IT’S USUALLY A PRODUCT PROBLEM

Right now I'm working with a new client to optimize his listing. Like most Sellers, he feels that A+ content with its beautiful imagery, will help him outperform his competition. Sure, he's right in thinking that, because for many Sellers, it works a charm.

But I wasn’t convinced. If we are going to slay the conversion beast, we need to know where it lives. After a little Q&A, my client declared he needed to increase his star rating (He was 3 out 5), if it dropped any further, Amazon would ban his product.

Would A+ Content fix that? Nope. It may even make things worse!

When you have a rating of 3 stars or less, typically one of these three things is going wrong:

1. You are doing everything right and your competitors are trying to bring you down with FAKE REVIEWS

2. Your listing is overselling your product, and people are feeling duped

3. There is a fundamental product issue, and customers are telling you.

So I looked at the listing in question, and it was as clear as day - we have a product issue.

I won’t divulge the product. It's an electronic product, and it comes with an accessory. It is the accessory that is failing. All the negative reviews are all pointing at the accessory, and NOT the actual product itself. It's an unlucky situation, because the accessory is making it appear as though the product is at fault.

The Big Mistake

Now here's the mistake many sellers make. They don’t fix the product issue, but instead try to optimize the listing and traffic even more. But if you do that, you're still going to get bad reviews, but now, you're just going to get more of them, faster. By optimizing the listing, and not the produt, you will escalate the speed at which Amazon pulls you down.

Fix the product issue first, then, fix the traffic and conversion problem (if there is one)

And in the case of this seller, the best course of action is to remove the offending accessory totally and sell the product alone, (a perfectly fine option for this product), and then find a new accessory supplier - one that works!

But My Stock Is Already At The Warehouse, I Can't Do Anything Until I've Sold Out!

That's ok too. There are many ways to solve a 3-Star problem, so long as you know exactly what’s driving it.

PROBLEM: They're Not Using It Right.

My client believes customers aren't using the accessory correctly, which is what is making it fail. There is no proof. But because he can't retrieve his stock, and because making that assumption won't hurt us, it's worth a try! So we can send a follow up email with helpful advice on how to use the accessory correctly. And we’ll offer excellent customer service to help people out. Its best not to ask for a review just yet - we need to ensure the customer uses the accessory correctly first, has a good experience and then we can ask for a review a week later.

Usually I wouldn’t include “how to” instructions in the Product Description, but in response to what we think the problem is, we will! And, of course we can use our A+ content to visually show how to use it. Later on, we could create a new insert to go into our new product shipments to talk about the problem.

PROBLEM: It Works in Some Ways, But Not Others

Let's assume our accessory has both negatives and some positives. We could use some of our listing to inform and educate our customers where they will get the most benefits from the accessory, and what it isn't suitable for. And we will be 100% honest. And, we could do the same thing as above with a follow up email.

PROBLEM: Customer Service

What happens after the complaint is just as important as what the complaint is about. We could send a replacement accessory and we can send it with clear instructions. Or we could get in front of it, and tell the customers the accessory is failing and they can have a partial refund. We could tell our customers where they can find a better accessory. At the very least, we can get a bad review upgraded just by going over and above the call of duty in customer service. To do this, we must be humble and caring.

Fix The Problem. Then Re-Optimize The Listing & Traffic.

After figuring out how to get on top of the product issue, we'll then optimize his listing and his PPC to try and sell out fast! Then, we can fix the product issue properly. Maybe he'll make a small loss, or maybe he'll break even. It doesn’t matter because you need to shift the stock that has a problem to make room for the UPGRADED version!

And fixing a product problem at its core can become a selling benefit in copy "You said you didn't like xyz, well, we listened so now your widget has abc".

So, if your listing isn't generating the 5-star reviews you expect. Take a step back and see if it has a product issue. The most common reason for a constant 3-star average is a) the product has an issue or b) the product description is overselling and misleading. Don’t just start upgrading your listing to A+ content or pushing more traffic to it! Fix the product and you’ll fix the stars!

Don’t have a product issue? Click Here and read this article to see if you have an overselling issue instead,