Amazon Marketplace Feedback Management: Removing Negative Feedback
Removing Negative Seller Feedback
As mentioned in our last installment of this series, seller feedback is a direct driver of sales on the Marketplace via the Buy Box. If you have low feedback volume, just one negative review or low star rating can bring down your entire average, hurt your Buy Box influence, and ultimately plunge your sales performance. Fortunately, if you do end up with negative feedback, there are a few steps you can take to alleviate the situation.
Contacting the Customer
According to Amazon policy, sellers are not allowed to pressure buyers into removing negative product or seller feedback. They can, however, work with the customer to improve their overall shopping experience, troubleshoot any issues or problems they may have experienced, and then ask them to kindly remove their previous feedback.
If they do decide to remove their feedback, you’ll need to offer them these instructions:
Go to the “Your Account” section and navigate to “Personalization” > “Community” > “Seller Feedback Submitted by You.” There, they’ll see a list of all feedback forms submitted through their account. To remove one, they simply need to click the “Remove” link next to the appropriate feedback. In fact, you could probably send them this GIF to facilitate the process:
Responding Publicly
If buyers won’t remove their negative feedback, sellers can opt to leave a public response to the comment instead. There, they can explain the situation, detail any extenuating circumstances and apologize for an unsatisfactory performance. While this won’t help the overall feedback average or rating, it will show future customers that the seller is honest and dedicated to customer satisfaction.
Amazon Removing Seller Feedback
There are also some situations in which Amazon itself will remove feedback. These are few and far between, though, and they’re reserved for only special situations in which:
- The feedback contains obscenities or profanities
- The feedback contains seller-specific data, like email addresses, names, addresses, phone numbers and more
- The entire seller feedback comment is dedicated to just one product – not the overall shopping experience. This would be more appropriate in the product feedback area.
- The entire seller feedback comment pertains to an order that was FBA. In this case, the feedback won’t be removed, but a statement that says “This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience” will be posted.
Ultimately, buyers have 90 days from their purchase date to leave feedback. To remove said feedback, the buyer or Amazon must do so within 60 days of posting. Feedback cannot be removed after that point. If you’re not sure what your current Amazon feedback rating is, or you just want to stay appraised of it, log into your account and go to “Manage your Ratings and Feedback” under the Reports section. There you can view all feedback received, as well as post responses and contact buyers directly.
Preventing Negative Amazon Feedback
The best way to remove negative feedback from your Amazon seller profile is just to avoid it altogether. The majority of poor seller feedback comments and ratings stem from late shipments, slow-to-respond customer service, and items arriving not as described. All of these factors are tenets of being a quality online seller in general, and third-party Marketplace sellers should pay close attention to these areas anyways because they directly affect your Seller Rating. In addition to your seller feedback score, Seller Rating directly affects your hold of the Buy Box.
So while also this customer service / feedback micro-management may seem tedious and insignificant, it’s direct influence on your sales performance is definitely worth your attention.
In this 5-part series on Amazon product and seller reviews, we’ll dive into analyses on feedback management for the Amazon Marketplace:
- Introductory Overview of Amazon Feedback: Product and Seller Reviews
- How Amazon Product Reviews Affect Sales Performance
- How Amazon Seller Reviews Affect Sales Performance
- Recommended Amazon Feedback Management Solutions (coming soon)
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