Amazon customer reviews place seem to be the go-to for consumer opinions. But are reviews just a numbers game, or are they influencing purchasing decisions?
This article describes how to get reviews on Amazon and an efficient strategy for using customer reviews to drive sales.
Table of content:
- What are Amazon Customer Reviews?
- How to Get Reviews on Amazon?
- Use Email
- Use Amazon
- Provide Excellent eCommerce Customer Service
- Use Social Media to Get Customer Feedback
- Ask for Reviews from Customers That Posted Positive Seller Feedback
- Ask for Feedback from Customers to Whom you Have Provided Customer Service
- Gifts and Promotions Can Get You Good Reviews
- Use Third-Party Automated Email Responders
- Amazon Product Reviews FAQ
- Amazon Reviews: Do’s and Don’ts
- Tips for Sending Smarter Feedback Requests
- Final Word
What are Customer Reviews on Amazon?
Amazon product reviews serve as the largest repository of information about people’s thoughts about products and services. So it’s vitally essential for sellers and manufacturers to know what types of reviews can help and harm their company. According to multiple studies, approximately 90% of Internet users read online reviews before buying.
Customer reviews are becoming more and more critical. That’s because platforms like Amazon now have the power to shape purchasing decisions and now carry more weight than ever before. With over a million unique reviews each day, it’s a virtual goldmine for companies to learn from, improve on, and find new customers.
Why is Customer Feedback So Important?
Customer feedback is vital for business because it allows companies to gain priority information and insights that might affect their development direction. It also helps companies identify areas where they are doing well and allows them to adjust their strategy to reflect on their successes and failures to reach the goals they initially set for themselves. Without this feedback, it would be harder for companies to know what they need to work on.
We also think customer reviews will enable customer-centric engagement and are a crucial marketing channel for B2B companies. Here are three key insights we would like to highlight and wrap your brain around:
- customer reviews are a currency that, when it comes to raising a brand’s visibility, can have genuine value;
- companies rely on customer reviews for insights and guidance about what to change to improve experiences;
- reviews are a vital component of most purchase decisions and help products rank higher in the search results.
How Amazon Estimates Product Rating
As retailers worldwide compete to sell new products, Amazon has found a new way to weed out shoddy entrants: by analyzing past consumer ratings, news articles, and even other Amazon searches to determine what products are worth your time and commitment. Amazon maintains a star rating system for every product on its website. It provides an algorithmic foundation for the company’s review system, which millions of users use. To get Amazon reviews and make them work for your benefit, you need to understand how this algorithm works.
Amazon’s algorithm for calculating the average rating of a product is as complex as it is and considers many factors. Amazon does not reveal the elements of its algorithm or the variables that it uses, but it is believed that this algorithm is comprised of these elements:
- Review age and length;
- Reviewer profile (number of reviews, the average rating of reviews left, etc.);
- Number of valuable votes;
- Verified or non-verified;
- Rating against written response;
- Deviation from the average score.
Sellers who still don’t know how to get reviews on Amazon should take these factors into account and adjust their accounts accordingly.
What’s a Good Sales to Review Rate?
Review rates are being used as a key performance indicator for sellers, and they struggle to get Amazon reviews with hopes it will raise their conversion rates. Unsurprisingly, companies with high review rates are almost always considered to have maximum conversion potential.
The average rating of reviews on Amazon is 1-2%. This suggests that for every 100 sales, you can get at least 1-2 reviews.
How to Maintain Customer Reviews Correctly
Managing your customer feedback, reviews, and ratings are considered good practice. If you pay attention to the reviews, the customer will come back. If you ignore your customer reviews, the customer will move on to a more responsive competitor. Oh, and also, negative reviews can drown out your positive ones.
You want to ensure that your customers’ reviews are accurate, genuine, and helpful to potential future customers. But how to get reviews on Amazon and manage them accurately while inspiring trust and confidence in your customers?
