Reviews

Get more reviews and answer complaints in a way that wins over the people watching. Counterintuitive parts: an imperfect rating sells more than a perfect one, asking too soon reduces reviews, and the best first question is not "rate us".

When to use

• The review-request email or sequence
• A negative review or a too-perfect average
• Replying to a public complaint
• A product launch that needs a healthy review profile

When not to use

• Referral mechanics → referrals
• Loyalty, returns, packaging → post-purchase

Inputs

Collect, or state your assumption:

• Product and how long it takes to judge (instant: soda; slow: skincare, a course)
• Current ask timing and wording; average rating; reviews the user wants to remove
• Whether reviews get replies; complaint volume, channel, and tone (polite vs rude)

Procedure

1. Ask at 9–13 days after purchase or delivery. A request at 24 hours reduced reviews, worst among younger customers. Earlier only for products judged instantly; later for products that take weeks to evaluate.
2. Lead with a positive open-ended question. Before any rating: "What did you enjoy most about [product]?" (free text). Responders spent 131% more afterward; even receiving the request helps. Usual questions follow. Automate it.
3. Never gate the public review by score. Routing low scores to a private form and high scores to the review site is unsupported by the evidence and treated as deceptive by regulators (US FTC, UK CMA). Everyone gets the same path.
4. Get reviews in early at launch. Ask all early customers as soon as step 1 allows — the same path for everyone, no picking the happy ones (that is selective solicitation, see step 3). The point is speed: a negative first review left the average 0.29 stars lower a year later on Amazon and Best Buy, so make sure the first review isn't left to chance by waiting.
5. Leave the imperfection. 4.0–4.5 stars sells more than 4.5–5.0; perfect looks suspicious. A negative review irrelevant to most buyers helps: an espresso machine with four 5-stars rated 16% better with an irrelevant 1-star added. † Reply; don't remove.
6. Reply to every review. When companies started responding, ratings rose 0.12 stars and review volume 12%.
7. Public complaints: once, fast, warm, then private. You're replying to everyone reading, not the complainer. Reply fast and only once: empathy, an explanation if you have one, a private channel to continue. Replied-to posts get boosted on X and LinkedIn, so that one reply is what people see. High volume → a separate support account.
8. Rude complaints: humor about the situation, never the person. Onlookers engaged more and were 18.3% more likely to buy than with no response. If it isn't funny, use step 7.
9. Describe the product as an experience in copy (people sharing coffee, not bean origin) — such products collect more reviews. †

Output

1. Solicitation plan: trigger, day offset, first question, follow-ups.
2. Rating policy: what to leave, reply wording for an irrelevant negative.
3. Templates: public complaint reply with private handoff; rude-complaint reply with situational humor; positive-review reply.

Common mistakes

• Asking 1 day after delivery — reduces reviews; 9–13 days.
• Opening with "rate 1–5" — open with what they enjoyed most.
• Score-gating — unsupported and legally risky.
• Removing an irrelevant 1-star — it makes the rest credible.
• Protecting a 4.9 — 4.0–4.5 sells more.
• Replying to a complaint repeatedly in public — once, then private.

Quick reference

† No primary citation on file for this rule — a practitioner tip, not a measured finding.

Evidence and effect sizes: see reference.md.