Would a customer prefer to purchase a 4.3-star product with 500 reviews or a 4.7-star product with 5 reviews? Probably the first one, right?
From the point of view of a buyer, reviews are one of the most valuable resources available before making a purchase.
Negative Amazon reviews are not only beneficial to the customer, but they can also help you provide an opportunity to improve your product or the product listing description.
Apart from the benefits, negative reviews directly harm your business by lowering the visibility of your product and discouraging customers from purchasing it.
Read the blog to learn about what negative feedback is, what kind of feedback Amazon allows, and how you can respond to negative feedback on one of the most reputed e-commerce platforms in the world – Amazon.
Table of Content:
- What is negative feedback?
- What kind of feedback does Amazon allow?
- When does Amazon remove your feedback?
- How to respond to negative feedback on Amazon?
What is negative feedback?
Let’s face it: Hearing negative feedback about something you’ve worked hard to create is never fun. Most brands are fixated on creating products and services to provide value to their customers or earn profits.
If you want to be a successful Amazon seller, you must first establish a good reputation. Negative feedback can lead to poor customer relationships, which results in reduced sales. It also has the potential to lower your brand’s search engine rankings, affecting your overall online reputation.
For example, a customer has given your brand a one-star rating because the product you sent them was damaged out of the box. Although the product may have become defective because of no fault of your own, it is critical that you accept this negative feedback and take full responsibility.
However, there is a silver lining. Negative feedback allows you to learn from your mistakes and improve your customer service skills.
What kind of feedback does Amazon allow?
If you’re an Amazon seller, you may be aware that both product reviews and seller feedback can add value to your business. However, the vast majority of sellers are unaware of this distinction, and even your buyer may be perplexed at times.
It’s great if you understand the distinction between product reviews and seller feedback! If not, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. There are two types of feedback that Amazon allows:
1. Product Reviews
Product reviews are the reviews and ratings for products that you sell. This has nothing to do with the quality of your shipping or seller performance.
Product reviews are all about your product’s performance and can be found on Amazon’s product details page.
Let’s understand this concept of product feedback through an example. You recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy phone’s charger from Amazon and you liked the product. You can post a product review on Amazon by saying “Bought this for my Samsung Galaxy phone and it is really useful. The lights in the cord have a glowing effect. I really like the product.” This is an example of a positive product review. There could be negative reviews as well like “The charger was not working. I am not satisfied with the quality.”
2. Seller Feedback
Seller feedback assists buyers in deciding whether or not to purchase a product from the seller. In this type of feedback, shipping, and product packing can play a big role. It is all about your performance.
Let’s understand the term through an example. Someone posted negative feedback regarding your service on Amazon, “I bought a pair of 6 glasses from you one week ago, and I still haven’t received it. I am very disappointed with your service.” The kind of feedback that relates to your service or shipping is known as seller feedback.
When does Amazon remove your feedback?
Amazon will eliminate negative feedback from your profile in the following situations:
- If the feedback left for you contains inappropriate or obscene language, Amazon will delete it.
- If a consumer recognizes your title or phone number on the invoice you sent them and decides to include it in their feedback, Amazon will remove it. Amazon values privacy, and disclosing these details publicly is frowned upon.
- Customers frequently mix up seller feedback with product feedback. If they have attributed a product with a seller and were dissatisfied with the product, they’ll send a bad star rating for the vendor. They describe how the item was poor in their description. Amazon has the ability to remove these feedback ratings.
How to respond to negative feedback on Amazon?
If you receive negative feedback on Amazon, it is critical that you quickly identify the root of the problem and work to resolve it.
What if you try to cooperate with a buyer to resolve a problem, and the buyer refuses to release the negative feedback? You will have the option to post a response on the webpage. The response post is noticeable on the Amazon website.
You can clarify how you worked to resolve the issue in your posting. Your answer will not affect your feedback rating, but other buyers who see the buyer’s feedback will then be able to read your explanation.
It is quintessential to keep your responses to negative feedback concise and professional. Even if the buyer’s comment is impolite, you responding in kind of the same manner can cause a backlash and reflect negatively on you.
The following is the procedure for responding to negative feedback on Amazon:
- Click Feedback under the Performance header in Seller Central.
- Click the Order ID of the Feedback to which you wish to respond.
- In the Manage Feedback section, click on Respond to Feedback.
- Enter your response.
- Click the Submit button.
Once your response has been submitted, you cannot edit it but you can delete it. If you remove your response, you will not be able to submit a second response.
Furthermore, if a buyer erases or revises their feedback, your response will be removed as well, and in that case, you can issue a new response.
Conclusion
A single negative review among many positive ones on Amazon doesn’t carry much weight. Consumers value collective experiences over the opinion of a single person who clearly had a negative stand-alone experience.
Similarly, one positive review among many negative ones isn’t going to do much to boost trust among potential customers. Not every negative review will harm your business, but if every single one is negative, then clearly there is something wrong.
Take negative feedback in stride, but view it as a learning opportunity to find a way to improve. Even in the face of negative feedback, integrity goes a long way. Offer an apology for your mistakes, fix them, and show your customers that you are taking action and making improvements.