Collecting reviews is important for both for e-commerce stores and customers. Therefore, it is one of the main capabilities of the CusRev plugin. Here are some key reasons why collecting reviews is valuable:

  • Trust and Credibility
    Reviews provide social proof and build trust. When potential customers see positive reviews from others who have had a good experience with a product or service, they are more likely to trust the business.
  • Informed Decision-Making
    Reviews help consumers make informed decisions. Reading about the experiences of others can give potential buyers a better understanding of what to expect, allowing them to make more educated choices.
  • Feedback for Improvement
    Constructive feedback from reviews can provide valuable insights for businesses. Whether positive or negative, reviews can highlight areas of strength and areas that need improvement, helping businesses enhance their products or services.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
    Reviews can positively impact a business's online visibility. Search engines often consider customer reviews when determining search rankings. Businesses with more positive reviews may appear higher in search results.
  • Customer Engagement
    Encouraging customers to leave reviews fosters engagement. It shows that the business values customer opinions and is open to feedback, creating a sense of community around the brand.
  • Marketing Material
    Positive reviews can be used as marketing material. Businesses can feature customer testimonials on their websites, in promotional materials, and on social media to showcase their credibility and the quality of their offerings.
  • Competitive Advantage
    A business with a high number of positive reviews can gain a competitive advantage. Consumers are more likely to choose a business with a positive reputation over one with fewer or negative reviews.
  • Customer Loyalty
    Encouraging customers to leave reviews can also foster a sense of loyalty. When customers feel heard and appreciated, they are more likely to remain loyal to a brand.
  • Understanding Customer Needs
    Reviews can provide insights into customer needs, preferences, and expectations. This information can be valuable in tailoring products or services to better meet customer demands.
  • Transparency
    Displaying both positive and negative reviews demonstrates transparency. While businesses naturally prefer positive feedback, the presence of some negative reviews, along with appropriate responses, can actually enhance trust by showing authenticity and a commitment to addressing concerns.


How does review collection work with the CusRev plugin?

Collection of reviews includes several steps for gathering of feedback from customers about their experiences with a product, service, or business. Let's start by looking at an infographic with a high-level overview of the main steps.


How to start collecting reviews?

As we now have a general understanding of how reviews collection works with the CusRev plugin, let's see what settings need to be configured in the plugin. They are related to 3 functional areas:


  • Review invitations (reminders)
  • Email template
  • Aggregated review form


Let's discuss them one by one.


Review invitations (reminders)

If you don't invite customers to write reviews, only very few people will come to your e-commerce website to post reviews. Therefore, it is essential to set up automatic or manual review invitations that the plugin will send to your customers after their purchases.


Menu path in WordPress admin panel: Reviews > Settings > Review Reminder



There are many options on this tab of the plugin's settings. The plugin's interface provides explanations for each option - just hover your cursor over "?" icons. We will not cover all of the options in this tutorial because it will be too much information but will focus only on the key ones.


  • Verified Reviews
    The plugin offers two alternatives for collecting reviews: either locally on your website (no verification) or via the free CusRev service for collection and verification of reviews (independently verified). You should carefully read explanations about these alternatives and decide which one is a better fit for your requirements.
  • Enable Automatic Reminders
    If you would like the plugin to schedule and send review invitations automatically after customers orders are completed, enable this checkbox.
  • Sending Delay
    You can use this setting to customize the delay after which the plugin will send review invitations to customers.
  • Enable Manual Reminders
    If you would like to send review reminders manually from the Orders page in WooCommerce, enable this option.
  • Customer Consent / Customer Consent Text
    Use this setting to ensure that customers consent to receive review invitations from you. It is a legal requirement in many countries. If you are collecting reviews with the "independently verified" setting, it is also a mandatory requirement for using the free CusRev service to verify reviews.


Email template for review invitations (reminders)

Review invitations are usually sent by email. Therefore, it is essential to set up an email template that the plugin will use to invite your customers to review their purchases.


Menu path in WordPress admin panel: Reviews > Settings > Emails



Again, there are many options on this page. The plugin's interface provides explanations for each option - you are welcome to explore them by hovering your cursor over "?" icons. We will cover only on the most important options in this tutorial.


  • "From" name
    It is important to set the "From" name that the plugin will use when sending emails. You can customize the "From" name in both Free or Pro versions of the plugin when using the "no verification" setting. If you use the "independently verified" setting, then you will need a Pro version to customize the "From" name.
  • "From" address
    It is important to set the "From" email address that the plugin will use when sending emails. You can customize the "From" address in both Free or Pro versions of the plugin when using the "no verification" setting. If you use the "independently verified" setting, then you will need a Pro version to customize the "From" name.
  • Email Subject
    Use this setting to customize a subject line of the email template.
  • Email Heading
    Use this setting to customize a heading added to the email template.
  • Email Body
    Use this setting to customize a body of the email template.
  • Send Test
    It is not really a setting but a small tool for testing the look and feel of email templates. Just enter your email in that field and click "Send". You will receive a test email into your inbox to check how the template will look and work for customers.


Aggregated review form

A review form serves as a structured and organized means for customers to provide feedback on their experiences with a product, service, or business. In addition to the traditional review forms that WooCommerce can display on product pages, the CusRev plugin offers aggregated review forms. You can read more about them here: What is an Aggregated Review Form?


It is important to customize the aggregated review forms according to your business requirements.


Menu path in WordPress admin panel: Reviews > Settings > Review Forms



This page of the plugin's settings include options for both on-site review forms and aggregated review forms, so it important that you do not confuse them. On-site review forms are displayed usual pages of your website that are publicly accessible. On the other hand, aggregated review forms are hosted on special "secret" URLs of either your website when the "no verification" setting is used or on special "secret" URLs of CusRev.com website when the "independently verified" setting is used. These "secret" URLs are known only to customers invited to write a review.


There are many options for customizing aggregated review forms. We will mentioned the most important ones:


  • Form Header
    Use this setting to customize a header of the aggregated review form.
  • Form Body
    Use this setting to customize a body of the aggregated review form.
  • Shop Rating
    Enable this checkbox if you would like to collect general reviews for your store in addition to product-specific reviews.
  • Attach Media
    Don't forget to enable this option if you would like to allow your customers to attach photos and videos to their reviews.


All set, let's test it

After you have configured review invitations (reminders), email templates, and aggregated review forms, it is time to test your setup. You can do testing in two ways:


  1. Either by using the Send Test utility from the Emails settings page. It will enable you to test not only the email template but also the aggregated review form.
  2. Or by creating a dummy order in WooCommerce for yourself and receiving a review invitation for that dummy order. If you are using the "independently verified" setting, please make sure to enable the "Private" mode on the "CusRev.com" tab of the plugin's settings.


Next steps

If your testing was successful and you are happy with how the reviews collection works, you can start inviting customers to review products and services that they purchase from your store.


More questions?

We hope that this solution was helpful. If not, please don't hesitate to reach out to us on the support forum. If you have a Pro license, please create a ticket on this portal for priority support. We are always available to help.