“Feedback and Reviews are two important elements at play when it comes to a successful Amazon sales campaign.” 

The Importance Of Feedback

The feedback you get as a seller is very important when doing business on Amazon as it gives you the ability to build your “authority” as a seller.

Regardless of how you view your business on Amazon, your name and reputation as a seller is a brand in itself on the platform. And when it comes to branding, the first thing that a good business person needs to establish with his/her customers is “trust”.

Think about this entire idea of “feedback” as you would a website. Websites (or domains) that have been live for quite some time, and especially those that have numerous links pointing to it and has a good amount of organic traffic, are seen by search engines ( and more importantly Google) as “authority sites” for their niche.

This is the exact same thing for Amazon!

If you get feedback, and if you work on getting feedback, then it will only strengthen your brand and authority on Amazon. And doing so will only help you rank higher on the search results for your products.

The mistake many Amazon sellers make is that they only wait for reviews and do not work on feedback. The reason for this is most think that negative reviews are more damaging than having lots of feedback. And to a certain extent, indeed they are.

But then again, why not use both, and then use the feedback as a buffer for the negative reviews?

Here’s what I mean by that. A lot of people will ask for the reviews through emails that they send to their customers. In this scenario, a seller that is not using a third party tool will go to his/her email messaging system within Amazon and write each and every person that bought from him/her an email.

Eventually, what happens is that the seller stops doing this because it takes too much work. The time that they allotted to crafting each of those emails could have spent working on more important things to help his/her business grow. And if they don’t get the reply that they want, the seller eventually starts to lose interest in making and sending those emails.

But then again, communicating with a customer is very important in the Amazon ecosystem as it is an important part of customer service.

As a customer, doesn’t it put you at ease knowing that the company/seller you bought a product from contacts you to ask if you are satisfied with your purchase?

This is called after-sales service. And this is a vital branding tool both in offline and online.

Having a great after sales campaign ensures that you get needed “feedback” from your customer. Are they happy with your product? Was it delivered on time? Did the product reach their expectation? All vital information that needs to be answered in order for a company/seller to streamline his/her operation and address any problems.

Understanding The Value Of Feedback In Amazon

Now if the seller has a good after-sales email campaign going, he/she might get a reply from the customer, or even get a review/feedback on his/her product page. What most don’t know though is that Amazon does not really put much weight on reviews as compared to feedback.

The reason for this is that feedback is directed towards the seller itself, while a review is directed towards the product. And at the end of the day, the product is just an extension and action of the “brand” which is the seller.

For example; if a seller placed a product for a metal tripod and and you get a plastic one, who would you be furious at, the product or the seller? It’s the seller, right? And your reaction would be to write something against the seller warning others that he/she is a con artist. Do you see where I’m going with this?

About Negative Feedback/Reviews

The one above was for those shady Amazon sellers. And yes, there are many of them out there in Amazon land.

But then again, there are also customers who are hard to please. Much worse, there are those that will give you a negative review even though they are satisfied with your product. Yes, there are also many of them out there.

Going back to asking for feedback, do you know that you can ask Amazon to remove a negative review, so long as said review comes as part of a feedback?

So long as a negative product review is part of a feedback, you can ask Amazon to remove it.

Neat huh?!

Well that’s what you should be doing. Pushing people to a feedback rather than giving a mere review.

Email Marketing Step 1

How To Convince Buyers In Giving You A Feedback Rather Than A Review

Imagine that a person bought something off me on Amazon, and that the item has just been shipped. Instantly, the buyer would get a custom email from me, of course using my third party email tool, informing the buyer that the item is on it’s way.

Immediately sending an email to the buyer is very important as this will be your first opportunity to try and build a business relationship with your customer.

A typical email would include:

• An assurance that the correct item was shipped
• A promise of them being able to contact you if there are any problems with the product
• A request to inform you if he/she has received the item

Basically, you want to establish rapport with your customer. You need to make them feel that you are just an email away if they have any questions or if any problems arises.

In a nutshell, this is you trying to establish the “trust” that we were talking about earlier. Think of it as a first date, which will lead to….

How To Get A Second Date With Your Customer

Just like any other enjoyable first date, you immediately want to go on a second one right?

In the world of sales, freebies are a sure way to keep your customers hooked. It is also a good way to present to them other products you’re selling while they wait for their item to arrive.

Now if you did your email correctly, and don’t worry as we will give you pointers on how to create an awesome email on another post, you will eventually get his/her interest. And if you’re lucky, you might even get another sale before he/she even gets the first one.

First thing you should know though about establishing a good business relationship with your customer is to…

Cross Sell, But Never Hard Sell!

Never push another product to someone who just bought something off you. It makes the buyer feel that he/she is being taken advantage off.

What you should do is to actually give him/her a freebie. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be tips on how to make the most out of the product he/she just bought. Or maybe a discount coupon for when he/she buys something off you next time.

The point is, you should provide your customer with something of value that would compliment the item that he/she bought. Make your customer feel that you’re giving him/her a thank you gift for his/her purchase.

As for me, I send a new customer a PDF file with information and tips about the product and ingenious ways on how to use them.

For example: I used to sell a water bottle that can be used for camping. And every every time a new customer buys that product, I would send them a PDF file detailing different ways to make the most out of the product. One way was to turn the bottle into a DIY camping lamp. And you do it by using a high powered flashlight…. And you guessed it, which I also sell.

The sales went through the roof for both products, and if I wasn’t using a third party email service, I would have spent days sitting in front of my computer sending first contact emails.

With SellerLift I was able to attach my PDF files and automat my entire first contact email campaign.

Email Marketing Step 2

Send A Follow-up Email

Given that there was no problem in terms of delivery, and that the buyer did not sent you an irate email complaining about the product he/she bought, then you should send a follow-up email.

