You used to get reviews just by sending a follow-up email. Not anymore. Inboxes are flooded, customers are fatigued, and generic review requests blend into noise.
What worked 10 years ago no longer cuts it. To get reviews in a crowded space, you must be smarter with timing, channel choice, incentive use, and always respect your customer’s time.
This article is grounded in our Best Practice: How to Collect Feedback principles. It shows you how to update your approach so your review requests feel relevant, not intrusive.
Over recent years, the customer review ecosystem has shifted dramatically. A few notable trends:
Reviews are more than a campaign you can set and forget. You need to consider what and when to ask, add personalisation (but not too much), and navigate a new regulatory landscape, while continuing to market to your customers.
Every customer interaction matters. A smooth delivery, a helpful support chat, a product that exceeds expectations. But those positive moments fade fast if you don’t capture them. Collecting feedback turns fleeting satisfaction into lasting business value.
Here’s why reviews matter more than ever:
If you want a broader take on how feedback fits into business strategy, check out our guide on Customer Feedback: How to Use It to Better Your Business.
Here’s a step-by-step playbook, rooted in our best practices, you can follow (or adapt) to turn happy customers into reviewers.
Don’t just ask for reviews for the sake of it. Define clearly why you're collecting feedback—e.g. to reassure future buyers, identify friction, improve your service.
Every question should lead to insight.
Avoid the “one day after” rule as a default. Our guide recommends timing based on the type of interaction:
And if your customer journey has multiple touchpoints (e.g. onboarding, support, renewal), map feedback requests to those rather than clustering at one point.
Surveys that ask too much get abandoned. We recommend keeping feedback forms concise, ideally less than five questions.
Use only what you need, and reserve deeper follow-ups for highly engaged respondents.
Email alone probably won’t suffice any more. We recommend trying an omni-channel approach with additional methods such as:
This reduces reliance on a single channel and reaches customers in their preferred mediums.
Your subject line is your one shot at getting noticed. Use personalisation (name, product), clarity, and relevance. Avoid vague or ‘gimmicky’ phrasing.
Our guide includes A/B test recommendations for subject lines.
Incentives can work. And they are allowed on product reviews, but must be clearly disclosed and should reward participation, not positive sentiment.
You can offer a modest reward (discount code, loyalty bonus, small gift) but with these rules:
Reward effort, not praise. This feedback must always be appropriately labelled as incentivised, or you will fall foul of the new DMCC Act designed to combat fake reviews. Read Feefo's guidance on labelling incentivised reviews.
Don’t just say “Thanks.” Use the post-feedback moment to:
Thank you pages are often overlooked, but play an important part in the feedback journey. They act both as an end to the feedback process and a launchpad for another customer experience.
Our blog, How to Get Your Customers to Share Their Feedback, offers ideas for creating a good value exchange, and shows what motivates customers to leave feedback.
One standout example is Not On The High Street (NOTHS); a UK marketplace for unique gifts.
They partnered with Feefo to use our new In Mail feature, which allows customers to leave a review directly inside the email, no redirection required.
Here’s how it went:
According to Lorin Minxhozi, Lead Product Manager at NOTHS: “We were so excited to remove the friction of leaving a review … it did not disappoint!”
This shows how removing small hurdles like, letting people respond right from their inbox, can drive significant lifts in engagement.
To see more stories like this, visit our Customer Stories page.
To know whether your review strategy is working, keep an eye on:
Do run experiments — e.g. asking at 3 days vs 7 days, subject line variations, or link vs button — since small tweaks often yield big gains. Separating product and service reviews can also be a good way to increase volume and quality of responses.
According to our Consumers Trends Report, shoppers don’t always trust what they see online – 72% of them worry about fake feedback. Invite-only reviews, which are guaranteed to come from your genuine customers, are a great way to support prospects as they decide whether to buy from you.
With our Feedback Request Manager, you can step into the shoes of your customers and schedule review requests that align with their convenience. The invite-only approach guarantees heightened engagement and will instil a stronger trust in your brand.