A customer orders a moisturiser on Monday. On Tuesday, before the parcel has even left the warehouse, an email arrives: "How are you enjoying your purchase? Leave us a review!" She hasn't opened it. She hasn't received it. The email goes unread, and so does the reminder that follows. Three weeks later, when she genuinely loves the product and would happily say so, nobody asks.
That is how most review requests fail. Not because customers refuse to review, but because the request arrives at the wrong moment, reads like a sales email and asks for too much effort. The fix starts with one principle: ask at the moment of value, not the moment of payment. And there is a second, equally important one: send the same fair request to every eligible customer. Asking only the happy ones violates Google's review policies and, in the United States, may also raise issues under the wider FTC Act.
This is general guidance for marketers, not legal advice. Review platforms and countries set different rules on requesting and incentivising reviews, and they change. Check each platform's current policy, and take legal advice for your market. Displaying and using reviews is covered in product reviews and ratings, and local businesses should also see local review management.
Why asking matters more than anything else
The biggest barrier to reviews is rarely reluctance. It's that nobody asked, or asked badly. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 83% of consumers who were asked to leave a review went on to write one. The difference between a business with a handful of reviews and one with hundreds is mostly a process difference: a consistent, well-timed, easy request.
Reviews do more work than they used to. They persuade shoppers on product pages, drive local search visibility, and feed the independent evidence that AI assistants draw on when recommending brands, as covered in earning third-party mentions. A steady flow of recent reviews matters more than a large but ageing pile, which makes the request a system to run continuously rather than a campaign to launch once.
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Timing: trigger on value, not on the order
The single most effective change most businesses can make is to stop triggering review requests from the order and start triggering them from delivery, then add a delay that matches how long the product takes to prove itself. It's the same logic as the first-value moment in customer onboarding after the sale.
| Type of purchase | Value arrives | Send the request |
|---|---|---|
| Service or appointment | Immediately | Same day, or within 24 hours |
| Quick-use product | Within days | 3–7 days after delivery |
| Product needing set-up | After first proper use | 1–2 weeks after delivery |
| Results over time | After weeks of use | 3–4 weeks after delivery |
| Software or subscription | At first success | After a clear milestone |
Treat these as starting points and test them against your own response rates. Two timing traps are worth avoiding. Never send a product review request before delivery is confirmed. And avoid colliding with other messages: if a replenishment reminder or promotion is due the same week, sequence them so the review request doesn't get lost, the coordination described in orchestrating SMS and email together.
Wording: a service message, not a marketing email
The best review requests read like a note from a person, not a campaign. Keep them short, specific and easy. A few principles do most of the work:
- Name the product. "How's the lavender night cream working for you?" beats "How was your purchase?", and a product photo helps people remember.
- Lower the effort. Say it takes a minute and that a sentence is enough. Many people assume a review has to be long and polished.
- Ask for honesty, not stars. "Tell other customers what you honestly think" is both more trustworthy and more compliant than asking for five stars.
- One clear button. Link straight to the review form, pre-filled with the product where possible. Every extra click loses people.
- Offer help alongside, not instead. Add a line such as "If anything isn't right, reply and we'll sort it", while still giving everyone the review link.
A simple example: "Hi Priya, your lavender night cream arrived about three weeks ago. How's it working for you? A sentence or two about your honest experience would really help other customers decide. [Leave a review]. And if anything isn't right, just reply to this email and we'll help." Customers who share photos or videos in reviews add even more value, handled with the permissions covered in getting customer content and the rights to use it.
The principle Ask at the moment of value, not the moment of payment, and send the same fair request to every customer. A request that arrives before the product does, or only reaches the happy customers, fails on results and on the rules.
The fair-ask rule: no gating, no conditional rewards
Review gating means deciding who gets a public review request based on what you expect them to say. The classic version asks "How was your experience?" and sends only the happy customers to Google, while unhappy ones get a private feedback form. It's tempting, and Google prohibits it. Google's Maps review policy says businesses must not discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones, and breaking them can lead to removed reviews or restrictions on a Business Profile, the listing covered in Google Business Profile optimisation.
In the United States, the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, effective since October 21, 2024, prohibits fake reviews, certain review-suppression practices, and incentives conditioned on a review expressing a positive or negative sentiment. FTC guidance also warns that selectively soliciting positive reviews may violate the wider FTC Act, even though the Reviews Rule does not expressly prohibit that practice. Google separately prohibits anything of value offered in exchange for a Google review, whatever its sentiment. Where another platform permits incentives, disclose any material connection clearly and check its own rules, the same principles behind FTC disclosure rules.
The practical rule is simple: use one neutral eligibility rule for everyone. Reasonable exclusions are things like cancelled orders, internal or test orders, and customers who have opted out of messages. What you must not do is filter by expected sentiment. Negative reviews handled well, with a prompt, helpful reply, often build more trust than a wall of perfect scores.
