Entering the world of Amazon selling is akin to stepping into a vast, competitive arena. Every seller, both big and small, is vying for the same thing – the trust and loyalty of the customers. And what better way to earn this than through positive seller feedback and reviews?
The heart of this article pulsates with the importance of maintaining a high feedback score. It's not just about reaching the top, it's about staying there. Just like in the cutthroat world of business, where I've spent countless hours negotiating and strategizing, the Amazon marketplace is all about staying ahead of the competition. Every negative feedback is a chink in your armor that a new competitor can exploit.
But consider this - every challenge is an opportunity. A negative review is not just a setback, but a chance to learn, to improve, and to show your customers that you are committed to their satisfaction. This article dives into the ways you can remove negative feedback, provided it doesn't meet Amazon's Terms of Service.
Remember, in the relentless pursuit of success, whether it's in the world of business or the Amazon marketplace, maintaining your reputation is paramount. The strategies and tips shared here are tools to build that reputation.
So, immerse yourself in the wisdom shared in this piece. Learn, adapt, and conquer. In the Amazon marketplace, just like in the world of business, the most adaptable are the survivors. And with the right approach, not only can you survive, but you can thrive. The journey may be arduous, but the reward - a loyal customer base and a solid market share - is worth it.
Welcome to the exciting world of Amazon selling. It's a battlefield out there, but with the right tools and mindset, it's a battlefield you can dominate.
Timing Reviews, the Key to Amazon Success
Getting more positive Amazon seller feedback and product reviews is your key tactic in order to dominate the Amazon marketplace.
These metrics carry with them enormous importance to all relevant players, the buyers, Amazon and you as a seller.
The importance of getting more Amazon seller feedback
The importance of all sorts of ratings are that they give an unbiased approximation of the potential business transaction with the seller. This can prevent questionable transactions from happening in advance and ensure the superb buyer’s experience Amazon prides on.
Here’s a bit more detail of the benefits for each stakeholder:
Feedback importance for the Amazon buyer
The buyers, first and foremost, see the feedback and product reviews as a seal of quality for the product and for the seller.
A product with a high seller feedback ensures the buyer that if there will be any problems they’ll have a responsive person to speak with that can solve their issues and questions.
A product with a high product review rating means it’s a good product that is worth its price.
These assuring metrics ease the buying dilemma many buyers have and increase the purchase likelihood. However, bad ratings have the opposite effect.
Feedback importance for Amazon
Amazon views these metrics very similarly to the way buyers view them, as an assurance that the product is worthy, that the seller is someone that can be trusted and that buyer seller relationship are positive. This is why Amazon encourages sellers to collect reviews on Amazon as we will discuss later.
These are factored into the Amazon algorithm and result in your placement in the relevant searches, your seller health and Amazon account health, and your chances of winning the buy box.
Another important thing to note is that not all feedback is treated equally. Amazon gives a higher emphasis on recent reviews and feedback which means you should always collect reviews.
Feedback importance for the Amazon seller
Your seller review and feedback are the best seller performance indicator. If you have unhappy customers that give you a negative seller rating you must deal with it before it becomes a problem and affects your sales.
This is why it’s important to not only look at the feedback but read the entire feedback comment. Doing this will allow you to up your game and improve.
Why are seller feedback and product reviews so important
Getting and asking for seller feedback is important and is crucial to your success as a seller, but you must always be aware that while you are asking for feedback you are not provoking Amazon and transgressing their guidelines. Violating any of Amazon’s rules can result in harmful consequences to your Amazon seller account.
Be aware of Amazon’s guidelines
Before we jump into a few examples of Amazon’s customer product reviews policies it is important to understand where Amazon comes from. Amazon is trying to give buyers the best possible solution and a key ingredient is to provide them with accurate and unbiased feedback and reviews.
This is why Amazon severely punishes third party sellers who request feedback in a way that will affect the result. For example, if you offer free or discounted products in exchange for a positive review you will get punished. If you incentivize reviews or pressure buyers, you can get suspended. If you request a customer to remove a neutral feedback or if you are collecting positive feedback by contacting family members only you are also in violation of Amazon’s terms. The worst is of course getting fake reviews. Smart sellers avoid such practices altogether.
In the next paragraphs we will touch on the ways you can get buyers to leave seller feedback that are safe and those that are dangerous from a compliance perspective. You can read the specific guidelines you need to follow in order to request reviews here.
Amazon’s guidelines for requesting feedback and review
Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy towards any such violations. Any manipulation they detect can result in an immediate and strict action.
For example, they may suspend your Amazon seller account, withhold your funds, remove all your reviews on Amazon, take legal action against you and so on.
While the temptation to manipulate buyers into leaving a positive review and feedback is high, the punishment is so grave that we advise you to prevent doing it altogether. There are legitimate ways you can take to increase your feedback score and feedback rating that will win the buy box algorithm without jeopardizing your Amazon business.
The negative outcomes of not following the guidelines
Feedbacks, reviews, ratings, okay, I need them. What should I do next?
You definitely came to the right place. We are going to quickly go over the ways you can solicit buyers to leave you feedback and run over the methods to improve your chances of positive reviews and avoid negative seller feedback. Follow these and you can dramatically improve your Amazon feedback score.
