| Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | Cyberclark  | | Posted: | Aug 20, 2014 09:26 | | Subject: | Localization settings | | Viewed: | 239 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Implemented | |
| Bricklink is a Global marketplace. Awesome. So let's looks like one.
Not sure if it is just the American in me, but logging in to a site and seeing
a little red Chinese flag in the corner of the site with some chinese characters
next to it, just sets off a lot of little alarm bells in my head. It reminds
me of that movie with Sandra Bullock, The Net, where there was a little hidden
symbol on a page and when you clicked on it you were taken to somewhere bad.
If I were a new user and unfamiliar with the site that little icon might make
me think twice about using the site.
Why not do this like most other Global companies do it. Have the main domain
go to a splash page of sorts. A very plain page with a Large Bricklink logo
in the middle and right below it a dropdown box that says choose your location.
Then for now they can have North America and China (the only two localizations
currently available) then as other languages are made available you can easily
add the links for those to the dropdown and users can be directed the the version
that best suits them. Also below that dropdown box have a checkbox that says
Remember this setting on my computer. Checking this box will create a cookie
file so that the next time the user comes to the site they will be auto-directed
to the proper site.
Here are some examples of other companies that use this approach:
http://www.ups.com/
http://www.fedex.com/
Option 2 - You could do what companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and many
others do and that is route the user based on their IP address. For instance
when I go to http://www.microsoft.com I am seamlessly redirected to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
with no interaction on my part. And then at the bottom left side of the page
they have a picture of a globe, not a US Flag mind you, with the words United
States - English after the globe. If I click on that it takes me to a page when
I can then pick a different localization if for some reason I didn't want
to be on the US site. I know though that this option can be problematic espeically
for people who may be visiting or temporarily living outside of their home country
that they may want to view the site in.
Or Option 3 - If the above 2 take too long to implement. For now just remove
the Chinese flag!! Chinese in this case is a language, you shouldn't need
a national flag to represent that. Isn't the Chinese language used by
more people than just those living in China? Plus, When you click on the link,
to come back it just says Eng? No British or US flag? So why do you feel the
need for the China National flag? Also move the link to the footer of the page,
not the header. Most of the other large sites I am looking at have it in the
footer. And most are just simple text links. Look at Amazon.com for another
example. So internet users are used to having to look for it in the footer,
if they need it. Plus in the upper right there, what happens if you add even
more localizations, are you going to have 30 flags up there in that little tiny
space?
Now I know I gave you 3 options so since they don't give us an option for
a poll in the forum it will be hard to vote on. So how about this, A yes vote
just means that Bricklink needs to look at these options and do something to
change the way localization is currently. A no vote means you are 100% happy
with the way they rolled it out so far 
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| Author: | Cyberclark | | Posted: | Aug 5, 2014 11:08 | | Subject: | Change or add proper links to the helpdesk | | Viewed: | 113 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Already Exists | |
| Back on July 13th CS_Sean informed us that you use a help desk software called
Smarter Track. http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=836748
In his message he said: .... Right now we're not using the Smarter Track
portal
as we already had the Help Desk page set up and usually everyone can find it....
Hmm. Well the other day when I had a technical answer I searched and searched
on Bricklink for this new help desk and I couldn't really find it. I ended
up sending an email to admin@bricklink.com and I am happy to report after some
back and forth and many replies from Jaclyn, the issue was finally resolved.
(Big thanks to CS_Ryan, who ultimately fixed the issue after I forwarded my
emails from Jaclyn to him)
Anyways fast forward to today. The forum is flooded with replies to a post about
non-payment of fees. Really all the OP was asking was how do I pay my fees and
how do I get my store back to where I can sell! The thread has been inundated
with people berating the OP about how silly he is that he didn't pay on time!
Post with questions about technical issues or payment issues really shouldn't
even be posted in the forum, as it is no longer the communities role to answer
these questions. There are now people who get paid a wage to answer these questions.
I feel though that the OP felt it best to use the forum because either A) he
couldn't find the help desk or B) the old help desk is nothing more than
an email form that you have no idea of where or who those emails are going to.
Anyways based on Sean's post I just searched google for bricklink smarter
track and found the elusive helpdesk, it is setup here:
http://helpdesk.bricklink.com
Apparently I did have an account there but my Bricklink password didn't work
so I reset the password, logged in, and guess what?!? My previous emails with
the admins were there, as well as a status of what was going on. it is actually
a pretty handy tool. So my question/suggestion is, if you are going to utilize
this software, why not have link to it in the open so that others can utilize
it? This would cut down on questions in the forum that should be, being answered
by the people paid to answer such questions. And leave the forum open for general
discussion not constantly answering and sometimes assuming things about policy.
