What’s the update?
Amazon sellers that have enrolled in Brand Registry can now communicate directly with buyers that left their brand a critical review. This update was released in June 2021 on Customer Reviews on the Brand Dashboard.
There are several limitations to the feature:
- The buyer must have purchased from the seller
- The review must be critical (1 to 3 stars)
- The initial message options are 100% templated
Templated messages are sent from a link on the Customer Reviews page on the “Brand Dashboard” through Buyer-Seller Messaging.
Here’s a helpful screencast of this new feature, Tygh introduces this feature and shows you how to use it with your own brand!
Prefer audio? Listen to episode 30 to hear Tygh describe how to use this updated feature:
What is the Brand Dashboard?
Brand Dashboard is a feature that gets activated in Seller Central after enrollment in Brand Registry. It provides exclusive and useful tools to build your brand on Amazon.
“Brand Dashboard is a tool available exclusively for brands to optimize their business on Amazon. Brand Dashboard will help you identify opportunities to improve the customer experience, traffic, and conversion... only available to brand owners, who are internal to the brand and responsible for selling the brand on the Amazon store.”
Read more About the Brand Dashboard in Seller Central.
The Customer Reviews page
Customer Reviews is a feature available on Brand Dashboard. This is where the new update can be found.
We outlined the Customer Reviews feature when it was first released in June 2019, in episode #13, “Amazon’s New “Customer Reviews” Dashboard: Manage Your Product Reviews Right From Seller Central.”
Since its release, this feature has mostly stayed the same, except that comments on reviews are now disabled. Read our recent guest post on Kaspien’s blog about how to gain insights from reviews without commenting.
Here’s the full description from Amazon’s help page, Customer Reviews on the Brand Dashboard:
“The Customer Reviews page on the Brand Dashboard provides brands with an easy way to keep track of all the new customer reviews on their brand’s products. Monitoring customer sentiment can be important to identify and correct product or listings defects, detecting and reporting abuse, or commenting on customer reviews [comments now disabled]. Before using this feature, we recommend studying our answers to frequently asked questions about customer reviews.”
How to Message Critical Reviewers
1- Click the “Contact Buyer” link
Next to each critical product review on the Customer Reviews page, Amazon provides a “Contact Buyer” link. This feature saves the time and effort spent manually searching, trying to match a review to an Amazon order ID.
2- Choose a template to send
There are two options to choose from:
Option #1: Courtesy refund
- Offers a full courtesy refund or replacement to the buyer.
- Be ready to process their request after the buyer replies to your offer.
Option #2: Customer review
- Offers to open a private conversation with the buyer about the details of their review.
- This option may still result in a refund or replacement, but perhaps the reviewer needs assistance or instruction about your product.
Which option will you choose? We recommend setting rules for your brand, based on the nature of the review, product,
etc.
3- Follow up
Assist the buyer with their refund, replacement, etc., when they reply to your message.
Track your success by checking back periodically to see if buyers you’ve contacted have updated or removed their review after your assistance.
What we’ve learned so far
We conducted an initial review with our Reputation Management team and we’re optimistic about this feature’s potential to improve customer experience and product review ratings.
The highlights:
- Amazon US only
- Brand-Registered sellers only
- 100% templated messaging for the initial request
- Reviewer response rates: Unknown
- Review conversion rates: Unknown
- Unique situations may require different templates
- This feature may influence profit and sales
Summary
We’re still testing this new feature in order to understand how to best use it to improve the customer experience of the brands we represent on Amazon.
Some initial takeaways:
- Customization is one key to making a connection but perhaps templated messages are a better experience for Amazon buyers?
- Buyers will reply! Follow Amazon’s Communication Guidelines, to properly interact with buyers.
- Consider the financial implications of more refunds/replacements vs. better review ratings.
We’re excited to add direct messaging to Amazon buyers who left your brand a critical product review to our Reputation Management services. If you’d like SellerSmile to start messaging your brand’s reviewers, schedule a call and we’ll discuss your preferences, answer any questions, then launch your new service.
Next, we hope Amazon offers a reviewer a refund/ replacement preemptively before the critical review is even published! 🙂
What do you think about this update? Let us know in the comments!
More Resources about Customer Reviews on the Brand Dashboard
- Enroll in Amazon Brand Registry
- Visit your Customer Reviews page in Seller Central
- Read Amazon’s help page, “Customer Reviews on the Brand Dashboard“
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