Questions from a writer

Hi All,

A LetterRep.com writer posted the questions below. I answered his questions and thought you may be interested. His text should appear with the '>' sign preceding his text.

Rob

>Hi Rob,

[text removed]

> On the Client-side Homepage we find a chat window and a left side menu.
>
Jose,
Chat is used by the customer simply as 'another' means to find a letter.

As a LetterRep, you can search on the writer's side to find a letter
that may suit the customer's need. Using the writers-side search
feature, if you look through the site's letter inventory and cannot find
a letter that will work, at that point you can submit the link to your
'Hire this writer to compose a fully custom-written letter for you'
page, in suggesting the customer come to you to have one written in your
chat converation.

If, however, you search through the available list of letters and
recommend a letter belonging to another writer, if the customer goes on
to purchase the letter you suggest, you, the referring LetterRep, gets
$2.50, as long as the customer buys. The incentive here is that you may
be able to turn $2.50 several times an hour enabling you to earn more by
recommending existing letters belonging to others, than by writing a
fully custom-written letter.

We will be raising the prices of the fully-custom written letter service
soon. At first, LetterRep.com will keep the balance in order to pay some
bills; then, we will increase the payment to writers for composing
fully-custom letters, in order to keep that part of the site healthy.
>
> I understand this if for the customer to open an account if he wishes
> and then for him to log in.
>
Jose,
With this new version of the site, customers can only create an account
but that only gives them links in the left menu that lead to empty pages
- until the make a purchase. Upon making a purchase of an existing
custom letter, an existing custom letter and its further customization,
or a fully custom-written letter, these pages will populate with more
information.
>
> I would also understand that this page is where the customer may find
> a list of letter categories to choose from and once a letter-category
> is chosen the customer clicks on links to List of Custom Letters, List
> all our letters page, More about this letter and Visit the writer page.
>
Jose,
In regards to the left menu on the customer-side, it's purpose is for
the customer who reaches the site when no LetterRep is available or
online to chat, or for the customer who wishes to ignore chat and find a
letter on their own to browse the letters on the site. All unnecessary
pages have been removed from the path between customers and letters, and
the letters are organized in ways that are now intuitive to web users.
>
> Then once a particular letter is chosen, the customer gets to chat
> with the corresponding writer.
>
>> Question: If the writer is not online for chat, does it mean he loses
>> the sale? Suggestion: Encourage the customer to leave an off-line
>> message to furnish a return email ad for the writer to respond at a
>> later time. This is only at the option of the customer unless he
>> wants to chat with other writers instead. However, make it possible
>> for writers to link with the customer through LetterRep only. I don’t
>> know if there is such a way. Nonetheless, please find a way for us
>> writers to have adequate opportunity to interact with clients as the
>> bottomline is to make a sale.
>>
Jose,
*This is a misconception.*
The only opportunity that any LetterRep has to chat with a customer is
during the initial entry of the customer to the homepage. If you, as the
LetterRep, wish to suggest to the customer a letter of your own or
yourself for performing a writing service for them, during that initial
chat you must tell the customer to include their contact information in
any request they submit.

Your point, however, hints toward the future of LetterRep.com. In time,
LetterRep.com will completely surrender the 'More About This Letter' and
'Visit the Writer' pages over to you, the Writers. You will be able to
feature these pages with anything you want...to include Chat, so you can
chat with any visitors who come to your page. We're about 6 months away.

> I have no doubt that writers of LetterRep are all talented and
> professional. I hate to see the day that we writers will outdo each
> other (or perhaps push one another for a sale, pardon my expression,
> or for a customer's favor). Please make it a point to leave everything
> to the exclusive choice of the customer of selecting a letter
> notwithstanding who the writer is.
>
Jose,
As mentioned, the customer who does not wish for assistance from a
LetterRep must only endure the requests to chat from the writers on the
LetterRep.com homepage. If the customer does not wish for assistance,
they can simply ignore the requests for assistance. The path though the
site is intuitive enough so that even without a LetterRep's assistance
the customer can easily find their way around.
>
>
>
> Question: There may be customers who cannot speak or write in English
> or simply they cannot communicate their thoughts on a letter they
> need. In the old LetterRep site there were several Prepay requests
> that were quite vague(lacking data) or difficult to understand that I
> found impossible to respond. How can we resolve this issue?
> Suggestion: Can it be possible for the New Letterrep to have a
> translator link similar to Yahoo’s Babel fish?
>
Jose,
I will definitely check into this. I am speaking with the site designers
on how we may change chat. That might be one of the feature we add. Thanks.
>
>
>
> Having the opportunity to chat with customers, can we not just do away
> with the 3 purchase options and just convince the client to avail of a
> fully custom-written letter for $29.99?
>
Jose,
Not possible under this business model.
>
>
>
> I agree that the Visit the Writer page is good and has a lot of
> potential. Also the writer’s chat console is beautiful.
>
>
>
> One last item I would like LetterRep to ponder. I know this could be
> done away with in the new LetterRep. There might be customers who have
> purchased a letter, say, an appeal letter or a letter of
> reconsideration. In the old LetterRep site, they have 30 days to
> decide. Supposing within the 30-day period they have used the letter
> for the intended purpose but despite said letter they were still
> denied their appeal or reconsideration. So they come back to LetterRep
> and ask for a refund. I haven’t heard this had happened before but how
> will this issue be resolved?
>
Jose,
Check out the Terms of Use on the customer-side. It is explained that
LetterRep.com is in no way responsible for any outcome occurring as part
of the letter. The customer cannot hold LetterRep.com, or its writers,
responsible.

It has happened where customers ask for refunds, but mostly it rare.
Probably less than 1%. Most often, someone wants a custom letter,
purchases it for $14.99, then immediately asks for a refund. As of now,
the guarantee point on these letters if 30 days. With the new site, I'm
lowering it to 10 days. For custom work, once the customer clicks the
'Accept' this letter, a popup will appear stating that they understand
the terms and accept the letter.