Product reviews have a powerful influence on shoppers’ buying decisions. 90% of shoppers check a product’s review before buying. As an Amazon seller, your customer feedback is one of the major determinants of your profitability on Amazon. If you get too many negative reviews, Amazon could shut you down. That is if you don’t close shop yourself due to a lack of sales. In this article, you’ll learn how to get positive Amazon reviews from your customers and how to handle negative reviews.
Why Is Amazon Customer Feedback So Important?
In the words of Michael LeBouef, “A satisfied customer is the best strategy of all.” Product reviews paint a vivid image of your past customers’ satisfaction. Shoppers can look at your reviews and identify the kind of operation you’re running without necessarily risking their money. But that’s just the surface-level importance of Amazon product reviews. Let’s look at the deeper significance of getting reviews on Amazon.
Helps Amazon Shoppers Make Smart Buying Decisions
Amazon’s core objective is customer satisfaction. That means helping shoppers make smart buying decisions consistently. Product reviews are one of the criteria Amazon considers to determine the products that shoppers see. That’s why customer feedback is such a crucial metric on Amazon. If you get more Amazon reviews, you’ll improve your product’s discoverability on Amazon and, by extension, the product’s sales velocity.
Positions You As A Reputable And Trustworthy Amazon Seller
Getting more reviews on Amazon shows that you consistently deliver quality products and customer service. The quality of your product reviews is the only way to build trust on Amazon. When a shopper lands on your product listing, and it’s full of positive reviews, they instantly know you’re a reputable seller and can trust you to deliver good-quality products.
Boosts Your Rank On Amazon
Amazon considers several factors when ranking products in its marketplace. Customer feedback is crucial in determining whether your product appears in top search results. The logic behind this is that Amazon is a customer-centric marketplace, so they want to show the best products to the shoppers. And what better way to determine a product’s quality than checking what past customers have to say about it?
Improves Your Chances Of Winning The Buy Box
The Buy Box is Amazon’s prime real estate, where 83% of Amazon sales happen. Winning the Buy Box means potentially capturing 83% of the sales in your category. Seller feedback is one of the primary factors determining whether you win the Buy Box, and product reviews significantly impact your seller feedback metric. Providing excellent customer service and getting positive reviews on Amazon will earn you high seller feedback, consequently improving your chances of winning the Buy Box.
Contributes To Your Sales Growth
Customer feedback lies at the center of all metrics that determine your growth on Amazon. Consistent positive reviews will positively impact all these metrics, accelerating your sales growth. Constant negative customer feedback will tank your sales. Use My Real Profit analytics tools to monitor your Amazon metrics and how customer feedback impacts them.
Where Can I See My Customer Reviews?
You can check your customer ratings and reviews on Seller Central by going to Inventory > Manage Inventory. There, you’ll see all your product listings. Click on the listing you want to check to open it on Amazon. You will see all the customer reviews and a star rating on the listing.
How To Get Positive Amazon Reviews
You must provide 5-star products and customer service to get a 5-star product review. But that’s just the foundation of getting more positive Amazon reviews. Not every customer will be satisfied with your product and customer service delivery. On the other hand, not every satisfied customer will leave you a review. Some shoppers need an extra push to leave that review even when they have a pleasant shopping experience.
Here are proven strategies to get Amazon reviews:
Use The Request A Review Button
The Request a Review button is an Amazon feature that allows sellers to request a review from a customer within 4 to 30 days of fulfilling an order. This feature is the easiest way to get reviews on Amazon, significantly increasing customer feedback on your products. You can access the Request a Review button on the Inventory Management tab in Seller Central.
Amazon doesn’t allow sellers to customize the message using the Request a Review button. Instead, Amazon sends an automated message asking the customer to leave a review for a specific product. But the fact that customers receive the email from Amazon and not the seller gives it some authority and credibility, which might compel them to leave you a review.
Build An Email List
Building an email list not only opens up a new marketing channel for you but also lets you ask your customers to leave a review using a customized message without breaking Amazon’s TOS.
Amazon restricts the communication between sellers and customers on Seller Central by keeping customers’ contact information private. You put yourself at Amazon’s mercy when you keep communicating with customers within Seller Central. Building an email list puts you in the driver’s seat of your communication with customers. You can send personalized emails to the subscribers who buy your products with links to the product description and ask them to leave you a review.
Register Your Product On The Amazon Vine program
Amazon’s Vine Program helps brand-registered sellers get the crucial first Amazon reviews for new listings. Amazon understands the paradox: “You need reviews to sell, but you need to sell to get reviews on Amazon.” And their Vine program is the remedy.
Amazon Vine allows sellers to send 30 units of their products to Amazon-vetted reviewers. The reviewers can then leave honest reviews based on their experience with the product. This is a game-changer for getting reviews on Amazon fast.
Request For Reviews On Social Media
Are you using social media to market your Amazon products? Well, you should if you aren’t already. Social media allows you to build a loyal following for your brand off Amazon. If you’re wondering how to get more Amazon reviews on Social media, when your followers buy your product, you can use social media to make posts asking them to leave you a review on the products they’ve bought.
Use Product Inserts
Product inserts are a popular way of getting customer reviews on Amazon. A product insert is a personalized card that sellers add to their product packaging, asking the customer to leave a review. You can get great results with product inserts because they’re personalized and thoughtful. Here’s how to increase reviews on Amazon using product inserts without violating Amazon’s guidelines:
- Remain neutral in your messaging, don’t ask for positive reviews
- You can’t offer incentives to the customers in exchange for a review
- Include additional helpful information about your brand, like your contacts
- Give more information about the product, e.g., warranties or special instructions
The Critical Mistakes To Avoid When Getting Reviews on Amazon
Amazon has guidelines on how you can get reviews from your customers. Violating these guidelines would put you in Amazon’s crosshairs and might cost you your business. Let’s explore the mistakes you must avoid when requesting customer reviews.
