Originally published on February 27, 2017, updated June 30, 2020
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Did you know that approximately 60% of Amazon customers check seller feedback ratings for third-party merchants when making a purchase?
Whether you're selling kitchen accessories or shoes on the Amazon marketplace, your sales conversions are affected by many factors, including your seller feedback rating. It's easy to get caught up in a frenzy of day-to-day tasks when it comes to following up with customers, especially if you're not using an automated feedback management tool like FeedbackFive.
Here are a few tips to ensure that you don't miss the big picture during this Feedback Frenzy.
First things first: seller feedback and product reviews are two very different things, although they are both measured with 1-5 star ratings. Seller feedback reflects your performance as a seller, while product reviews illustrate how your products stack up. Having a good seller reputation also increases your odds of winning the Buy Box, which plays an important role in making sales on the Amazon marketplace.
Most Amazon sellers see a higher volume of sales during Q4, which can easily translate into more feedback…if you ask for it. FeedbackFive can help you capitalize on your holiday orders. Simply sign up, import your recent orders, and send feedback requests before it's too late. Note that although seller feedback must be left within 90 days of the order date, product reviews can be left indefinitely - something else that FeedbackFive can facilitate for you!
Think about why Amazon permits feedback in the first place. In the early days of eCommerce, people thought the idea of leaving online feedback was preposterous. Amazon continued to encourage the practice, and now feedback has become ubiquitous in the industry. Amazon has always focused on the customer experience. By allowing real buyers to leave honest feedback about their purchasing experience, Amazon is able to ensure that merchants are delivering a positive buying experience.
When is the last time you actually read Amazon’s communication guidelines? Now is a good time to challenge your own assumptions about what is allowed. This can help you develop a more productive plan for requesting feedback. For a quick summary, here's a helpful guide we recently wrote on the subject.
There are many advantages to selling private label items. One of these is greater control over product listings. Using high-quality images and a well-written, keyword-optimized listing can improve search results and provide important information to potential buyers. By making sure customers know what to expect and providing the experience as promised, merchants can increase their odds of receiving positive seller feedback.
If you’re selling a product that is listed by several sellers through one product listing, you may not have control over the actual listing. However, you do have the power to provide a good purchasing experience for your buyers. Quickly address any customer concerns or issues, make sure item packaging is appropriate and manage your inventory to prevent out-of-stock situations.
Every minute spent on administrative work is a minute diverted from more value-added activities. You can use FeedbackFive to ask your buyers for feedback through an automated campaign. Import your recent orders and start sending requests in minutes. There are two ways to send messages with FeedbackFive. Amazon branded messages are always completely compliant with all Amazon policies. Seller branded messages allow you to customize your messages to reflect your overall brand.
In the age of online shopping customers want to understand who they are purchasing from, and whether or not they can trust that you'll send them the right product on time. A solid feedback rating will communicate to customers that they are purchasing from a reliable retailer.Liz Adamson
Metrics! Feedback rolls up into your ODR (Order Defect Rate), and you have to maintain a 1% or better ODR to keep your account in good standing and active.Liz Fickenscher
Feedback is critical for the growth and success of a business. If customers are saying great things about your business, you want to know. Vice versa if customers are saying bad things about the business that could damage your sales and reputation, you want to know. The most successful businesses in the world take feedback seriously and make decisions based on this. When customers have a positive experience (e.g. they received excellent customer service, the product was good quality and value for money) the business learns about what is important to the customer and may be able expand more in those areas. If the customer has a negative experience (e.g. the product arrived with no instructions, the product was received damaged), this highlights to the business that improvements need to be made. What is important is that businesses don’t just read the positive feedback. Often it is the negative feedback that is the most important. A business should never shy away from this and hope that it will pass. A business must take on board the feedback in a timely manner and always be appreciative to the customer that wrote it whether they agree with it or not.Carina McLeod
Getting seller feedback isn't just about systems, it's about establishing relationship and trust with your customers. When they know you care, they will go above and beyond to leave positive feedback.Shannon Roddy
Put yourself in a buyer's shoes (you probably are an Amazon buyer already!). When you shop online, there's a certain amount of risk that the item won't be as described in the listing, that the seller might be dishonest or careless, and that the product won't arrive as quickly as you hoped. Buyers look at online ratings to see whether a seller has a history of providing bad service or good service, and they might even be willing to pay more for a product if it's sold by an honest, high-rated seller. Put simply, feedback generates trust, which generates sales.Rachel Hoover
Simply put, reviews are absolutely critical when building a successful eCom company.Wes Grudzien
Seller feedback helps sellers understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the buyer experience. A seller's feedback score and the total number of feedbacks are both among the factors that determine how much Buy Box share that seller receives for items with multiple sellers.Louis Mizzell
The most important thing you can do is create a personalized customer service experience. People want to feel like they're interacting with another human being and not simply a "company". This starts by telling your brand story on your detail page, preferably A+ content, so customers know who you are. Make sure that your seller bio contains language indicating your commitment to customer satisfaction, which encourages customers to reach out if they have an issue.
Provide diehard bend over backwards customer service if they do contact you, and always go above and beyond to delight them with extras."
