If you are a seller on an eCommerce platform, you may already know the importance of eCommerce reviews and their impact on business.
In fact, many online buyers purchase products based on eCommerce reviews as it helps them get a clear picture of the quality of the product they wish to purchase. In case the number of negative customer feedback is high on a platform, the sellers are likely to lose their potential customers on the eCommerce website.
eCommerce feedback is the best way to help customers get an authentic product online. When it comes to sellers, they need to get more and more customers to buy their products. For this, they need to build customers’ trust and get helpful eCommerce reviews.
Based on customers’ experiences, reviews can either be positive or negative. While the dependency of a buyer on eCommerce feedback is relatively high, a recent study by CHEQ shows that almost 4% of all online reviews are fake. eCommerce sites are aware of fake reviews, and they regularly take necessary measures to identify and filter such reviews.
The sellers who use an online platform need to take a strategic approach to deal with eCommerce feedback. Here you can find out various ways to handle negative customer feedback. But, before that let’s understand the difference between seller feedback and product feedback in eCommerce.
Seller Feedback vs Product Feedback
There are two types of Feedback on an e- commerce platform. One is the product feedback and the other is seller feedback. Both the seller and buyer must clearly understand the two types of feedback to maintain the authenticity of purchasing products online. Here, we have clarified the difference between a seller and product feedback.
Seller feedback
When the customer adds a review on
- how fast the product was delivered to the customer
- if the product was delivered on or before the expected date of delivery
- the packaging of the product
- the condition in which the product was received
- if the seller was quick in resolving the issues, if any
Some of the negative customer feedback examples on sellers are delay in delivery, poor packaging, delivery of the wrong product, no response for late delivery, etc.
Product feedback
At the end, it is the final delivered product that matters to customers the most. Hence, product feedback is critical. Key highlights of product feedback are as follows:
- quality of product
- comparison of product features or benefits with its pricing
- accuracy of product
- authenticity of product
Some negative customer feedback examples for a product are a low-quality product, high pricing, not a genuine product, product not the same as shown in the image, etc.
Both seller feedback and product feedback are essential, but product feedback tends to have a more significant impact on customers, and its effect on the customers’ buying decisions is more.
How to Manage Negative Customer Reviews?
Negative customer feedback impacts the ranking of a product on eCommerce platforms. Also, eCommerce negative customer reviews prevent the users from buying products, which eventually affects the seller’s business.
As a seller, you may not go through any eCommerce negative reviews for some time. But, at the same time, you must accept that you will have to deal with negative customer feedback someday or the other.
No matter how much you hate to read negative customer feedback, it is essential to deal with the eCommerce feedback positively to maintain the trust of customers.
Here are some important tips and guidelines that can help you manage negative customer reviews on eCommerce websites.
1. Figure out if the review is genuine or fake
Customer reviews play an important role in gaining the trust of potential customers on an eCommerce website. However, it is quite unfortunate that certain people misuse this feature and try to create fake reviews about a product or seller online. If the reviews on an eCommerce site are manipulative or false then they can be misleading to other visitors on the page.
A customer may not know how to figure out or recognize a fake review about a product or seller online. But as a seller on the eCommerce platform, if you come across a negative review, the first thing that you need to do is to figure out if the negative feedback shared by a customer is genuine or fake. How?
There are various ways by which you can determine whether the feedback on an eCommerce website is genuine or fake. Check if the reviewer is asking you to purchase the product from another site or seller as there are high chances for the review to be written by a competitor.
Apart from this, there are several tools that can be used to detect fake reviews on eCommerce platforms such as ReviewMeta, Fakespot, Review Index etc.
2. Do not reply to customers in haste
No online business likes reading negative customer feedback about its products and services. But, there are situations when they need to handle negative eCommerce feedback either because of their own fault or the error in between the process of getting the product delivered to customers. In such a situation, it is important to act wisely.
Sometimes, sellers tend to reply to customers abruptly that may not be appropriate to the reader. Whether it is a fake eCommerce review or a genuine one, the seller must avoid replying to a negative customer feedback in haste.
Instead they must focus on understanding the reason for negative feedback and act accordingly. If required, help the customer with his problem, which may turn into a positive review later on.
3. Remove fake feedback from an eCommerce site
As a seller, you can get the negative feedback removed if it does not come under the seller’s policy. For example, you can ask eCommerce platforms to remove feedback that contains inappropriate language, irrelevant comments etc.
The seller can also get feedback removed if the review is associated with the delivery service and not his product.
4. Resolve issues of genuine feedback
In case, the customer has added genuine (negative) feedback on the eCommerce platform, you must directly get in touch with the customer as soon as possible. Try to understand his problem and get it resolved as early as possible. This is the best way to not only help customers get their problems resolved but also to gain their trust for the future.
Once the issue is resolved you can persuade the customer to remove the feedback from the site. The major concern of a customer is to get his problem resolved on time. Hence, in maximum cases, customers are ready to delete the negative feedback from the eCommerce platform.
5. Ask customer to add positive feedback
Once you have helped the customer with genuine feedback to get his issue resolved, you can connect with him again to share positive feedback. If you are successful in handling the negative feedback on time and making your customer happy, there are high chances that the customer will be convinced to write positive feedback about your service.
After handling an issue in getting the product delivered to the customer on time, positive feedback can work wonders for your business.
Conclusion
Hope the above guidelines will help you deal with negative eCommerce reviews in the right way.
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