Improving Your Amazon Seller Feedback
Every seller on Amazon should strive for 100% impeccable feedback across the board. All too often a seller will find themselves suspended from the platform and seeking Amazon suspension experts due to only a few feedback that they received over a short period of time. Everyone wants a perfect feedback score – but for a moment, reverse the roles. Picture yourself on the buyer’s side of things and think about when you are browsing around Amazon about to buy something that you probably don’t need. You find a product. You click on “Used and New from $49.99.” Then, you notice that the top two sellers have over 1,000 instances of feedback from customers that average 4.5 stars.
Then, you’ll see the other three sellers: “Just Launched”, with minimal or no feedback, at an unbeatable price of $29.99:
When given the option to pay $50 versus $30, I’d much prefer to pay $30. Unfortunately, everyone knows that the chances of the lower-priced item arriving on time, in perfect condition, and without any signs of counterfeit parts are slim to none when ordering from a seller with no feedback. Long story short – from the buyer’s perspective, would I purchase from a seller with minimal or no feedback? No way. I do not believe many will argue with me when I say that there is a direct correlation between the number of sales an Amazon seller does and the amount of positive feedback they have. If you care about your business and your Amazon disbursements, this is a bold statement.
How to Remove Negative Feedback
There are tried-and-true methods that I will share with you. If these are followed properly, sellers can easily maintain an excellent feedback score on a consistent basis.
As a starting point, let’s get rid of any negative feedback that currently exists on your seller account. Many sellers don’t realize this, but Amazon’s Feedback Policy states that all seller feedback left within the past year can be contested at any time.
After selling on Amazon for more than ten minutes, you will be brainwashed by a term used far too often: the “customer experience.” This is taken so seriously by Amazon that it is actually their #1 Leadership Principle, or set of company values: Customer Obsession.
“Leaders start with the customer and work backward. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”
Amazon claims to bend over backward for their customers, and they demand nothing less of their third-party sellers. So, why am I rambling on about customer obsession and the customer experience? Because it is the main factor that will either enable or hinder your attempts to get any negative feedback removed.
If the buyer uses any language in the feedback that implies that you as a seller are responsible for even the slightest bit of a negative customer experience, Amazon will not remove the feedback.
With this fact in mind, what types of negative feedback will Amazon remove?
Feedback Removal Guidelines
According to Amazon’s feedback guidelines, this is what is they will consider for removal:
- The feedback includes words commonly understood to be obscene or profane.
- The feedback includes seller-specific, personally identifiable information, including e-mail address, full name, or phone number.
- The entire feedback comment is a product review.
- The entire feedback comment is regarding fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon.
I once got feedback removed because they used the word “crap” in it and, at the time, this language offended me.
Actually, it did not offend me one bit. Regardless, do you see the point I am attempting to make here? These guidelines leave a whole lot of room for sellers to plead their case. Get clever, learn what’s acceptable and what is against policy, and observe which instances of negative feedback are successfully removed. Then, utilize these tactics to get any negative feedback removed that most sellers will never achieve.
Another way to improve your feedback is to utilize third-party software, such as Feedback Genius. Feedback Genius is great. Though Amazon has been a little shaky recently as far as review and feedback policies, Jeff Cohen and his team have adapted very well to changes and continue to keep a careful eye on any additional changes. This software allows a seller to create automated, pre-formatted follow-up emails that go out to their customers in tiers: sellers may choose if they’d like the email to be sent upon the item being shipped, received, or several days after delivery. This helps not only provide a better user experience, but it also makes it much more convenient for a buyer to leave positive feedback for the seller.
The Bottom Line
Now, here’s the ultimate secret to improving your feedback. This is a secret that very few know. Though this tactic has been around for ages, only those of extreme privilege have had the opportunity to learn it and carry it with them on their road to great success. Ready for it?
Become a better seller and earn it. There have been so many times when Amazon sellers have come to me and asked this same question: How can I remove negative feedback? They are looking for clever techniques, robust software, and any other workaround or easy way out. Everything mentioned above is simply supplemental – at the end of the day, if you want to have impeccable customer feedback, you must deliver an impeccable customer experience.