Review Upvoting
Once you get Amazon reviews, it’s not the end of the story; you have to filter through them to make them useful. Amazon reviews upvoting means marking reviews as helpful and thus boosting them to the top. Amazon usually places reviews that are most helpful at the top. So, you can ask your close ones to upvote the best reviews and thus help the products you sell and that have the best reviews to get more visibility.
Review Removal
If you get Amazon reviews that can negatively affect your business, you can permanently delete those, especially if they contain offensive remarks (swear words, racist terms, etc.) or URLs. Amazon is also ready to remove reviews that are entirely consistent with the performance of Amazon FBA products. If you submit a removal request of this type, open the request in Seller Central, provide a review link, and explain why you are asking for the discarding. Amazon hates deleting reviews, but it’s worth trying, even with a low success rate.
How to Get Reviews on Amazon?
If a brand builds a large online community of followers on the Amazon platform, they’ll quickly build many reviews on their products. Having truly great reviews can make a difference for a brand that wants to build trust with its target audience.
Many sellers still struggle to understand how to get reviews on Amazon and have them enough to boost sales. Use the strategies below to accumulate great reviews!
Use Email
You can get good feedback if you use email to ask Amazon customers to leave a review. You can also send customers email invitations to set up a survey and find out what was best that they liked about the product. You can then ask customers to write that on Amazon.
Have a List of Email Addresses at Hand
Creating a list of email addresses of your buyers is a great way to get early traction for your store. Of course, it would help if you then used it to ask for reviews. Just know that emails you send often can irritate the shopper, and they might get annoyed and block you. So, don’t send too many emails!
Follow Up in Email
How do you follow up with someone in a way that makes them feel good about your product? First, be nice to your email subscribers. Follow up by email. The best follow-up time is after a customer has visited your website.
Email a Personalized Request for Feedback
We all get feedback requests from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with it, and it is an excellent way to get Amazon reviews. So don’t be shy and ask for reviews. To make it as polite as possible, make emails personal: refer to a customer by the name and make it clear you know when and what they purchased from you.
Ask for Feedback in Your Newsletter
Email newsletters are a great way to keep your audience engaged and updated on the latest news in your industry. But you can also add a review request within it and ask politely to leave feedback. It’ll give you a fresh perspective on the products you sell and your marketing strategy. It’s quick and easy too!
Use Amazon
Successful Amazon sellers strive to get more reviews and seek out dedicated customers that can write reviews. Here are a few ways you can use to get Amazon reviews.
Use the “Request a Review” Button
Just because your product is selling like hotcakes doesn’t mean you’ve managed to attract your fair share of reviews. So one tip for sellers on Amazon is to include the “Request a Review” button on your product page. This button will prompt customers to write a review without any hassle. So now you know how to get your first reviews on Amazon.
Use The Amazon Vine Program
Amazon Vine Program is a service that helps new and independent authors and publishers offer their products as paid-for reviews that are made possible by genuine reader feedback.
The Vine program allows customers to provide feedback about their product experiences. There’s even a section of the Amazon website dedicated to customer feedback.
Use Amazon to Contact Critical Reviewers
Many businesses rely on Amazon reviews to increase sales, knowledge, and awareness. If a company has a specific product or service, having many positive reviews is key to reaching a large audience. Amazon is ideally a great way to contact reviewers, and they are easy to find. Wondering how to contact an Amazon reviewer? Go to Amazon’s review page, scroll down to the reviews for the brand you want to reach, and read through them.
Follow Up on Amazon
It can be tempting to ask for customer feedback on your first Amazon ad, but research has shown that people respond better to follow-up emails and messages. Follow up with, “Hello, how did you find the product?” If the client is satisfied with the product, you should, without a doubt, ask to leave a review.
Provide Excellent eCommerce Customer Service
There can never be too many good reviews for eCommerce sales. But how to get more reviews on Amazon? eCommerce is growing at a breakneck pace, partly because of the click-and-collect convenience, the growing customer-centricity, and the growth of social shopping. But there’s one thing that many e-commerce businesses forget: providing excellent customer service.
