CR Feedback Instructions

CR Feedback lets you automate Amazon feedback requests when orders are placed, shipped, or delivered. You can also delay your messages to go out 1 to 20 days after one of these events. Plus, you can choose between sending a custom request or simply triggering Amazon’s “Request a Review” button.

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How Do I Sign Up for CR Feedback?

If you don’t have a ChannelReply account, sign up for CR Feedback here.

If you already have ChannelReply, sign in here. Then go to the CR Feedback tab on your dashboard and click “TRY CR FEEDBACK.”

You’ll arrive on a welcome screen. Clicking “Next” will launch your free trial.

How Do I Connect My Amazon Accounts?

If you already have at least one Amazon account connected in ChannelReply, you’re already done! You’ll be brought to the success screen right after starting your free trial. There you can choose between integrating additional accounts or going to the CR Feedback dashboard.

If you have no accounts connected, you’ll be asked to complete a simplified version of our Amazon integration instructions. Simply follow step 2 and step 3 and then you should arrive on the success screen shown above.

If you have ChannelReply, you’ll also be asked to complete step 4 and step 5 when integrating any Amazon account. This is only necessary if you want to use this Amazon account with ChannelReply. If you only want to use the account with CR Feedback, you can ignore the stuff about Amazon Notification Preferences.

How Do I Connect More Amazon Accounts to CR Feedback After Exiting Onboarding?

Simply sign in and go to your CR Feedback dashboard (if you don’t arrive there by default). Then click “Connect new Amazon account.” You may need to scroll down to see this option if you already have several accounts connected.

Afterwards, you’ll be asked to follow the same steps as connecting your first Amazon account.

Is There Any Limit to the Number of Accounts I Can Connect?

Nope! You can connect unlimited Amazon accounts. This includes accounts in multiple countries as well as multiple accounts in the same country.

Worried about breaking Amazon rules by integrating more than one account from one country? Have no fear—many of our customers are large ecommerce agencies supporting dozens of Amazon accounts in the same country. See “Does Amazon Know If You Have Multiple Accounts in ChannelReply?” for more info.

How Do I Set Up My Feedback Requests?

Sign in and go to the CR Feedback dashboard. Then click “FEEDBACK SETTINGS” under any account.

Click “SET AUTOMATED REQUEST.”

This will bring you to your feedback settings, where you’ll first need to choose a feedback request mode.

Choosing Between “Request a Review” or Email Template Mode

“Request a review” mode is selected by default and is the safest and easiest option. It sends Amazon’s default feedback requests—you simply decide when to send them.

As long as you only send one feedback request per order, you should never have any risk of getting in trouble with Amazon. So, just make sure you have no other active feedback requests for this account and you’ll be safe!

There are two downsides to “request a review” mode:

1. Your feedback requests look exactly like every other seller’s. You have no chance to stand out to buyers who normally ignore these requests.
2. Amazon will not allow you to send these requests until 5 to 21 days have passed since the order was placed (usually 7 days). This may cause some requests to go out later than scheduled.

Email template mode lets you create customized and instantly personalized feedback requests. That way, you can use your own unique voice and show the buyer you’re human, not a faceless company. Do this well and you can get far more ratings than you would normally.

Email template mode also has no 5- to 21-day waits. We send the messages as soon as we have the minimum data needed to confirm your settings are triggered.

The downside is that this mode is riskier. You have to abide carefully by Amazon’s Communication Guidelines. They may suspend or even ban you from sending proactive messages if you break the rules. If you don’t want to take risks, it’s best to play it safe with “request a review” mode.

Configuring Standard Settings

The following settings work the same way in both feedback request modes.

Request Title

The request title is simply an internal identifier for this feedback request—customers will not see what you enter here. Enter a name that will help you find this request in the future.

Status

Allows you to set the request to “Active,” “Test” or “Off.”

Setting a request to “Active” will cause it to start sending as soon as possible on any order that meets your requirements. You will not see the message, but your customers will!

