Ebay
| Case Analysis: eBay Customer Support Outsourcing | |
Name: Qiong HuangStudent #: 500423506Course #: MT 8216For: Professor BabinDate: December, 10, 2010 |
Situation eBay.com, “the world’s online marketplace”, is an online auction and shopping website in which people and business buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide. It is managed by eBay Inc, which is founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. eBay’ mission was to provide a robust trading platform where practically anyone could trade anything. It was recognized as the largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet. (eBay Case, 2006) eBay posted US $8.7 billion in revenue with a net income at $2.4 billion in 2009. eBay is experiencing a 15% year-over-year increase. eBay’s marketplaces also benefit from a noticeable growth in its international business market, which accounts for around 60% of its market revenue in the 4th quarter of 2009. The marketplaces success comes from the strong growth of its fixed-priced format, the continuing success of its highest rated sellers, and double-digit growth in sold items. (eBay 2009 Financial Report, 2010) Whitman purposed that eBay community of users was the foundation of the company’s business model. (eBay Case, 2006) Customer service is substantial for e-commence business to survive and develop. The customer support organization in eBay was made up of two major units: general support, trust and safety. Most of the customer contacts were handled by the general support unit, and approximately 94% of customer service volume was email-based. Also, live chat and phone inquiries were growing. (eBay Case, 2006) To meet the inquiries of its customer base’s growth, eBay first hired remote contractors to respond customers’ emails. Then, eBay deployed Kana technology to improve its efficiency of customer services and to raise the customer satisfactions. However, those initiatives still could not keep up with the demand of
Name: Qiong HuangStudent #: 500423506Course #: MT 8216For: Professor BabinDate: December, 10, 2010 |
Situation eBay.com, “the world’s online marketplace”, is an online auction and shopping website in which people and business buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide. It is managed by eBay Inc, which is founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. eBay’ mission was to provide a robust trading platform where practically anyone could trade anything. It was recognized as the largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet. (eBay Case, 2006) eBay posted US $8.7 billion in revenue with a net income at $2.4 billion in 2009. eBay is experiencing a 15% year-over-year increase. eBay’s marketplaces also benefit from a noticeable growth in its international business market, which accounts for around 60% of its market revenue in the 4th quarter of 2009. The marketplaces success comes from the strong growth of its fixed-priced format, the continuing success of its highest rated sellers, and double-digit growth in sold items. (eBay 2009 Financial Report, 2010) Whitman purposed that eBay community of users was the foundation of the company’s business model. (eBay Case, 2006) Customer service is substantial for e-commence business to survive and develop. The customer support organization in eBay was made up of two major units: general support, trust and safety. Most of the customer contacts were handled by the general support unit, and approximately 94% of customer service volume was email-based. Also, live chat and phone inquiries were growing. (eBay Case, 2006) To meet the inquiries of its customer base’s growth, eBay first hired remote contractors to respond customers’ emails. Then, eBay deployed Kana technology to improve its efficiency of customer services and to raise the customer satisfactions. However, those initiatives still could not keep up with the demand of