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3 Ways to Encourage Customer Feedback Post-Christmas
Stay on top of the latest e-commerce and marketplace trends.
Christmas is over. All the planning, ordering, predicting, managing, selling, shipping, and price adjusting is no more. So now what?
While January may still be a fairly busy month with people returning or exchanging gifts, fulfilling their last-minute buying promises (Of course I bought you a present, I just forgot it at home), or happily spending their Amazon gift vouchers, February and March tend to be a lot quieter.
Now is the perfect opportunity to get the momentum going for those quiet months. Use the successful holiday season to encourage feedback from your customers.
As any Amazon Seller knows, receiving positive feedback is extremely important as it can be the make or break in securing sales. And trying to maximize your sales in the quiet season is vital.
Since you invested so much time, effort and energy in doing well this holiday season, you may as well take advantage of all your hard work and of all your (hopefully) satisfied customers by improving your Feedback Score so that it will stand you in good stead during February and March.
Building trust
Amazon calculate seller Feedback Scores using a 1-to-5 star system and percentages of positive, neutral and negative ratings. Price aside, the amount of stars and the positive percentage score next to your name on a product listing page, can really affect a potential Buyer?s decision to purchase from you, or to go with someone else instead.
This is because Feedback Score shows a potential Buyer how much they can trust you as a Seller. If other people have had a positive experience with you, they know that they?ll receive a good service too. In addition, a high Feedback Score can also swing the Buy Box in your favor. (See our blog Great Feedback Can Score You the Buy Box.)
Quantity matters
When looking at Feedback Score, a potential Buyer also considers the amount of ratings you have. Although a 99% positive score is fantastic, if you?ve only ever had twenty people rate you, it?s not as impressive as a 99% score with 2000 ratings.
In the above example, although both Sellers’ ratings are impressive, the second Seller stands out far more, having received over four times the amount of ratings as the first Seller. This difference in quantity can really make a difference in a potential Buyer?s decision making process.
And that is why it is imperative that you get as many customers as possible to leave you feedback.
While Amazon do send feedback reminders to your customers for you (either within two days of the maximum estimated delivery date, or within 22 days of the order being placed), these requests often go unanswered.
Here are 3 things that you can do to encourage positive customer feedback yourself:
1. Send a friendly note with each new order
E.G. On the packing slip. Include a link to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/account-access-login/ and ask people to click on the leave seller feedback link. You could even make it slightly humorous and fitting for the holiday season, such as, We hope you had a happy holiday season. If you’d like to make us happy too, we?d love to hear your feedback!?
2. Send a polite request to the customer once the shipment has been received.
Although many people dissuade Sellers from emailing the customer themselves, for fear of annoying him and causing him to leave negative feedback instead, if you do it the right way, you might see that your reaching out is actually welcomed by the customer. In the below example, the Seller combined an offer to assist the Buyer with anything he might need post-purchase, with a polite and courteous request for feedback.As you can see, it is not an overbearing or annoying email, but rather fosters a give and take relationship between Seller and Buyer.
3. In the unfortunate incident that you receive negative feedback
Investigate why it occurred and do what you can to resolve it. If you are polite and friendly, and issue a refund, replacement or complimentary gift certificate, you might then be able to ask the customer to remove the negative feedback.
Don’t give into the post-holiday blues! Make the most of them by encouraging feedback!