a review template

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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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9 customer review examples + template for getting more reviews

When it comes to making decisions, we humans aren’t always independent thinkers. From buying our morning coffee to big-ticket items like a new car, we depend on our network’s opinions, advice, or perspectives for making the right decision. 

With the internet, those networks get way, way bigger. We’re no longer confined to just friends, family, and coworkers—we can see what people all around the world think with just a quick Google search. 

And these customer reviews hold serious weight with shoppers. Online reviews—either positive or negative—can impact over 93% of consumers’ decisions . 1  

While reviews can accumulate on their own, they shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. Knowing how to ask for reviews, leverage them to get more business, and respond to less-than-favorable customer testimonials can improve your business image and land you more long-lasting customers. 

Keep reading to learn about:

• Why customer reviews are so important 
• 9 types of reviews and how to get more of them  
• How to respond to positive and negative customer reviews

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Want to get more customer reviews for your business? Use these outreach templates (and DIY customer review builder!) to help your customers give you the best review possible.

Get free review templates

Why are customer reviews so important?

Customer reviews build something known as social proof, a phenomenon that states people are influenced by those around them. This might include friends and family, industry experts and influencers, or even internet strangers. 

Social proof can push customers who are on the fence about buying a product to make a purchase (or consider other alternatives). While there are many different forms of social proof (like influencer campaigns and company partnerships), customer reviews have a special place in shoppers’ hearts. 

Think about the last time you tried a new restaurant. Or bought a vacuum. You probably looked for reviews online first, right? When considering a purchase, people want first-hand perspectives from other people just like them. While a famous influencer might catch their attention, experiences from peers are also important if you want to convince them to buy . 

Depending on the industry your business is in, customer reviews might be especially important because they help offset a generally negative view of certain industries. For example, if you work in advertising, you’ve got a bit of an uphill battle— only 23% of respondents surveyed in the Customer Communications Review said that ad agencies provided “very good” or “pretty good” service, and ad agencies rank dead last in comparison to other major industries:

Thank you for your interest in RingCentral.

9 customer review examples (and how to get more reviews)

Customer reviews come in many different forms. Including a few good ones on your website can improve your chances of winning more customers—who doesn’t want that?

And anything you can do to make it as easy for your happy customers to write those reviews for you will help. For example, here’s a handy Mad-Libs-style customer review builder that you can attach to your message or email to the customer when you’re asking if they can write a review or testimonial for you:

You can download this customer review template, along with examples of outreach communications, to help you save a ton of time as you’re gathering customer reviews 👇

Let’s walk through the different kinds of customer reviews, starting with the easiest ones to collect. ​

Testimonials or quotes from your customers are one of the most common forms of customer reviews. You’re most likely to find them on a company website, typically on the homepage, or in their marketing materials. 

Here’s an example of a quote testimonial from WordPress : 

These short (typically only one to two sentence) overviews of how your product or service impacted a company helps give your brand credibility. With quote testimonials, those impressive claims you’re making actually sound believable because they’re backed up by someone who’s, well, not you. 

We list customer quotes as the easiest type of review to get because they involve very little effort for you and your customer. Because you’re in control of adding them to your website, all you need to do is ask your customers to share their experience in an email, in person, or over the phone. 

Quotes also allow you to choose the great customer service stories , perspectives, or opinions that you think are most valuable. You can highlight your high-profile clients—and who says you have to use the less-than-favorable reviews?

How to get a quote review:

Ask for it. Call up your long-term customers and ask if they’d be willing to share a testimonial or a bit about their experience working with you to display on your website.

Or look for positive words of encouragement in email and social media responses or everyday conversations. If a customer gives you a great quote, ask if you can showcase it on your website.

You might be on multiple social media platforms, so how can you keep track of all these messages? If you’re providing omnichannel customer service , you might already be using a tool that can consolidate all your customer conversations and communication channels into one handy dashboard. Like this:

To get awesome customer reviews, you need to provide awesome customer service, whether that’s by focusing on proactive or agile customer service.

2. Peer review sites

Peer review sites are probably what you think of when you think of customer reviews. These include Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp, Amazon, or G2 Crowd (if you’re a software company). 

