Premium Essay

Half.Com

In: Business and Management

Submitted By mizzuyun
Words 771
Pages 4
1. Does the diary include sufficient information?
No, the diary not provided enough information about the whole works of him as a customer service agent at Half.com. There have limited information about the workplace culture, technology, organization policies and goals and details about who to report to whom.

2. Identify the information in the article that you found useful * Grandma Rule
In this case, Ryan is required to communicate with simplicity and clarity in according to Grandma Rule. I believe this information is useful for the application of Grandma Rule and for improve the quality of the customer services unit.

* Preferring email communication
It is interesting to read that Half.com prefers that the customers should submit their inquiries through email rather than by telephone for purposes of saving the time. Furthermore, in email, Ryan stress level may be lowered than those jobs where employee had to face the complaint in person.

* How Half.com handle the fraud
It is very interesting how the half.com promptly handles the customer complaint and charge the seller for any delay or negligence. The complaint handle process provided default provisions by that customer can recover the refund if the seller doesn’t reply to customer complaints within five days. Therefore, it is helpful for add some procedure in detail job responsibilities how the agent should act in such circumstances.

* Time Management
The most important thing that I found in the case that half.com has very good time management system for the employees. Ryan loaded the bunch of 10 emails which he completed it within an hour and he once again loaded another bunch of 10 emails. The technology used by half.com for time management is effective for managing and prioritize the customer inquiries. The customer service center may be using the different software to

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

The Customer-Service Agent

...customer-service agent Introduction Bill Ryan often deals with difficult people. It’s what he gets paid for. He’s one of 30 customer-service agents at Half.com, an online marketplace owned by eBay Inc., the Internet auction company. Like eBay, Half.com attempts to match buyers and sellers in a vast flea market featuring millions of products ranging from trading cards to camcorders. But unlike eBay, there’s no bidding. Half.com lists items only at fixed price and it’s yours. The other big difference with eBay is that for most of the products listed on Half.com, there’s no way for buyers and sellers to interact directly. Usually there’s no need to. To make a purchase, buyers use their credit cards or checking accounts to pay Half.com, which then automatically credits amount to the seller’s card or account- minus a transaction fee. Once the payment is made, the seller ships the product. However, things can go wrong. A purchased item doesn’t arrive, or isn’t in the condition the buyer expected. Or maybe an interesting product is listed but its description isn’t clear. And that’s where Mr. Ryan and his colleagues come in, handling the buckets of e-mail and intermittent phone calls from curious, addled, and upset users. They pass information between buyers and sellers, answer questions, and resolve the problems. Half.com says that fewer than 1 percent of the site’s transactions require customer service’s involvement. But with more than 15 million items for sale- well, you...

Words: 430 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Business

...students have jobs to help pay the costs, so an increase in the price of textbooks is a cause for concern. The University Bookstore is convenient for some students on campus, it can be time saving for some who are trying to get their books on time before semester classes begins. The University Bookstore may be competitive to other bookstores on campus when it comes to pricing, but it will not be as competitive as online book prices. We are going to take a look at textbook prices for ten different courses at two online outlets, and compare them to a third outlet which is the University Bookstore. Pricing Comparison New books Table 1 below is a comparison of textbook prices, the University Bookstore charges the highest price for all ten books. Half.com charges the lowest price for seven out of the ten books, while Amazon.com offers the cheapest price for the remaining three textbooks. In total, five textbooks – in this example for a student taking the courses astronomy, computer, economics, history, and English – cost $544.95 at the University Bookstore. To buy those books on Amazon.com, the total would be $393.88, a saving of $151.07 or approximately 28%. But shipping and handling charges must be taken into account which can quickly add up with the large, heavy packages. Therefor student must take advantage of time and order them earlier with no additional shipping costs. The cost of the textbooks defers from one student to anther and mostly depends on the...

Words: 1259 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Customer Service Agent

... Introduction 2 Information collected from Day Diary 2 Additional information required 5 Job Description 7 Conclusion 9 Case 2: Customer Service Agent Introduction Bill Ryan is a customer service agent for an online marketplace owned by EBay, Half .com. It allows for buyers to sell a vast range of products to potential buyers. Al though the concept of Half .com might seem to resemble that of EBay, it is not the same. On Half.com products have fixed prices and buyers and sellers don’t interact directly since, the design of the website is quite self-explanatory with help pages that assist both the buyers and the sellers using the online marketplace. However, sometimes things may go wrong as in any virtual market place due to lack of direct contact between the buyer and seller. This is where the customer service agents play an important role in helping both buyers and sellers trade efficiently and improve their user experience. The day diary provides for some information about a typical day of a customer service agent at Half.com. Although it doesn’t provide for sufficient information to develop a job description, it does highlight some key responsibilities and duties attached to the job. Information collected from the Day diary The day diaries provide for a lot of useful information that can be included in a job description as it outlines the knowledge, skills and abilities that customer service agents need to perform tasks efficiently and also, the most important...

