On Amazon, feedback is an important aspect to help sellers distinguish themselves from the competition. Because of this, negative feedback on Amazon can be detrimental to a seller’s ability to getting the most sales possible. Many sellers don’t know that they can remove negative feedback on Amazon in some cases if it doesn’t follow the Amazon review guidelines.
Ratings both for sellers and for the products they sell help build trust with Amazon shoppers. These reviews allow people who have purchased products from third-party sellers on Amazon let other shoppers know about the quality and features of products, as well as their experience with the seller. Shoppers are more likely to choose products and sellers with high ratings.
Negative feedback on Amazon in either aspect can have a direct impact on sales for Amazon sellers. Primarily negative feedback on Amazon decreases the likelihood that a seller’s product will win the Buy Box. Since usually more than one seller offers the same product, winning the Buy Box is vital to getting shoppers to purchase your product. Amazon determines a seller’s overall score of a customer’s experience by awarding or deducting points. For example, a sale with no issues would be worth 100 points but a negative feedback (a one or two star rating) would be worth -500 points. Therefore, if a seller has enough negative feedback on Amazon they may never win the Buy Box and won’t be able to attract shoppers to their products.
In drastic cases, negative feedback on Amazon can even result in Amazon revoking your selling privileges. Amazon measures an Order Defect Rate (ODR), the percentage of orders that have received negative feedback in addition to other unsatisfactory customer reactions. If a seller has an ODR above 1% may result in that seller losing their selling privileges, according to Amazon. Therefore, it’s important to minimize negative feedback on Amazon if you don’t want to run the risk of losing selling privileges.
Not only does negative feedback hurt your ODR, but neutral feedback does too. Any feedback that is 3 stars or less can damage a seller’s profile. A seller’s profile isn’t just measured on an average five star rating, it also included a percentage of positive ratings from the past 12 months. Fortunately, there is a way to handle negative feedback on Amazon that will hopefully help mitigate the damage they can do.
Amazon Guideline Violation
As a seller, you should familiarize yourself with the rules Amazon has set forth regarding feedback. If a buyer leaves negative feedback that violates those rules, you can request that it get removed. It can really be that simple.
Some examples of what is considered ineligible feedback include:
Product reviews – These kinds of reviews should only be posted on product pages and now seller profiles. In order to post feedback on a seller’s profile, customers show be providing feedback on the service they received from the seller and not the product itself.
Promotional content – Any comments or link to other merchants or websites are not allowed.
Obscene or abusive language
Personal information
If your products are part of the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, you can have feedback removed if it references the packaging, order picking, shipping and customer service for these things since Amazon is directly responsible for those aspects of the order. If your product is not FBA, then any negative feedback regarding packaging, shipping, etc. will not be removed if it does not violate any other feedback rules.
To request removal of feedback that violates Amazon’s guidelines, simply log in to your seller account. Find the Contact Us page, select ‘Selling on Amazon’ and click ‘Customers and orders’ on the left-hand side. Enter the Order ID and hit ‘Next.’ Provide the reasoning for wanting the feedback removed.
After you submit your request, it will be reviewed by Amazon and they will determine if it needs to be removed.
Reach out to the Buyer
If you receive negative feedback on Amazon that cannot be removed, you should consider reaching out to the buyer directly. Buyers on Amazon have the ability to remove seller feedback. You can try contacting the buyer to resolve their issue and then politely ask them to take down their negative feedback if you are able to resolve it.
You should be prompt when deciding whether to reach out to a buyer who has left you negative feedback. Buyers have 60 days after they’ve left seller feedback to remove it from Amazon. If you don’t act fast enough, you may miss that window.
It can’t hurt your cause to apologize to the buyer if something went wrong with their order. Showing that you care about and understand their frustrations can work in your favor.
You should never offer a refund to the buyer in exchange for them removing their negative feedback. This is against the rules Amazon has established and could result in the suspension of your seller account. Amazon wants sellers to give good customer service and work to remedy any mistakes that may occur on customer orders.
When contacting the buyer, do not start out with asking them to remove their feedback. You should first offer an apology and give ideas for solving their issue. If you only show the buyer that you want their negative feedback removed, they will likely feel that you don’t actually care about their issue and won’t remove their feedback. Instead, start the conversation with an apology and let them know you understand they are upset and that you want to do whatever you can to make it right. You’ll know the right time to ask them to remove their feedback depending on how the conversation goes. If you are able to come to a resolution, then you can politely ask them to update or remove their feedback.
You can contact each buyer about their feedback from the Feedback Manager page. Follow these steps to respond:
Scroll down and click on ‘View Current Feedback.’
Find the buyer comment and select ‘Resolve.’ You will be redirected to the ‘Resolving Negative Feedback’ page.
Click the ‘Contact Customer’ button.
Select a subject from the menu.
Write your message.
If you want to, you can include receipts or other documents by using the Add Attachment button.
Click ‘Send Email’ to send it to the buyer.
If the buyer does want to remove their feedback after your conversation, they can do so by following these steps:
Log in to their Amazon account and visit the ‘Your Submitted Feedback’ page.
Find the feedback to be removed and select the ‘Remove’ button.
Choose from the options why you are removing your feedback and select ‘Remove.’
Source: FeedbackExpress
Leave a Response if Buyer Won’t Remove Feedback
There will be situations where a buyer will not remove their negative feedback. Whether they ignore your messages or refuse to remove it, you still have another option. You can leave a response to their feedback. This won’t remove it but it will show other buyers viewing feedback that you attempted to help fix their issue.
You can respond to negative feedback on Amazon by going to your ‘Feedback Manager’. Scroll down and select ‘View Current Feedback.’ Find the feedback you want to respond to and select ‘Respond.’ Enter your response and click ‘Submit.’
You’ll want to keep your response professional, respectful and short. You are mainly writing this for other buyers who were not involved in the order so there’s no need to write a lot. For example, “We sincerely apologize for the experience you had when ordering from us. We’ve taken steps to ensure our customer experiences improve in the future.”
Don’t use sarcasm and try to be cute in your response. Although you may mean well, it will likely come off wrong to other potential buyers. You don’t want to seem as though you don’t care about the problem the customer experienced.
Negative Feedback on Amazon isn’t Always Final
While negative feedback on Amazon can be troublesome and frustrating, it isn’t necessary final. Don’t let it stress you out, you do have options to try and have it removed. Just stay focused on providing great products and great customer service to prevent more negative feedback, while taking steps to remove existing negative feedback.
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