June 1, 2023

How to Communicate Effectively Using Amazon Message Center

Amazon Message Center is a highly efficient way of communicating with your customers. Learn how to use it to increase your sales and win new customers.
How to Communicate Effectively Using Amazon Message Center
Shawn Khorrami
How to Communicate Effectively Using Amazon Message Center

How to Communicate Effectively Using Amazon Message Center

To sell on Amazon successfully, it is important to understand how to leverage various tools to build customer relationships, increase company sales and grow revenue with Amazon

When it comes to customer relationships, communication between seller and buyer is crucial to building a good customer shopping experience and loyalty which in turn leads to repeat purchases, positive reviews, and higher product ranking. 

As an Amazon seller, to effectively offer customer support, address product questions and attend to refunds, you need to make use of the Amazon Message Center. 

In this article, we will be exploring:

  • What the Amazon Message Center is
  • How to activate the buyer-seller messaging
  • How to check Amazon messages 
  • Amazon’s communication guidelines 
  • Tips for using the Amazon Message Center effectively  

Key Takeaways: 

  • Amazon Message Center allows buyers and sellers to communicate effectively while respecting each other's privacy 
  • Sellers need to be aware of Amazon's communication guidelines when using the Message Center 
  • Leverage the Message Center to build customer relationships, respond to customer complaints, and provide the best customer experience

What is the Amazon Message Center? 

The Amazon Message Center or Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service is a tool that helps facilitate communication between buyers and sellers. It allows them to discuss issues regarding the products, give feedback and offer suggestions. 

For the buyer, this tool allows them to drop feedback, ask questions on the usage of the product, or ask any questions about the purchase. 

For sellers, Amazon Message Center allows them to resolve customer complaints, answer questions and build effective customer relationships. 

What’s more, communication between buyer and seller happens via encrypted business email addresses. In other words, buyers and sellers can communicate while respecting each other’s privacy. 

How to activate the Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service  

To start using the Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging service, you need to enable it on your Amazon seller account. 

Here’s how to activate the Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service: 

  • Go to Settings and click on Notification Preferences 
  • Next, select Edit in the Messaging section
  • Next, click on the Buyer Messages box and enter the email address you want your buyers to contact you on. 
  • Click on Save

How to check Amazon messages 

Checking messages on the Amazon Message Center depends on if you are a buyer or you’re selling on Amazon. 

For Amazon sellers 

  • Log into your Amazon Seller Account and open your dashboard
  • Go to the Orders button and click on Manage Orders
  • A list of your current orders will pop up. Simply click on the specific order to contact the buyer 
  • You can then click on the Buyer’s name in the “Contact Buyer” section. 
  • Send a message to the selected buyer through your Amazon Seller account using the registered email address. 

For Amazon buyers 

  • Go to your Amazon account and click on ‘Your Account’ from the drop-down menu. 
  • Next, click on ‘Message Center’ from the ‘Emails, messages and ads’ section. 
  • You can then view all messages and send messages to sellers about orders, shipping, payments, etc. 

Messages you can send as an Amazon seller

Sellers are only allowed to send messages that fall in these two categories: ‘Proactive Permitted Messages’ and ‘Necessary Permitted Messages’

  • Proactive Permitted Messages: These types of messages are initiated by the seller and do not respond to any buyer inquiry. For example, sellers may want to send an invoice, request seller feedback, or request additional information to complete an order. 
  • Necessary Permitted Messages: These types of messages are necessary for order completion. It could be return-related issues or problems with an order.  

Amazon's communication guidelines 

As with many other services on Amazon, Amazon has strict communication guidelines on the type of message or language you can use. 

Here are the types of messages you should avoid: 

  • Avoid sending promotional or marketing messages 
  • Avoid sending messages that only contain “Thank you” information
  • Avoid sending shipping confirmation messages 
  • Messages that offer assistance if the buyer needs any in the future
  • Messages requesting positive reviews or seller feedback
  • Messages requesting buyers to update or remove a product review 

Amazon permitted messages shouldn’t include: 

  • Phone numbers or email addresses 
  • External links unless important for the completion of an order. 
  • Attachments except it’s an invoice, warranty details, or product instructions 
  • Sensitive information like adult content or offensive language 
  • Logos that redirect a buyer to an external website 
  • Images not connected to your brand
  • Pixels or tracking images 

These rules are there to ensure customers aren’t being sent multiple messages that may be unnecessary. As an Amazon seller, it is important to stay up to date with rules and messaging guidelines to ensure you comply with them. If you don’t comply with the guidelines, Amazon could restrict your messaging or may even suspend your Amazon Seller account. 

Tips for using the Amazon message center effectively 

To take advantage of the Amazon Message Center, you need to understand how to make use of this tool to improve customer experience and build long-term relationships. Here are a few tips to help you use the Amazon Message Center effectively

Handle customer complaints proficiently 

No matter how awesome your product is or how perfect you are with customer delivery, you will most likely encounter several dissatisfied customers. It could be that your product didn’t meet their expectations or perhaps there are shipping issues that require your attention. It is important to master the art of handling complaints proficiently. Like any skill, you need to put in the time, effort, and practice to become good at it. 

Handling a complaint successfully could turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal customer. On the other hand, poor customer service could be detrimental to your business.

So how do you handle customer complaints proficiently? 

First, stay calm and acknowledge the problem. Seek to understand the problem as much as possible and get as much information as you can. Finally, attempt to solve the problem

Respond to messages early 

One way to build effective customer relationships using Amazon Message Center is to respond to customer messages promptly. Customers want to feel valued and heard. Responding to their messages promptly builds trust and tells them that customer satisfaction is indeed a priority for your business. 

