Optimize customer communication: creating feedback emails.
Miguel Nicolás
06/05/2025
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Let’s optimize customer communication by creating feedback emails that help sell more and better.
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We continue creating, little by little, a solid guide to email marketing optimization.This is already the fifth post you are reading, after helping you improve customer communication through newsletters, promotional emails, reactivation emails, and post-sale communications.As we have been working through all this content, we realized there is a type of email that falls somewhere in between several of these categories, but deserves its own post.We are talking about feedback emails, those used to get reviews, as well as those that showcase third-party reviews to “flex” and, therefore, help sell.Does it sound very specific? Maybe, but you will see quite a few examples of how it can improve your campaign strategy and email flows.Ready, set... let’s go!
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What are feedback emails and why are they important?
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As I was saying, this is a somewhat special category that shares features with others we have already discussed. But at the same time, it is broad enough to support several strategic approaches.These so-called feedback emails can generally fall into two types:
- Review requests: when we reviewed post-sale emails, we mentioned that sometimes it is worth waiting for the customer to receive their order before asking them to leave a comment about the online store, the brand, or the purchased product. This is very useful for improving our reputation and growing the business.
- Showcasing reviews: now that we have third-party reviews, we can create emails featuring them which, through good segmentation, allow us to reach other users. Therefore, they become reactivation or acquisition emails.
Incorporating feedback emails into our email flow gives us many advantages, and the most interesting thing is that you can use them at different phases or touchpoints of the customer journey.What are the pros of feedback emails? For example:- They encourage review generation: their link to generating reviews is so direct, it almost does not need much explanation. But it is true that many satisfied users do not leave a review simply because they do not think about it or they do not want to “waste time” figuring out how and where to do it. That is why sending them an email asking kindly and providing the link removes points of friction.
- Reviews where and when they are needed: if you have a product that needs extra visibility, you can send one of these emails to users who have already purchased it to get reviews specifically for that product or category.
- They generate sales: we know users are highly influenced by peer recommendations, so we can target them based on their interests, right in their inbox, without them having to proactively visit our online store or a review platform.
- They help with reputation: we know that bad reviews can rank quite well in search engines. One of the best ways to push them down is to have a good number of positive, well-documented, justified, and truthful reviews. So it is always a great idea to ask users we know have bought from us (especially repeat customers, who are assumed to be satisfied).
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Examples of feedback emails
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Let’s move forward with some examples, because it is the best way to explain a concept like this, with its many angles.As we always do, we will look at real cases where this channel has been used to leverage reviews in successful online stores.
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#1 – Most talked about, top-rated, and best-selling
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We are starting strong, with a brand that is sure to catch your attention. Entrepreneurship is always an act of faith, but in this case, it is quite literal. We are talking about Three Nails, a sportswear brand created by and for Christian athletes.It’s a success story we might explore more deeply later, but for now we are particularly interested in how they use their emails in conjunction with feedback.
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We like this feedback email because:
- It uses community appeal: the fear of missing out and social validation are always powerful tools, but in this case, even more so. When targeting such specific niches, a message like “discover other athletes like you” multiplies its effect.
- Reviews + ratings: stars have become a universal code. Every Internet user knows what five stars mean, it is a resource that grabs attention instantly, then is expanded with a short quoted text. A magnet for new customers.
- Call to action: “shop the top-rated” is essentially the perfect clickbait, but it also works almost like a headline. In other words: if you get this email, you know exactly what it offers and how to buy, combining motivation and functionality.
- Exclusivity: there is a sense of gratitude when someone does something for us. This email can be seen as a curated selection of the best products, made by the brand and delivered straight to our inbox.
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#2 – Selling through anticipation
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You can call it anticipation or hype, it is the same thing, just in English. What is absolutely clear is that people are sensitive to trends. Nowadays, the fear of missing out is a real purchase driver.Trends reach us through many channels: social media, the media, digital campaigns… and also through email. A perfect example is this one from the American ice cream brand, Deux. Check out how well it’s done.
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We like this feedback email because:
- It shows volume: another thing the public has been trained to recognize is that a good rating isn’t meaningful unless it comes from a high volume of reviews. This email uses large, prominently displayed numbers.
- Tone: I love the copy because it is direct, fun, and above all, aligned with the product and its target audience. Would I write an email like this for a bank? Never, but we are selling ice cream here.
- Message: I have to emphasize how well-written it is. Saying “we have 5,000 reviews” summarizes the entire intention of the email, but saying as a subtitle “and we think yours will be number 5,001” speaks to us directly, in the first person. By the way, it also creates a sense of urgency in a subtle way.
- Discount: another email that, starting from feedback, aims to drive conversion. In this case, by including a discount coupon in the second CTA.
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#3 – Creating urgency
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Everything we have discussed so far is related to group or community pressure. This popularity can be indirectly turned into urgency through scarcity. It is used as a purchase accelerator.There are many examples I could refer to, but this one from Surreal cereals struck me as particularly interesting.
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We like this feedback email because:
- Product-specific focus: as mentioned before, this is often the best way to promote a specific item among all those in our catalog.
- Urgency: of course, the fact that it explicitly says these cereals are selling fast establishes a direct link with what follows (“find out what people are saying about the wild strawberry cereal”). It really makes us wonder: “Am I going to be the last to try it?”
- Personalization: reviews, as a marketing element, are always more effective when we can put a face or at least a name to the person who left it. Here, they have opted to show names and an initial, which is more than enough to create the desired sense of closeness.
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#4 – Review request
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We are reaching the end of the post, and we were missing the most common case: the direct request for a customer review.To explain this case, let’s look at how the wallet and accessory store Bellroy does it. Pay attention to this example, because it has some interesting elements.
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We like this feedback email because:
- Great timing: asking for a review right after delivering the product is fine if you want feedback on the purchase experience or the brand, but the customer has not yet had time to interact with the product itself. Bellroy waits a month before asking for the review, a sufficient period for the user to have formed a personal opinion.
- The subject line is a question: “Already used to it?” It may seem trivial, but it is been proven that we are more responsive to questions. It is a way to start a conversation, and in cases like this, where interaction is the main goal, it is especially effective.
- Tell us how much you like it: they do not ask if you liked it; they assume you did. They also include a small widget so the user can vote directly, without leaving the email itself.
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What do you think of these options for optimizing customer communication by using feedback emails?