“Test” is only available in email template mode. It will cause the feedback requests to go out as scheduled, but they will only be sent to you, not your customers. You will receive your test requests at the email address you have entered in User Information.

Note that it will usually take 1 to 4 hours to receive your first test request after you save your settings.

Choosing “Off” will make sure this feedback request is not sent to anyone.

Schedule

The schedule determines when your automated requests go out. There are two settings: delay and event.

The event options are Purchased, Shipped, and Delivered.

• “Purchased” triggers the request based on when the buyer purchased something from your Amazon account.
• “Shipped” triggers the request whenever an order is marked as “Shipped” on Amazon.
• “Delivered” triggers the request on the order’s estimated latest delivery date.

The delay options allow you to send your message either immediately after the event occurs or 1 to 20 days later.

Currently, all CR Feedback requests are sent out once every hour. This means your message will typically be delivered within one hour after the time chosen in your delay setting.

• Requests set to “Immediately” will generally be delivered within one hour of the event occurring.
• Requests set to “1 day” are usually delivered 24 to 25 hours later.
• Requests set to “2 days” are usually delivered 48 to 49 hours later.

There are a few exceptions to these rules:

When orders are cancelled: We will not deliver feedback requests on any cancelled orders.

When using “Purchased” and no item in the order has shipped yet: We cannot send feedback requests until an order is at least marked as “Partially Shipped.”

When data is missing for the “Delivered” delay setting: Since Amazon does not provide the time when the package was delivered via API, we have to rely on estimations of the delivery date. We use the following system:

1. Normally, Amazon will provide an estimated delivery date for the order. We consider the latest estimated delivery date to be the time when the order was delivered.
2. If Amazon does not provide an estimated delivery date, we will consider 72 hours after the order was actually shipped to be the delivery date.
3. If no actual shipped date is available either, we consider 48 hours after the latest estimated ship date to be the delivery date.
4. If Amazon provides none of the above data, then we consider 7 days after the purchase date to be the delivery date.

When facing “request a review” mode delays: Remember that we often can’t deliver your feedback request until 7 days have passed since the order was placed. Amazon may change this minimum wait period to anything from 5 to 21 days for some orders. If your request schedule would send a message before the wait period ends, we will deliver your request as soon as Amazon allows.

You may also experience delays if you are using “request a review” mode and Amazon requires a minimum wait time before sending the request.

Save Settings

Hit “SAVE SETTINGS” when you’re happy with the options you’ve chosen. This will save all settings and enable your request. The next time an order meets your Schedule conditions, we’ll send your request either to you (if the Status is set to Test in email template mode) or to your customer (if set to Active).

Configuring Email Template Settings

In email template mode, you’ll have the following additional settings:

Subject

Enter the subject line of the email that will go to your customers. Your customers will see this subject line (unlike the request title).

Message Field

You can enter your message here.

When writing your message, be very careful to follow Amazon’s Communication Guidelines.

The following options are available in the top menu:

• Bold, italic, underline.
• Bulleted list (default, circle, disc or square bullets).
• Ordered list (default, lower-/upper-case alphabetical, lower-case Greek, or lower-/upper-case Roman).
• Decrease or increase indent.
• Insert/edit link.

Right-clicking on the message will reveal the following options:

• Insert/edit link.
• Insert/edit image.
• Insert table.
• Table editing options, e.g. cell/row/column settings.

Available Placeholders

Placeholders allow you to automatically customize each request. When the message is sent, each placeholder is replaced with info unique to you, your customer, or your customer’s order.

For example, say you used the Purchase Date placeholder: [[PurchaseDate]]

If the customer placed their order on December 8, 2021 at exactly 9:15 PM GMT, [[PurchaseDate]] would be replaced by December 8, 2021 21:15:00 PM GMT.

You can enter a placeholder by clicking on it in the Available Placeholders sidebar. It will be entered wherever your text cursor is located.

