How can eBay sellers use negative feedback to their advantage?

Remember, the purpose of eBay feedback is to help your business do better, and believe it or not, negative feedback is a critical factor in customer trust in your online business.

Here are some tips to help you understand the benefits of negative feedback.

1. Reply to each comment

If someone takes the time to write a negative review, they are likely to make it worse. This is why online sellers should respond to every review, either positively or negatively.

Once you receive a criticism, it doesn’t mean your session with that customer is over. In fact, by making it your mission to respond to every review, you increase your chances of surprising them with your customer service.

Everyone wants to be heard and wants to show that you haven't given up on them. If you prove them wrong, they may come back to post positive reviews or even delete their initial words about your site. The main goal here is to retain unhappy customers and prevent reputational damage.

With xSellco, you can monitor the number of orders you receive versus the amount of feedback your customers request. This gives your customer support team an idea of ​​how much feedback they should be handling.

2. Use it as a marketing strategy

An effective way to make an impact on an unhappy customer is to say sorry. For the greatest impact, this may involve going offline with a personal approach that exceeds their expectations, but this depends on the opportunity.

Review your customers’ message histories: Have they told you anything that might inspire a unique gift idea?

Our interview with FreestyleXtreme provides some great examples of how they used this strategy to turn negative feedback into positive feedback while providing some social media-worthy content.

Instead of just sending an order replacement or refund, try to do something unique that will not only give you the best chance of having your eBay feedback removed, but it can also be a great marketing strategy!

Why not allocate a small amount of marketing budget to your customer service team and have them spend it on anything they think will make an impact with customers who had a bad experience? This small investment could generate some serious ROI through social media.

3. Discover new business opportunities

It’s always best to view criticism as a priceless opportunity for your company to continue to improve.

Instead of having a blank canvas to come up with innovative ideas for your business, you can use existing problems that arise from your customers as a benchmark. Not only is this a helpful way to think about ideas, but addressing the issues highlighted in negative feedback will have the biggest impact on your bottom line.

It’s one thing to respond appropriately to negative feedback and react accordingly, but adjusting your overall customer service strategy is more of a long-term goal. It’s a matter of discovering recurring customer issues and prioritizing them.

With the drive to stay away from negative feedback, improve your online business in every possible way.

4. The worst case scenario is

Finally, have the confidence to give your customers a comprehensive view of your business.

There can't be more than 100 completely positive reviews.

Negative feedback allows potential customers to understand the worst possible scenario, and from that point on, it can only be a positive experience. Removing all negative reviews will make your business appear inauthentic.

Customers are more likely to engage with and trust your site if there is a mix of negative and positive reviews. In fact, your conversion rate will increase by 85% with negative reviews because customers recognize that people have different tastes and expectations.

So here’s a three-part framework to help you build an eBay feedback strategy that gets results!

It may take some time at first, but once you gain success, investing in getting more positive reviews is the most cost-effective way to increase visibility and drive sales on eBay’s crowded marketplace.