How do I send thank-yous and ask for reviews?

Send an automatic thank-you after each visit and a follow-up email asking for a review — on Google, Tripadvisor or anywhere else, or your own ResoFlow reviews page — a few days later.

Switch on the automatic post-visit thank-you and the review request on the Marketing page, on its Automations tab — the one home for all five automatic emails. Each row expands to its settings and its email's wording, so everything about an automation is edited in one place.

Both features are Available on Pro plan and above. These messages count towards your marketing email allowance (not your booking-email allowance), because they're relationship messages rather than confirmations.

Send a thank-you after each visit

• Go to Marketing → Automations, switch on the Post-visit thank you row, and open it with Set up and wording.
• Optionally switch on Also send by text (SMS needs SMS set up — see How do I set up SMS messages?; the text always goes the moment the table is cleared).
• Pick When the email sends — Immediately after is available to every plan with the feature; the delayed options (30 minutes to 24 hours after) are a Complete feature. Whatever timing you pick, customers are never messaged overnight: anything that would land between 9pm and 9am (your venue's local time) waits until 9am.
• Click Save changes.

Ask for a review a few days later

• On the same tab, switch on the Review request row and open it with Set up and wording.
• Pick When it sends: 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days after the booking (the default is 2 days). Each customer is asked at most once every 90 days, however often they visit — repeat regulars aren't pestered after every meal.
• Choose a Tone — Friendly, Professional or Casual — to set the email's style.
• Pick Where customers leave reviews — Google, Tripadvisor or Somewhere else. The link field's label, its help text and the review buttons' wording in your emails all follow your choice, so a Tripadvisor venue never sends a "Review us on Google" button.
• Paste your review link underneath — for Google, find it in your Google Business Profile under "Ask for reviews" (it typically looks like g.page/r/XXXXX/review); for Tripadvisor, use your listing's "Write a review" address. The thank-you email's button uses the same link.
• Optionally switch on Also ask on your ResoFlow reviews page — the email gains a second button pointing at the reviews on your own venue page (see How do customer reviews work?). The option appears once your venue's reviews switch is on; with both switched on, the outside-site button comes first. You can also run the ask with only this switched on — no outside link needed. The row shows a red warning when the ask has nowhere to point (no review link and no ResoFlow reviews option), because then this email never sends.
• Click Save changes.

Two different kinds of "reviews". This email asks customers to review you on an outside site (Google, Tripadvisor or another link) — and, optionally, on your own ResoFlow reviews page. The reviews customers leave on your venue page are read and replied to on the Reviews page, not here.

The review request does not wait for anyone to clear a table. Its countdown starts when the booking's time is up (its start time plus its length), so a venue that only uses ResoFlow as a diary still gets its reviews. Nothing is sent for a booking that was cancelled or marked a no-show — whether your team marked it or ResoFlow did automatically. If a no-show is undone (the customer turned up after all and you seat them), they are asked as normal. Requests only send during sociable hours: anything that would land between 9pm and 9am (your venue's local time) waits until 9am.

What the customer sees

The customer gets your thank-you once you mark their table as cleared; the review request follows a few days later, on its own timer, with a button to your review page. Both emails' wording — subject, heading, body and button — is edited inside the same expanded row, with a live preview of the real email beside the fields.

Related: How do customer reviews work? · How do I send birthday messages (with an offer)? · How do I send welcome and win-back emails? · What can ResoFlow marketing do (and what does it cost)?