Review Request Emails

Automatically send a friendly email to customers after they make a purchase, asking them to share their experience. It’s one of the most effective ways to collect more reviews.

Why This Matters

Here’s the thing: most happy customers don’t leave reviews on their own. It’s not that they don’t want to — they’re busy, they forget, or it doesn’t occur to them. A well-timed email reminder changes that dramatically.

Stores that send review request emails typically collect 5–10x more reviews than those that don’t. More reviews mean more social proof, better search rankings, and more trust from new visitors.

What You’ll Need

• WooCommerce installed and active (review requests are triggered by orders)
• Email delivery configured — WordPress can’t send emails on its own, it needs a delivery service called SMTP (see The Email Delivery Problem below — this is important!)
• About 10 minutes to set up

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Setting It Up

1. Go to Trustie > Settings (or Tracksies > Trustie if you have the full suite)
2. Click the Request Emails tab
3. Make sure review requests are enabled (the toggle should be on)
4. Set Days After Order — this is how long Trustie waits after a customer’s payment is received before sending the email. We suggest 7–14 days, giving customers enough time to actually use what they bought.
5. Customise the subject line and message (or leave the defaults — they work well)
6. Click Save

When Do Emails Actually Send?

In Trustie Free, review request emails are triggered when an order reaches Processing status — that’s when payment has been received. Trustie then waits the number of days you configured before actually sending the email.

So if a customer orders on Monday and you’ve set a 7-day delay, the email goes out the following Monday.

Using Trustie Pro? Pro triggers emails when orders reach Completed status. If you also have Tracksies HQ, it upgrades further — emails trigger when orders reach Shipped status, and you can set different delays for each shipping method based on typical delivery times.

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Making Emails Personal

Use placeholders to make each email feel like it was written for that specific customer:

Example email:

> Subject: How are you enjoying your purchase, {customer_name}?
>
> Hi {customer_name},
>
> We hope you’re loving your {product_names}!
>
> If you have a moment, we’d really appreciate a quick review. It helps other customers make decisions and lets us know what we’re doing well.
>
> {review_link}
>
> Thanks so much!

The {review_link} placeholder is especially important — it creates a direct link that takes the customer straight to the review form for the product they bought. No hunting around your site trying to find where to leave feedback.

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The Email Delivery Problem (SMTP)

This is the most common reason review request emails don’t arrive, so let’s address it head-on.

WordPress can write emails, but it can’t deliver them on its own. Think of it like writing a letter but having no postal service — the letter exists, but it’s not going anywhere.

In tiny house terms: WordPress is your house, and SMTP is the postal service that picks up your outgoing mail and delivers it.

Without SMTP configured:

• Emails are created but never reach inboxes
• They might silently fail (no error, no warning — they look like they’re working)
• Or they end up in spam folders

The fix: Install an SMTP plugin

We recommend WP Mail SMTP (free):

1. Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard
2. Search for “WP Mail SMTP”
3. Install and activate it
4. Follow its setup wizard to connect to an email service

Good free email services:

• Brevo — 300 emails per day free, no credit card needed
• Postmark — generous free tier, excellent deliverability
• Mailgun — reliable, developer-friendly

Once SMTP is configured, test it. WP Mail SMTP has a Send Test Email feature — if the test email arrives in your inbox, your review requests will work too.

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Smart Cancellation

Trustie automatically cancels pending review requests when something goes wrong with an order. You don’t need to manually remove emails from the queue — it’s handled for you.

Review requests are automatically cancelled when:

• Order cancelled — customer or store cancels the order
• Order refunded — a full refund is issued
• Payment failed — the payment didn’t go through
• Return initiated — the customer requests a return for the order
• Review submitted — the customer has already left a review for a product on the order
• Customer unsubscribed — they clicked the unsubscribe link in a previous email

This means customers will never receive a “How was your order?” email for an order that went wrong. Once cancelled, the email shows as “Cancelled” in the queue with a reason explaining why.

Every review request email includes an unsubscribe link in the footer. When a customer clicks it:

1. They’re immediately added to the opt-out list
2. All pending review requests for that customer are cancelled (across all orders)
3. No future review requests will be scheduled for them

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Common Questions

What if a customer has already left a review?
Trustie checks before sending each email. If a customer has reviewed any product from that order, the email won’t send. Once you’ve got a review from them, Trustie leaves them alone — no nagging about the other products in the order. One conversion is a win!

Can I send more than one reminder?
In Trustie Free, you get one email per order. If you want multi-step sequences (like a gentle follow-up 7 days after the first email), that’s available in Trustie Pro — you can configure up to 4 emails in a sequence, each with its own timing, template, and enable/disable toggle.

Can customers unsubscribe?
Yes. Every email includes an unsubscribe link. Once a customer opts out, all pending and future review requests for them are cancelled immediately.

What happens if an order is cancelled or refunded?
The review request is automatically removed from the queue. This also applies to returns — if a customer initiates a return, the review request is cancelled straight away.

What about items that were unavailable or removed from the order?
In Trustie Free, review request emails include all visible products from the order, even if some items were marked unavailable during fulfilment. If you need emails to automatically skip unavailable products (so customers aren’t asked to review something they never received), that’s available in Trustie Pro.

Do emails send for all order types?
Emails are scheduled for orders that reach Processing status (payment received). If the order later changes to cancelled, refunded, or failed, the pending email is automatically removed.

Can I see which emails have been sent?
Yes! Go to Trustie > Review Requests to see the queue — pending emails, sent emails, and cancelled emails with reasons. You can also manually send or cancel individual emails from there.

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If Something Goes Wrong

Emails aren’t arriving at all:
This is almost always an SMTP issue. Install WP Mail SMTP (or similar), configure it, and use its test email feature. If the test email doesn’t arrive, the problem is your email delivery — not Trustie.

Emails arrive but go to spam:
Your email service might need domain verification (SPF, DKIM records). This sounds technical, but your email service provider will have a guide for it. It tells email providers “yes, this really came from my website.”

Emails send but the delay seems wrong:
Remember, the delay starts from when the order reaches Processing status (payment received), not from when it was placed. If you’re testing, check the order status in WooCommerce > Orders.

The review link in the email doesn’t work:
Make sure the product still exists and is published. If the product has been deleted or set to draft, the review link will lead to a 404 page.

I changed the delay but old orders still use the old timing:
The delay is set when the order is first processed. Changing the setting only affects future orders — existing queued emails keep their original schedule.