A review request sequence consists of a set of things that are going to happen after a customer makes a purchase attempting to nudge them towards writing a review.
The most widely used channel to request reviews is email. So that’s our focus today, though we’ll briefly go over SMS review requests and printed QR code requests.
By default, review requests have a conversion rate of about 4% —that means that about 4% of customers who got the email did write a review. But if you follow this guide, you can boost this number up to about 10% or maybe even higher.
Read through our step-by-step guide, or watch our video tutorial below to quickly get started and build a Review Request Sequence on Shopify.
Before we go setting up the review request sequence, there’s some prep work we need to get done.
1. Configure DNS Records
DNS records are a way to identify the origin or who is the sender of an email. You want to set your DNS records to show the email as coming from your store, rather than coming from Opinew. This helps your review requests reach your customers’ inbox, as otherwise there’s a high chance they’ll get filtered and end up in the spam or promotions folder.
To set up your DNS records head over to Account, General. That’s the menu on the lower-left corner of the screen.
Scroll down to SPF Widget settings. A little further down it reads “Your domain from which opinew emails are sent”
Now enter your domain on the textbox below and click save.
Once you’ve clicked save, on the section just below the textbox, you’ll get those records generated.
You need to head over to your DNS settings and put those records in. You can hire a freelancer or an agency to help you with this or you can try to do it yourself. We have a few guides on how to do this yourself with Namecheap, Godaddy, and a few other popular providers.
2. Schedule Sending Requests
Now we’re actually setting up the review request sequence. The first thing you need to think about is scheduling when your review requests will be sent.
The trigger is order fulfillment. You need to calculate how long it takes from the moment you fulfill the order to the moment it gets delivered to your customer and add a few days so that the email will be sent two to three days after your customers get their order delivered.
Keep in mind that delivery times can vary, so take this into account when deciding how many days we should wait before sending the review request email.
To configure this click on “Collect Reviews” on the main menu on the right. Then click on Review Request Sequence to open the review request sequence menu.
Right under “STEP 1 ORDER IS PLACED” you’ll find “Email Timing settings”
Click on “Configure” and enter the number of days we should wait before sending the email. Remember, the count starts on order fulfillment. Estimate how long it takes for your product to reach your customers and adjust the number of days accordingly.
2.1 Aftership Integration
Alternatively, you can use our AfterShip integration to make sure your review requests are always sent after your customers’ orders are delivered.
Aftership tracks your product and turns delivery into the trigger for the review request to be sent. So you don’t have to worry about shipping times, you simply set up review requests to be sent two or three days after delivery (it’s customary to wait two to three days).
3. Create / Offer A Coupon
Right under “STEP 2 – REQUEST FOR REVIEW” you’ll find the option to “SET COUPON”
Offering a coupon in exchange for reviews on average doubles your likelihood of getting reviews. So it’s a great way to make your review requests more effective. And it doesn’t even have to be very high, anywhere between 5% and 15% have proven to work. So that’s what we recommend.
Click on “CREATE COUPON” and select the percentage you want to offer.
And now click “Create”.
Your coupon will be featured automatically on your review requests as long as you’ve got coupons available, you don’t need to worry about that. We’ll explain more about that when we talk about conditional merge tags.
4. Customize Your Review Request Email
Customizing your review request email helps you make sure that the message is consistent with your brand’s tone and personality.
It also makes your review requests more effective. Our template isn’t designed to be delivered without going through some degree of customization. It’s a generic message that you need to make your own.
But in customizing it, there are a few things that you need to understand.
4.1 Merge Tags (curly braces or brackets)
Personalizing review requests depends largely on merge tags which is the text you see in between the curly braces or brackets {like_this}
That will be replaced by the information described in between those curly braces. For example, {customer_name} will be replaced by the customer’s name.
So take a look at the merge tags available when you’re customizing your review request email and use them as best you can to personalize your review requests.
4.2 Conditional Merge Tags (double brackets)
Conditional merge tags will only show up if a condition is met. You can identify those with double brackets. For example, [[Get a {coupon_value} coupon for writing your review.]]
The condition that needs to be met is that all merge tags inside have a value. That means that if you’ve got no more coupons available, that won’t show up on your review request. But if you do, it would show up like this:
“Get a 10% coupon for writing your review.”
Assuming of course that the value of your coupon is 10%
4.3 Subject Line & Preview Text
Make your subject line and preview text personal by including merge tags and conditional merge tags in them.
For example, you can use the {customer_name} merge tag on the subject line to personalize the email and use the conditional merge tag on the preview text to let your customers know you’re offering them a coupon in exchange for their review.
Something like this:
Subject line – Hi {customer_name}, can you write a review?
Preview text – [[We’re offering a {coupon_value} coupon for writing a review]]
That will result in a subject line and preview text that looks like this:
Hi David, can you write a review? – We’re offering a 10% coupon for writing a review
This way you let your customers know you’re offering them a coupon even before they open your email.
5. SMS Requests
SMS have a higher open rate than email. So sending review requests via SMS is a great idea if you want to get more reviews for your store.
Click on “Configure” and simply edit the SMS text using merge tags and conditional merge tags just as in the email.
Remember to set the max amount to spend on SMS review requests per month.
6. Printed QR Code Requests
Our integration with order printer apps lets you put a QR code on the packaging slip. That QR code is a review request.
7. Reminder
A review reminder is another review request that will be sent to customers who haven’t left a review x number of days after receiving their first review request.
Set the number of days you want to wait for this reminder to be sent (3 days is the norm).
8. Customize Your Thank You Page
When a customer writes a review, they’re taken to a thank you page. You should customize it and let your customer know that you appreciate them writing a review.
9. The “Add Pictures Or Video” Nudge
The “Photo Reminder” is an email that gets sent to customers who left a review asking them to include a picture or video with their review.
Offering an added incentive is recommended if you want to get picture and video reviews. For example, we recommend a 20% coupon in exchange for a picture or video review.
This will help you boost your sales as other customers will feel very confident making a purchase from a store that has a genuine picture and video reviews from a verified purchase.
If you have any questions regarding the process of configuring your review requests sequence please contact us on the live support chat. We’re available 7 days a week.