Incentivizing Positive Reviews
Offering any form of incentive to your customers in exchange for positive reviews goes against Amazon’s TOS and may result in Amazon shutting you down. You shouldn’t promise your customers discounts, free shipping, rebates, refunds, or any other monetary incentive.
Paying For Reviews
If someone approaches you claiming they can populate your listing with positive reviews for a fee, RUN! Paying someone for reviews is a surefire way to get in Amazon’s bad books and ruin your business. Amazon fiercely protects its customer feedback credibility, and the punishment for sellers who don’t fall in line is severe!
Using Blackhat Methods To Get Reviews on Amazon
There are several black hat strategies available to get reviews on Amazon. I HIGHLY advise AGAINST using them because not only are they against Amazon TOS, they’re unethical practices, and a business built on lies and unfair practices never lasts. You should never use any strategy that includes paying third parties for fake reviews or offering refunds to customers for positive reviews.
Cherry-Picking Reviews
Cherry-picking reviews is where you only ask for reviews from customers who had a pleasant experience. That way, you’re assured of getting only positive reviews. Cherry-picking reviews flew under Amazon’s radar until they caught up to it. Now, it’s a big no-no in Amazon’s books and goes against their TOS.
Asking Friends And Family For Reviews
Using friends and family to get reviews on Amazon is another unfair practice that flew under Amazon’s radar for a while. If your relative buys your item now and leaves you a review, Amazon will consider it a violation of their TOS, even if it was a legitimate purchase. Some sellers ask their relatives NOT to buy from them to be on the safe side.
Why Do Customers Leave Negative Reviews On Amazon?
It’s critical to note that you can have the perfect product and customer service, but you’ll still not please every customer. Some customers will always find a flaw in your product or service delivery. But, aside from that, here are some common reasons customers leave negative product reviews on Amazon.
Low-Quality Product
You’ll disappoint your customer if the product quality doesn’t match their expectations, resulting in them leaving a negative review. You mustn’t oversell your product in your Amazon Listing. Otherwise, you might set unrealistic expectations for your customer. Make sure your product can back up the claims on the listing.
Damaged Product Or Packaging
A faulty product or damaged packaging can result in a customer leaving a negative review. Some customers don’t take it lightly when their product arrives in bad packaging. For such customers, this is a legitimate reason for a negative review.
Delayed Delivery
Amazon customers have high expectations of timely deliveries, thanks to Prime same-day and two-deliveries. Failing to deliver on time is going to upset the customer and could result in a negative review. For Amazon FBA sellers, Amazon is responsible for your shipping and will explain to the customer that it wasn’t your fault.
Product Mix-Up
Delivering a different product, whether it’s a different color, size, or product, can result in a bad review. Most shoppers hate receiving something different from what they ordered. FBA sellers don’t have to worry about this since Amazon handles their fulfillment. But FBM sellers need to be extra careful when dispatching orders so as not to make this costly mistake.
How To Handle Negative Customer Reviews
All this talk about positive reviews must have you cringing at the thought of receiving a negative review. But negative reviews aren’t all that bad. They help you identify the areas that need improvement. Let’s dive deeper into what you should do when you receive a bad review.
Respond To Bad Reviews
Responding to a bad review should be the first thing you do when you receive a bad one. Your response will help clear the air on the customer’s complaint to the customer and shoppers who might see the negative review. It can also help you get more Amazon reviews. When responding to a negative review, apologize to the customer for any inconvenience and thank them for the feedback. Remember to mention if you’ve solved the customer’s complaint.
Contact The Customer
Communication is essential for remedying negative customer feedback. Following up with a customer after a negative review shows that you care about customer satisfaction, which may earn you some points with the affected customer.
Your communication shouldn’t be solely about getting a positive review. Instead, you should center it around resolving their issue. Offer to send them a replacement item if the negative review is about a faulty product. Offer a partial or full refund on their shipping fee if you delivered their product late. You catch the drift.
Note: You shouldn’t resolve their issues in exchange for them removing the negative review. This goes against Amazon’s TOS. When resolving the customer’s complaint, the conversation about removing the negative feedback shouldn’t come up.
Once you’ve resolved their issue, wait a couple of days and follow back with the customer to see if they’re satisfied with your service. If they’re satisfied, ask them kindly if they could remove their negative feedback. Don’t reference any form of incentive at this point or pressure them. The decision to remove the negative review ultimately lies with the customer.
Contact Amazon To Remove The Negative Feedback
Amazon has strict guidelines for reviewers to ensure fairness in the marketplace. Amazon can remove a customer’s review if the customer violates Amazon’s review guidelines. Three main scenarios could warrant Amazon removing negative customer feedback.
- If a customer includes the seller’s private contact information in the review.
- If the customer uses obscene language in the review.
- If the customer’s negative review is about you, the seller, not the product or your customer service delivery.
If a customer’s negative review falls under any of these three categories, you should contact Amazon’s seller service department and ask them to remove it. Amazon won’t remove the negative review immediately, but they will eventually if the review violates their guidelines.
What’s Next After Getting Customer Reviews On Amazon?
Customer reviews, both good and bad, are an integral part of your business’ growth on Amazon. But getting reviews on Amazon isn’t the be-all and end-all of propelling your Amazon selling business forward. You also need to stay on top of all your metrics to get a clear view of your business performance. My Real Profit helps you monitor all your key KPIs, and predict how changes in one metric affect your bottom line.