Words: 1930 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Job Analysis

...Milkovich−Newman: Compensation, Eighth Edition I. Internal Alignment: Determining the Structure 4. Job Analysis © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2004 Chapter Four Job Analysis Chapter Outline Structures Based on Jobs, People, or Both Job-Based Approach: Most Common Why Perform Job Analysis? Job Analysis Procedures What Information Should Be Collected? Job Data: Identification Job Data: Content Employee Data “Essential Elements” and the Americans with Disabilities Act Level of Analysis How Can the Information Be Collected? Conventional Methods Quantitative Methods Who Collects the Information? Who Provides the Information? What about Discrepancies? Job Descriptions Summarize the Data Describing Managerial/Professional Jobs Verify the Description Job Analysis: Bedrock or Bureaucracy? Judging Job Analysis Reliability Validity Acceptability Usefulness A Judgment Call Your Turn: The Customer-Service Agent Three people sit in front of their keyboards scanning their monitors. One is a sales representative in Ohio, checking the progress of an order for four dozen picture cell phones from a retailer in Texas, who just placed the four dozen into his shopping cart on the company’s website. A second is an engineer logging in to the project design software for the next generation of these picture cell phones. Colleagues in China working on the same project last night (day in China) sent some suggestions for changes in the new design; the...

Words: 15273 - Pages: 62

Premium Essay

The Customer Service Agent

...Case 2: Customer Service Agent Introduction Bill Ryan is a customer service agent for an online marketplace owned by EBay, Half .com. It allows for buyers to sell a vast range of products to potential buyers. Al though the concept of Half .com might seem to resemble that of EBay, it is not the same. On Half.com products have fixed prices and buyers and sellers don’t interact directly since, the design of the website is quite self-explanatory with help pages that assist both the buyers and the sellers using the online marketplace. However, sometimes things may go wrong as in any virtual market place due to lack of direct contact between the buyer and seller. This is where the customer service agents play an important role in helping both buyers and sellers trade efficiently and improve their user experience. The day diary provides for some information about a typical day of a customer service agent at Half.com. Although it doesn’t provide for sufficient information to develop a job description, it does highlight some key responsibilities and duties attached to the job. Information collected from the Day diary The day diaries provide for a lot of useful information that can be included in a job description as it outlines the knowledge, skills and abilities that customer service agents need to perform tasks efficiently and also, the most important tasks and responsibilities. The following information from the case can be useful when developing a job description: Repetitive...

Words: 297 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Ebay

...Table of Content No | Title | Page | Q1 | Why has eBay become successful and diverse online market place? a) What is eBay? Who is the founder?b) Success story of this company in diverse online marketplace i. How and why it become successful? ii. How eBay position itself in the E-commerce marketplace? | 9-11 | Q2 | Visit the eBay website (http://www.ebay.com) to help you answer, and check out their many trading categories, specialty sites, international sites, and other features. [You can provide the screen-shot of the web pages to show every of the feature] a) What is trading category? What they have on this in their website? b) What is specialty site? What they have on this in their website? c) What is international site? What they have on this in their website? d) What other features do they have in their website? Analyze each feature in term of its purpose and business values e) Is there Customer Relationship Management technology in their website? | 12-24 | Q3 | Why do you think eBay has become the largest online seller of certain other products, like computers and photographic equipment? a) Based on the eight initiatives/ competitive advantages that you have learned in Chapter 2 | 25-26 | Q4 | Is eBay’s move from pure consumer-to-consumer auction market place to inviting large and small businesses to sell to consumers and other businesses, sometimes at fixed process, a good long-term strategy? a) What is pure consumer-to-consumer auction...

Words: 6452 - Pages: 26

Premium Essay

Ebay Analysis

...EBay has became one of the most popular auction sites we know of today. One can find more than 18,000 categories of merchandise on eBay, including big-ticket items such as cars and real estate. EBay is not so much an e-commerce site as it is a trading community, where buyers are sellers find one another and conduct transactions. It currently has approximately 88 million active users around the world. The company has since expanded by acquiring innovative businesses, such as Shopping.com, Stub Hub, Bill Me Later and others, which have positioned the company as the global leader in e-commerce and payments. They introduced PayPal which makes it easy and quick to send and receive payments online. They have also acquired Skype, Rent.com, and Half.com. Throughout the years, eBay has accomplished many things. In 1998, the eBay Foundation was established. It engages eBay employees through charitable giving and volunteerism. The eBay community has raised more than $165 million for charity and more than 18,000 nonprofit organizations benefit from the generosity of the eBay community each year. EBay remains the number one online auction site in the nation. EBay’s Mission Statement: “EBay's mission is to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything." History EBay was founded in Pierre Omidyar's San Jose living room back in September 1995. It...

