If you buy something in person, you have the chance to get a read on the merchant’s body language and handle the product to check its durability and quality — two factors that affect your decision to buy or not. But in the online world, shoppers don’t have those luxuries and FeedbackExpress knows that your reputation is everything when it comes to making that sale.
Why Your Reputation Matters So Much
We briefly talked about why you should focus so hard on your reputation, but seasoned sellers also know the following: the vast majority of buyers don’t leave feedback, which means you lose out on being able to spread the word to other buyers. And when it comes to shoppers who are on the fence between you and another similarly-priced merchant, that review becomes extra important.
If you think that your time could be better spent in areas other than those one or two swing sales, think again. Each time you pass up a potential sale, you’re directly reducing your chances of winning a Buy Box — and thereby making future sales even easier and faster. And the more exponential you can grow your sales, the bigger and healthier you can grow your business.
So, in a nutshell, reputation matters.
#1. Learn the Rules to Maximise the System’s Use for You
Ever heard of the saying ‘you have to learn the rules to learn how to break them’? Well, the same sort of concept applies here, except you won’t be breaking Amazon’s rules. You’ll just be understanding how to milk each one for all its worth for your own unique needs.
One of the most common mistakes newbies make when wanting to toe Amazon’s line is going overboard in their caution. It’s good to run a business with honesty and integrity and not risk breaking any of the rules, but poor sellers often think something they can’t do is actively ask shoppers for feedback. In fact, Amazon not only allows this but encourages it, underscoring just how important they feel an excellent feedback rating is to becoming a good seller.
So go ahead and drop an email asking for that review (or send one to try and resolve an issue so the feedback can go from negative to positive), but leave it at that. Never offer bribes or incentives for buyers to either leave good feedback or remove bad reviews, as that most definitely goes against Amazon’s rules.
As of 3 October 2016, Amazon no longer allows incentivised reviews for free or discounted products.
#2. Find Your Voice and Set Yourself Apart
You know how the world’s greatest writers — Hemingway, Austen, Plath, Lawrence, Tolstoy — all have styles of writing that are as easily distinguishable as fingerprints? Take the same approach with your reputation. Think hard about what it is that sets you apart from other sellers and put it into written form. If you’re stuck, ask family and friends for an objective opinion. Then, take those qualities and translate them into a general template you’ll use for emails, and balance it with assertiveness, aggressiveness, politeness and professionalism.
After that, schedule in your emails so they go out regularly. There’s no set number as to when you should send them out, but we like something along the lines of once or twice a week — it’s a manageable timescale that keeps your message fresh in buyers’ minds while giving them time to act on your request.
Of course, one exception to this is for fresh orders. Once the buyer has received an item — and if they haven’t automatically left a review — give them about a day before going on Seller Central and choosing the contact buyer option. Select the ‘Feedback Request’ option, keep your email short and sweet, and then reach out again a week later (after the original purchase receipt date) if they still haven’t left feedback.
#3. Don’t Settle for Negative Feedback
Remember how we talked about not letting negative reviews sit on your seller profile? This is where you should act with extra urgency. Think back to every lousy shopping experience you’ve had versus the good ones. Which times were you quicker to share your experience with others? That’s right, the bad ones, and the same goes with your buyers.
Again, remember to learn Amazon’s rules inside out so you can see if the feedback has grounds for removal, or if it’s an instance where you need to try and resolve it on your own. You only have 60 days to get the buyer to change/remove their bad feedback, so act quickly!
Depending on the size of your business, getting feedback and promoting your reputation can either be as simple as an everyday task or as time-consuming as to take up unnecessarily huge chunks of your time. If it’s the latter (or even if it’s the former and you want a uniform approach), you should choose the automation route with FeedbackExpress. We do fancier things than just the vanilla options on Seller Central, and you can tweak choices to really set yourself apart. But to reach that rockstar level, you need to actually start using it, so try it out today for free!
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