The thought of receiving honest feedback from customers can be daunting, especially when you’re just starting as a seller. However, feedback is essential if you want to know how and where you can improve. What’s more, engaging with customers who take the time to provide feedback helps build credibility.
To ensure you are taking full advantage of this customer touchpoint, I will cover how to respond to reviews as a seller on Amazon.
Things have changed, so make sure you read this article all the way through if you are interested in improving your reviews.
How to Respond to Reviews as a Seller on Amazon
Here’s the thing – sellers can no longer comment on Amazon reviews.
In December 2020, Amazon decided to remove the comments feature on customer reviews purely because it was hardly ever used.
Some sellers were upset because they used this feature, while others agreed that it made complete sense.
While the ability to comment on Amazon reviews is useful as a seller, it’s not the only way to communicate with customers.
Amazon removing this feature allows me to delve into the customer retention tactics that I find are far more effective.
We use Amazon’s platform as a springboard to start and scale brands, as we grow, we do everything we can to start building our own relationships with the customers.
Amazon holds all of the data, and if you want to play on their playground, you need to follow the rules.
Amazon Review Response Guidelines
There is no such thing as negative feedback – any feedback is either positive or shows you ways to improve your offering and customer experience.
This is very important! If you focus on trying to trick Amazon and the customer, trust me, you will lose.
Based on my experience as an Amazon FBA business owner, I can’t emphasize how important it is to generate feedback from customers who have purchased from you.
The more reviews you generate, the more potential customers will trust your brand and products.
Reviews are everything on Amazon, but we all know that right?!
So, now that you can no longer comment on customer reviews, what should you do?
Before I get into that, I feel that I should mention Amazon’s Communication Guidelines.
They state that you cannot contact customers for marketing and promotional purposes.
However, you can ask for a review by using a button in your seller central account.
Amazon’s Feedback System
Amazon automatically sends a request for feedback once a customer makes a purchase.
Sellers can customize this request via the Seller Central dashboard, so it’s possible to personalize your message.
Just make sure you aren’t offering anything in return for a positive review or using any wording that could be deemed promotional.
Instead, tell customers how much you value their opinion and feedback, leaving the ball in their court.
You can ask for a review yourself by using the Request a Review button on the Orders page.
(Source: Jungle Scout)
On the subject of reviews, if you are struggling to locate your reviews from buyers – read this.
Third-Party Feedback Software
Until fairly recently, this was a big part of our communication strategy!
Amazon used to be much more relaxed with the buyer-seller messages, but they limited what sellers can do with these last year.
You can still use third-party software to send buyers messages, but we focus on this much less with all of the new limits in place.
Customers who have opted out of receiving seller communications won’t receive these messages.
We used to use Feedback genius, but then we switched to feedback whiz, and our results improved a lot!
I explain the improved results in the video below.
Just be careful about how you word your communication, the above video explains how we used to do things a year ago, but it’s not the same since the changes.
Let me explain how our strategy has now evolved.
Related: How To Find Incredible Products To Sell On Amazon
Growing a Community Outside of Amazon
Many Amazon sellers forget that they have every opportunity to market their brand and communicate with new and existing customers outside of Amazon.
Trust me, the more customer touch points you have outside of Amazon, the better your results will be on Amazon!
If your brand has a following on social media, you have a HUGE advantage.
Imagine this…
You have a following on your brands Instagram page.
You post a story with a poll to ask who has tried X product?
Once people have voted yes you could follow up with them within Instagram DMs and ask if they like the product!
If they did, you could ask if they’d mind leaving a review on Amazon…
Can you see how vital off Amazon communication can be?
Not only is social media an option, but you can also generate leads and build a customer email list via your website.
If you’re not sure about how to make more customers aware of your website, placing a URL on your packaging is a good start, you could even give them a chance to download something useful in exchange for their email address 😉
Once you have a large enough email database, you can use email marketing to reach out to your happy existing customers, and well, you can see how some brands build up so many positive reviews…
Below is an example of a slightly different strategy.
(Source: Jungle Scout)
The Power of Customer Reviews
With so many different tactics available for growing an Amazon business, reviews might not seem like a big deal, but I can assure you, they are.
Today’s customer wants to be heard, and they want to be valued, social proof is everything!
Reviews are also what new customers rely on to make a decision.
It’s that small influencing factor that can tip the sales scales in your favor.
More soon.
Tags: Amazon beginner, amazon FBA, amazon seller questions, amazon seller tools, selling on amazon
