It could be time to hop on the automation bandwagon, especially when it comes to Amazon feedback requests. Reviews are a crucial factor for your sales on Amazon and automating that process will help in other areas.
Follow these best practices for Amazon automatic feedback requests to save time, boost your seller feedback rating and get this news off to a flyer.
Hook Up with an Automated Feedback App
The first step in automating feedback requests is to have an app like eDesk Feedback do it for you. While you could rely on Amazon to send out occasional messages on your behalf, you’d be losing out because you wouldn’t be able to control the time, consistency or tone of the emails.
Instead, a feedback-specific app is much better because it’ll send out emails when you tell it to, give you templates to use that are consistent in voice and professionalism, send you alerts when you’ve received negative reviews, and more.
Timing is Everything
Now that you’ve settled on an automated Amazon feedback app, your next move is figuring out the timing of messages.
You should set your feedback app to deliver emails at these intervals:
- Post-Sale: The first message should be sent out right after the buyer has purchased your product, and it should be a concise email thanking them for their purchase. Note: don’t send out a product purchase confirmation email, as Amazon does that.
- Post-Delivery: Next, send them an email about two days after the delivery date. This will be a more ‘ask-y’ email, requesting a review from them. Write a couple lines saying you hope everything went okay and could they leave a review, including a link that’ll take them directly to where they can write one.
Make Sure You’re Asking the Right Buyer for a Review
As strongly as we recommend leaving no review stone unturned, there are some cases when you should not ask for feedback. For example, buyers of regular repeat purchases. If you have a buyer who purchases the same thing from you every month like clockwork, then sending them a request for feedback is only going to annoy them. Do it for their first purchase, then leave them alone. If they have you on auto-purchase, they’re happy with you.
Send the Right Template Out
Your audience will likely consist of different demographics, and each one warrants its own template. You wouldn’t send out a millennial-style message to parents, and you wouldn’t send one written in Italian to a North American buyer. Knowing who your buyers are will help you select the right template to use, increasing your chances of getting a review.
Ask for What You Want
For the most part, people follow instructions and want to please others. Don’t forget that in your feedback request messages and make sure there’s a call-to-action at the bottom. Constantly think about what you want from them (a review) and include that request in a very specific language (i.e. ‘Your review will help us to continue delivering great products and service in the future.’)
And although we’ve said this a couple times already, include a link that takes them directly to where they can leave feedback. If they have to fish around for it, they’re going to lose interest and skip out. Make this as easy as possible for them.
Automating Feedback Habits NOT to Use
Along with the best practices you should employ, there are also a number of things you should avoid.
- Order Confirmation Emails: Amazon will send this out as soon as a buyer has successfully made a purchase — you’re actually prohibited from sending one yourself.
- Order Shipment Emails: You should also avoid sending out this kind of email. Don’t message the buyer saying their order was shipped or delivered.
- Extra Payment Emails: Big no-no! Whatever amount of money you and the buyer agreed upon (i.e. product price and shipping price) is the set amount, and you cannot send an email asking for more.
- Incentivised Reviews Email: This can (and will) get you suspended from Amazon. You’re not allowed to incentivize buyers to leave reviews, so don’t even think about sending them this kind of email.
- Marketing Emails. You might be tempted to send an email that links to a merchant website or promotes some other product, but you can’t send this email on Amazon. An exception is if a buyer asks you about a specific product, but you can’t do this unsolicited.
Final Thoughts
Start 2021 off on the right foot by knowing which best practices to employ for automating feedback requests — and which bad habits to drop. But here’s an easier way of going about it: use eDesk Feedback and take 90% of the work off your shoulders.
