Review signs or review request emails?
28 August 2026 · 4 min read
Both ask the same favour. They differ in when the ask arrives, and timing decides almost everything about review collection.
Emails: good reach, bad timing
A request that lands the next morning competes with fifty other emails and a customer whose good mood has expired. Open rates for follow-ups are decent; the share who then click through, sign in and write something is small.
They do have one advantage: you can send them to every customer whose address you hold, including people who bought online.
Signs: worse reach, far better timing
A sign only reaches people standing in your shop, but it reaches them at the exact moment they are pleased with you. Nothing has to be delivered, opened or remembered.
Use both, in the right order
Ask in person with the sign first. Save email for customers you never see in person, and keep it to one message with a direct link and no gating questions in front of it.
Questions, answered
- Can I email everyone in my customer list?
- Only those who agreed to hear from you. Review requests to a scraped or bought list are spam and can cost you the domain.
- What about SMS?
- Higher open rates than email and the same consent rules. Useful for appointment trades, and still beaten by an in-person ask.
