Review requests email a customer a while after you mark their order Completed, and ask how it went. Whatever they rate, the page they land on offers a button to review the product on your store and a box to write to you privately, so a customer with a problem can tell you directly.
You will learn #
- How to turn on Reviews, which takes two switches
- How to set up the request email and start sending it
- What the customer sees after they tap a star
- How to read and answer private feedback
Before you begin #
- Set up email sending. Review requests go out through the sending method you set up on the Email sending page, and only once sending there is switched to Live. Until then, the requests wait in the queue.
- Mark orders Completed. Tendlio asks about an order only once its status is Completed, and counts the days from then. If your orders stay at Processing, no request goes out.
- Keep reviews open on your products. The customer’s button leads to the product’s review form, and WooCommerce shows that form only when reviews are on: Enable product reviews under WooCommerce → Settings → Products, and Enable reviews on the product’s Advanced tab.
Turn on Reviews #
Reviews is an Experimental feature, so it takes two switches before its page appears:
- Under Settings → General → Experimental & license, switch on Enable experimental features, and click Save settings. The Experimental page then shows in the Tendlio menu.
- Open Tendlio → Experimental, click Reviews to open its panel, switch on Turn Reviews on, and click Save.
Reviews then appears under Customers.
Set up the request #
- Open Tendlio → Customers → Reviews.
- Under Send after, set how many days after the order is completed the email goes. It starts at 10. If the email goes too soon, the product may not have arrived yet, and the rating wouldn’t be fair.
- Under The request email, write the Email subject and Email message. If you leave a field blank, the email uses the text shown in gray. Keep the message neutral: ask how the order went, never for a good review.
- Optionally, click Edit every line (translate the email) to reword the rest of the email, and pick the design, font, logo and colors. Until you turn on Customize colors, the email uses the brand and accent colors you set on the Email sending page. The Live preview on the right follows your changes.
- Optionally, under Review page text, click Edit the review page (translate it) to reword the page the customer lands on, for example to put it in your store’s language.
- Back at the top, under Request reviews, turn on Email a review request after orders complete, then click Save settings at the bottom.
- Make sure customer email sending is Live on the Email sending page. Until it is, the requests wait.
On a staging copy of your store, Tendlio sends no emails to customers.
What the customer sees #
The email greets the customer by first name and shows your message. Under it, Tendlio adds a row of five stars, a Leave a review button and a link to unsubscribe from review requests. If you leave the message blank, it reads: “Your order is on its way, or already with you. We’d love to know how it went. Tap a star to leave a quick rating:”
Tapping a star opens a small page on your own site. The Leave a review button opens the same page, where the customer picks a star first. Whatever they rate, the page then shows the same two things:
- A button to review the product. The page says “Thanks for rating your order. Would you share how it went in a review? It helps other shoppers choose.” and Write your review opens the product’s review form on your store.
- A box to write to you. Under the button, “Want to tell us something directly? Write it here and it comes straight to us.” with a box and a Send message button. After they send it, the page thanks them and still offers Write your review.
Tendlio records the rating only when the customer clicks Write your review or Send message. A customer who taps a star and closes the page leaves no rating.
When the order had several products, Write your review goes to the one with the fewest reviews, and the page names it, so the customer knows which product they’re reviewing. Tendlio only picks products that are published and open for reviews. If none of the order’s products qualifies, the button reads Send my rating and only saves the rating.
Each order gets one request and one message. A customer who sends a second message for the same order sees a line saying you already have one.
Read and answer private feedback #
At the bottom of the Reviews page, Private feedback lists the messages customers sent you from the review page, whatever they rated, with the most recent ratings first. Click Reply to answer from your own email app: the customer sees your address, and the subject names your store. The list shows the 50 most recent messages, and a note says so when there are more.
Who gets a request, and when #
- Tendlio checks your orders once a day, and asks about an order when your Send after days have passed since it was completed.
- Tendlio asks only about orders completed within 30 days after that wait: with a 10-day wait, orders completed 10 to 40 days ago. So when you first switch requests on, older orders don’t get one.
- Tendlio holds off on a customer’s request while another automatic email to them is waiting to go out, and until at least 3 days have passed since the last one went out, cart reminders included. Tendlio tries again each day while the order is inside that 30-day stretch, and after that the order gets no request. You change the 3 days under Minimum gap between automated emails, on the Welcome email tab of Welcome & second order, in Advanced mode.
- Tendlio skips customers who unsubscribed from review requests, and addresses that bounced or complained.
- When you switch sending to Live, Tendlio drops requests that have waited in the queue more than two weeks instead of sending them late.
- When you turn requests off, Tendlio cancels the ones still waiting in the queue.
See how it’s going #
- The cards at the top of the Reviews page count Requests sent, Ratings with their average, and Private feedback, the messages customers wrote, with how many ratings were 1 to 3 stars.
- Once requests go out, Did it work? on the Reviews page shows the average rating, how many requests led to a rating, and how many customers sent you a private message.
- See report, at the top of the page, opens the Recovery & reviews report.
- The Review requests card on the Growth engine page shows how many requests went out, or how many ratings came in.
Why reviews work this way #
Every rating gets the same page #
Every customer is offered the same review button and the same message box, whatever they rated. That keeps the reviews on your products a fair picture of what customers think, and a customer with a problem can still write to you directly.
One product per request #
When an order holds several products, the request points to the one with the fewest reviews. If it always pointed to the first product in the order, the same products would keep collecting reviews while the others stayed at none.
The wait counts from Completed #
The request goes a set number of days after you mark the order Completed, not after the customer placed it. If the days counted from the order, an order that took a week to ship could be asked about before it arrived.
Additional resources #
- How to set up email sending and switch it to Live: the sending method and the switch to Live.
- How sending works: waiting emails, the daily limit and email analytics
- Who you can email (consent, in plain words)
- How to welcome first-time buyers and nudge them to a second order: where you set the gap between automatic emails.
Frequently asked questions #
Why hasn't anyone got a review request? #
Check four things: Reviews is turned on in the Experimental area, Email a review request after orders complete is on, customer email sending is Live, and your orders reach Completed. Tendlio counts the days from Completed.
Can customers write to me privately? #
Yes. Whatever they rate, the page has a box to send you a message, and it shows under Private feedback on the Reviews page. They can still write a review of the product too.