How to Maintain and Improve Amazon Seller Feedback

Amazon Seller Feedback is essential if you want to boost your sales on Amazon and ensure stable revenue. To help customers identify trustworthy sellers, Amazon had to implement a system. This system continually monitors and evaluates sellers, and it’s called Amazon Seller Feedback.

Amazon’s goal is to feature only the sellers that offer delightful customer experience. Seller Feedback system helps Amazon identify “bad” and “good” sellers. To get the “bed seller” label, your Negative Feedback Rate should drop below 5%. At this point, you will receive an official warning from Amazon asking you to make adjustments to your business practices.

The good sellers are the ones whose product description actually matches the product. But this is not the only factor Amazon uses to calculate your Seller Feedback rating. There are two others – on-time order arrival and customer service.

How to maintain and improve your Amazon Seller Feedback? This is what we are going to explore in this guide!

Amazon Seller Feedback is available to all Amazon customers who purchase items from resellers and wholesalers. There are
two ways for a customer to leave seller feedback:

• Return to the order page and access the specific purchase
• Visit Amazon feedback page

To make it easier for the customers to leave feedback, Amazon offers pre-set options. For more devoted customers, Amazon
implemented a star rating system and the option to leave comments. The option to leave the seller feedback is available
for 90 following the order date.

Amazon Seller Feedback algorithm takes all the feedback into account and generates a rank over time. This rank can range
from 1 to 5:

• 1 and 2 are indicating customers’ negative experience with the seller
• 3 is for neutral feedback
• 4 and 5 are indicating that the seller, in particular, received positive feedback

If you are a seller or wholesaler on Amazon, you can see the Seller Feedback rating anytime you want. It is displayed on
the homepage of your Seller Central Account. Customers can see it on your storefront and on Amazon product pages when
they are looking for the same item sold by other sellers.

Standing out from the crowd on Amazon is a challenging task. Maintaining and improving Amazon Seller Feedback is the way to do it. To help you understand the importance of improving it, we have compiled a short list of benefits a good Amazon Seller Feedback brings.

Seller Central Coupons is a feature Amazon introduced back in 2017 to help sellers and wholesalers boost their sales. Sellers on Amazon already had numerous opportunities to boost sales, including giveaways, free shipping, percentage discounts, buy one get one, and discount codes for social media.

Why Seller Central Coupons then?

None of the above promotions are as visible as a Seller Central Coupon. These coupons appear on Amazon search result pages, Gold Box deals page, and product detail pages. They also come with a dedicated landing page. Even the sellers without a registered brand on Amazon can use them.

There is one catch, though. To be able to use them, you must be a Professional seller with at least a 3.5 Seller Feedback Rating. Good Seller Feedback rating will provide you with additional opportunities to get better exposure for your products and capture more sales.

No one knows the ins and outs of the Amazon A9 search algorithm’s intricate design. Amazon was open about the most important factors that affect the ranking of products in customers’ search results. It appears that the Seller Feedback rating has a say in it as well.

If you improve and maintain good Seller Feedback rating, the rankings of your products in search result pages will improve, you will reach more customers, and increase your chances of capturing more sales.

Learn more about the Amazon ranking algorithm in our “Amazon Ranking Algorithm 101: How to Rank Your Products Higher” guide.

Every seller and wholesaler’s dream is for their products to appear in the Buy Box. That little box in the top right section on a product page is the ultimate goal, right? Why wouldn’t it be?

Customers can directly add items to their shopping carts. Having your product there directly translates into increased sales.

But there are way too many sellers and only one Buy Box. You have to compete for it, and Amazon determines the winners by taking a close look at the customer experience. Good Amazon Sellers Feedback improves your chances of winning the Buy Box.

But there are other factors that Amazon takes into account when determining a winner: the number of positive feedback, and the feedback received in the past 3 months. So, the positive feedback that you received more than 3 months ago has a diminished effect on how much Buy Points you receive.

One- and two-star feedback ratings will cost you dearly, subtracting 500 points from your overall Buy Points score. Discover more ways to win the Buy Box in our “The 2020 Guide for the Amazon Buy Box and how to win it“.