Ensure all customer complaints or requests are attended to promptly and efficiently. While you may not be able to respond as quickly to every single message, ensure you do so as soon as you can. 

Sort using message filters 

Messages are filtered into different sections. This makes it easy for sellers to sort messages and assign them to the appropriate team members if they are working as a team. On the other hand, if a seller is working individually, they can easily sort the messages and attend to them based on priority. 

Keep emails minimal 

While Amazon Messaging Center allows you to communicate with customers and build trust, you don't want to bombard customers with emails. Be strategic with the kind of emails you send and use them as a tool to establish customer relationships. 

Can Amazon read buyer-seller messages? 

The Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service was created for effective communication between buyers and sellers. These messages follow guidelines that are aimed at ensuring privacy is respected. To ensure this standard is maintained, and settle any disputes that may arise, Amazon reads messages between buyers and sellers. 

To avoid any penalties, it is important to be accustomed to all the rules and guidelines involved in using the Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service 

Wrapping up 

With the Amazon Message Center feature, you can send and receive messages, respond to customer requests and complaints, build customer relationships, improve your services and provide the best customer experience. 

FAQs 

Can sellers contact buyers directly? 

Yes, sellers can contact buyers on Amazon via the seller account. This can be achieved through the following steps:

  1. Search for the particular transaction whose buyer you want to contact on the Manage Orders page.
  2. Choose the particular buyer you want to contact and click the customer name within the Order Details.
  3. On the Contact Customer form, select your subject line from the drop-down menu.
  4. Type your message into the Message text box. Note that messages to buyers only use plain text; any messages containing hyperlinks or other HTML code will be blocked.
  5. Send your message by clicking the Submit button.
  6. Repeat the process for each feedback request you'd like to send.

Can you block a seller from messaging you on Amazon? 

Yes, buyers can choose not to receive unsolicited messages from all sellers on Amazon. But, if a buyer contacts a seller, they cannot choose not to receive replies from that seller. 

In order to improve communication between buyers and sellers, Amazon added a new opt-out capability to its buyer-seller messaging system in March 2017. When a customer "opts out of unsolicited messages," Amazon will block messages to that buyer.

Buyers also can’t opt out of messages pertaining to Handmade, Wine, or Custom orders.

What happens if a seller email buyers who have opted out?

Currently, there is no penalty for sellers who get in touch with customers who have chosen not to receive unsolicited messages. They will only get a bounce-back email from Amazon since the communication channel has been blocked.

It is important to note that as long as the seller responds to the buyer within the same message thread, this opt-out does not apply. If a reply is rejected, the seller should consider replying to the buyer in the thread in which their initial message was posted rather than starting a new thread. They should also make sure to include their original message in your reply.

Can you delete Amazon chat history?

Yes, you can delete your Amazon chat history. You can do this with the following five steps;

Step 1: Open the Amazon app: First, look for the Amazon icon on your mobile device.

However, if you Can’t seem to locate the icon of Amazon then you’ll need to download it from the Google Play Store app. Go to the Google Play Store. Search “Amazon” and click on the download button to install the app.

Furthermore, If you don’t wish to download it then you can simply go to your browser and in the search bar type “amazon”. The web page will open in from of your screen.

Step 2: Tap on the 3 dot button: We will click on the app to open it. Login user Id using Amazon’s logging details. You can either log in by using your Mobile number or by registered mail.

If in case you do not remember the password, try logging in by generating OTP or click on forget the password to set a new password.

Next, after logging in, at the bottom, as you can see in this picture, different options are available. To your right-hand side, you can see there are three lines or dots present.

Tap on the “3 dot button” to open the menu.

Step 3: Tap on "Customer Services" in Amazon: You’ll be able to see different options. Now we need to delete our amazon messages so we will move forward. Here, below the settings option, you can see the “Customer Service” tab. Select the “customer service” option.

Step 4: Tap on "Chat with us" in Amazon: Moving on, click on the “Chat with us” option to proceed further. Here you can test your query.

Step 5: Tell Amazon to delete it: You can simply text them “Please delete my amazon chat history or Please delete my messages.” Now, it’s just a matter of time. This is how we can delete messages from Amazon’s history.

Does Amazon have 24-hour customer service?

Yes, Amazon offers 24-hour customer service.

How do you send pictures through the Amazon message center?

From the Automated Messages tab under Communications in your left navigation, select the message for which you want to upload your attachment. Under the Message Body editor, you will see an Attachment section. To add an Attachment simply click on the + Add Attachment button or drag and drop your attachment. 

How many messages can I send?

The maximum number of messages you can send per day depends on your daily order volume. To be specific, the value is computed using the following formula (Daily Order Volume * 5) + 600. For example, if you make an average of 100 sales per day, you’ll be able to send a maximum of 1,100 messages, computed as (100 *5) + 600).

What are the approved file types?

Amazon currently supports these file types: 

  • .txt
  • .pdf 
  • .doc 
  • .docx
  • .tiff
  • .bmp
  • .png. 

The Communications Center does not support .jpg as an attachment type, however, you can include a .jpg image in your message content by using the "landscape" icon to the left of the attachment icon.

How can I add multiple attachments?

  • Follow these steps to add more than one attachment:
  • Create the message and add the first attachment
  • Save the template and close
  • Return to the same template and add the 2nd attachment
  • For any additional attachments, repeat the above steps.
  • Once finished, click Continue and then Done to close and save the message

What is the recommended attachment file size?

Attachments up to 6MB in size can be sent. However, we advise limiting attachment file sizes to 1–5 MB. This recommendation has been made to avoid issues with Seller Central rejecting messages from sending due to the attachment’s file size.

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