As an Amazon seller, your feedback score is worth fighting for. It’s the heartbeat of your business. Without an excellent seller rating, every other FBA strategy is useless.
That’s why you should attempt to handle instances of negative feedback, instead of just automatically letting them go.
What is seller feedback and why it matters
Excellent seller feedback can help you win the buy box, meaning you’ll have more chance of making a sale. It also puts you in Amazon’s good graces and makes your business more trustworthy to customers.
Amazon’s Performance Target for all sellers is a negative feedback rate of 5% or less, but getting even close to that number will likely cost a seller a huge portion of the buy box and possibly incite distrust from customers, who are used to seeing overalls scores of 97% and above. A 0-2% negative feedback rate shows that your business is operating as it should. So shoot for below 2% at all times.
Your negative feedback rate will fluctuate over time. Keep an eye on every metric and watch for unusual spikes. Recent feedback rates will often be less favorable, as negative feedback hasn’t yet been removed (more on that later).
How to get negative feedback removed by Amazon
Many sellers don’t know that they can get negative feedback removed by Amazon.
Or maybe they just don’t take the time?
Peruse any large seller’s feedback, and you’ll likely find comments that are out-of-line with Amazon’s guidelines. Many customers simply don’t know that they aren’t supposed to review the product in third-party seller feedback.
Lots of product feedback finds its’ way into seller feedback. When that feedback is positive or neutral, it’s not a concern. But when a customer uses seller feedback to vent about product they’re dissatisfied with, then a seller should do their best to have it removed.
There are four cases in which Amazon will remove negative feedback for you:
- The feedback contains obscene language
- The feedback contains seller information like phone or email
- The entire feedback (not just part of it) is actually a product review
- The entire feedback (not just part of it) pertains to service carried out by FBA
If portions of the negative feedback reflect on your performance as a seller, then Amazon will not remove it. So that means the customer could write a few sentences on what they don’t like about the product and only mention one aspect of service that pertains to selling (like the described condition of the item) and Amazon will not remove that comment.
Every time you identify a feedback comment that fits one of those four cases, write to Amazon seller support.
Provide the reasoning and make it clear that the comment is outside of guidelines, and chances are, it will be removed!
How to approach a customer to resolve negative feedback
Don’t you wish the customer had given you a chance to fix the issue and then left you a comment like this one?
Unfortunately, some customers don’t give you the benefit of the doubt and they will leave negative feedback before giving you a chance to help them out. Luckily, all hope is not lost.
In fact, Amazon even recommends that sellers try to solve the problem for the customer. That’s why Amazon gives customers 90 days to leave third-party seller feedback and 60 days after leaving feedback to remove it if they so choose.
Amazon has made it possible for customers to remove feedback (but not edit or resubmit), so you might as well take advantage of that.
Here’s how:
- Write a message to the customer inside Seller Central saying that you apologize for the issue they experienced. If you have learned from the mistake or addressed the issue for your business as a whole, let them know.
- In your message, offer a solution. Make sure that the solution addresses the problem as accurately as possible. If it’s inconvenience that you’re making up for, then a small gift will do. Offer a replacement item, or a complimentary item, or even a gift card.
- Wait for the customer to respond. See if you are able to resolve the issue with them.
- If the customer seems happy with the solution and pleased that you contacted them (if they thank you or seem positive in their response), then kindly ask them to remove the feedback and provide simple instructions and/or share this link, which tells them the steps.
DO NOT hound customers asking them to remove feedback.
DO NOT send multiple reminders.
DO NOT ask them to remove feedback before resolving the issue.
While some customers will be too busy with life (or possibly still frustrated by the less-than-stellar customer service originally) to remove the feedback, you’ll be surprised at how many customers actually do come through for you.
As long as you never mention feedback removal until after they’ve thanked you for solving the problem, then you will come off as helpful and professional rather than needy.
If the customer doesn’t remove the feedback, then you’ll have to move on.
Removing and addressing negative feedback pays off HUGE in the long run. What are your tips for this process? Let us know in the comments below.
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