Getting buyers to leave Amazon customer feedback and review
There are a few methods you can take to solicit a review from a buyer. We are going to briefly go over the main options and read about them in greater depth here.
Use the Amazon review programs for new products
Amazon understands the importance of feedback and reviews and made special programs for new products, the Amazon Vine program and the Early Reviewer program. You can read more about them here.
These are great options but will only get you your first reviews. Afterwards you will need to use the other methods.
Request reviews using Product inserts
Product inserts are actual notes you are adding to the packaging of your products. In the notes you can ask for a review and feedback and add links. However, you must take care and not violate Amazon’s rules.
Use the buyer seller messaging service
Amazon buyer seller messaging is the way to contact buyers and can be considered Amazon’s equivalent of email. It’s a good way to contact a user and ask for a product review. However, this method is the most dangerous from the Amazon guidelines perspective. This is because you are using your own words and should be careful, and because you are using a channel that is easily monitored by Amazon.
Request safely with the Request a Review button
Amazon made it very easy for third party sellers to bring feedback from Amazon customers. They’ve created a Request a Review button (available in each order page in the seller central). Once clicked, the customer will receive an email asking them to rate the seller and product in the buyer’s native language. Since Amazon formulates the email it is completely safe to use, making this the safest and most effective way to get reviews.
Different methods of requesting feedback
The methods discussed for feedback requests are manual by nature. Since you have to keep asking for feedback (recent feedback counts more in the Amazon algorithm) it means that you’ll need to make the request for each order. This takes a long time and might interfere with your Amazon seller activities.
Luckily, there are a bunch of apps, tools and Amazon feedback software to assist you with this task. Since we believe the most effective way to get users to feedback on your product is the Request a Review button, let’s review the automation tool for it.
Instead of going to each Amazon seller central order, just use HighFive. This is a powerful Amazon tool that automates the request review process and lets you collect Amazon
feedback easily and without risk. This is one of our acclaimed free tools you can use immediately to boost your score and we’ll go into more details in the next paragraphs.
Make sure requesting feedback is done efficiently
While you can’t control your customers’ feedback and while you can’t request specifically a 5 star review or positive ratings, you can still influence them and increase your chances of getting good feedback ratings in legitimate ways.
Customer satisfaction is crucial
Unhappy customers leave negative feedback and negative reviews. Happy clients will boost your Amazon feedback score.
Make sure you are over delivering whenever you can. Give Amazon buyers the best quality product and service you can and you’ll keep the negative reviews to a minimum.
Excellent customer service brings more positive feedback and improves your seller feedback rating. Think about the purchase as a whole. From the price, through product packaging and up to your responses to client’s request – everything counts.
Always, pay attention to feedback management. Make it a habit to go to Amazon seller central, go to the Amazon feedback page and read the entire feedback comment. This will allow you to improve your offering and win future positive reviews. It will also allow you to respond to bad reviews and maybe the buyer will remove negative feedback following your actions.
Removing negative feedback
You can and should provide excellent post purchase service and hope that the buyer will remove the negative feedback. However, there are other ways of removing negative feedback. If a negative feedback doesn’t meet Amazon’s standards, for example if a review contains personally identifiable information, you can ask Amazon to remove it. To learn more click this link.
Another thing you must always remember is that adding a positive feedback will dilute negative feedback that you’ve got in the past.
Remember, removing feedback is much harder than not getting it in the first place, so make sure you provide the best service you can to ensure positive feedback that will keep your seller feedback rating high.
Increase your chances of getting positive reviews
One of the most overlooked yet important factors is timing. When you are asking for a review, asking in the right time might be the difference between no feedback, a neutral feedback and a customer leaving feedback and a 5 star rating. HighFive has added review functionality since it allows you to assign different ask times for different ASINs. This request review feature is exactly what can spike your average feedback rating.
Find out the perfect time to ask for a review
Transforming your game from a reactive approach, like many sellers do, to a proactive approach, like top sellers do can win you the buy box.
Use powerful tools to request a review after each order and conduct experiments to find out the best timing for an Amazon feedback.
Amazon tools to help you getting feedback and reviews
HighFive is the best tool to grow your Amazon feedback rating. It sends a review request after each order and lets you decide on the timing per product.
The feedback management capabilities don’t stop there. HighFive also offers you email updates so you know when you’ve got new reviews and feedback and also offers you dashboards where you can keep track of where you are at.
Reviews matter – let HighFive get them for you
Improving your feedback rating and feedback score and getting the right amount of reviews on Amazon is important for your success.
When should you ask for a product review and feedback? After each order. This is what will make you a top seller who dominates the buy box.
Quick summary
Learning how to get more Amazon seller feedback and reviews are of the most potent tools in your arsenal. Make sure you religiously collect new reviews and that you are always checking the pulse of your overall ratings. Even when you manage to get to the top you must not lose focus. A new competitor can rise and eat out your market share. Meticulously building your feedback score creates a moat that few competitors can overcome.
Getting feedback and review are your most important habits
We’ve touched upon this topic. You can remove a negative feedback and negative review if it doesn’t meet Amazon’s TOS. You can read more about it here.
There are ways to remove negative feedback
We’ve covered quite a lot of ground so here’s a quick recap to make sure you didn’t miss any of the tips.
