How to get more customer reviews

Why don't happy customers leave reviews?

Your customers liked the order. They told you so in an email, or they came back and bought again. Your product page still says “No reviews yet”. Nothing is wrong with them. A review is a favour that takes a few minutes, and nobody asked for it. A widget on the page is an open door, and people do not walk through open doors on their own.

We can see this in our own product. On 3 November 2026 we counted the review sites that accounts outside our team have set up on Formgong:

Six sites with the reviews widget switched on, no request sent from any of them, one review in total. These are new sites, so the number will move, but it matches what every review app's guide we read says, that reviews come from asking. Our own test sites have sent more requests than that, but every one of them went to us, so we will not pretend they tell you a response rate.

When should you ask for a review?

Ask after the customer has had time to use what they bought, not when the order is placed. A review written before the parcel arrives is about shipping, and a request that comes a month later reads as spam. Yotpo's guide to collecting reviews, which we read on 3 November 2026, suggests starting the clock from the carrier's “Delivered” status and adding a wait that suits the product.

For most shops a week after delivery is a sensible start, which is why Formgong's order emails wait 7 days by default. A mug can be judged in a day, a mattress needs a month. For a service, ask a few days after the job is done, while the customer still remembers your name. Our article on when to send a review request email goes through the timing by type of business.

What should the request say?

Say what they bought and that one minute is enough. Name the product, too. Judge.me's guide to better reviews, updated on 6 October 2026, says its own analysis found subject lines with the product name do better than a generic “How was your order?”. Leave any discount out of the subject line, where Judge.me notes it trips spam filters.

Ask for an honest review, not a good one. Google's policy for reviews forbids asking only happy customers, and a request that steers people to five stars makes the stars mean less to the next shopper. If you want wording to start from, our review request email templates include the two texts Formgong sends by default.

How do you make leaving a review take a minute?

Every extra step loses people. The link in your email should open the review form with the product already chosen, not your home page. If your review emails can carry the stars inside the message, the customer can rate before they even click. Formgong's order emails let Gmail users rate inside the message, and everyone else gets one button to the review page.

Ask where the customer already is. A printed card in the parcel or on the counter with a review QR code reaches people who never open marketing email. Trustindex's guide makes the same point about printed handouts being harder to ignore than another message. If the reviews you care about are on Google, send people straight to the review box with a Google review link.

Should you send a reminder?

Yes, one. Many people open the first email, mean to come back and forget. A single reminder a few days later catches some of them; a third and a fourth start to cost you goodwill and unsubscribes. Formgong sends one reminder five days after the first email, and only for the products the customer has not reviewed yet, so nobody is asked twice about something they already rated.

Is it OK to offer a discount for a review?

It can be, if the reward goes to every review whatever its rating, and the review says it was rewarded. The FTC's rule on reviews and testimonials has been in force since 21 October 2024, and Judge.me's guide reminds US sellers that the FTC wants incentivised reviews labelled. A coupon for any honest review is a thank-you; a coupon for five stars is a purchase.

Our article on offering a discount for a review covers the rules in more detail. When a Formgong review came with a store coupon, the widget prints “Received a store coupon for reviewing” under it, so you do not have to remember to add the label yourself.

How do you get reviews when you have no online checkout?

Most advice about review requests starts from an order. The guides from Judge.me, Yotpo and Loox that we read on 3 November 2026 all send the request after a purchase or a delivery. A plumber, a dentist or a consultant has no order for an app to watch, so the request never goes out unless someone remembers to send it by hand.

Formgong can start from your contact form instead. Switch on “Ask customers for a review” in the form's settings and everyone who sent you a message gets one request 3, 7 or 14 days later, with a link to your review page. Each address is asked at most once in 90 days, there is no reminder, and it works on the Free plan. For a single customer after a job, the “Ask for a review” button on a message does the same by hand. For shops, the review emails docs explain the emails Formgong sends after each order.

What happens on your site when a review comes in?

On our demo shop, Glyna, one ceramic bowl has a review that came in through an order email on 30 October, from one of our own test orders. Its product page now shows “5.0 / 5 · approved reviews: 1” with a “Verified buyer” mark, and its card in the shop list shows five stars and “(1)”. The other three products show no stars at all, and the mug's page shows only a “Write a review” button. Nothing pretends there are reviews before there are.

First reviews should look like that, few and real, each with its date. Reply to them, including the critical ones, because the next shopper reads your replies too. Our guide to responding to negative reviews has wording you can adapt.

What has worked for your reviews?

If a way of asking has worked for you, or one of these steps did nothing in your shop, tell us at support@formgong.com. We are counting our own results as they come in and will add yours, with your permission.