You can't see your customers, but you can hear them roar

[mandy]

In the world of online retailing, you can't see your customers, but you can hear them roar.

Online entrepreneurs running their own sites and sellers on auction sites, such as eBay.com and Overstock.com, are sometimes at the mercy of unsatisfied buyers who post critical comments about a product or sales transaction. On the auction sites, buyers rate sellers, and the scores are published with comments for anyone to see. Customers of single-site retailers can post negative comments on online newsgroups or blogs.

On the Internet, tales of customer dissatisfaction "can spread like the flu," says Tim Ferrante, co-owner of gameroommagazine.com, an online magazine-subscription and book retailer, and part-time eBay merchant in Land O' Lakes, Fla. "A dissatisfied buyer can go immediately to an online newsgroup and regale all participants with his horror story," he says...

full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/S50426NEED...lenews_wsj