You can also enter placeholders manually. They are not case sensitive, so [[PURCHASEDATE]] or [[purchasedate]] will work just as well as [[PurchaseDate]]. Placeholders work in both the message and the subject line.

Amazon requires you to include the order ID in your message. Be careful to include the Amazon Order ID placeholder [[AmazonOrderID]] at least once in your message.

Here’s a quick explanation of each placeholder, in the format Name: Description. [[Placeholder]]

• Seller Name: The name used for your ChannelReply.com account, as entered in User Information. [[SellerName]]
• Seller Company: The company name used for your ChannelReply.com account, as entered in User Information. [[SellerCompany]]
• Buyer Name: The Amazon buyer’s full name. Note that this field is frequently unavailable on merchant-fulfilled orders. It’s occasionally unavailable on FBA orders as well. For advice on handling missing data, see the section on fallbacks later in this article. [[BuyerName]]
• Amazon Order ID: The Order ID of the order you are contacting the buyer about. [[AmazonOrderID]]
• Order Status: Shows whether the order is Pending Availability, Pending, Unshipped, Partially Shipped, Shipped, Invoice Unconfirmed, or Unfulfillable. Requests are only sent for orders marked Partially Shipped or Shipped. [[OrderStatus]]
• Purchase Date: The date and time when the customer placed their purchase, in the format Month DD, YYYY HH:MM:SS AM/PM GMT. [[PurchaseDate]]
• Order Total: The total amount the customer paid for their order, in the format 30 USD. Does not include any currency symbols like $, so you may wish to add the appropriate symbol in front of this placeholder. [[OrderTotal]]
• Product Title: The title shown on the product’s listing page on Amazon. If the customer has ordered multiple products, all products will be listed, with each product title separated from the next by a comma. [[ProductTitle]]
• Product Price: The item price of the product ordered, not including taxes, shipping etc. If the customer has ordered multiple products, the prices of all products will be listed, with each price separated from the next by a comma. [[ProductPrice]]
• ASIN: The product identification code of the item purchased. If the customer has ordered multiple products, the ASINs of all products will be listed, with each ASIN separated from the next by a comma. [[ASIN]]
• Seller SKU: The SKU you have created for this product. Note that if you have both parent and child SKUs, this will only show the parent SKU. If the customer has ordered multiple products, the SKUs of all products will be listed, with each SKU separated from the next by a comma. [[SellerSKU]]
• Ship Service Level: The shipping option the customer selected, such as “Standard” or “Expedited.” [[ShipServiceLevel]]
• Name: The name listed in the shipping address. This data is not always available. [[Name]]
• Address Line 1: The first line of the shipping address. This data is not always available. [[AddressLine1]]
• Address Line 2: The second line of the shipping address. This data is not always available. [[AddressLine2]]
• Address Line 3: The third line of the shipping address. This data is not always available. [[AddressLine3]]
• Postal Code: The postal code (such as the ZIP code) of the shipping address. [[PostalCode]]
• City: The city listed in the shipping address. [[City]]
• State or Region: The state, province, territory, or other region listed in the shipping address. [[StateOrRegion]]
• Country Code: The country code listed in the shipping address. [[CountryCode]]
• Link To Order Feedback: Links the customer to the page where they can leave you a seller rating. [[LinkToOrderFeedback]]
• Link To Product Review: Links the customer to a page where they can review one of the items they ordered from you. [[LinkToProductReview]]

Fallbacks

You can open your fallback settings by clicking “SET FALLBACKS” (below the message field and schedule settings).

You can then set fallback text for each placeholder.

We are not always able to collect and display sensitive personal data like Buyer Name or Address Line 1/2/3. If data for a placeholder is not available, then normally, a single blank space will appear instead of the placeholder.

This is where fallbacks come in. Fallbacks will appear in place of the placeholder if there is no data for that field.

For example, let’s say your message includes this line:

Your order has arrived at [[AddressLine1]].

Normally, the customer would see something like this:

Your order has arrived at 1 Main Street.

