Timing makes all the difference when it comes to excelling at review collection. The day you send it, the time it lands, even how it shows up, all of that decides whether your request gets a response or gets ignored. Over the years, Kudobuzz has looked at thousands of review requests from stores big and small, and one thing’s clear: when you ask matters just as much as how you ask.
Let’s look at a typical scenario that happens to most e-commerce stores everywhere. Let’s say your customer's package gets delivered at 2 pm on a Tuesday. They're at work, in back-to-back meetings, beating deadlines. At 2:03 pm, your automated review request lands in their inbox. They glance at it between meetings, and think "I'll do this later," but forget it exists. By the time they get home and actually open the package, your email is buried under 47 other messages.
Most times, delivery confirmation triggers an immediate review request, and that request arrives at the worst possible moment in the customer's day. They haven't touched the product yet, and as such, they don't have an opinion to share. Your timing killed the response before it had a chance. Then there's the opposite problem. Some businesses wait too long, thinking they're being polite by giving customers space. Two months after someone receives a candle, they don't remember what it smelled like or how the packaging looked. The moment has passed. Your review request feels like homework from a class they finished ages ago.
The sweet spot exists somewhere between too early and too late, but it's not the same for every business or every product. Understanding your specific timing window is what separates a review collection that struggles from one that thrives.
The Perfect Timing Window
Allowing customers between seven to ten days after delivery gives them ample time to receive their order, open it, use it a few times, and form a genuine opinion. They're past the initial excitement of unboxing but haven't completely forgotten about the purchase yet. Send a review request three days after delivery, and you'll see maybe 8-10% of customers respond. Wait until day seven or eight, and that number jumps to 18-22% for the same product from the same store with the same email template. Wait until day 30, and you're back down to single digits. The difference is purely timing.
If you're selling something that requires assembly or setup, you might need to push it to two weeks. Nobody can review a complicated piece of furniture they haven't set up yet. If you're selling consumables like coffee or skincare, you might tighten the window to five or six days since people consume these products quickly and form opinions faster.
The key is thinking about your customer's actual journey with the product. When will they have used it enough to have something meaningful to say? That's when you ask. Not before, not way after, but right in that goldilocks zone where the experience is fresh and their opinion is formed.
At Kudobuzz, customers who use the automated delay feature set to 7-10 days consistently see response rates that are two to three times higher than those who send requests immediately after delivery. It's not about better subject lines or fancier incentives. It's just about asking when people are actually ready to answer. Again, not all days get the same response rate when it comes to email engagement. Tuesdays and Wednesdays consistently outperform every other day of the week. By Tuesday, people have cleared out the Monday chaos and settled into their work rhythm, and they're checking their emails regularly. Your review request lands in an inbox that's being actively managed, and there's actual mental space to do something quick, like leave a review.
If your customers are busy professionals who barely touch personal email Monday through Friday, Saturday morning might actually be your best bet. If your customers are stay-at-home parents or retirees who manage email throughout the week, weekends might be your worst option. Simply know your audience.
The Time of Day That Gets Responses
The time you send a review request matters almost as much as the day you send it. People have subconscious reactions to when messages arrive, even if they don't realize it. Early morning requests between 6 am and 8 am catch people during their first inbox check of the day. Your message appears near the top as they are scrolling through email, and they might actually have a quiet moment before the day gets too busy. This window works especially well for morning people who tackle tasks early.
The Mid-mornings, around 10 am to 11 am, hit people after their initial work rush but before lunch. They're taking a break, checking personal email, and your request arrives when they have a few minutes to spare. This timing works well across different time zones, too, since you're catching multiple regions during reasonable hours.
Also Lunch hours from noon to 1 pm can be very effective. People step away from their desks, pull out their phones, and scroll through messages while eating. A quick review request that takes 30 seconds fits perfectly into this mental break. Just make sure your review process is genuinely mobile-friendly, because most lunch-hour reviews happen on phones, not computers.
Evening requests between 7pm and 9pm work for certain audiences. People are relaxed at home, maybe browsing on their couch or winding down before bed. They're not in work mode, which means they might be more willing to engage with something personal, like sharing product feedback. This timing tends to work better on weekdays than weekends.