Follow-up: once, differently, then stop
One reminder usually earns its place, because many people meant to reply and simply forgot. More than one tends to irritate more people than it persuades.
A shop fulfils 2,000 orders a month. After excluding cancellations and opted-out customers, 1,800 receive a request.
→ First request, 5% leave a review: 90 reviews
→ One reminder 5–7 days later brings another 2.5%: 45 more
→ Total: 135 reviews a month, 50% more than without the reminder
A second and third reminder typically add far less while raising unsubscribes and complaints.
Response rates vary widely by category, channel and brand, so measure your own first request and reminder separately before deciding.
Make the reminder different from the original: shorter, perhaps just "A quick sentence is all it takes", or on a different channel such as SMS if the customer has agreed to receive texts, using the practices in SMS marketing automation. Stop the sequence the moment someone reviews.
Close the loop
A review request isn't finished when the review arrives. Reply to reviews, especially critical ones, promptly and helpfully. Fix the problems reviews reveal. Show recent reviews on product pages, using the principles in product page optimisation. And notice who leaves glowing reviews: they are natural candidates for a referral programme, invited at a separate, well-judged moment rather than bundled into the same email.
Measure the programme as a system: request volume, response rate by timing and channel, rating distribution, and how many reviews are less than 90 days old. Segment by product and customer type to see where timing needs adjusting, using the approach in email segmentation. Brands that want the whole post-purchase sequence built and tested often work with a specialist email marketing automation team.
The short version
Most review requests fail because they arrive too early, read like marketing and ask for too much effort, not because customers refuse. BrightLocal's 2026 research found 83% of consumers who were asked went on to write a review. Ask at the moment of value, not the moment of payment: trigger requests from delivery or completion, then wait until the product has had time to prove itself, from the same day for services to three or four weeks for products whose results build over time. Word the request as a short service message that names the product, says a sentence is enough, asks for an honest opinion and offers help alongside the review link. Send the same fair request to every eligible customer. Google prohibits review gating and incentives for Google reviews. The FTC Rule prohibits certain review-suppression practices and sentiment-conditioned incentives, while selectively soliciting positive reviews may also raise issues under the wider FTC Act. Follow up once, differently, then stop. Reply to reviews, fix what they reveal, display recent ones and measure the programme continuously.
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Explore Email Marketing Automation →Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to ask a customer for a review?
Ask when the customer has had a chance to experience what they bought, not when they paid for it. For services such as a repair, appointment or delivery of a one-off job, that is usually the same day or within a day, while the experience is fresh. For physical products, the request should be triggered by delivery rather than by the order, and timed to how long the product takes to show its value: a few days for items used straight away, one to two weeks for things that need setting up or getting used to, and several weeks for products whose benefits build over time, such as skincare or supplements. For software or subscriptions, the best moment follows a clear success, such as completing a first project, rather than the day someone signs up. A request sent before the product has even arrived is the most common and most avoidable mistake.
What is review gating, and is it allowed?
Review gating means deciding who receives a public review request based on what you expect them to say. A typical example is asking customers how their experience was, then sending only the happy ones a link to leave a public review while sending unhappy ones to a private feedback form. Google's policies prohibit discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews and selectively soliciting positive ones, and businesses that break these rules risk having reviews removed or their Business Profile restricted. In the United States, the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, prohibits certain review-suppression practices and incentives conditioned on positive or negative sentiment. It doesn't expressly ban selectively soliciting positive reviews, but FTC guidance says the practice could violate the wider FTC Act. The safe approach is to send the same neutral review request to every eligible customer, and to offer help with problems without making the review request depend on the answer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can you offer an incentive for leaving a review?
It depends on where the review will appear, and the safest answer for most businesses is no. Google prohibits offering anything of value in exchange for reviews on Google, whether the review is positive, negative or neutral, including discounts, free products, loyalty points and contest entries. Many marketplaces have similar or stricter rules and run their own approved review programmes. For reviews on your own website in the United States, the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule bans incentives conditioned on a review being positive or negative. Incentives for honest reviews aren't automatically prohibited by that rule, but failing to disclose them could violate the FTC Act, as the FTC's Endorsement Guides explain. Because the rules differ by platform and country, and incentivised reviews can undermine trust even when permitted, most brands get better long-term results from well-timed, easy, genuine requests than from rewards. Check each platform's current policy and take legal advice if you plan to offer anything in return for reviews.
How many times should you follow up on a review request?
Usually once. A single, polite reminder sent around five to seven days after the first request often produces a meaningful share of extra reviews, because many customers intended to respond and simply forgot. Beyond that, extra reminders tend to annoy more people than they persuade, and they can hurt email engagement and unsubscribe rates. Stop the sequence as soon as a customer leaves a review, and never send reminders to people who have opted out of messages. Make the reminder different from the first request rather than repeating it word for word, for example by making it even shorter, mentioning that a single sentence is enough, or switching to a different channel such as SMS if the customer has agreed to receive texts. Track the response rate to the first request and the reminder separately, so you can see what each is really adding.
