Review request email templates: how to politely ask a customer for a review

The templates

Each one copies with its subject line. The parts in brackets are the parts to change; the link is the part not to skip.

Subject lines for a review request

The best place to ask is inside a thread the customer just thanked you in, where the subject is already theirs. When you write a fresh email, say what you are asking for. A subject that hides the request, like “Quick question”, feels like a trick once it is opened.

• Re: [their subject line] (asking inside a thread that just went well)
• A small favour?
• Would you review [Product] on [the App Store / Google / site name]?
• Could I quote you on the [Product] website?
• Re: [your earlier subject line] (for the one follow-up)

What makes a review request work

• Ask when they are happy, not on a schedule. The moment is when they write “that fixed it” or “thanks, this is great”. Three days after purchase, before they have really used it, is a guess.
• Ask once. One request, at most one short reminder, then never again for that customer. People forget a single ask quickly; they remember being chased.
• One link, straight to the form. “Search for us on the App Store” or a link to your homepage adds steps, and every step loses people. For App Store apps, adding ?action=write-review to your app page link opens the review sheet directly.
• Ask for an honest review. Not “five stars”, not “a positive review”. It is what the platforms expect, and a page of honest reviews is the kind people believe.
• Give one true reason. “It is made by one person, and reviews are how people find it” works because it is specific. A paragraph about how much reviews mean to you does not.

And three things never to write:

• “Leave a review and get a month free.” Any reward for a review is ruled out by Apple’s guidelines and Google’s review policies, and a reward for a positive one is against consumer law in some countries.
• “If you are happy, review us here; if not, tell us first.” That is review gating: steering unhappy customers away from the public page. Google forbids it, and readers can often tell.
• “Please do not forget!” in a second or third reminder. The second reminder is the one that turns goodwill into irritation.

The right moment is the end of a conversation, and it is easy to miss

The review requests that work are not a campaign. They are one line added to a thread that just ended well: the customer says it works, and you are about to close it. In a mail client that moment passes without anyone noticing, because the thread is simply archived, and a week later the only way to ask is a batch email to everyone, which is exactly the kind that gets ignored.

Moorline keeps a customer on your list until the work is handled and they have been told, so a conversation ends when you close it rather than when it scrolls out of view. That is the natural point to ask the ones it went well for. Keep the short template as a snippet, one shortcut (⌘;) away from the composer, with {name} filled in as the customer’s first name. Moorline sends nothing on its own, so there is no automated review drip: every ask is one person, once, from you. The ask usually comes one message after the issue resolved email, when the customer writes back to say the fix worked.

Questions people ask