Attentive - Create a product review flow
Marcus Cardoso avatar
Written by Marcus Cardoso
Updated over a week ago

This article will help you create a product review flow in Attentive so that you can automatically send an SMS or email to a customer who purchased a product and ask them to submit a review!

Now that you can send emails using Attentive's platform, there are a few options for the review request flow that you setup, it can be:


Requesting a review with one message + channel

Automation campaigns in Attentive are called Journeys. First, you'll click Journeys on the left menu and create a new one by selecting + Create Journey which is a yellow button on the top right on your screen. Click Start from Scratch and then select Junip - Review request as the trigger and Get started.

Note: If you aren't seeing Junip's custom events as options, it's probably because you haven't authorized Junip to send our events yet (see this guide first).

Create a journey in Attentive

By the end of this section, your journey should look something like this, with the only difference being the message / channel you choose to send with:

Junip - Review Request flow in Attentive

There are three actions that we'll need to add to this flow:

We can skip adding a time delay because this is included in your review request flow in Junip (what kicks things off and sends the event to Attentive). This means that when Junip sends the event to Attentive, the customer is ready to be sent a review request so we can skip right to that part! You'll want to make sure that's setup properly by having a look at this guide.

Branch to make sure there are eligible products to review

We'll start by dragging a branch into the flow (by dragging it onto the + sign under the trigger).

Creating a branch in Attentive review request journey

When setting up the branch, we'll select What segment the subscriber is in for the "Condition" and then because we don't have a segment created for this yet, we'll + Create new segment

Selecting a segment for a branch in Attentive review request journey

To create the segment, we'll select a Condition which is A subscriber's activity and then Junip - Review Request. We can adjust the specifics of the definition so that it says "Junip - Review Request at least once in the last 1 day" so make sure you change it to in the last and add in the 1 for 1 day.

We're not done with this definition just yet, we want to an extra filter to this definition, so clicking Filter will give us more options. We can select a property where all_items_reviewed is a specific value, which we want to be false.

Creating a segment in Attentive

For reference, this is what your finished definition should look like:

Creating a segment in Attentive

Once you have the same, we can click Create to save our segment, give it a name like "Has not reviewed all items in order" and click Save.

Junip - Review Request journey in Attentive

Now that the branch includes the new segment we just created, we'll have to click Save once more to finalize the branch in our flow.

To clarify, this branch will check if there are still products in the order that the customer is eligible to review. If there is, we'll let them continue into the flow. If there isn't (aka they've already reviewed the products in this order), then we'll want to end their journey here so that they don't receive a review request.

Add a message to ask them to review

You'll have two options here, do you want to send the review request using an email or an SMS? You can click on either option to expand the instructions to do so:

Requesting a review with an SMS message

SMS review request in Attentive

Drag in the Send text message onto the + sign under the left side of the journey to kick off the setup here.

Personalizing review request SMS message

The message we're using in our example is as follows, but we recommend adding one that works for your product, brand, and customer.

Hey {{subscriber.firstName | default: 'there'}}! We'd love to hear what you think about your latest purchase, leave us a review here: {{triggerEvent.custom['order_review_url']}}

When configuring your text message, make sure to include the {order_review_url} by clicking on the " { } " button to open the list of available variables. When customers click this pre-verified link, they'll be able to leave a review for the specific product(s) they purchased. If you have connected Attentive to Shopify, then you can also include {first_name} to add some personalization. You'll see that we already included those in the sample copy above.

Inserting custom variables in review request message
Choosing trigger event variable in SMS review request message

Name your Message something like "Review request" and you should have something like below. Click Save when you're finished.

Customizing SMS review request text message

Requesting a review with an email

Adding an email review request action in Attentive

Add an email name & address, as well as subject line and preview text.

In our example below, we've added a personalized field (first name) by clicking on the { } button in the input box and the preview text makes it clear what the ask is.

Subject line:

We'd love to hear what you think, {{subscriber.firstName | default: 'friend'}}!

Preview text:

Leave a review for your recent purchase
Customizing review request email copy in Attentive

Then click Drag and drop editor, when prompted to select an email template, select 1 column from the Basic layout options

Select email template in Attentive
Selecting email template in Attentive

Replace the image at the top with your logo or similar image. We'll add some stars there for our example.

Attentive actually has a prebuilt review content block that you can use as a starting point for your review request email. Click on Rows, find Reviews and Press Highlights from the "Layout" dropdown menu, and then drag the first option into your email. You'll see that we changed the background color of the block to better fit our email and deleted the default text block that was there. We'd recommend adjusting the copy of the email to be in your brand's voice as well.

Adding a follow-up review request to Attentive journey

The most important part of this email will be the CTA that customers click to start leaving their review!

To set this up, click on the "Leave a review" button > in the "Url" field, remove the placeholder content and click Insert dynamic link. When choosing your link, select Triggering event and you might see the order_review_url link showing up right away (if you've used it before). If not, click on Explore more or preview event data so that you can select it straight from the event data. Click Insert and you're all set!

For your reference, here's the CTA link that you'll want to add to your "Leave a review" button:

{{triggerEvent.custom['order_review_url']}}

Customizing follow-up review request email in Junip

Here's a preview of what our simple email should look like:

Note: if you're looking for a more advanced email template that shows what products the customer has purchased, then have a look at this guide.

