looked most camera shy to talk to. Those cornered found themselves filmed live on screens to make sure no matter where you were seated you could see the action.

Griff then introduced eBay CEO Meg Whitman for her keynote speech. Meg covered many topics with the message that eBay is no longer just about buying and selling. eBay aims to be enable fun engaging transactions and communications around the globe. From Finding, Buying, Paying, Communicating and Entertaining many of the building blocks are already in place. Meg also introduced Kristen Cunningham from eBay Giving Works (eBay for Charity in the UK). Kristen has over seen eBay’s charity work for five years and they recently reached the milestone of $100 million funds raised worldwide for charities. The auction which tipped the $100 million balance was a cat painting by artist Sandy Byers who donated 50% to a cat shelter. Kristen explained charity auctions get more views, more bids and better final value prices that non-charity listings.

Meg also mentioned the Webby that the eBay community was awarded and of course couldn’t resist talking about feedback. Present in the auditorium was 6.1 million feedback if you added up the thousands of eBayers present. Meg also introduced Pierre Omidyar who is attending eBay Live! this year, along with a mention for John Donahoe who is not taking an active part in the Keynote speeches. Mentioning John is significant, raising his profile as he works very much behind the scenes and is seen as investor friendly rather than community facing.

A chance to chat with eBay executives

Ever wanted to meet a top eBay executive and let them know your thoughts on the site? Well now you can! How about a game of golf with John Donahoe, rumoured to be next in line to take over from Meg when she eventually leaves eBay? Ever had a problem with PayPal and fancy unloading your frustration on Rajiv Dutta the president of PayPal? Maybe you’d like to fire some questions to the VP & CMO of eBay US, Gary Briggs? Or of course there’s everyone’s favourite Griff, the host of eBay radio.

Well now you can - courtesy of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and their “Bid for a cure” eBay for charity auctions on eBay!

If she goes there will be trouble…

Is eBay chief executive Meg Whitman ready for a new job? asks Forbes magazine. No, says an eBay spokesperson, “she actually plans on staying at eBay for the long term.”

Yes, says Scot Wingo. “The timing of an exit now would be best because there wouldn’t be a lot of chaos.”

Yes, says Jeetil Patel, an analyst with Deutsche Bank. “EBay’s been a slowing growth story for some time. The company hasn’t really changed with the times, and it comes down to [Whitman's] playbook–it’s getting old and dusty.”

So how long is “long term”? By Meg’s own definitions, she’s been at eBay longer than she should have. And eBay have already begun to groom the media to accept her second-in-command, John Donahoe, who was the subject of a saccharin article in the New York Times earlier this year.

Those who want to fire Meg might like to consider the old saying “better the devil you know”. An eBay with John Donahoe at the helm would not be a comfortable one for sellers. Donahoe is a business man, brought to eBay to preside over their business unit: his first priority at eBay is keeping the shareholders happy, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. Much as Bill Cobb appears to be disliked by some sellers, at least he gets out and meets real eBay users. If Whitman is to step down in favour of Donahoe, we’d like to see him more involved with buyers and sellers. Unlike Whitman and Cobb, Donahoe currently hasn’t even made a major keynote speech at an event like eBay Live, and is to all purposes unknown to, and ignores, the community at large. eBay at the moment might only pay lip service to Pierre Omidyar’s community ideals, but under Donahoe, it seems unlikely they’d even do that.

If you think eBay change things now without notice and pull the rug out from underneath your business model, things under Donahoe will be ten times worse. Be careful what you wish for, because it might just turn round and bite you in the ass.

eBay “one of the best employers in Ireland”

eBay has been voted one of the best companies to work for in Ireland. Winning the category for 250-500 employees puts them amongst the top ten employers in the country, alongside Google, Microsoft and the overall winner, wind farm company Airtricity.

We note John Donahoe’s name amongst the slightly mangled list of attendees: eBay are obviously sending the heir apparent on walk about again.

Via Auctionwire.

“I love working with Meg”

The New York Times has a rather fluffy feature on eBay head of Marketplaces, John Donahoe. Assuming that the average eBayer doesn’t really care that the very tall, very rich father of four is in the eBay gym by 7am every morning, there isn’t much in the piece that’s especially exciting. At least Donahoe acknowledges that “our user experience has not kept up with other e-commerce sites all around us”, but it seems that he’s only thinking as far as *buyer* experience: as Auction Bytes point out, Donohoe’s promise to have eBay’s search functions “make educated assumptions about what [buyers] might be looking for” is not likely to be popular with sellers whose items *don’t* get promoted by the search results.

Even more worrying is the comment by one seller that Donahoe is “the only one at the company who gets it, because he’s not entrenched in eBay culture”. If that’s true, then SJC needs more of a shake up than forcing its employees to give up their landlines for Skype.

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