Feedback Genius vs the Competition: What sets it apart?

We probably don’t need to tell you that shining customer feedback is one of the key factors of success as an Amazon Seller. Without great reviews, you won’t get very far.

Why? Because reviews give a crystal-clear signal to Amazon that your seller account and your products are fantastic.

You may already know that Amazon has a complicated algorithm to show customers the best product from the best seller. But ultimately there are only a few things that make a big difference. Things like customer reviews, Prime delivery and pricing.

And no matter how often Amazon has updated its algorithm, customer feedback has always been one of its most important indicators.

It makes sense. Delighted reviews are proof that customers love you and your products. If customers say great things, Amazon can assume that future customers will also be over the moon.

Specifically, what does this mean for your business? If you can get amazing reviews from enthusiastic customers, you’ll win in two ways:

• Your product will rank higher: search Amazon for a relevant keyword and your product will turn up.
• You will win the buy box: when customers want to buy your product, your offer will be shown to customers, not your competitors’.

So what does this mean for Amazon sellers? Well, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to be up on your reviews game from day 1.

However, we know that getting that crucial customer feedback is difficult. If a customer likes your product, she doesn’t automatically go straight online to tell the world about it. Sadly, that’s often not how things work out.

Amazon also has strict guidelines on how sellers are allowed to get customer feedback. As we’ll cover, unprofessional behavior can endanger your entire Amazon selling business.

Luckily, there’s software that can help you be successful with customer feedback. In other words, it can help you get well on your way to being a successful seller on Amazon.

We’re going to take an in-depth look at the most popular, Feedback Genius.

In recent years a few similar solutions have come to market. So we’ll also take a look at what the main differences are and what sets Feedback Genius apart from the competition.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at what Feedback Genius has to offer.

Feedback Genius has a number of features designed to maximize your reviews success while remaining simple and easy to manage.

• Automate emails: this is Feedback Genius’s bread and butter. Let’s say you have thousands of orders a week. For each order, you can send the customer multiple mails. Making sure everything has gone smoothly for the customer. Telling him about your brand. Requesting feedback. And you can do it all without touching your keyboard once. Save time, win yourself great feedback, boost your sales. That’s why we’re here. So what else can Feedback Genius do?
• Customize rules: you decide which email your customer receives and when. For example, send one email to a customer on the day it will arrive and another (if they haven’t yet submitted feedback) 4-5 days later. The kind of email you send depends on your product and your brand. But let’s say you have a specialized product and you want you to make sure you customer understands how to use it. Then you may use your first email to give a few clear instructions. Either way, in our experience it’s always handy to offer these kind of options and links:

• Use emails that are proven to work: Feedback Genius has a full 28 email templates. You can pick one or use them as inspiration for your own message. Either way, it’s a formidable resource of messages that have a track record of success with Amazon customers.
• Get granular: just like you can choose when your emails are sent, Feedback Genius also gives you the option to bucket who should get which mail. For example, you can break down your email campaigns into customers who have left poor reviews, customers who have left good reviews, customers who bought one product rather than another etc.

• Blacklist: automated emails aren’t simple to manage unless you’ve got full control of who you’re hitting with your emails. There are going to be some customers – for example, who canceled their order or received their order late – whose feedback you don’t necessarily want to proactively request. That’s is why Feedback Genius’ blacklist exists: add your unwanted customers to the list and relax.

• Review alerts: and if customers still leave bad reviews? Then Feedback Genius is on it as well. Receive an alert, by text or email or both, within moments of any 1-3 star reviews (anything that could hurt your Amazon seller performance score) being submitted on your product. And just like that, you’re in a position to turn that review into a good one, quickly.

Bearing in mind the features mentioned above, here are the hacks you can use to get the most out of Feedback Genius and boost your business:

• Go big on branding: on Amazon, most customers won’t notice you brand straight away. So when you send your customers emails, that’s your chance to tell them who you are. Tell your story. Write with your own unique voice. Customers who identify with your brand will want to help your business.

• Innovate your email: use Feedback Genius data to fine-tune your message. Experiment and A/B test titles to see which one leads to the highest open rate. See which mail campaign is under-performing, and fix it. And try to keep your message fresh. For example, Feedback Genius just built in a five-star icon as a call-to-action button. Try it out and make it easy for your customers to shower you with praise.

