Creating automated WooCommerce review reminders & rewards

You may have heard it said before that product reviews have a huge influence over purchases. Indeed, market research has shown that nearly 90% of buyers say their buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. The majority of customers say that they regard online reviews to be equally trustworthy as a personal recommendation, and for people under 45, an online review is actually preferred over a recommendation from family and friends.

Maximizing the quantity and diversity of your customer reviews also builds your SEO and helps your store get more traffic. If you’re wanting to increase the visibility of your store, having a strategy to boost your customer reviews is a great place to start.

We’d like to show you two ways which you can do this using AutomateWoo, by creating automatic post-purchase review reminders and by giving a discount reward to thank your customers for their review. We will also introduce a few advanced tips which you can use to tailor your review workflows to your store and improve the customer experience.

How to create a review reminder workflow

Automatically reminding your customers to review their purchased products is a quick and easy process with AutomateWoo. Here’s how to setup a workflow in four steps to achieve it.

Step 1 Create a new workflow and select the trigger Order Complete.

Step 2 Select the action Send Email and include the variable {{ customer.email }} as the email address.

Step 3 Create your email content which invites the customer to review the products they have recently purchased. Use the variable {{ order.items }} to display the customer’s last purchases in a format of your choosing. In this example, we have used the template List – Comma Separated.

Step 4 Set the timing to Scheduled and select an appropriate time of the day and week. Be sure to leave a sufficient minimum wait to allow for shipping.

Linking customers directly to the review form

In order to make the review process as easy as possible, you can link customers directly to the review form on a product page. Simply add a HTML anchor link to the url_append field of the {{ order.items }} variable. Any text added to this field is automatically appended to each product URL. For example, if you are using the Storefront theme you would insert #tab-reviews here.

How to give discounts for reviews

Once a customer has left a review, why not thank them with a reward? For example, you could offer them a discount on their next purchase. Here’s how to setup this workflow in five steps.

Step 1 Create a new workflow and select the trigger New Review Posted. Please note this trigger doesn’t fire until the review is approved.

Step 2 Include the rule This Workflow’s Run Count for Customer and specify that it should be less than 1. This ensures each customer can only receive this email (and reward) once.

Step 3 Select the action Send Email and include the variable {{ customer.email }} as the email address.

Step 4 Create a coupon for your review rewards. If you are unsure how to do this in WooCommerce, see our documentation on creating personalized coupons.

Step 5 Create your email content which thanks the customer for taking the time to share their opinion. Invite them to use a unique discount coupon code in your store as a reward. Include the variable {{ customer.generate_coupon }} and select the coupon you created in Step 4.

Reward customers based on their review count

If you’d rather reward customers based on the number of reviews they give, we’ve got you covered. With the rule Customer Review Count, you can segment the workflow based on the number of reviews they leave. This can be used to avoid sending too many discount coupons to customers and make your campaign feel more organic. You may wish to adapt this rule so it only triggers on every third review or after a set amount of reviews.

Add a special thank you for 5 star reviews

For customers which have fallen in love with your brand and aren’t afraid to show it, send a special thank you for their heartfelt reviews. With AutomateWoo, you can segment the workflow based on the customer rating given with each review. With the rule Review Rating, you can invent new workflows that give some of that love back.

Have you used any of these strategies to boost your store’s customer reviews, or do you have some tips of your own? Let us know in the comments!