Again, the idea is to make the customer feel that YOU, the seller, is making sure that everything is ok.

Ask again if your customer is satisfied with your product,assure him/her that his/her satisfaction is of utmost importance.

Your email should include:

• Is he/she satisfied with the product
• An assurance that if he/she finds any problem with the product that YOU are more than willing to address it and make it right

Again, this is to try and cement the connection between buyer and seller, and ultimately “humanize” the business relationship.

And at the bottom of your second email, that’s where you add your feedback request.

You can write something like this:

Oh, one last thing. Can you please take a minute and leave us a feedback on our performance? You see, Amazon thrives on feedback for their sellers. And us being a small business, depends greatly on feedback from our customers.

So if you can take time to leave us with an honest feedback, it will immensely help our business.

And once again, if you have any questions, feel free to send us an email. And if you missed the tips I sent on the first email, it’s attached to this one as well.

Talk to you soon,
(name of seller)
(business name)

Email Marketing Step 3

Say Thank You

Send your third email with “Thank You” as a headline.

Of course you might have already have done this on your first, and second email. But repeating it again, and using it as a headline, kinda cements the idea that you are indeed grateful.

Remember, regardless of how big or small your business on Amazon may be, a sale is a sale. And you must treat each one as if it’s your first one.

Your email could read like this;

Hello,

It’s been almost a week since you purchased (name of product) and would just like to again say thank you for choosing our product.

We are sending you this email as we want to make sure that everything is working properly, and that you are enjoying it.

And if for any reason that you’re not satisfied with your (name of product) please don’t hesitate to send us an email about it, and we will make sure to address your issue swiftly.

Also, if you haven’t sent us a feedback yet, please take a few seconds to do so as it will help us improve our business.

And if you already did, then another thank you is in order. Your feedback is deeply appreciated as it will help our small business grow on Amazon.

Around this part of the email, you have a choice to either remind your customer about the freebie you sent on your “first contact” email.

In my case, I prefer sending out another freebie, or better yet, a catalog that show products that are closely related to the item that was purchased.

My line would look something like this;

To add, we have sent you a catalog of other products that compliments the (name of product) that you purchased.

If you have questions about the products on the catalog, email us directly with your query and we will send you a detailed explanation about it.

Again, thank you!

(name of seller)
(business name)

Managing Customer Feedback

Now if you played your cards right for email marketing, you will definitely start getting feedback from your customers.

The things is though, you need to be consistent in managing your customer feedback in order to make the most out of it. This means logging in to your Amazon account every day and check to see if you’ve gotten any new feedback.

Customer Feedback Interaction

Well, your email marketing worked, and you convinced a customer to send you a feedback. Now if you think that you’re done, no you’re not! Remember, you asked your customer to give you a feedback, so the polite thing to do is to at least take the time to reply to it.

Just open your Amazon account, click on the name of the customer that sent you a feedback, and it will show you his/her comment.

Positive Feedback

I have a few prepared replies ready at my disposal for positive feedback. Each differs in tone, length and feel. But sometimes, you also need to edit a few lines here and there just to ensure that your reply to “John” is not exactly the same as the one you did for “Jane”. Get my drift?

Anyway, my usual reply would look something like this;

Hi (name of customer)

I just saw that you left a positive feedback for your recent purchase of (name of product).

I know that it didn’t take long to make one, but with time at a premium these days, I truly appreciate the gesture. And more importantly, the fact you are happy with your purchase.

And again, if there is anything we can do for you in the future, don’t hesitate to send us an email.

Have an awesome day!

(name of seller)
(business name)

Negative Feedback

My method in dealing with this is actually easy. And it looks something like;

Hi (name of customer)

We are saddened that you are not satisfied with your (name of product) purchase from us. As a company, we try to make sure that each of our customer is 100% with their purchase.

So having said that, let me put an end to this issue right now and give you a FULL REFUND.

This usually solves almost all issues pertaining to the negative feedback. And once again, like what I mentioned earlier on this post, addresses the issue of trust between seller and buyer.

By giving a full refund, you are assuring future buyers that if they are not 100% satisfied with their purchase, they will have a way to get their money back.

Now if you have a far better solution compared to mine, by all means implement it. Just remember that the goal it to address the problem and appease the customer.

Now there will be also times when a customer leaves you with let’s say, just 2 or 3 stars. These types of feedback leans more towards the customer being disappointed rather than not totally satisfied.

Now to be fair, such feedback can be the fault of the seller;

• Not using accurate product descriptions
• Forgetting to mention specific details about the product

or that of the customer;

• Not reading the product description, and just basing the purchase on mere product image
• Misreading/interpreting the product description

In such a case, and if you’re the type of seller that does his/her best to accurately describe each minute detail of the product, what you do is to;

• Take the order number of the sale
• Copy and paste order number to contact support option at the bottom of the page
• Click “product related” on the drop down menu
• Submit

You will instantly get an email from Amazon regarding your request. And if the system finds that the feedback given to you is inaccurate/unfair, the questionable feedback will be removed from your seller account.

Before, this usually takes around a couple of hours for them to take action. But sometimes, this happens immediately.

Easy right?

Anyway, I hope that this article has helped you understand how to request, deal, and most importantly, understand the value of feedback for your Amazon seller account.

The higher your stars you have, the more trust potential customers will have towards your business………. the bigger your sales potential becomes.

A bit about SellerLift follow up feature.

SellerLift has a feature that manages your email within Amazon. It gives you the ability to send follow up sequence to your buyers on Amazon, To leverage the platform for your business, all you need to do is connect SellerLift to your Amazon seller account, and you’re set. Talk to our support today.