Poor Seller Feedback score can take you out from the competition altogether. Amazon’s primary goal is to ensure it’s customers are happy and satisfied. If your Seller Feedback score is at 1 or 2 stars, it means that you are negatively affecting the customer experience on Amazon.

Amazon will most likely take action and suspend your selling privileges until you provide them with an action plan on how you intend to improve your business practices.

Sellers Feedback rating is connected to Order Defect Rate. And if your ODR goes above 1%, the chances that your seller account will get suspended.

Maintaining a good Seller Feedback score will keep you in the game and ensure a constant stream of revenue.

Both customers and sellers on Amazon tend to make the common mistake of thinking that Seller Feedback and Reviews are two different names for the same thing.

These are two separate systems. The Amazon review monitoring system allows customers to review a product they bought on Amazon, while Seller Feedback allows them to rate the seller they got the product from.

Reviews can be given only once by a customer, but Seller Feedback can be given every time a customer places an order.

In any case, if you offer a great customer experience, you should take advantage of it and generate more positive Reviews and Seller Feedbacks. If you want to learn how to deal with negative reviews, we have covered it in our “How to Deal with and Remove Negative Reviews on Amazon” guide.

While Amazon strictly forbids sellers to ask customers for a product review, you are completely free to ask for feedback on your performance and customer experience as a seller or wholesaler.

A question for seller feedback should always follow a successful order fulfillment. The fact that you didn’t get any complaints is a good indication that the Seller Feedback will be positive.

Seller Feedbacks are not only there to help you boost your sales through increased visibility. You can learn a lot from your customers’ feedback and improve as a seller.

The more Seller Feedbacks you have, the better. The rating and number of feedback will help you increase your trustworthiness and appear as a stellar seller.

There are two ways to generate Seller Feedbacks. Organic and non-organic. As you might have already noticed, people have left seller feedback on your seller account even if you didn’t specifically ask them to do so. It’s called organic seller feedback generation.

However, if your goal is to improve your Seller Feedback rating and get more reviews, you will have to nudge things in the direction you want them to go.

We call this “3 emails” strategy for the obvious reasons – you will be sending 3 emails. The first email should go with either completed purchase or delivery. The second email should follow up after a couple of days, asking the customer for the product, delivery, and customer service feedback.

If you receive positive feedback, you can follow up with a 3rd email and ask the customer to leave a Seller Feedback.

Another strategy includes sending email to all customers that rated the products you sell with 4 and 5 stars. These customers have a positive experience with the products you sell, and the chances are that you are going to receive a good Seller Feedback rating from them as well.

Implementing these two strategies will result in many Seller Feedbacks going your way. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a great thing, because some customers may give you poor seller feedback rating. That’s why you have to learn a thing or two about proper Seller Feedback management.

After the order has been fulfilled, a customer has 90 days to leave seller feedback. Once a customer
leaves the feedback, it can be removed. But the time window to remove it is 60 days. The rules of 90 and 60 days can
help plan a proactive strategy to stay on top of your Seller Feedback management.

If there is a complaint, you only have 60 days to get rid of it. You will have to constantly monitor
your seller’s account for new feedback to respond in time and resolve the issues at hand.

Base your proactive mindset on data. Every time you take action to address customer issues and get rid
of a bad seller feed, measure the time of the following actions:

• Reviewing the case
• Coming up with a proposition for a solution
• Reaching out to the customer
• Waiting for the response
• Working through the issue

Over time you will have more data. This will enable you to assess the average time for resolving seller feedback
and allow you to proactively manage seller feedback with ease.

While we are at Seller Feedback management, let us remind you that Seller Feedback is market-specific. This is a very important thing to note if your products are available on different markets such as Amazon US and Amazon Canada.

Seller Feedback is unique for every market, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your current Seller Feedback rating. For instance, if you have a low seller feedback rating on Amazon US, branching out into Amazon Canada will give you a clean slate and a chance to build a good seller feedback rating.

However, if you have a good Seller Feedback rating on Amazon US, it won’t help you appear as a stellar seller on Amazon Canada as your seller feedback history will be clean once you start serving customers in Canada.

Negative feedback will be coming your way, no matter how good you try to do your work. Some may be honest, while some could be the result of an honest mistake.

In any case, negative feedback will negatively impact your Seller Feedback score. It will reduce your chances of winning that Buy Box and render you ineligible to get seller central coupons. Negative feedback will also affect your product ranks, and, ultimately, get your seller account suspended.

