How to prevent negative seller feedback on Amazon

Amazon encourages sellers to resolve any situations involving negative feedback on Amazon by looking into the root cause of each negative rating, addressing the customer’s concern in a timely manner, and making ongoing optimisations to merchants’ processes and policies.

Customers can update their feedback on any given seller transaction within 60 days of the date they originally left it, and can only update it one time per transaction. Here are seven key approaches to help merchants prevent negative feedback Amazon:

1. Amazon guidelines

Sellers need to have a good understanding of Amazon’s recommended best practices for selling on the marketplace, say new Amazon Reputation Management Playbook by Feedvisor.

According to Amazon, the key to good feedback is accurately described items, fast shipment and constant communication with a customer in a timely fashion. Amazon also recommend using packing slips with each order as a way to solicit feedback.

2. Complicated returns

Merchants need to make their returns process as simplified as possible. They should provide a complete product refund for a standard 30-day period.

3. Stockouts

If an inventory is not available, sellers should avoid listing back ordered items and should remove any listings that are constantly out of stock. Merchants need to keep a minimum threshold of inventory on hand. They should set aside dedicated inventory for their Amazon orders. By streamlining their inventory replenishment strategy — which is a significant part of their overall supply chain — sellers are proactively avoiding inventory errors.

4. Late shipments

Sellers need to notify customers of any errors as soon as possible and cancel the product or order if necessary. They need to update an expedited shipping method if they are shipping an order late.

1. Merchants need to remove products that constantly require them to ship late.
2. By confirming their shipments within the timeframes that they specified in their shipping settings, or even shipping ahead of schedule, sellers maintain customer satisfaction which can, in turn, lead to positive feedback.

5. Product quality or condition

1. Sellers need to provide high-quality images according to Amazon’s image requirements.
2. Merchants need to offer multiple views and angles of the product to help the customer understand what the product actually is.
3. If relevant, they need to provide custom sizing charts and fill out the product dimension fields.
4. They need to make sure that the SKU they are shipping always matches the right product on Amazon to avoid shipping an incorrect product.
5. Merchants need to make regular analyses on their packing and shipping processes to avoid leakage in their supply chain.
6. By providing accurate product data, ensuring their product description and condition notes are clear, and shipping products that exactly match what customers see on product detail pages, merchants increase their chances of receiving positive feedback. This is particularly critical with private label and bundled products.
   

   6. Customer service

   1. Sellers need to respond to every inbound phone call and email within 24 hours.
   2. Merchants need to make sure that their incoming buyers messages are not sent to their junk or spam folders.
   3. Merchants need to make sure that their customer service phone number and email address are accurate in their Amazon Help pages.
      

      7. Feedback issues

      If a customer leaves incorrect feedback, merchants need to contact them via the “Contact Buyer” form with one request to remove the feedback after the problem has been resolved. After a shipment has been successfully received, sellers need to send the buyer a request for feedback. Sellers are allowed to solicit for feedback as long as they do not offer an incentive or pressure them.

      Sellers need to also personalise the message to their specific order and explain how they can leave feedback in a clear, polite way. They should also prepare a follow-up cadence to make sure that they send a message to all of their customers after their orders are received.

      Once sellers notice negative feedback, they need to reach out to the customer as soon as possible. Sellers need to be courteous, professional, and concise to try to resolve the situation.