Good customer service is at the heart of any successful eCommerce business and needs to be the bedrock of your customer experience. Ensure customer satisfaction through excellent customer service, and you will reap the rewards.
Sell an Awesome Product
How to get positive feedback on Amazon? It’s simple – sell a quality product. Getting great reviews is possible if you make and sell a great product. The problem is that many brands focusing on marketing and sales often neglect their product quality and thus disappoint customers before even making any big deals. However, if you provide a great product, word will get out there, bringing more satisfied customers, good reviews, and more sales.
Create a Great Packaging
The packaging of a product is an essential part of product marketing. It is a relatively straightforward mechanism for enticing customers to buy it – the more effective and bright it is, the more attention it gets. Thus, it can help to increase awareness, make the product memorable, and boost Amazon reviews.
Don’t forget that effective packaging for a product must go beyond the product itself and communicate information about the product and company. If you want to establish a strong brand, every little aspect of your product – including packaging, should align with your values and goals.
Build Relationships With Your Customers
The heart of a content marketing campaign is a connection between the company and its faithful followers. Without that connection, a content marketing campaign can’t provide the desired ROI for the company.
But building a relationship with your customer goes beyond A+ content. It’s about product, service, and communication. Understanding the customer’s goals, frustrations, and reoccurring needs is essential to deliver the best product possible. Increase trust, vocalize your customers’ needs and desires, provide real value, build a community, and increase your bottom line.
Use Social Media to Get Customer Feedback
Social media insights can help you understand what customers want, how they feel about your products, and how they interact with your brand, allowing you to create products ahead of your competitors.
Facebook Retargeting
When you create a Facebook ad, the retargeting feature shows ads to people who recently visited your website. You can also use this feature to find out what visitors like and dislike about your product and identify other marketing tactics that are working well. Facebook retargeting allows gathering feedback and then analyzing what you need to improve.
Use ManyChat to Interact with Customers
While it might sound overwhelming, you can use several tactics to get the most out of your previous customers with the help of a tool like ManyChat. First, use ManyChat as an efficient way to contact your previous (and future) customers. If you’re not using it yet, you should try it out and enjoy the ability to save time by using messages instead of different channels such as email, phone calls, social media, and more. Now you know even more ways how to ask customers for reviews on Amazon.
Ask for Reviews from Customers That Posted Positive Seller Feedback
It’s helpful to reach out to customers who have left positive feedback and ask them to leave product reviews. Since customers who have left feedback are more likely to leave product reviews, sellers should focus on connecting and encouraging them to post even more reviews.
Ask for Feedback from Customers to Whom you Have Provided Customer Service
It may be tempting to focus on the next new sale if you have made a sale. But if you take care of your customer by delivering the best service each time, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of each interaction. To build your customer-centric company, it is of the utmost importance to have a direct line of feedback and involvement from the customer.
Gifts and Promotions Can Get You Good Reviews
Good word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most potent forms of social media.
And offering discounts can also get you good reviews. A little gesture of generosity can go a long way at the right time. A practice most content marketers won’t stop considering is the effect that gifts have on their audience’s behavior.
Use Third-Party Automated Email Responders
It’s not easy to succeed in email marketing. Every subscriber has different priorities and behaviors that can be hard to predict. Having an email response management strategy can keep these problems to a minimum. If you want to take back control of your email database, you’ll want to add third-party automated email responders to your email marketing strategy.
Amazon Product Reviews FAQ
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Amazon review services that we decided to answer today.
How to check reviews on Amazon Seller Central?
There are three primary ways to do that:
- Head to Inventory – Manage Inventory on Amazon Seller Central. Click on a product listing title and open the product listing on Amazon. You will see the number of reviews/ratings and a general rating there.
- Head to Performance – Voice of the Customer to get a print of your shoppers’ experience.