Ironically, late-night or early-morning hours like 2 am or 3 am are not so effective. Not everyone understands that automated systems exist, and there's something off-putting about receiving a review request in the middle of the night. It makes your business feel poorly managed. So stick to hours when your business would reasonably be operating.
KudoBuzz's smart send feature accounts for time zones automatically, which means your review requests always arrive during reasonable local hours, regardless of where your customers live.
Email vs SMS: Which Channel Actually Gets Opened Better
People check text messages immediately and respond faster. The average person opens a text within three minutes of receiving it, while Emails can sit unopened for hours, days, or disappear into spam folders forever. SMS also feels more personal and direct, even when it's automated. There's an intimacy to text messages that email hasn't had in years.
The downside with SMS is that it requires phone numbers, and some customers are protective of that information. You need permission to text people, and you need to use that privilege wisely. One text asking for a review feels reasonable and personal. Three follow-up texts feel invasive and annoying. The winning strategy is to combine both channels intelligently. Try sending your initial review request via email 7-10 days after delivery, giving full context and clickable links to your review page. If they don't respond within three to five days, send a gentle SMS reminder with a direct link. The email provides detailed information; the text serves as a quick nudge. Together, they're more effective than either channel alone.
The Follow-Up Mechanism That Works
One follow-up is usually enough for most customers. Two is the absolute maximum before you cross into annoying territory. Beyond that, you're just pestering people who have already decided they're not going to leave a review, and you risk damaging the customer relationship. Some people don't leave reviews no matter what you do, and that's perfectly okay.
Timing your follow-up for a different day and time than your original request can help too. If you sent the first request on Tuesday morning, try the follow-up on Thursday evening or Saturday morning. You're catching people at a different moment when they might be more receptive and have different availability.
Seasonal Timing and External Factors You Can't Ignore
Sometimes the calendar itself affects response rates in ways that have nothing to do with your product or messaging. The week between Christmas and New Year's? People are checked out, traveling, and ignoring most non-urgent emails. Early January? Everyone's resetting and might be more responsive. Back-to-school season in late August and September? Parents are swamped managing schedules, and your review request competes with school forms and orientation emails.
Big sales events like Black Friday or Prime Day create unique timing dynamics. If someone bought from you during a major sale, they probably ordered from multiple stores at once. Your review request competes with five others, and decision fatigue kicks in. Waiting an extra few days after these shopping frenzies can help your request stand out after the chaos settles.
Weather and current events matter more than people realize. If there's a major hurricane, wildfire, or other disaster affecting a region, review requests sent to customers in those areas will obviously perform poorly. Most sophisticated email platforms let you segment by location, which means you can pause requests to affected regions until things stabilize.
Holiday timing requires special attention. Sending a review request that lands on Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, or other major holidays feels tone-deaf and inconsiderate. Kudobuzz's scheduling features account for major holidays automatically, pushing requests to the next business day so you're not bothering people during family time or religious observances.
Start With Smart Timing Today
If you're currently sending review requests randomly, immediately after delivery, or just whenever you remember to do it, you're leaving serious results on the table. The good news is that fixing timing issues doesn't require changing your products, rewriting all your emails, or offering bigger incentives. You just need to ask at the right time, through the right channel, on the right day.
Start with the fundamentals that work for most businesses: the 7-10 day window after delivery, Tuesday or Wednesday morning send times between 10 am and noon, and a combination of email with SMS follow-up. Monitor your response rates for a few weeks, then start experimenting with small variations. Try shifting your send time by a couple of hours. Test adding that SMS follow-up. See what happens when you adjust the delay between delivery and first request.
Kudobuzz handles all of this automatically with smart scheduling features that consider delivery dates, time zones, customer communication preferences, and optimal send windows. You set your parameters once during initial setup, and the system ensures every review request goes out at the best possible moment for that specific customer in their specific location.
The difference between mediocre review collection and exceptional review collection often comes down to timing. Get it right, and you'll see response rates double or triple without changing anything else about your approach. Your customers genuinely want to leave reviews and help other shoppers. You just need to ask them when they're actually ready to answer.
Ready to put your review collection on autopilot with perfect timing? The best time to start is right now.