Customers often need time to evaluate a product or think about their experience with it before they decide to post a review. If they are asked to provide a review early, they may feel pressured and rushed. But when is the right time to do it? The authors conducted experiments to try to answer this question – and found, contrary to conventional wisdom, that immediate review reminders (sent the next day) lowered the likelihood that customers would -post reviews, while delayed reminders (13 days later) increase the probability. Against the backdrop, in this article they propose a set of best practices for companies trying to know when to send review reminders to customers.
Businesses in many markets now send review reminders to customers after they buy a product or pay for a service. These businesses operate under the assumption that these reminders will increase the number of reviews they receive. That’s a reasonable assumption: Over time, customers naturally become less likely to post reviews. When viewed against this backdrop, it seems reasonable for businesses to send review reminders at the earliest possible time.
But is it possible? Think about the last time a company sent you a review request. How fast did it come? In all likelihood, you received the request right away — so quickly that you found it a little annoying. Customers often need time to evaluate a product or think about their experience with it before they decide to post a review. If they are asked to provide a review early, they may feel pressured and rushed, and they may choose not to send a review. In a survey revealed that the majority of online customers now take at least two days after getting a product to post a review, while only 8% choose the same day.
To further investigate this process, we conducted two randomized, controlled field experiments. We created four different time intervals for review reminders: the next day, five days, nine days, and 13 days after the product experience. For each timing class, we assigned customers to the treatment or control group randomly. A review reminder was sent to the treatment group but not the control group.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, our results show that immediate review reminders (sent the next day) lower the likelihood that customers will post reviews, relative to a randomized control, while delayed reminders (13 days later) increase the likelihood. However, there was no significant difference in the likelihood of a review being posted when the reminders were sent five or nine days after the product experience. The main reason for this seems to be that although the reminders serve as a modest memory boost, they also interfere with customers’ feelings that they are free to post reviews whenever they want. That interference creates a negative motivational state known as psychological “reactance,” which goes beyond the memory-enhancing effect.
Against this backdrop, how can businesses determine when to remind their customers to leave reviews? Our findings suggest that the following approach is best:
- Consider how long, on average, it has taken customers to post reviews for your product or service in the past.
- Check to see if the average amount of time has passed.
- If not, do it not send a review reminder. You don’t want to interfere with your customers.
- If yes, send a customer review reminder.
We made two other findings in our study that have significant implications for businesses when it comes to the customers they serve and the product categories they provide.
First, immediate reminders are especially negative for businesses with young customers. Generation Z often uses online platforms and online review sites, making them true natives of the digital sphere, with a strong sense of autonomy there. Immediate reminders tend to undermine their sense of autonomy online.
Second, the right time to send a review request also depends on when after purchasing or using a product or service it is checked for quality or suitability. Food, hygiene, and office supplies are examples of items that can be evaluated immediately after purchase or consumption, while furniture and appliances require more time to evaluate. So, sending an early reminder for paper towels, bottled water, and canned soup can be okay, because customers know what they’re buying and if it’s good after use. Conversely, restaurants, beauty salons, and travel can benefit from giving customers enough time to evaluate a product or service before sending a review reminder.
The point is simple: When it comes to reviewing requests, businesses should not mindlessly adopt strategies like “faster is better” or “one-size-fits-all.” However, to get more reviews from customers, they should re-evaluate their current tactics and adjust the timing of review reminders according to the specific market and geography they serve and the items and service they provide.