• Reward repeat customers: don’t punish your loyal customers with the same old message. Make them feel appreciated! Feedback Genius offers the chance to segment new customers from loyal repeat buyers. Use this. Tell them how happy you are to have them back. You’ll win yourself even more shining reviews from happy customers!

Seller Performance: You don’t want to get on the bad side of Amazon. Any seller who has encountered Amazon’s tough Seller Performance team knows exactly what we’re talking about here. If you’ve managed to keep in the good books of Amazon, trust us, you’ll want to keep it that way.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to stay on Amazon’s good side when it comes to using customer reviews software such as Feedback Genius.

Once upon a time, sellers got away with a whole lot tricks to gain customer reviews: paying for reviews, offering free or discounted products in exchange for “neutral” reviews, etc.

As the years have gone by, the rules have been tightened up. As of 2016, you can’t buy reviews. In 2018, Amazon has barred a number of customer and seller accounts based on unprofessional review activities.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about communicating with customers in 2018:

So, sending messages to genuine customers asking them to review your product is fine. Telling customers they will get a free coupon if they leave positive feedback is not fine. Thanking your customers who have left positive feedback, again, fine.

If you don’t follow these rules, you risk losing your selling privileges forever.

With this in mind, yes, do ask for feedback. But, no, don’t offer anything that will get you in trouble with Amazon. Stay above board, use a tool like Feedback Genius, and don’t try any funny business. It’s just not worth it. Really.

Annoying your customers: your email campaigns are clearly aimed at getting closer to your customer, so of course the last thing you want to do is to annoy her. How can you avoid this?

Be like-able. Make your message friendly and unique.

Don’t swamp her. In our experience, you don’t need to go overboard. Two mails should be enough per customer. In stead of adding more and more, focus on optimizing the ones you have to increase your conversion.

As we mentioned earlier, don’t bore your loyal repeat buyers with the same message. Create a campaign for the return customers. They deserve it, and it will make them delighted to get another email from you rather than annoyed.

Different countries: not all customers are the same throughout the world. What a US customer loves, a German customer might find irritating. So how can you avoid upsetting your customers?

Firstly, bear in mind that emails work better than no emails. In our experience, customers who receive a friendly email in any marketplace are always more likely to leave positive feedback. So by sending an email, your already doing yourself a favor.

After that, you have to use your common sense. If you’re not familiar with a marketplace, maybe don’t go in with a controversial joke. Mostly though, it’s enough to get a high-quality translation of your original text. All of your customers will be Amazon buyers, and will probably respond well to friendliness and amazing customer service.

Feedback Genius ‘Essentials’ pricing plan starts at zero. If you’re just starting out, you can make use of 100 free monthly emails. For $20/month you can send 1,000 automated emails. The pricing scales up to $250/month for up to 60,000 customer emails.

How does the competition compare? Other email services tend to have similar pricing. For example, some offer a free plan but with fewer emails. Some offer no free plan.

All in all, Feedback Genius pricing matches what you’d expect to pay per email with other tools.

So how does Feedback Genius stack up against the competition? Does it still deserve its place as the industry’s favorite?

We find that while the pricing doesn’t change much, your experience using the tool does. What Feedback Genius has nailed is their user experience. Automating your emails shouldn’t be a massive task, and with Feedback Genius, it’s not.

It’s also worth comparing features. As you can see from the Feedback Genius lowdown above, it’s a very feature-rich tool. While the competition tends to have the basics down, Feedback Genius tends to have the edge.

Feedback Genius also brings out new features on a regular basis, for example the new star rating call-to-action icon.

We also like its newsletter, which keeps us up to date on all things Amazon customer feedback.

So, what do we think of Feedback Genius?

Firstly, we believe it’s well worth investing in a feedback tool. Here’s why:

• You need customer feedback to be successful on Amazon.
• You need to do it professionally if you don’t want to get blocked.
• Keeping up with emails yourself would be a poor investment of your time.

And how does Feedback Genius compare to its competition?

In our humble opinion, Feedback Genius deserves its place as the industry’s standard. Although other competitors have come, Feedback Genius is still top for a few reasons:

• Its user interface is so nice and easy
• Pricing is not extravagant
• They know their business
• They’ve got the handiest features

If you’re interested in trying Feedback Genius, click here for their free trial.

While you’re at it, give our Feedback Genius hacks a go, and let us know how you get on below!