No one likes to receive negative feedback in life or ecommerce. Getting negative feedback on your Amazon seller account can impact your sales, profits and Buy Box percentage. But what if we told you we can help you to get negative feedback removed in most instances.
Well, firstly, not all negative feedback can be removed.
Amazon will remove feedback where the reviewer has used “obscene language” or included “personally identifiable information”.
Transaction feedback that contains an Amazon product review can also be removed easily from your feedback profile, as according to Amazon guidelines, these should be added to the product review section.
Finally, Amazon will update feedback if the comment is solely about “fulfilment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon”. For example, if an order was delivered late or got lost in transit, a line will appear through the rating and the statement, “This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfilment experience.” will be added.
Amazon states that transaction feedback left by the buyer should only be about the services provided by the seller. If you think you may have received negative feedback which contains a product review, then it’s up to you to alert Amazon.
And it’s not just negative feedback you might want to ask to have removed — neutral feedback can also affect your seller metrics and feedback rating.
Having just a few negative or neutral comments removed can really help to give your feedback rating and sales a boost.
There are two ways of removing negative feedback on Amazon: contacting Amazon to remove it or contacting the buyer.
1. Contacting Amazon to Remove Feedback
Visit Seller Central and open a new support case.
Select Account Settings > Orders > Customer feedback problems.
Comment on why you believe the feedback should be removed, giving some details but keeping it concise — then send the message.
Here’s an example of a message,
I’ve received a comment from [buyer’s name] on [order number] and feel it is more suited to the product reviews section. Can you remove this from my feedback profile?
Here is the comment in question, [insert comment].
If you’re successful, you’ll get a response from Amazon which looks something like this.
Only feedback that is solely related to a product received is eligible for removal.
This is the case as long as the buyer did not leave a negative rating for “Arrived on Time”, “Item as Described” or “Customer Service”. If the reviewer leaves feedback for the product and the service then this won’t be eligible for removal.
2. Contacting a Customer to Remove Feedback
Buyers themselves can also remove negative feedback retrospectively. However, you need to abide by Amazon’s rules when asking buyers to remove a negative comment.
This means you can’t offer them a full refund in exchange for them removing their comment. If you do this, you run the risk of Amazon suspending your account.
You can contact the buyer and attempt to resolve the problem they encountered. If an order arrived late, you can apologise and offer a partial refund or a full refund for any shipping charges. If you hear back from the customer, you can politely ask them to remove the negative feedback. However, you can’t connect the refund to the feedback removal.
Sellers shouldn’t pressure buyers into removing feedback. Feedback manipulation, harassment and quid-pro-quo agreements are all violations of Amazon’s policies.
If the feedback doesn’t break Amazon’s rules and if you don’t hear back from a buyer after a reasonable period of time, then you may want to consider responding to the negative comment.
You can apologise for not meeting their expectations on this occasion and explain anything you’re doing to stop it from happening again in the future.
An example message may look like this,
Dear John,
We hope we met your expectations on your recent order of [product name].
If you feel we have adequately addressed any concerns you may have had, then we kindly ask you to consider removing the negative feedback.
[insert link]
Thanks,
[Amazon Seller name]
Buyers have 90 days from their purchase date to leave feedback.
Feedback must be removed by Amazon or the buyer within 60 days of the date feedback is posted. After this period, feedback can no longer be removed.
You can find your current feedback rating in the “Manage your Rating and Feedback” within Reports.
Related reading: Amazon Feedback FAQs
The Importance of Feedback
Feedback plays an important role when Amazon awards the Buy Box. Amazon calculates your average feedback rating based on the feedback received over the last 12 months.
If you have a feedback rating of over 95% (ideally over 98%), you’ll improve your chances of getting a share of the elusive Buy Box. If you have a feedback rating of less than 90%, then you may want to review your selling practices.
Sellers should have a formal process for collecting and managing feedback — even long-term sellers should continue to collect feedback.
Receiving negative feedback doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It could be an opportunity for you to improve an area of your business that you could do better in and provide a better customer experience.
Related reading: Learn more about eDesk’s automated feedback software
Preventing Negative Feedback on Amazon
As they say, prevention is better than a cure.
Here are three things you can do to help reduce negative feedback and product returns.
- Provide better product descriptions and images.
- Ensure you ship your items on time and respond to customers in a timely manner.
- When deciding on the condition of an item, round up—not down.
