Customer Service Rating – Frequently asked questions

What is Customer Service Rating?

Your Customer Service Rating represents average buyer satisfaction with your responses to their enquiries. We gather customer feedback on your responses through a survey asking "Did this solve your problem?".

Your Customer Service Rating is updated each week that customer feedback is gathered and is calculated over a running 4-week period. For example, your Customer Service Rating the week of Jan 1, 2019 is calculated from feedback from December 1-31, 2018).

When do buyers receive the “Did this solve your problem?” survey?

Whenever sellers reply to a buyer message that they received, the "Did this solve your problem?" survey will be included at the bottom of their response message to the buyer. This survey is not included on messages sent from sellers to proactively contact the buyer without having received a message from the buyer first.

What happens if I resolve a buyer's problem after they have submitted negative feedback in the survey?

Your rating reflects whether a buyer was satisfied with an entire conversation. For longer conversations where the buyer provides feedback on multiple messages, your Customer Service Rating will only consider the most recent feedback from the buyer.

This means that if the buyer provides positive feedback at the end of a conversation in the “Did this solve your problem survey”, your Customer Service Rating will only be positively affected. If the last feedback provided in a conversation by the customer through the “Did this solve your problem?” survey is negative, your rating will be negatively affected.

Why did my rating not update this week?

Your Customer Service Rating is calculated each week. Some weeks, sellers may not receive the required 40 buyer responses to the “Did this solve your problem?” survey in the last 4 weeks. In these instances where a seller has not received enough responses, they will be shown their rating from the most recent calculation that had enough responses.

Each week, your rating will be re-evaluated for updating based on the number of survey responses.

Why do I not see my rating?

Only sellers who have received 40 responses from buyers within the last 4 weeks on "Did this solve your problem?" feedback survey listed on all Seller responses emails will see a Customer Service Rating to ensure that the calculated rating is meaningful.

Each week, we will re-evaluate whether you have received enough responses to calculate your rating.

Why does this rating matter?

Buyer satisfaction is critical for business growth and is directly correlated to a high seller feedback rating. Your Customer Service Rating represents the quality of your service and an indication on whether Buyers would be likely to purchase from you again.

High Customer Service Ratings are correlated with repeat purchases. Low Customer Service Ratings are correlated with negative seller feedback. Additionally, when responding to the question “Did this solve your problem?”, buyers have the option to provide direct seller feedback that is enforceable.

Does my rating include feedback on my FBA orders?

Yes, your Customer Service Rating includes feedback for all orders regardless of whether they are fulfilled by you directly or through Amazon fulfilment. Despite the logistics being handled by Amazon, feedback on FBA orders are included as customers can get in touch with you directly with non-fulfilment related questions accounting for 71% of customer enquiries. Feedback on both pre-order questions and post-order product and fulfilment questions are included within the rating for all orders.

Is my Customer Service Rating good or bad?

Customer Service Ratings between 0-6 – NEEDS ATTENTION

If your Customer Service Rating is below 6.0, it needs your attention and effort to improve the buyers' experiences. Ratings within this range will be listed in Red.

Customer Service Ratings between 6-8 – NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

If your Customer Service Rating is between 6.0 and 7.9, there is room to improve buyers' experiences. Ratings within this range will be marked in Yellow.

Customer Service Ratings between 8-10 – KEEP IT UP

If your Customer Service Rating is 8.0 or above, keep it up! Ratings within this range will be marked in Green.

Will I be suspended for a low Customer Service Rating?

We will not suspend your selling privileges on Amazon if you have a low Customer Service Rating.

How can I improve my rating?

What to do:

• Shorten the time to respond to and resolve buyer issues.
• Personalise your communication (e.g. name, repeat customer, prior communication).
• Write clear, concise and professional responses to buyer questions.
• Test any included links before sending the message.
• Include tracking information when responding to buyers asking for a delivery update.
• Have buyer-friendly cancellation and return policies.
• Ensure that your delivery and return policies are listed on the product page.
• Acknowledge buyer complaints, apologise and ask what you can do to fix it.
• Be clear in setting your customer's expectations and meet them (e.g. response time, replacements, refunds).

What not to do:

• Deliver without tracking information.
• Ask customers to find information or complete work that you are able to do yourself (e.g. contact the carrier).
• Include vague or empty product descriptions, delivery or return policies in your messages.
• Send automated reply emails to customers.