You’ve probably encountered these kinds of reviews while you were deciding whether or not to try a local business for the first time: 

Reviews on peer-to-peer sites can happen organically, often removing the company from the review process entirely. (This can be a nightmare if you’re managing a small business , since one bad review can have a huge impact, but this also makes the reviews seem more authentic.) Customers don’t need to worry about if companies have edited them to be more favorable (or deleted reviews they didn’t agree with). 

However, this also means you’re not as in control of these kinds of reviews. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything at all. These peer-to-peer review sites are often one of the first places a potential customer looks when considering a purchase, so ensuring you have some positive reviews on each is important. 

How to get a review on a peer review site:

Again, the best way to do this is to ask. Send an email, ask in person, or add links to your website that make it easy for customers to leave their opinion.  

3. Social media

Social media is becoming just as much a resource for businesses that want to build brand awareness as it is for people who are interested in connecting with brands. But don’t just your social media campaigns to get prospects. Not only are customers turning to social media to ask brands questions or learn about their services, they’re also using their accounts to share opinions and reviews. 

Here’s an example from American Eagle’s spin-off clothing line Aerie: 

Like peer-to-peer review sites, the company usually isn’t involved in the review process—making them feel more transparent and honest. But one of the biggest benefits of having reviews on social networks is that prospective customers can get a feel for who the customer is in ways they can’t with testimonials or peer-to-peer review sites. 

How to get social media reviews:

Encourage customer reviews on social media by creating communities where customers are empowered to share their experiences or purchases. For example, Aerie uses the hashtag #AerieReal to make it easy to see how customers are styling their items in real life: 

Create a unique hashtag to compile your customer reviews in one place.

4. Case studies 

Case studies dive deep into customer results and are particularly useful for businesses selling to businesses (aka the B2B space). 

Here’s an example of a case study from RingCentral and our client Box : 

Case studies—unlike traditional customer reviews—are written from the perspective of the company doing the work or providing the product. Rather than the customer explaining how they helped, the company walks through what they did to help their customer reach their goals. 

This perspective gives potential customers an idea of how your team works. It gives you a chance to show off your problem-solving skills and attention to detail, and it allows your potential customer to envision how you might help them. 

How to get case study reviews:

Write your own! Be sure to mix in quotes, results, and info from your customer to back up your claims. Each case study should read like a partnership—not just a one-sided perspective. 

5. Customer stories and interviews 

We all love a good story—and that’s probably clear in the review types that we’ve listed so far. Customers want to see themselves in the people your company has already helped; they want to know what your customer experience is like. One way to do this is through customer stories and interviews. 

Squarespace is one company that does this well:

Through stories and interviews, Squarespace shares who their customers are, what the vision or mission of their website is, and how Squarespace provides them with the platform to reach those goals. 

For Squarespace, they get an opportunity to showcase how diverse their client pool is. But it gives customers an opportunity to connect with each other too. Similar to case studies, stories and interviews paint a larger picture of what the customer is hoping to accomplish—only you have to be less self-centered here and make sure your customer is the star of the story. 

How to get customer story-style reviews:

Stories and interviews give a more personal perspective. Instead of hearing from your company, they’re hearing stories straight from the customer. So, to get those stories, send customers a questionnaire or old in-person interviews.

Give your customers an opportunity to share their stories, then focus on filling in the rest of the narrative with images, videos, and other content. 

💡 Get more positive customer reviews with these free outreach templates (and DIY customer review builder).

Get free templates

6. Blog posts 

Blog post reviews give your potential customer an opportunity to really dig in deep into your product or service, and even your brand and culture as a company. Rather than just a sentence or two like a customer might find on your website or a few hundred words displayed on a peer-to-peer review page, blog posts can be thousands of words, complete with step-by-step instructions with images that thoroughly explain a process or perspective. 

This is a great example of a blog post review on Warby Parker : 

These kinds of reviews can typically answer more complicated questions that require more space and time—something that isn’t really possible with traditional reviews. 

But one of the biggest benefits of blog post reviews is the SEO value, meaning you can get these pages to show up on Google when people are searching for reviews of your business. If you’ve ever searched for “[product] review,” you’ve probably encountered a post like this before. Because these posts tend to be descriptive, long-form, and useful, they can rank pretty highly. 

How to get blog post reviews:

Getting reviews like this one can be a little difficult. After all, not everyone has a blog to write on. You can increase your chances by offering a free sample or trial of your products or other goodies to industry influencers and experts who run popular blogs. 

