Amazon has tightened its communication
guidelines starting from December 3rd.
Can you still use a third-party tool to
ask for the review or the feedback?
Let's find out!
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suggestion for Amazon sellers.
Amazon has tightened the communication
guidelines. They released new ones.
And they also added a new feature.
The new feature is the 'Request a
Review' button. Let's start from this.
What is this button?
Now, after an order is
completed and delivered,
if you go to Seller Central
and the order page,
you will see the new button
called 'Request a Review'.
If you click on this button during
the time window that should be
before 30 days after delivery,
you can ask for a review.
If you click on the button,
you'll see that Amazon is asking you first
to confirm if you wanna do it, and then
it will show you how the email will look.
It's a very simple email where it's
asking the buyer to leave a review,
and a Feedback for the seller.
There is obviously an advantage with this,
because it's a quick method
if you have a few orders you can just ckick
this button and ask for a quick review.
It's not going through the
Buyer-Seller Message Center,
it's going directly from Amazon.
This is definitely a good thing.
But, at the same time, there are a
few disadvantages using this method.
First of all, it's not automatic.
So, you need to click on each order
manually to send this request.
If you have a lot of orders, this means
spending a lot of time clicking on this button.
The second problem is that this
email is not customizable.
You cannot customize it.
It's the same for every order,
no matter what the situation is,
no matter the product, no matter the buyer.
It's a very simple and
straightforward message.
The third disadvantage of this button
is that you cannot filter your buyers.
The only way you can filter is by
manually checking if, for example,
the buyer has left previous negative feedback
or review, so you don't want to send it.
Or if their order had some
delay or some problem.
Again, you probably don't
want to send it to them.
So, you cannot automate this filtering.
You have to do it by yourself.
Our suggestion is to keep using a third-party
software to ask for review or feedback.
This takes us to the new
communication guidelines.
Did anything change? First of all,
I would like to reassure everyone
that these new communication guidelines
are not changing the system.
It's just a way for Amazon to clarify
something that was already there,
But it was not that clear,
so they just wanted to rewrite it
in a way that is clearer for you, sellers,
to know how to contact the buyers.
They are basically just trying to enforce
these guidelines a bit more severely.
You can still send review or feedback request
with a tool, asking to rate the experience.
You need to make sure that you
are following their guidelines.
And there are a few
things you cannot do.
You couldn't do it even before,
but now it's even more important to make sure
that you are not doing any of this.
So let's go through some of these 'DON'T's.
The first one is: you cannot send
more than 1 email per order.
So, you can send one
email asking for review,
but then, don't send a
follow-up right after that.
Another thing that is
prohibited is to ask for any
positive Feedback or review.
You cannot mention anything about a positive
experience, or the customer being happy,
the buyer being satisfied
with their order.
The wording needs to be very neutral.
Just ask how was their
experience in general.
Another thing you cannot do
is to write, in the subject,
[IMPORTANT] or [Your
attention is required].
Because these are only for messages that
are critical to finalize the order.
And asking for review is
not critical for the order.
So, you cannot write any
of this in the subject.
Then, you cannot ask buyers
that maybe are unhappy
or that had a problem,
to contact you directly.
This is also now forbidden
by the guidelines.
Don't say 'Contact us', because,
no matter what, they know that
they can contact Amazon or you through
Amazon, without you having to ask for it.
Another thing you cannot do
is to have unnecessary links,
that takes somewhere else,
even to your own Amazon page.
You cannot have any unnecessary link.
This also apply to your logo.
You can have a logo in your email,
but you cannot make it link to
your page or to your website.
The last one, also very important:
you cannot have any promotional words.
You cannot have anything that
is related to a promotion.
So, for example, no discount
codes, no promotion.
This is very important because
they don't want buyers
to be pushed to buy again from you.
With these guidelines, Amazon is
trying to say that they want sellers
to focus on Customer Service, especially
using the buyer-seller message center.
So, if a buyer contacts you
first to ask anything related
to their order or their product,
of course, you can still reply to them,
Even with several emails to resolve their
issue. And this is totally fine for Amazon.
Actually, it is endorsed by Amazon,
because they want the messages
to be Customer Service centric.
So, it's important to use a tool
that is oriented to Customer Service
and puts more focus on the
communication with buyers,
both outbound and inbound.
If you use a tool such
as BQool's BigCRM,
you will be able to send and
receive messages from buyers.
The fact that you can receive the messages will
help you take care of your Customer Service first,
have more information about the
buyers, because you will know
if they had, for example, a problem
with their order, if they already left
previous negative or positive feedback.
So, this will all help you
filter your buyers and know
who to send the requests to.
And, at the same time, you will be able
to send Feedback and review requests,
with the personalized templates.
Also, BQool right now is offering,
for a limited time only,
a 50% discount on BigCRM
for three months.
But the promotion ends
by the end of December.
You can start a free trial
first by clicking here.
You start the free trial, you try the
product, and then you can use the discount,
the coupon code, to have a 50% discount.
I hope this video helped
you understand a bit more
about the new Communication
Guidelines from Amazon.
Don't forget to like the video.
And if you have any question,
just leave a comment in the section below.
