If you’re like many sellers, your heart skips a beat when you get notification of new Amazon reviews. Will they be positive? Or will the reviewer have left less-than-stellar feedback? If it’s the latter, regardless of the reason your company received negative feedback, it’s important to address it head-on. Amazon Feedback Management is key to your success on the world’s biggest sales platform.
We’ve learned some vital insights in our years working with Amazon sellers. To help you build your business, we’re sharing what we’ve learned about managing Amazon reviews to help you solve problems before they damage your reputation.
Ask for Reviews
Every Amazon seller will probably receive at least one bad review. It’s just the nature of doing business online. Counter those bad reviews with positive reviews. The more five-star reviews you earn helps offset any one-star reviews. And a higher star rating is one of the most important metrics shoppers look at before buying. In fact, statistics indicate 88 percent of shoppers consider reviews when making purchases, making Amazon Feedback Management paramount to success.
So how can you increase your reviews? Just ask for them.
After purchase, it’s as easy as sending an email that solicits a review of both your product and your store’s customer service. This can be labor-intensive, especially if you’re trying to do it manually. Automated systems like ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing tool send customers an email only after delivery confirmation. By taking the guesswork out of timing the email, you’ll be asking for feedback at the most opportune time and saving yourself a lot of time.
It’s important to note that Amazon does not allow you to solicit reviews only from customers who had a positive experience. Additionally, you can’t directly ask for a five-star review. While you can ask for feedback, you must do it in a neutral tone without prompting the buyer to pick a specific star rating.
There’s another benefit to having positive reviews. More reviews help Amazon shoppers discover your products. With billions of listings across 11 marketplaces worldwide, shoppers may never find your listing unless it appears in a search. While keywords play a very important role in Amazon’s search results, your reputation also factors heavily into the algorithm. Translation: products with positive reviews appear higher in the results list.
Respond to All Reviews
Reviews are an essential way to build your Amazon business. Make it a point to respond to any and all reviews left by customers, whether the review is positive or negative.
It’s not easy to respond to negative reviews, but it’s a crucial part of your Amazon Feedback Management strategy. Other shoppers will see that you’re willing to engage with all customers—even those who had poor experiences—and studies have shown that a response to negative reviews can actually change a reader’s perspective.
You must do more than simply respond, though. You’ve must be both polite and accommodating, never accusatory or indignant. Don’t make excuses. Don’t shift blame. Don’t insult the buyer. In short, you may have to take it on the chin.
When you receive a bad review—especially one you feel is unwarranted—you may be inclined to respond in an overly emotional way. Don’t. Think about the thousands of eyes that could potentially see your response and form an opinion about your company based on one volatile response written in a moment of anger.
Learn about other Amazon Seller tools to add to your stack by reading our roundup article!
Transparent service recovery is key here. Apologize and attempt to find a solution to the buyer’s problem. If possible, offer to make it right: send a replacement, provide detailed instructions or simply apologize. In short, do whatever it takes to rectify the situation. And never get into a war of words with a customer on a review thread. If highly contentious, take the conversation to a private communication like email, text or even a phone call.
Follow the Rules
Amazon has specific rules set out for its sellers to follow, especially when it comes to customer reviews. Breaking these rules will not only get you in trouble with Amazon, but potential customers will avoid buying from a merchant that doesn’t follow with Amazon’s excellent customer service protocols.
First, your response to feedback cannot be abusive or inappropriate. As we discussed previously, getting into a name-calling match with a dissatisfied customer is never a good idea, and it can land you in hot water. Just don’t do it.
Second, you can’t purchase reviews or offer incentives to buyers who provide feedback. It’s easy enough to do. Anyone can leave a review for your products, even if they’ve never actually made a purchase. But Amazon really doesn’t like this practice, and it’s usually easy for shoppers to identify reviews that were written by someone with no first-hand knowledge of the product.
Third, don’t review your own products or those of your competitors. You also can’t manipulate the “Helpful,” “Not Helpful” or “Report Abuse” functions on Amazon. That’s not to say you can’t use the “Report Abuse” function if the review truly violates Amazon’s Community Guidelines. But you can’t use it just because you don’t like a review.
Selling on Amazon can be a lucrative endeavor, but you must take steps to manage your company’s online reputation. ShippingEasy’s Amazon Seller Suite makes Amazon Feedback Management convenient to solicit reviews the right way. Want a demo of how it all works? Click below and select a time that works for you!
Rob Zaleski
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