Example of review request email in Attentive

Feel free to save this template so that you can use it elsewhere in Attentive as well

Previewing review request email
Saving review request email template

End the journey

The last thing we need is to add an End the Journey step, which we can drag onto the + at the very bottom so that both paths will end at this point. Click Save and your Post purchase review request journey is now ready to go.

Adding End Journey action in Attentive journey

When you Turn on the journey, you'll start collecting reviews via SMS!

Note: for this to work, you'll want to make sure that Attentive is the action in your Junip review request flow. Check out this guide to make sure that's properly setup.


Requesting a review using both SMS and email

Prebuilt journeys save time & effort

We've actually provided a prebuilt journey for this use-case so that you don't have to build it from scratch. Instead, you can load this journey into your account and then tweak or build off of it as per your preferences.

To load the prebuilt journey, head to your Journeys page, click on Prebuilt journeys and then scroll towards the bottom to find "Junip - Review Request" or search for it in the "Trigger" filter at the top.

Junip - review request prebuilt journey

Building from scratch

If you'd prefer to build this journey from scratch or want to see the steps involved, we'll list them below. Once you're finished with these steps, you should have a flow that looks like this:

Building review request journey from scratch in Junip
Building review request journey from scratch in Junip

Now then, time to get started!

On your Journeys page, click + Create Journey, click Start from scratch and then select the Junip - Review Request trigger, either by scrolling down to find it in the list or searching for it in the "Trigger" filter.

Create journey from scratch in Attentive
Junip - Review Request trigger in Attentive

Now that we're in the journey builder, there will be 3 actions to add to this flow:

We're going to be using everything we've already learned in this article up until now, so don't be surprised to be linked to an earlier section of this article to refer back before continuing.

Branch #1: Are there products eligible to review?

We walked through how to create this branch earlier in this guide, so check out this section of the article before returning to this part to continue with the next step!

Branch #2: What channels are they subscribed to?

Next, we'll add one more branch to the journey by dragging it into the + sign below "Segment is Has not reviewed items in order"

Branching subscribers based on channel preference

For the branch's "Condition", we'll select What channel(s) are active for the subscriber and then we'll add 3 branches, one for Text Only, one for Email Only, and the last one for Both Text + Email. Click Save and you should have a branch that looks like the one below, with a path for each situation depending on how the individual is subscribed.

Branching subscribers based on channel preference

Messages

We'll walk through the messaging that we'll use for each of those branch paths now.

Channel type of Text Only

This path will be straightforward because it only has one action which is an SMS message. Drag the Send text message action into the + sign.

Adding trigger event

The GIF above walks through how to create an SMS message. For details on how to do this & things to consider, check out the earlier section of this guide where we walked through it (before returning to this step)

This channel is finished, now onto the next one!

Channel type of Text Only Branch

Channel type of Email Only

This path will be straightforward because it only has one action which is an email. Drag the Send email action into the + sign.

Check out the earlier section where we go into depth on creating an email template for a review request. If you've already created a template (either using this guide or on your own), then feel free to use that template here as well.

Selecting review request email template

This channel is finished too, onto the last one!

Channel type of Email Only branch

Channel type of Both Text + Email

This path will include an SMS message and an email, both of which we've walked through how to create in earlier parts of this article. Totally up to you what the cadence should be, ie. SMS or email first? How long do we wait in between? For this example, we'll send an email first, wait 3 days, and then send an SMS message.

Here are the steps involved:


Send an email

To add the email message to this path, drag in the action and have a look at this section on how to setup the template with dynamic variables. If you've already created a review request email, then make sure you've saved it as a template, and then rather than redoing all that work, just load in the template you've already created!

Adding email message to branch path in Attentive

Wait for delay

Drag in a delay below the email in this path and set the time.

Adding time delay in Attentive Review Request journey

Check with a branch

Because we're requesting a review and waiting some days before sending a reminder, we need to consider what happens if the customer submits a review after our first request. In that case, we don't want to request again, which is why we'll add this branch now. Start by dragging in a branch action into the path after the delay.

Adding segment check to branch

Next we'll select What segment the subscriber is in and then Create a new segment. We'll select Junip - Review Submitted for the activity and then at least once in the last 4 days. Note: the number of days you select here has to be at least the same as the delay you added in the step above, you can also choose to make it longer if you want to avoid sending too many requests to someone whose recently reviewed.

When you're finished, the segment definition should look something like this:

Segment definition in Attentive

And our journey will look like this so far:

Junip - Review Request journey in Attentive

Send an SMS message

If they get past the branch (aka for those in the "Else" path who haven't reviewed yet, we want them to get a reminder message to request through a different channel than the first. In this case, that will be an SMS message. Drag that in under the "Else" path and get it setup the way you want (if you need guidance on this, have a look at this section of the guide - including some sample copy you can use).

Junip - review request journey in Attentive with email and SMS message

End the journey

We're just about ready to wrap things up here, the last thing we're missing is the end of the journey! Dragging one of those onto the very bottom node is the first step.

Adding an End Journey action

Remember to also drag another End journey action close to the beginning of your journey, specifically, after the "Else" path on our first branch!

Adding an End Journey action

And there you have it!

Let us know if you have any questions on the above by starting a chat in the bottom right of your screen, or sending an email to support@juniphq.com

Now that your review request message & journey are ready, head back to our Attentive guide to start on the next steps (checking it over & enabling your journey).

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