By Do you ever feel like life is dangerously becoming more and more like a horrid episode of Black Mirror: Nosedive? Where everything you do and say is heavily monitored and makes all the difference in your socioeconomic status?
People can rate you, write about you, and it can have a tremendous effect on your seller credibility, sales, and your overall business. The buyers on amazon are serious and they mean business. They come to buy with a mission in mind: Get the best deal and with no compromise. Â
In this ruthless competition of e-commerce, where everyone is fighting tooth and nail to be the best, it is no doubt, very hard to maintain the perfect image, ratings, and reviews. Especially when there are thousands of strangers to be satisfied.Â
PRODUCT REVIEWS DIRECTLY AFFECTS YOUR CONVERSIONS
A survey shows that about 65% of the buyers first check out the reviews and ratings before making any purchase. It goes without saying that, the more (positive) reviews and ratings you have the more chances you have of success with your business.Â
Consumers are likely to put trust in you of a close friend when they see a flock of fellow buyers affirming your credibility as a good seller. It is important that you change the relationship from strangers to trustworthy friends.Â
What happens when the buyers find the service or product to be compromised? You receive scathing reviews and disappointing ratings. Which consequently dumps your conversion rate.Â
Negative reviews on Amazon are no joke for a seller. Your mere presence at Amazon demands your best version. You can not just chin up and move on or simply ignore negative feedback. Doing so can hurt you in several ways:Â
Firstly, since buybox is awarded to those only with stellar seller metrics, positive feedback becomes a necessity among other things. You must win the hearts and trust of your buyers if you want to increase your chances of winning the buybox. Amazon has a process of calculating a seller’s overall performance. Every time someone makes a purchase and provides feedback to you, Amazon chalks it up to your buybox score, whether it turns out good or bad.Â
Say you had a successful sell with no complications and you receive positive feedback. 100 points (to Gryffindor). Although on the unfortunate situation where you do receive some backlash, that is a negative of 500 points from your point total that decides your buybox eligibility.  Â
Secondly, not only your chances of getting the buybox slims but you have a much bigger threat to face in lieu of negative feedback. Sometimes a seller gathers up so much negative credit that can eventually result in account suspension, or worse, removal.Â
If amazon detects your order of defect rate (ODR) to be higher than1%, as a result of negative ratings and reviews, Amazon will revoke your selling privileges. Â
Check out Has Amazon Blocked Your Account? to revive your seller account
Do not worry!Â
Sometimes you make someone unhappy, and as much as your situation presents itself dire, you can always make reparations. Getting negative feedback is a very common situation to be in for an online seller. You just need to know how to handle such a situation and be able to bounce back to your feet.Â
You must be asking yourself, ‘Can I delete negative reviews on Amazon?’Â
There are times when you actually deserve such feedback, but also when you are free of any fault, but still receive the heat nonetheless. It may feel unjust and wrong but that is expected from online business. Nothing that cannot be fixed. There are ways to remove both kinds of negative feedback. Question is, what to do with the negative feedback on Amazon?Â
Here are several steps to consider:
 1) You can request removal if the feedback is violating Amazon guidelines.
The first thing you need to check is, is it even following the amazon guidelines or not before worrying and taking any further action. In the lucky case, the buyer has indeed broken Amazon Feedback rules, contact the authority (Amazon) and have it removed as soon as possible.
- Product Reviews: Sometimes, it just so happens that unsatisfied buyers make the error of leaving product reviews in the seller feedback section that has actually nothing to do with your service at all.Â
If a buyer has bought a product from an FBA seller, the seller is not responsible for the shipping delay, any damages to the product bought and the customer service. Although if the review is a combination of seller + product review, Amazon will not remove it.
All of these services mentioned above fall under the purview of Amazon FBA and does not concern the FBA seller. A simple way to fix this issue is to contact Amazon, explain the issue at hand and file a request for removal.Â
Although this condition applies to only FBA sellers, non-FBA sellers must face the music and act accordingly, which I will get to in the next steps.
- Promotional material: A review counts ineligible and can be removed upon a request to Amazon Seller Central if a consumer has left any promotional content in the feedback section. Â
- Foul Language: Obscene and abusive language is prohibited and can also be removed.
- Personal Information: Sometimes consumers leave out personal details on the feedback section and such reviews too can be asked to remove.
Step 1: Simply access your Amazon seller account.Â
Step 2: Next, visit the Amazon Seller Central page and choose the tab ‘Performance’ between ‘Reports’ and ‘AppStore’.Â
Step 3: Scroll down to ‘Recent Feedback’
Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to remove.
Step 5: Look for ‘Action’ on the right, adjacent to the relevant order ID and click on the drop-down menu.
Step 6: Select ‘Request Removal’
Step 7: Affirm that the feedback you received is indeed violating guidelines so Amazon can determine its removal.
Step 8: Enter your reasons why you think Amazon should remove the feedback in question. Submit when done.
Keep it neat, short and straightforward. Nobody likes to wade through a river of complaints and whining.Â
Any of the above misstatements can be used as a reason for feedback removal. Now you can sit back and wait patiently for Amazon to asses the situation and decide if your complaint about negative feedback qualifies for removal or not.
