How to Know (for Sure) that Review Solicitation is Working

Soliciting Amazon seller feedback has a very clear value proposition. Customers buy stuff, their expectations are exceeded, you request feedback and they happily oblige.

Product reviews can be a different story.

Unless you own the Buy Box entirely (such as on a private label or bundled ASIN), it's next to impossible to know for sure if review solicitation is worth your time. Why not sit back and let your competitors solicit reviews while you enjoy the fruits of their labor?

In this post, I'll show you how to know (for sure) if soliciting reviews is a worthwhile endeavor for your Amazon business.

The Problem with Reviews

It's easy to tell which of your customers have provided seller feedback. As I'm sure you know, Amazon.com, Inc. ("Amazon") aggregates recent feedback ratings within the "Feedback Manager" section of the "Performance" tab in your Seller Central account. To see your entire feedback history, just click the "View all your feedback" button. Amazon lists each feedback (sorted by date) and includes the following data points:

• Rating (# of stars)
• Comments
• Whether the item arrived on time (or not)
• Whether the item was marked "as described" (or not)
• Order ID (including a hyperlink to the order details page)
• Rater's email address
• Rater's role (usually "buyer")

This type of information is extremely useful to sellers like you - especially when trying to resolve negative feedback. It's also useful for determining if your solicitation strategy is actually working. You already know how many feedback requests that you're sending. Therefore, dividing the number of feedbacks received by solicitations sent can yield an informative baseline from which to measure future progress.

Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't provide such detailed information on shoppers who leave product reviews. Keep in mind that, although review solicitation rules are slightly different than feedback (learn more here), Amazon does permit sellers to ask for reviews: "If you decide to ask a buyer to leave a review, you may not ask for a positive review or ask for reviews only from buyers who had a positive experience, nor may you ask customers to change or remove their review, or attempt to influence the review."

Here's the big problem: if Amazon doesn't offer a "Feedback Manager" equivalent to track reviews, how can a merchant possibly know if review solicitation is working?

Good question.

Sadly, if you're only using Seller Central to manage your reputation, there's not a great answer. (That's exactly why you need FeedbackFive!)

A Solution to the Problem

You've probably heard of FeedbackFive for managing feedback. But, did you know that our platform also helps you ensure ROI from review solicitation, too? That's right.

Here's how it works.

Automatically Solicit Reviews: All of our plan levels offer prebuilt review solicitation email templates and campaigns. By signing up and enabling the default campaigns, you can immediately automate your review solicitation workflow. If you need additional campaigns, our Enterprise plan might be the perfect fit. (Enterprise users enjoy unlimited campaigns and more emails.)

Track ASINs that Matter to You: FeedbackFive lets you track any or all of the ASINs that you sell, providing a historical snapshot of customer reviews. No more jumping from page to page on Amazon.com for the latest review information. FeedbackFive pulls all of your review data into a convenient online portal.

Revisit Your Campaigns: FeedbackFive also provides in-depth campaign analytics, complete with send-data and open-rate information. Is your review campaign underperforming relative to your feedback emails? Tweaking your campaign settings, content and timing rules can make a big impact.

Solicit with Confidence

Asking for reviews can be an effective business practice for Amazon merchants. Most sellers just need a more efficient way to measure the true effectiveness of review solicitation. Give FeedbackFive a try to know (for sure) if your review requests are resonating with customers.