• Amazon Stop All Review Replies

    By ZonSupport | Posted on January 7, 2021| Blog

    You have to give it to Amazon, they like to drop small but significant changes on us over the Holiday Season. Effective December 16, 2020, they are stopping the ability for anyone to comment on a review.

    This will take some time to implement across their business. We are told this feature will disappear within 60 days of their announcement.  Some of our team can still respond to client reviews whereas others are now blocked. 

    Amazon’s position is that few people responded to reviews so it was not really of value. However, this removes the ability of proactive Sellers to respond to lowstar reviews to provide a balance to what is often a misunderstanding. 

    Was this of value? Well, we certainly had customers responding and had great success in turning these situations around. Indeed, some reviewers even write words to the effect of “…can someone please contact me to sort this out…”

    Here’s Amazon’s notice that has already gone out to some customers who have left recent replies to reviews. A great many more have not received the notice from Amazon but simply find they can no longer reply to reviews. 

    You are receiving this email because you recently left a comment on a review.

    While reviews and feedback are important to our customers and sellers, the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used. As a result, we are retiring this feature on December 16, 2020.

    We are committed to your continued success and will innovate and develop other opportunities for you to connect with customers.

    Thank you.

    Amazon Services

    The Helpful button is currently retained as is the option to Report Abuse.

    This follows on from the change Amazon made in early 2020 when they removed the requirement to write a review. A simple click on a star rating is all that is required. The wording was also changed from Reviews to Ratings to reflect this change. 

    So where is this going?

    It’s no secret that Amazon’s review system is manipulated in many different ways by creative sellers. The trust that customers place in Amazon’s review system has been falling so they need to find ways to make their system more robust and to attract less media criticism.

    What can you do?

    If the reviewer used their name you are still able to search for them in your FBA orders and reach out to them. Under the November 2020 update to their Communication Guidelines, they clearly state that you may not ask customers to change their review. However, you can still reach out, apologize, and try to resolve their problem.

    Customers aren’t stupid. They know that if a seller reaches out and works on a solution they should update or remove their review. Many do but unfortunately, some don’t. It just a numbers game. Make sure you try!

    As of the time of writing this, Product Inserts are still allowed. I doubt Amazon could ever remove this but I should not tempt fate. This is now more important than ever as they really are your one and only line of defense to try and help unhappy customers.

    Get in touch if you would like a copy of our latest Product Insert recommendation: www.zonsupport.com/insert

    We have had some great wins – maybe you will too!

    As always, ask us anything. If we don’t know the answer we’ll know someone who does!

     

     

     

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