We know, we know — it’s important to get feedback from your buyers. And we here at FeedbackExpress apologise in advance, but we’re going to talk a little more about why it matters so much. Specifically, we’re going to delve into how you can write an amazing email, buyers will actually read and respond to.
The Main Reason for Getting Seller Feedback: Turning Them into Product Reviews
As an Amazon seller, you know there are two types of reviews: seller reviews and product reviews. The latter is especially important because it’s one of the first things customers see when shopping for products. Seller reviews, on the other hand, are far more buried — they’re behind your seller name — and so customers won’t see that unless they go looking for it.
So why bother with writing an email that asks for seller feedback, anyway?
Simple: because it’s a valuable opportunity to turn it into a product review. You see, you want to capitalise on happy, chatty customers because one who’s glad to write a review on you is also pretty likely to write a review on what they just bought.
And if you want both kinds of reviews, then the best way to go about them is with automatic follow-up emails. That way, customers who wrote about their buying experience (or were prompted to do so) will also get an email prompting them to leave a product review. And if they leave that product review, then it’ll be easily visible to prospective buyers, which in turn can increase your sales even more.
What to Write, What to Write
Before getting started on which words to choose, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Like, do not specifically ask for a positive review.
Not only is it gauche, but it’s also against Amazon’s TOS and may result in your selling account being suspended.
On top of this, being forceful or rude is one of the quickest ways you can ensure yourself of no review, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
Also, you should never offer a product in exchange for a review. This is called incentivised reviews, and Amazon banned this practice (with a few exceptions) in October 2016. For sure, it’s more of a challenge to amass those precious reviews, but it just means you’ll have to be more creative in how you get them.
Okay, so now about writing that actual email. If the thought of sitting down and stringing words together elegantly and articulately freaks out, take a deep breath and pause for a second. All you’re doing is writing a short, polite email, and not a university exam essay. Think of a text you’d shoot a friend when making plans, and you’ve just about got the length and tone right.
Start off with a friendly greeting and thanking the buyer for their purchase.
Nothing fancy, just something along the lines of,
Thanks so much for your recent purchase – we’re glad you had an amazing experience.
You can add an exclamation mark at the end, but be careful in using one: it can seem a little cheesy or overly enthusiastic. It’s always better to show instead of tell, and you can do that by picking different words that make an impact (i.e. using ‘good’ or ‘great’ instead of ‘amazing’ right before ‘experience’). If you’re stuck, just Google for synonyms on a thesaurus.
Next, explain why you’re emailing.
A simple sentence like,
It’d be a big help to us if you could leave a review of the product and tell other buyers what you thought.
By telling them you need their help, both for yourself and for other would-be buyers, people are more motivated to do so. You want to be direct and concise; don’t beat around the bush because people won’t always pick up on subtlety.
Lastly, end off the email on a friendly note and show them how to leave a review.
Write something like,
Here’s the link for leaving a review, and even just a sentence or two would be awesome.
Don’t make buyers do any extra work and make it as easy for them as possible to leave a review. By including the link, all they have to do is click on it and fill in the blanks. They’ve already got their item, so why would they spend any more time on the process than necessary? Plus, if you send the link and ask them directly for what you want, you’ll look more professional and that’ll help buyers want to buy from you again in the future.
Final Thoughts
It’s pretty important to send emails to buyers asking for feedback, but why do all the work yourself? It’s one thing to put your own voice in the emails, and quite another to craft them by hand for each buyer. And if you’re dealing with tens or hundreds of buyers, it can get pretty time-consuming pretty quickly. That’s why FeedbackExpress should be an everyday part of doing business. You’ll get to retain your uniqueness but at a fraction of the manual labour. And in the spirit of making things as easy as possible for you, you get the first 14 days entirely free when you sign up now.