Here are a few tips that you will find useful.

Did you know that Amazon has very strict guidelines customers have to follow when leaving seller feedback? Since
customers can write virtually anything in the seller feedback, Amazon had to come up with a set of rules and
enable sellers to get feedback removed if its in violation of any of these rules. 

If you find anything of the following in feedback comments you can have them removed:

• Any promotional content including links and comments to other websites, sellers and wholesalers
• Abusive language or obscene comments about the service, products or company
• Any personal information that identifies other Amazon.com visitors and sellers
• Product reviews

To place the request to remove feedback, you need to access the “Performance” tab in your Seller Central and
initiate the process. Most often, Amazon will provide you with an immediate answer. Sometimes the process can
take up to several days, meaning that the request has escalated, and it’s now under review.

In any case, if it lasts longer than 3 days, make sure to send a follow-up email to keep your issue in Amazon’s focus.
Keep a tab with the Amazon seller feedback guidelines open and make sure to remove every piece of feedback that is
scored 1, 2, or 3.

Bonus tip: If a customer leaves positive product review with a 4 or 5 rating in the seller feedback
section, don’t remove it as it will positively affect your Seller Feedback score.

Amazon doesn’t have any script that proactively or automatically removes seller feedback as a result of such a
mistake. But if the rating is below 4, have it removed.

Don’t be afraid to contact the customer that left negative seller feedback directly. After all, there are systems in place that allow you to do so, and it’s not against any Amazon policy.

Your goal here is to get the customer to remove the seller feedback that reflects poorly on your rating. To do it, you will have to extend an olive branch.

Review the complaint and identify the customer’s pain points. See how you can prevent this from happening in the future, and make an action plan.

Write a compelling email saying that you are sorry for the inconvenience and lay out your plan to resolve the issue. You can find your customer email in the Feedback Manager in Seller Central.

Be polite and honest, and you will probably get a positive response. Make sure to follow it up with another email, making it easy for them to remove the negative feedback. You can lay out the process in the following fashion:

Step 1: Log into your Amazon Account (http://www.amazon.com/your-account)

Step 2: Access “Personalization”

Step 3: Click the “Seller Feedback Submitted By You.” in the “Community” column

Step 4: Click the “Remove” next to the feedback to remove it

Unless the customer removes it, negative seller feedback will stay on your profile visible to all other Amazon users. These users can’t see that you’ve made your business better, offered a refund, and apologized to your customer.

Leave a response to customer’s negative feedback to show others you are aware of the issues, and that you worked it out to improve customer experience.

When writing these responses, you want to maintain a professional tone. While you may find it convenient to be cute or funny, it doesn’t always resonate well with the customers. By staying professional, you will show respect for your customers and their problems, which is a great way to start building a relationship.

Amazon’s list of Prohibited Seller Activities is very strict. On the other hand, talking with your customers via unsupervised channels such as email offers many opportunities you might want to pursue. You should always stick to the Seller Feedback when contacting your customers.

Otherwise, you risk getting your seller account suspended. Your customer can report your email as unsolicited, which will open an inquiry into your account.

Never contact your customer offering a discount, or any type of financial incentive for that matter, to compensate for the poor customer experience.

You can offer a refund as it aligns with Amazon’s policy, but never offer a refund for removing negative seller feedback. Apologize and explain what actions you took to prevent it from happening again. That’s it.

Don’t contact your customers proactively and ask them to leave positive seller feedback or offer any type of reward for doing it.

You are free to ask them for feedback, but offering a reward for doing so could potentially lead to getting your account suspended, or even worse, get you kicked off the Amazon platform.

The ultimate way to nail the seller feedback rating is to step up your fulfillment game, improve customer satisfaction, and sell good products. Seller feedback is very important. As you can see, it affects how your products will rank in the search results, helps you win the buy box, and get seller central coupons.

Negative seller feedback comments are a reality, and you will probably get some even if you do your best not to.

Keeping track of your Amazon Listings by using the Amazon Product Alert on DataHawk could be super beneficial. Hopefully, this guide has helped you learn how to manage seller feedback efficiently, how to streamline email conversations with your customers, and what to avoid while doing so.