Words: 1352 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Ebay

...eBay's position in the ecommerce, retail, and payments landscapes continues to change as each of these sectors evolves. eBay's 1998 IPO occurred during the fabled "dot com bubble" and was influenced by many of the forces that made other technology and Internet IPOs so (in)famous. eBay's revenue growth was initially 30 percent or more year over year, making eBay one of the breakout winners of the dot com race. In recently, eBay growth has slowed year over year, then with an increasing proportion of overall growth coming from its payments business and an ongoing process of reorganization and strategic change coming to characterize the marketplace business. Some of the declines and difficulty in this latter sector are due to increasing competition from competitors, most notably Amazon.com and Google. In a few year back, economic conditions have also taken a toll, with revenue, profit, listing volume, and share price all falling through 2008 and into 2009 before something of a turnaround took hold on the strength of new strategic orientations both in core businesses and marketplace platform structure, pricing, and policy. The changes implemented during John Donahoe's tenure have proven to be controversial as shifts in rules and fees structures and an increased orientation toward high-volume, fixed-price retail channel selling have alienated portions of eBay's traditional community even as the competitive landscape around eBay stiffens. The recent turnaround in critical metrics...

Words: 498 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Accounting

...Business MANAGAMENT E-Bay is the largest and most popular marketplace on the Internet, allowing members to buy and sell almost anything and it was launched in 1995. Pierre Omidyar was the founder of E-bay and Jeff Skoll was the co-founder. The name "eBay “came from the name Mr. Omidyar used for his original business, Echo Bay Technology Group, the "eBay AuctionWeb" was originally just one part of the Echo Bay Technology Group. When Mr. Omidyar went to register the domain name echobay.com it was already registered so hen did the next best thing - Shortened it to eBay.com. The first thing to ever be sold on the eBay was Mr. Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he got $14. The site quickly became very popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers came and actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Mr. Omidyar used to pay for Auction Web’s expansion. The fees quickly added up to more than his current salary, and so he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. Development of E-Bay In 1996 the feedback facilities were added to "AuctionWeb", to let buyers and sellers rate each other and make buying and selling safer. This was an incredible idea as the buyers and sellers basically police themselves to all activities. In 1997, Mr. Omidyar...

Words: 590 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Amazon Evolution

...a significant enough discount due to their ability to buy in bulk and run their business without the same staff required of a traditional book store. Amazon.com quickly caught on to those looking for cheaper books, especially amongst college students. At the time, the only primary way of buying other types of goods online was through EBay, which could involve a time consuming arduous process, and could cause an individual to pay a substantial premium on the goods they were going to purchase. Furthermore, it was difficult if someone were otherwise occupied, for instance, with employment to stay attuned to the deal and not lose it to another individual merely because he was working at the time. EBay attempted to fulfill this need through Half.com, but it did not really catch on like Amazon. Just like other bookstores, Amazon quickly moved into other media, such as movies videogames, and other forms of entertainment, especially those visually based. Once Amazon realized that it was making such a substantial profit through selling books and the other forms of medium that it sold on its website, it seems like the Executives came to the logical conclusion that the website would be able to get college age young adults and others to purchase other items once they logged on to purchase a book. Amazon utilized the same type of strategy that has been incorporated by department stores in the past, such as Wal-Mart, which has expanded to contain supermarkets and other items in different departments...

Words: 489 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Summary for Ya

...Executive Summary College tuition, housing, and miscellaneous expenses are a major expense for all students no matter what college you attend or the type of financial assistance, loans, scholarship, and grants one may receive. Another expense that students must worry about is the price of college text books. Although books are very crucial part of learning in college, they are beyond over prices and not all students can afford to purchase them. There are abundant of reasons why textbooks are so expensive. A primary reason why students cannot afford these text books because they are over price, especially of one decides to purchase their books from the bookstore on campus. It is clear that colleges do not care about the welfare of students because college is simply a business. They are only concern about the best way to make a profit off of students. College books are expensive but college students need them to learn the material for the classes they are enrolled in but there are many ways you can save money on books. The solution to this problem is E-bookology. E-bookology is a web based book company that is worldwide to all college students who have access to the internet. Students will be able to purchase text books in electrical form online for affordable prices. E-bookology is a company that works primarily for the benefit of students, and to make a profit second. College students should be able to get their books for affordable prices and E-Bookology is will to provide...