So after all that here is the suggestion. If you go to the Help tab up top it
takes you to: http://www.bricklink.com/helpMain.asp. Great page as it answers
alot of quetions. But at the bottom there is a link that says Contact Bricklink
underneath of which is a link that says Help Desk. That link currently goes
to: http://www.bricklink.com/helpDesk.asp. This page once again is helpful
as it has answers to some common issues, but then if those answers don't
work it gives an email text box. My suggestion is, remove those text boxes and
just put some simple text, that says "If the above solution doesn't work
please file a ticket with our help desk. And that text can be a link to http://helpdesk.bricklink.com
The advantage is they will be creating a ticket that they can then follow up
and see that it has indeed been read. Currently when you submit an email there
is no way to see if they got it, if it is just being ignored or what. The help
desk is a powerful tool in your arsenal admins, now you just have to make sure
people are using it!
Right now when people ask how do I get help, I see lots of reply's saying
message Jacylyn, message Sean, email admin@Bricklink.com. There are 100 different
ways to contact you guys. There should be one method, and then you all can see
every message. That way if Sean is on vacation (which maybe he is since his
last forum post was on the 16th of July) or worse yet no longer employed, then
every CS sees the issue and can jump on it. Rather than just one. The standard
answer to how can I get help? File a ticket in the help desk located @ http://helpdesk.bricklink.com
I am afraid that the answer is going to be, why sure this is all setup to be
linked in BL 2.0!! But noone knows how far off BL 2.0 actually is. This is
an easy fix that can help the customer service response time right now in BL
1.0!
Thanks for reading!
-Steve
Brick Outfitters
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| Author: | Cyberclark | | Posted: | Mar 28, 2014 09:19 | | Subject: | Better Communication when privileges change | | Viewed: | 163 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
| So there was a post today here: http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=807655
We see this all the time! Help my privileges were revoked, why what did I do,
how do I fix it? Fortunately I have never had this happen to me but I could
see it as a source of great concern to those who it does happen to. How many
people say never mind this is too frustrating and never come back to buy here
again?
As a website that is trying to move into the 21st century and bring in new buyers
and be more user friendly I think a very simple fix would be to improve the communication
that is made when a users buying/selling privileges are changed.
I assume there is some form the admin goes to to make such changes and that there
are check boxes that are checked to close a users store. Upon hitting the change
user status button, Why not make the system also send a message through the messaging
system that briefly explains the reason for the closure and points them to an
FAQ page that lists the possible reasons for closure and what the steps are that
they need to do for reinstatement. A simple message asking to contact the admin,
with no details on how to do so is pretty vague.
The message template could vary based on the reason for closure, but here is
an example for an email that could be sent to store being closed for preemptive
action.
----------------------------------------
Dear [Username],
Thank you for your interest in Bricklink. Your store has been temporarily suspended
from selling due to [reason from system here] (ex. having too many rare items,
complaints from community members, suspected underage operator, etc.). We apologize
for this inconvenience but we must take such actions from time to time to protect
the community and ensure new sellers are listing items in compliance with the
TOS of the site. We would like to get this resolved as quickly as you would so
you can get back to selling. In order to resume selling we just need you to
provide us with the following documentation. [list of items from system] (ex.
photo proof of inventory, photo of ID, etc etc). You can send the proper items
by sending them to [insert proper email here]. If you have any further questions
there is an FAQ for this subject listed [url here] and as always you can contact
the site administrators [help desk email/webpage here].
Thank you again for your use of our Website.
Bricklink, LTD
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Or something along those lines. I'm not the best at writing these type of
things, so I would leave the exact verbage to the Customer Service gurus, but
I didn't want to provide a suggestion without also providing a possible solution.
One of the biggest barriers to entry to this site IMO is the end-user experience.
How many websites do you browse, but never pull the trigger on buying something
because it was just too convoluted? So now put yourself in a new users shoes,
you take the time to navigate a website that looks to be from 20 years ago, only
to be greated by a vague message telling you you can't do anything yet? I
think the addition of the CS team has been a great first step in the right direction
to solving some of these issues. This suggestion is just an example of another
step you could take to keep moving forward to having a more pleasant end-user
experience.
You know the old Customer Service adage, For every one person that has a good
experience they may tell one other person. Every person that is unhappy with
a service and walks away they tell 10 other people about their issue, thus keeping
more potential users from checking into the site. I want as many new buyers
as possible to come and see the site and buy, buy, buy
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