Online Sellers: How to Deal with “Joy Reservers”

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If you’ve been in an online business for quite a while, for sure you’ve already met “Joy”. She’s the one who would comment or message with all-caps and multiple exclamation points about how she loves what you’re selling. She would even tell you a back story on why she loves it, and then proceed on asking lots of questions. And of course, she would reserve the item enthusiastically, promising to pay next week.

But she won’t.

“Joy Reserver” is an online selling jargon that means a buyer who enthusiastically shows interest on an item, but will not actually buy it.

As an online seller, you may have already encountered several — if not many — of these people, who don’t even qualify to be called “buyers.” Aren’t they annoying?

So how do we deal with “Joy Reservers”? Well, just like how we do everything in business — do it professionally.

That the customer is always right is of course a hyperbole. As classic business wisdom, it just means that we must be patient with our customers — even just the potential ones — as best as we can. Like in other aspects of life, in business, we put reason above emotion.

Set a reservation period

Setting a one-week reservation, for example, not only prevents Joy Reservers to delay their orders, but also allows legitimate buyers to reserve items that earlier transactors have nullified.

Check the buyer’s profile

If you’re selling on Facebook, a lot of times, people’s accounts are public. So you can at least have decent judgement if you’re dealing with a legitimate customer who has interest on the kind of item you’re selling. Otherwise, you can also a quick online search to gauge the background of the person you’re dealing with.

Never name and shame

Many amateur online sellers post JOY RESERVER ALERT! threads once they encounter these bogus buyers. But that’s just unprofessional. It may feel good to flag these people, especially when you already counted a reserved item as de facto sold, only to find out it’s not. Hold your horses: I’ve seen several cases where a seller name-drops the an accused Joy Reserver to a buy-and-sell group, only to find out that the one who reserved has a valid reason for the delayed transaction.

Doing so would not only damage the buyer’s name (who would probably not transact with the seller anymore), but it could also make other potential buyers reluctant to reserve items from a seller who would also potentially smear their reputation.

Whether a customer is legit or not, as entrepreneurs, we must always stay professional. We all experience the impulsiveness of wanting to buy an item we like. And if we’re honest, we know we’ve once — if not several times — been Joy Reservers ourselves.

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