-Shannon Roddy
Ask for it! Most customers will not think to leave seller feedback. A well designed follow up email will both remind customers to leave you feedback and give them an easy way to do so. To ensure positive feedback, be sure you are listening to your customers. Respond to their concerns quickly and keep in mind ‘the customer is always right,’ and I would add, even when they are not.”
-Liz Adamson
Make the ask. If you aren’t already using software to automatically request feedback for every transaction, start now. If you already are, track the percentage of buyers currently leaving feedback and create strategies to increase that percentage.”
-Wes Grudzien
Firstly, provide service that is worth positive feedback. Ship everything on time or use FBA to leverage Amazon's expertise to get products to customers' doors as quickly as possible. Be as generous as you can afford with your returns and exchanges. Answer all your buyers' questions promptly, with empathy and professionalism. Basically, remember how you feel when you're the buyer and do what would make your buyer-self happy. Then, ask for feedback! Most buyers don't remember to rate their experience unless it was bad, but a simple, polite, and well-timed request will remind a happy buyer to share their opinion with the world."
-Rachel Hoover
To earn more positive feedback, sellers must respond quickly to any negative or neutral feedback and make quick improvements where possible to enhance the customer experience. The seller must put the customer first and show their customers that they appreciate them for their loyalty and feedback. A seller needs to offer a great product at a good price and good quality. They must then back it up with good customer service from the point of purchase to after sales. If a seller is doing all this there is a higher chance for positive feedback. A seller must also not bribe a customer to provide positive feedback. This is against Amazon’s policy and can also reflect badly, showing that the seller is less interested in the actual customer and only bothered about the 5 stars. That approach might work in the short term but long term it is not sustainable or effective.”
-Carina McLeod
Make sure you are providing a great buyer experience. Your listings should be accurate and your products should be high quality. Common buyer concerns should be addressed. Many sellers find that using the FBA platform helps them provide fast shipping and excellent customer service. If your process and product are functioning well, then you can easily obtain more feedback by simply requesting it. When asked, about 5-8 % of buyers usually leave feedback. Feedback requests can easily be automated and customized using FeedbackFive.”
-Louis Mizzell
If you need to increase your feedback score, ask for feedback! It's fine to automate those requests, but follow TOS and check OFTEN to make sure you're compliant.”
-Liz Fickenscher
Again, ask for feedback. Do it the right way: don't be pushy or manipulative, but do ask. A single message, delivered at the moment when a customer has received their exciting new delivery and the experience is fresh in their mind, might be all it takes to generate a positive rating. You know your buyers and products better than anyone, so put yourself in the buyer's shoes and think through the shopping experience: how long does it typically take for your buyer to receive a product after placing an order? Are your buyers online in the morning, evening, all day long? When do you receive most messages from buyers? Use all these factors to decide when to send your request and automate that with software so that it happens at the right time, every time. Craft a personalized (and Amazon-compliant) message, too: think about who your buyers are and make them feel heard and appreciated, in as few words as possible so that leaving feedback is quick and easy for them."
-Rachel Hoover
Be proactive, talk to your customers. Find out what your customers like about your business and what improvements they believe should be made. You don’t have to wait for seller feedback to appear on Amazon to find this out. This will help you with decisions that you make throughout the year as well as help you prioritize projects. Some improvements you may be aware of and already be working on and some may come as a surprise. Also, if you are not currently gathering seller feedback or are doing this manually, there are third-party tools out there that can make this process simple and automated for you at a low cost. I recommend all sellers have an automated process to collect customer feedback.”
-Carina McLeod
Pay attention to negative feedback. Are any of the complaints caused by things you can fix? If so, fix them! If you can avoid multiple negative feedbacks about the same issue, you're on your way to increasing positive feedback.”
-Liz Fickenscher
Keep in mind that customer satisfaction is Amazon’s #1 priority. If you make that your top objective as well you will have no trouble maintaining a solid seller feedback score."
-Liz Adamson
Tailor the message of your automated emails to the types of products you're selling. If you’re selling a spatula, keep the email basic, everyone knows how to use a spatula. If you’re selling a piece of complex electronic equipment, load the email up with anything you believe the buyer would find helpful. Spending the extra time up front to customize your emails will more than pay for itself in the long run with increased feedback rates.”
-Wes Grudzien
While keeping your Order Defect Rate and feedback percentage high is extremely important, don't be too afraid of the occasional negative. A lower rating can help you improve your process, which in turn will help you earn more positive feedback in the future. Meanwhile, buyers like honesty, and if they see that you aren't suppressing a few genuine criticisms, they will trust you and be more likely to purchase. Respond to negatives in a helpful, personal, and professional way to decrease the impact of that low rating and set yourself up for better feedback in the future.
-Rachel Hoover
Everyone is a customer whether they are in the grocery store or buying a car. Everyone has an expectation as to what a good customer experience is. Therefore, always put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think about what you would like to see if you were buying a product or service from your business.”
-Carina McLeod
Let's keep the conversation going! Hop over to our Facebook page or comment below to share some of your best feedback advice or any questions you have on the subject.
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