Messages not responded to within 24 hours that shouldn't count

[TyArth]

In the past month or so, I've had two messages from other sellers about items that I have bought from them. One of which was just a link to tracking, and the other was a reply to a question I asked them, but these two messages have been counted as ones that my business has not responded to within 24 hours. They are nothing to do with my business, or me responding to my customers, and it has made my response rate only 50%! These shouldn't be included in the star seller count, as they are for me as a buyer, not me as a seller.

Has anyone found a way around this? Or do I just need to respond to every single message, regardless of whether it is about my business?? 

[Vintorious]

I am sorry to say there is not. The rules are that we must respond to ALL new messages, regardless of whether they are about our own purchases, or from new buyers. The only way to avoid this happening again is to create a dedicated buying-only account to keep buying and selling activity separate.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

You can do one of two things: respond to an order update message from a seller you purchased from with a simple "thanks" (or whatever else would be appropriate if they are asking you a question), OR make a separate account just for buying and you won't have to worry about this.

If you do make a second account, you will then have to disclose the presence of it in your public shop profile, and do the same for the other account. (this is per etsy rules).

[PieceByNumberQuilts]

I think one only needs to disclose other active shops you may have, not simply other accounts if those aren't associated with active shops.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@PieceByNumberQuilts   All accounts and that includes buyer accounts are to be listed in teh public profile of all accounts.  At least that was in the guidelines the last time I lookd

[audreytherese]

All accounts must be disclosed, including buyer accounts, not just active shops. 

Part of that is so shops can't create a buyer account that isn't associated with the shop in order to mess with their competitors. 

[SeasideRoseCreations]

Just respond.

In the time it took you to post this, you could have responded to them and had room to spare.

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

How to Become a Star Seller 

"Responding to 95% of all your initial messages within 24 hours will earn you the Speedy replies customer service badge."

This has been a requirement since Etsy introduced Star Seller in 2021. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@TyArth: "They are nothing to do with my business ..." The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

"... as they are for me as a buyer, not me as a seller." As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else. If it is SPAM then it should be marked as such.

"... do I just need to respond to every single message ..." Remember that the Star Seller metric is NOT all new messages but only the first message of all new incoming threads.

[KraftyHomeStudio]

Such are the requirements and nothing can be done.

[Nantwichs]

I think the OP on this thread raises an important point. I'm in the same boat, I've had an Etsy account since 2010 as a buyer and then started selling last year.  Messages from customers I always respond to promptly well within 24 hours and looking at my shop data for the quarter that is exactly the case.  I had one message from the quarter that didn't meet the 24 hours, and it was a message in my capacity as a buyer on etsy not a seller. 

When I buy something on Etsy if a seller sends me a courtesy notice that they've shipped something its not a message i automatically respond to promptly or even at all. 

If the objective of the Star Seller program is for excellent customer service sellers, it seems to me that only messages sent to us in our capacity as sellers should be used to support the 95% metric. I would imagine its very easy to designate, if you download your message history for the quarter like I did, its very clear in the data which are messages that should be included.

If you are interested in a product I have and ask me a question, you'll get a response very quickly - that is what this is supposed to be measuring.

[Vintorious]

In order to track messages that are received as a seller separately from those received as a buyer, Etsy would need to be more intrusive. Unless a seller has made a purchase, it's just not that simple to know if an interaction between sellers is for the purpose of buying or selling, and spammers/scammers make it impossible for Etsy to rely on account holders to mark it one way or the other truthfully. I don't know if there is a way to distinguish messages between sellers as being transactional without reading them.

[audreytherese]

There's also the issue that many of my customers are also sellers that I have purchased from. There is no way to distinguish whose messages between us should be omitted from the metrics. 

If you don't want messages from sellers to count, then create a buyer only account and keep your messages separate. 

People already wanted Etsy to start sorting spam messages out of their inbox and look how well that's going. Separating messages from sellers is likely to go just as well. 

[cutebutton]

@Vintorious even if you have made a purchase from someone it doesn't mean that they aren't sending you a message as a customer potentially. I bought from someone who down the road needed some buttons and they messaged me about it.

Basically all I can say to those who complain about this is it's not hard to answer messages.  Especially the ones that are determined to not really need a response because those require zero thinking. a simple thank you would be good enough to meet the metric.

The messages that are deemed to need a response are the ones that require thinking and potential time so if you are trying to get star seller you would respond to the messages that you actually have to formulate a response so you should have no problem responding to a no thinking required message with a thank you.

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

"a simple thank you would be good enough to meet the metric"

This exactly. Even a smiley emoji would be enough.

As others have said on this thread, a seller can respond with "thank you" in less time than it takes to type a complaint on the forums.

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

@PiecesOfMePaperCraft

"a seller can respond with "thank you" in less time than it takes to type a complaint on the forums."

Exactly - or they could even read the criteria for the message response badge in less time than it takes to type a complaint...

[PillowDetails]

I have getemoji (dot) com bookmarked - it's all the copy/paste emojis you could want.  I usually respond with a smiley sun face.

[SeasideRoseCreations]

Everyone is a victim.  They would rather complain that post and emoji.