- Head to Performance – Feedback. Get to your Feedback Manager.
How to ask a customer to remove a negative review on Amazon?
There are two ways to remove negative feedback on Amazon:
- you can request Amazon to remove it;
- you can contact the buyer, try to solve the issue and ask them to remove their negative feedback.
How many Amazon reviews do you need to get good sales?
According to ReadyCloud, five reviews for a product increase purchase odds by nearly 200%.
Can you buy Amazon reviews?
Contrary to popular belief, it is illegal to buy Amazon reviews. However, giant eCommerce platforms take reviews seriously, and most of them are actively working to prevent fraudulent reviews.
Amazon Reviews: Do’s and Don’ts
We’ve collected some extra tips to help you avoid the pitfalls while managing your reviews.
Be sure to DO the following:
- Strive for customer satisfaction: Promoting positive customer experiences is all about your product reviews, as they are a direct indicator of the happiness of your customers. A happy customer is likely to leave a positive review of your product.
- Ensure consistency: getting reviews is all about consistency: You should not expect a response 100% of the time you ask for a review. But it would help if you stayed consistent in asking for them, and you’ll eventually succeed a few times and get the benefits you want.
- Be precise with product descriptions: plenty of negative reviews, or dissatisfied customers, come when a product is not as they had hoped. So be accurate when describing your product features.
- Manage negative reviews in time: Negative reviews typically indicate a product that does not function properly or does not live up to its advertised function. Always listen to your customers and remove any customers’ problems frequently reported.
When handling your reviews, these are the DON’Ts you should avoid:
- Buying reviews: some services claim they can provide you with positive reviews. Well, this is precisely what you shouldn’t do – buy reviews. Amazon eventually realizes that people are getting paid for fake reviews and will delete any reviews left even by the buyer.
- Incentivizing reviews: this is another dangerous path you shouldn’t step on. Incentivizing reviews and offering Amazon giveaway for reviews is a tactic that some businesses employ to try and improve their review ratings. This strategy will get a strong response from Amazon, including a warning and disciplinary action.
- Ask shoppers to revise their reviews: new updates to Amazon’s terms of service fully explicitly establish that you cannot ask someone to change a review. It would help if you tried to make it right with people who left negative reviews, and you can do so by reaching out to them.
- Ask your friends/family to post reviews: Amazon is good at turning up the volume on reviews made by family, friends, or anyone connected to you. To avoid getting banned, it is better not to risk this.
Tips for Sending Smarter Feedback Requests
Practicing feedback software helps, but it’s still essential to have a compelling message that gets more reviews on Amazon. We have a piece of advice for you:
- Timing is vital: try to adjust your strategy to time zones, national holidays, or other events when you know your target audience might/might not be available. You want your buyers to be able to experience the product before you request a review.
- Focus on your target audience: confidently ensure that you communicate with your base shoppers who only got the best possible customer experience. Ensure that you provide smooth customer support, on-time delivery, and the best product.
- Don’t ask for a review on fragile items: Products that could be delivered either broken or not working at all will likely have a low overall feedback score. Analyze products that have received good reviews from your customers in the past to expect positive feedback from them.
- Surpass shopper anticipations: when asking for feedback, take it one step further and deliver to the customer resources that may encourage them to add an extra star or add links to video tutorials to get the most out of your product.
- Address customer issues: more critical than apologizing is to figure out the reasons behind the negative feedback and why you were given it. Personalize your customer’s preferences for feedback so that you can cater to their individual needs and provide more benefits for them.
Final Word
Amazon, one of the biggest online retailers, highly honors online reviews. Companies trust user reviews more than any other form of content, and they’re handy when it comes to finding quality products that match your company’s niche. In addition, good reviews help you build trust and credibility with your customers, and they help you generate sales through a form of word-of-mouth marketing.
We hope now you know how to get Amazon reviews. Have any questions left? We are here to help! Contact us today, and we’ll figure it out for you!
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