Encouraging Customer Reviews Using Autoresponder

Owned by Perry Tew
Last updated: Aug 10, 2020 by Jonathan Tew
5 min read

Ultracart Tutorial

Creating an Autoresponder to Encourage Customer Reviews

 

Date

3/14/2011

Revision

1.0


Change Log:

  1. – Initial Revision

 

Origin:

Forum Post by Paul Bartlett
"Be the first to review this product" can send a subtle message to customers that this page does not receive enough traffic or that this product does not inspire enough enthusiasm. So before deploying product reviews, I would like to have a plan in place to populate them quickly. Is there a way for the autoresponder to send an email to the customer timed to arrive a few days after the merchandise is delivered, asking the customer to fill out the review? Can a link to the review be included in the email? What if the customer bought multiple products - would the customer receive one email with multiple review links or multiple emails, each with one review linK? Is there an email template available for this purpose as an example?

Introduction

This tutorial assumes a familiarity with the UltraCart Autoresponder. The steps listed below will mention briefly any step that contains routine details. See the UC Manual for specifics on those steps and post to the forums any problems.
The UltraCart Autoresponder documentation may be found here:  Email Autoresponder.

A link to this documentation is located on the main Autoresponder Page:

Menu → Marketing → Autoresponder

 

Notations

 

Steps

If you're new to Autoresponder, configure your Mail Server [Standard Config: Refer to AR documentation]


Use the docs and the forums if you're unable to configure your mail server.
Create a test email. Please see the tutorial "AR Test Campaign for Email Templates" for instructions on setting up a test recipient for use in designing email templates.


Create your email template

  • From the AR Home, click Email Templates link.
  • Click the new button to create a new template.

  • Enter a Template Name. This is internal, so name it something like 'Pls Review Reminder'
  • Enter a Subject. 'Please review your recent purchase' or whatever.
  • These days, I stick with just html format for emails.
  • No parameters are needed for this template.
  • Supply the test email recipient from your test campaign (Step 2).





Create your html. Beside the normal requirements, like the OPT_OUT parameter, you'll want to include a link to your product where the review section is. A stripped down example might be the following:

 

<html>
<body>

Hello!<br />
Thanks for your recent purchase.<br />
Please write a review!
Please go <a target='_blank' href='http://www.ultrademostore.com/MTH7010004.html'>here</a> and click the 'Write a Review' button.<br />

Thanks!
*|OPT_OUT|*
</body>
</html>




Wait a second!
This won't work. I've hard coded the item id in my url. Not good! I need to add some custom velocity code to this email template so it handles any product purchased. Also, I'll need a custom link for each product.
The following code accomplishes this. It is complex, but it is necessarily complex to power this email as needed. You'll need to construct your hyperlink differently depending on your site structure. 

<html>
<body>

Dear $customer.displayName,<br /><br />
Thanks for your recent purchase.<br />
Please consider writing a review for each of your purchases\!<br />
Please click on each link below and click the 'Write a Review' button when the page loads.<br />
#set($lastOrder = $customer.getLastOrder())
<ul>
#foreach($item in $lastOrder.items)
   <li><a target='_blank' href='http://www.ultrademostore.com/$\{item.itemId\}.html'>$\{item.description\}</a></li>
#end
</ul>

Thanks!<br /><br />

*|OPT_OUT|*
</body>
</html>

 

Five lines above contain velocity code. Here's what each does:

  • Line 4: displays the customer name (if supplied, else their email address)
  • Line 8: retrieves the last order the customer placed
  • Line 9: begins a loop through each item in the order
  • Line 10: constructs a hyperlink using the item id as part of the url and the item description as the hyperlink text.
  • Line 11: end of the loop.


The result is this:


The formatting is ugly, but you can add your own look and feel. Notice the dynamic listing of items. In this example, Loyd only purchased a single item in his last order. But the looping scales for any number of items purchased.

Save your email template using the button on the first tab!


Initialize your campaign

  • Return to the AR Home and click the 'new' button in the Campaigns header.
  • Provide a campaign name. Internally used, make it whatever is memorable to you.
  • Provide a Public Name. Customers will see the name and description if they opt out of your campaign, so make it something nice and informative. For my campaign name, I'll use "Product Announcements"
  • Same warning about description. Write something informing the customer that this email list is used to follow up with customers.
  • I then select my mail server.
  • For enrollment triggers, I'll check "Purchased Product" so everyone who buys something from me will enroll in this campaign.
  • When finished with those settings, I'll also check the 'Suspended' box to ensure my campaign doesn't fire until I'm finished. (By default, it will run every hour.)
  • Click the Save Changes button.





Designing your steps

  • For the logic above, I'll need a three step process: Start, Pause, Email.
  • The Start step is created once I save the campaign the first time. Steps appear at the bottom of the campaign edit screen (scroll down).
  • Create the Pause Step by clicking the 'Add Step' link on the Start step.




Fill out the fields as shown.

  • The Pause duration accepts shorthand. 7d = 7 days.
  • Click OK to save when you're finished.

You can name the step anything you like, but I recommend not using spaces. You can, but avoiding them may help if you ever get into writing logic steps, as the step names are used in the code.

 



Click the Add Step at the bottom of the Pause step to add the Email step.

  • Set the type to Email.
  • Provide a name
  • Select your 'Pls Review Email' template from the dropdown box.
  • Click OK to save.





That's it. Step changes are saved as you go, so there's no need to click the Save Changes button. Unsuspend the campaign, either from the edit page or the main page. After that, sit back and wait for customers to enroll.
To test your campaign, go to the AR Home and click the manual start button for the campaign. It's the last column of the campaigns table.