Words: 653 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ebay Strategy

...from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sale of goods and services for individuals. Ebay was founded in Pierre Omidyar's, San Jose living room back in 5th September 1995. Using auction style bidding, one of the first items sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: “I'm a collector of broken laser pointers”. Moving on from there, now Ebay a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. Ebay expanded from its original "set-time" auction format to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified advertisements online event ticket trading (via StubHub); online money transfers (via PayPal[5]) and other services. Ebay has also incorporated business models such as: Ubiquity - Internet/Web technology which is available everywhere: at work, at home, and elsewhere via mobile devices, anywhere and anytime. The marketplace is extended beyond traditional boundaries and is removed from a temporal and geographical location. “Marketplace” created; shopping can take place anywhere. Customer convenience is enhanced, and shopping costs are reduced. Global Reach - The technology reaches across national boundaries, around the Earth. Commerce is enabled across cultural and national boundaries seamlessly and without modification...

Words: 671 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Chapter 1, E-Commerce

...Week 1 Assignment Discussion Questions RQ1. Describe three factors that would cause a company to continue doing business in traditional way s and avoid electronic commerce. This answer can be found on pages 15 and 16 and Table 1.5. If we start with the first reason, traditional commerce is well suited for the sales of impulse items that are for immediate use. For instance, I’ve been taking my son to his baseball games for the past few years and every time we have to stop for sunflower seeds. Not only are they an impulse purchase, but they are inexpensive and a “low value. This is reason number two. Items that are low-value transactions, under $10.00 are well suited for traditional commerce. The final reason is for the sales of unbranded goods. Now that makes sense because when you engaged in e-commerce, you can’t physically touch and feel the product, so your instincts will lead you to the brand you recognize. RQ2. Figure 1 -5 lists roommate-matching service as a type of business that is well-suited to a combination of electronic and traditional commerce. In one paragraph, describe the elements of this service that would be best handled using traditional commerce and explain why. I haven’t had a roommate for years, but for a matching service, it would be prudent to meet the person in real life. Profiles for any one online are traditionally self inflated and based on the subjectivity of the writer. But actually meeting the person in person, one can get a better feeling...

Words: 2882 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Ebay

...eBay Problem Statement Webster University eBay Problem Statement eBay’s organizational structure of functional design needs changes to maintain a competitive advantage and to react quickly and efficiently to the external environment. Analysis and Evaluation eBay has had tremendous growth from late 1998 to 2007, with acquiring PayPal, Skype, Butterfield & Butterfield, and Half.com. eBay started with revenue sliding in the fourth quarter of 2007 (down 6.6%). Then like so many other companies the recession of 2008 hit the market and eBay’s revenue hard. eBay will need to remodel the organizational structure of their business divisions to achieve growth and profit, with unstable markets. The functional organization structure that has been in place for eBay has been a great building block for the organization. The functional structure does allow an organization to achieve economies of scale and operate more efficiently because employees become authorities within their area of the organization. The downside of the functional organization is that it is best for simple/stable environments. The functional structure may allow individuals/management to care more about their individual function, rather than the company as a whole. eBay has now outgrown the functional structure of their organization with the slow response to customer demands of the online market, and the nonintegrating of the functional units of finance, human resources, and legal, in regards to the various...

Words: 646 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Amazon.Com Case

...Amazon.com, as an e-commerce website has emerged as a leader in the e-business world. Originally, the company began as a website that sold books at discount prices, now Amazon.com has evolved into a marketplace for the world. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO, has changed the business model of the company many times. He is focused on expanding the selection of goods and services offered on the website, in an attempt to please customers. However, he is having trouble managing the priorities of his gigantic company, he should give the existing categories priority and worry about expansion at a later time. When Amazon.com first began in 1995, as strictly a book retailer, Bezos knew he had discovered an excellent company. After all, a physical bookstore cannot stock anywhere close to the number of books Amazon can offer online. Within a year, the company had a customer base of approximately 340,000 consumers and daily site visits were huge as well. But Bezos wanted to expand the company to offer music and DVDs, because he realized there was little or no barrier of entry. In the next years Amazon would emerge as a marketplace, expanding the company globally offering products from toys to kitchenware. Because of the relatively cheap prices Amazon was offering and also the growing number of online shoppers, the company was doing tremendous amounts of sales and creating profits. In 1999 Bezos invested huge amounts of money to help Amazon become a more efficient company. He built warehouses...

Words: 990 - Pages: 4