 2) Request the buyer to remove negative feedback
If the buyer has left negative feedback that does not break any Amazon guidelines and is legitimately pointing out your fault, the next best step is to do what is right and make amends with the buyer. Amazon buyers hold the power to remove negative feedback.
Take the time to understand their concerns, resolve the issue at hand and politely request them to remove the negative feedback. It is important to understand that this will not always work. You may fail to satisfy them yet again or maybe it will prove difficult to make contact with them. With all the luck, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when requesting feedback removal from the buyer.
What to do:Â
- Always carry a polite and professional tone when communicating with the buyer. They must not feel like they are being ordered rudely to take down their reviews.
- Do what is right and apologize to the buyer. Take ownership of any disappointment you may have caused them and let them know you care about providing not less than satisfactory service.Â
- Never pressurize the buyer into doing anything.Â
- Do not make haste with your apology nor request for removal. After you are done with resolving their issue, give it a little time before asking if they could please remove it. You do not want to sound like you don’t care about them and are just doing this for the sake of negative feedback.Â
- While you may wait after the initial contact, do not wait too much, because Amazon has a 60-day removal period for any feedback written.
- Do not offer the buyers a full refund while asking them to remove the negative feedback. It may come off as a bribe. You may offer them a partial refund for the inconvenience but never think of it as a favor to the negative feedback removal.
 Quid pro quos, manipulation, bribes, and harassments go in violation of Amazon’s guidelines. Going against the Amazon’s Guidelines will result in account suspension.Â
How to contact an individual buyer and request negative feedback removal:Â
Step 1: Visit the Amazon website.
Step 2: Open up the tab called ‘Orders’ (between ‘Pricing’ and ‘Advertising’)
Step 3: Select the ‘Manage Orders’ option.
Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to address and click on the Order ID number.
Step 5: Click on the name of the buyer.
Step 6: Select the option ‘ Other’.
Step 7: Choose the appropriate subject and write down your message professionally.Â
Step 8: In case you would like to attach any supporting documents, click on ‘add attachments’
Step 9: Review your message and documents attached, and then click send.
Hopefully, the buyer will respond and then you can proceed to make sure if they are satisfied with your service. As I said above, after the customer is satisfied, now is the time to moderately wait and request them politely to remove the negative feedback.
 3) Leave a response on Amazon’s site.
If all fails, you can still take one final measure to clear your name.Â
Sometimes, Amazon decides that your reasons for removing the buyer’s negative feedback were insufficient, and sometimes even the buyer does not respond back to you in your attempt to remove negative feedback on Amazon, then you have one last lifeline. Maybe as effective as the other two but it does the job of showing the other customers that you at least tried to reach out and resolve customer issues.Â
All you need to do is:
Step 1: Once again, access your www.amazon.com seller account.Â
Step 2: Next, visit the Amazon Seller Central page and choose the tab ‘Performance’.
Step 3: Scroll down to ‘Recent Feedback’
Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to remove.
Step 5: Find ‘Action’ on the right, look below for the drop-down menu next to the relevant Order ID.
Step 6: Select ‘Post a Public Reply’ option.
Step 7: Write your Amazon Merchant response for the Individual in question, but still keep in mind you are indirectly speaking to the audience of Amazon.Â
Step 8: Review once and then click ‘Submit’.
This is the last resort to clear your side. Make sure you are doing it right. You may be speaking to the individual but all visitors on your product are now your audience. Keep it short, to the point and professional. Do not write in an informal way, your audience may mark you as not serious or sincere.Â
If you do not know how to write such a response, here is an example:Â
“We apologize for any inconvenience our service might have caused. We have made adjustments according to your complaint. We hope that all issues are resolved, in case they are still not satisfactory, please feel free to reach out to us anytime’. Â
Now you have on record that you are a professional seller and sincere about your customers. Hopefully, the potential customers will disregard the negative review or rating and proceed to buy from you on the account of your professionalism.Â
It can be difficult to keep track of every negative comment, especially when you are a seller of multiple products and have a successful line of buyers. You could be away or sleeping and one little negative feedback can have the ability to drive away many potential buyers.
To stay on the top of every feedback directed your way, you can use an Amazon research tool such as Feedback Express. With Feedback Express, you can put your Amazon seller feedback and product review requests on auto-pilot in minutes, and start generating more positive feedback from your orders.
Forget the constant checking for product reviews and seller feedback. You will be notified whenever someone shares negative comments about your products or service, so you will be able to respond fast and help put things right.
Conclusion
The key to becoming better is to take the grey clouds and turn it into a silver lining. You can either focus on the negative aspect of the situation or you could make use of it to your advantage. Even though you have received negative feedback, you can use the opportunity to address the areas of improvement and maintain your quality of seller performance.Â
In case the feedback is uncalled for, you still know how to deal with it in a swift and efficient manner, while maintaining professional integrity.Â
As much as Amazon Product Photography is important for your listings, feedback also holds a significant value in the A9 Amazon Ranking Algorithm because it directly affects your conversion channel.Â
Negative feedback is the buyer’s frustration calling out for justice. Just take a deep breath, listen carefully and address their issues in a professional and timely manner. Â
Hi there! I’m the content marketing and branding specialist for AMZ One Step. I work hard to create engaging and informative content that helps our readers learn more about Amazon selling and how to make the most of their businesses. I love spending time with my family and exploring literary works when I’m not writing or working on projects.
