7 Tips to Boost Reviews on eBay & Amazon

Amazon and eBay browsers are much more likely to purchase from a reputable seller with great feedback and reviews on their items, which means that ensuring that you’re a trusted seller can be great for increasing sales; no one wants to buy from a seller with hardly any feedback (or worse - poor feedback), so how do you boost customer reviews (and sales) on eBay and Amazon?

1. Ask!

If you don’t ask you don’t get. It’s as simple as that. Customers aren’t going to be motivated enough to go out of their way to leave a review unless your service is ether truly magical or absolutely abysmal. You need to give customers a prod and ask them to leave a review if they were happy with the goods and service you provided. Just give them a quick email with a link to your store and a request for a review.

2. Automate

Okay, so if you’re a large scale retailer with lots of customers (or if you’re a very busy person) it can be difficult and time consuming to keep up with every customer who’s bought something from your store. But worry not, there are tools which can help you automate the process of emailing customers to ask for feedback and reviews. Feedback Five and Reply Manager are both excellent. You can use them to automatically send your customers an email asking them to leave you a review and feedback, and Reply Manager is also great for general customer communications...but we’ll get to that later.

3. Keep your promises

This is such an important part of making sure your customers are satisfied. If you promise 1 day delivery and can’t keep that promise, customers will probably give you poor feedback as they’re likely to be irritated that they haven’t received their items. It’s best to be honest; if 4 day delivery is the best you can do, then say that. They’ll be much happier to receive a package on or before the time specified than be misled, and will be more likely to use your services again. If you’re having trouble on Amazon manage orders with an inventory/order management system to make things easier.  If you can exceed their expectations, that’s even better. If you say 4 day delivery and their goods arrive in 2, they’ll remember you for being a fast shipper. If you’re a small scale seller, try leaving a small token of thanks - even just a note - to show your appreciation. It’s nice to be nice, and you’ll stick out for it.

4. Provide accurate product descriptions

Customers want their goods to be exactly as described, so pay a lot of attention to detail in your descriptions, and try and include plenty of photos from a variety of different angles. Your buyers will not be happy if they receive goods which are not exactly as described, and will probably leave you a scathing review, so it’s important to get this part right.

5. Become an eBay top rated seller

If you’re selling on eBay, becoming a Top Rated Seller is key to success. Most listings that reach the top page of an eBay search will be from Top Rated Sellers who have a large sales history and plenty of customer feedback. The great thing about this is that you can gain positive feedback simply by purchasing goods from other people and paying on time; so buy some small, cheap items and rack up that positive feedback.

6. Communicate

Communicating with your customers is essential to keeping them satisfied and satisfied customers are more likely to give positive reviews and feedback. Even a quick email notifying the customer that their product is on its way, or a simple “thank you for using our service” email can go a long way in showing that you’re a competent retailer who cares about, and is going to meet their needs. If the customer contacts you first, you need to respond quickly (Amazon requires you to respond within 24 hours or there will be a demerit against your account) so show that you’re engaged and professional when it comes to dealing with your customers. If you’re selling on eBay, Replymanager is a great tool for  reading and responding to mail from eBay’s “My Messages and Resolution Center”, and if you’re an Amazon seller, you can use Amazon Seller Central to communicate with your customers (you can even arrange for customer questions are forwarded to your email, so you can respond when you’re not on Amazon), and find more tips for how to sell on Amazon.

7. Remove negative reviews

If you do receive negative reviews, don’t panic, because you can always turn them into positive reviews. As soon as you’re aware that you have a dissatisfied customer, email them apologising for any mishaps and asking if there is any way you can rectify the issue - and if there isn’t, offer them a token of your sincerity - a gift card or refund, for example. Hopefully this will be enough, and once you have explained and rectified the error, you can politely request them to reconsider their negative review. Apply these tips, and you should be on your way to a solid strategy to boost reviews on eBay and Amazon.