But what if Amazon does not provide the address? If you have no fallbacks, the customer will see this:

Your order has arrived at  .

Not good! But if you’ve set the Address Line 1 fallback to “its destination,” then the customer will see this:

Your order has arrived at its destination.

Much better! So, it’s a good idea to set fallbacks for the placeholders you use in your reply, especially those that we’ve marked as not always having data available.

Fallbacks are unique to each set of feedback request settings. That way, you can have unique fallbacks for each brand, Amazon marketplace, and request scenario.

Amazon Rules

Rules Mainly Important for Email Template Mode

You shouldn’t need to worry about Amazon’s Communication Guidelines if you only use “request a review” mode. But if you use email template mode for any of your requests, knowing them is critical!

It’s always best to review the guidelines directly. However, here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most important points:

1. You are not allowed to send more than one feedback request per order. There’s no risk of this if you only use “request a review” mode. Any time you activate an email template request, though, we recommend disabling all other active requests for that Amazon marketplace.
2. You must include the order ID. Use the Order ID placeholder [[AmazonOrderID]] at least once in your message.
3. The message should be in the buyer's preferred language. CR Feedback does not yet have automatic language detection or translation options for Email Template mode, so make sure you use the most appropriate language for each Amazon marketplace.
4. You must not try to manipulate people into giving you good feedback. This means you cannot offer anything in return for positive feedback. You can’t ask the buyer to leave you a good rating, either, or to rate you only if they’ve had a good experience. You must use entirely neutral wording when asking for feedback.
5. You may not use feedback requests for any form of marketing.
6. You may not include unnecessary links or attachments. (We do not yet support attachments and recommend that you include no links other than the Link to Order Feedback placeholder.)

Amazon sometimes bans users from sending feedback requests and other proactive emails for 30 days if these rules are violated. If you break the rules repeatedly, you may be permanently banned from sending proactive emails. Be careful to follow the rules!

Rules Mainly Important for “Request a Review” Mode

While it’s virtually impossible to get in trouble with Request a Review mode, there are situations where your request may not be delivered. Here are a few important things to remember:

1. As mentioned earlier, Amazon may require a waiting period of 5 to 21 days after the order is purchased before allowing “Request a Review” requests to go through.
2. Amazon may sometimes set a final day to request a review. In our experience, this occurs 30 to 72 days after the purchase. If your settings would delay the request until after this window has closed, we may not be able to send your request.
3. You may only use “Request a Review” once per order. If you have multiple requests set to “request a review” mode for one Amazon marketplace, we’ll only send out the first request for each order.

When Will Feedback Requests Start Going Out?

When you create a new feedback request, we begin scheduling requests for your orders within 1 hour. Requests are only scheduled for orders with the Partially Shipped or Shipped order status. Requests will not be sent for any cancelled order.

Your first feedback request could go out within minutes after you finish setup. But in many cases, there will be a day or two between the time your request is set to “Active” and the time we begin delivering it to your customers.

Some requests may not go out until several weeks after the order was placed. Remember that Amazon sometimes won’t allow “request a review” requests to go out for up to 21 days on some orders.

You’ll know requests are being sent when your request counter starts climbing.

If you think your requests should be going out but aren’t seeing numbers in the request counter, please contact us for help.

Can You Create Multiple Feedback Requests?

Absolutely—at least as far as we are concerned! You can create unlimited feedback requests for each Amazon account. Additional requests can be created the same way as the first.

However, the “request a review” option is only available once per order. If you set more than one “request a review” request, we can only deliver the one that gets scheduled first.

We will send all active email template requests, so be careful! Remember that Amazon only allows one feedback request per order.

If Amazon thinks you are sending too many proactive emails, they may temporarily block all proactive emails from your account. They may even make this block permanent if you have been banned in the past. We therefore recommend only having one active request at a time for each Amazon marketplace when using email template mode.

We hope CR Feedback helps you boost your seller rating and grow your business on Amazon! If you have any questions, requests, or feedback, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help out.