Consumers like videos. This isn’t anything new. In fact, 85% of internet users in the United States say they watch video content—making it a strong contender as an outlet for your customer reviews 2 . 

Shopify is one example of a company using video testimonials: 

Video reviews can give potential buyers something most written reviews can’t: emotion. 

Viewers can see the difference your products or services have made. They can build a stronger connection with your customers, making it easier to put themselves in their shoes. These deeper connections can spark more sales . 

Creating videos doesn’t need to be complicated. Customers sharing selfie-style videos talking about what your product has done, or just stationed in front of a camera, can get the same message across. 

While you want the image and audio to be clear in the videos you share, the quality of the message is more important. If you have a customer willing to discuss on camera how you’ve helped them, this can go a long way. 

Here’s another video review of Shopify, this time from YouTube : 

This one doesn’t involve a lot of money or production—just a user sitting in front of his computer camera giving his opinion of the tool. And it still has over 15,000 views.

How to get more video reviews: 

If you have the budget for larger production projects you want to feature on your website (like our first example), reach out to the customers you think have the best story or video presence. If you’re spending the money, you’re in control of the story. 

However, to get more reviews like the second, treat it the same as blog post reviews. Reach out to industry experts who have large YouTube followings and offer free trials or discounted products in exchange for an honest review. 

8. User-generated content 

User-generated content includes social media posts, videos, images, audio, or other kinds of content created by—you guessed it—a user of your products or services. Some of the review types we’ve already covered would fall into this category (like social media posts or customer videos). 

But user-generated content isn’t just an online review or a customer sharing an image with your hashtag. That’s just the start. You then need to take that content and use it in a bigger, coordinated way. 

Here’s an example of how direct-to-consumer mattress brand Casper does it:

Like the Aerie example, Casper encourages users to share pictures using their products (in this case, sleeping on their mattresses) on social media. When someone tags Casper in their post, the image is added to a reel on their website. 

They also share customer posts on their own Instagram feed:

Dogs and babies do well on Instagram, haven’t you heard?

User-generated content puts your customers’ experiences front and center. Although they’re not exactly traditional reviews, prospective customers can see how happy others are with your products. It helps build authenticity— something millennials love . 

How to get more user-generated content: 

This one follows the same tips as social media reviews. Encourage your audience to share their experiences by creating a unique hashtag or tell them to tag you in their posts. 

Then start commenting, sharing, and engaging with your own audience. When your audience sees you showcasing other users’ experiences or getting into conversations, they’ll jump to get involved. 

9. Brand ambassadors 

Think of brand ambassadors as an external sales team. They’re loyal customers who love your brand or product so much they’re willing to recommend your products or services to their own networks. The bonus with having brand ambassadors is that they’re usually seriously obsessed fans—and are probably more familiar with your product than even your own team.

Brand ambassadors don’t need to have large followings. In fact, anyone can be a brand ambassador. You probably have brand ambassadors without even knowing it. 

One of the best examples of brand ambassadors online is for the budgeting software, You Need a Budget (YNAB). Users are active on platforms like Reddit , sharing advice on how the platform has changed their life for the better:

How to get more brand ambassadors:

While you could pay for brand ambassadors, you’re better off creating them organically. In YNAB’s case, they did so by providing a unique spin to traditional budgeting software. By helping customers who otherwise would have slipped through the cracks, they’ve created a loyal fan base. 

It takes more time to build brand ambassadors naturally, but this is a high-reward review since their advocacy will be much, much stronger, directed, and in-depth than your average Yelp review. 

👀  How can you get more customer reviews? Start with these free outreach templates (and DIY customer review builder).

How to respond to customer reviews 

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again—your customer reviews shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. 

If you’re just allowing customers to leave reviews on peer-to-peer pages, social media, or their own blogs without acknowledging them or responding to them, you’re not making use of powerful content that has been known to convert leads.

But your response process should look different depending on if the review is positive or not. 

How to respond to a positive review  

Congrats! A customer left you a positive review. Time to pop the champagne—and write a response. 

Responding to a positive review is a lot less stressful than responding to something negative but just as important. Letting your happy customers know you’ve seen their kind words and you appreciate their feedback can encourage them to continue singing your praises. 

Here’s how to respond to positive reviews: 

• Make your message personalized. Customers will quickly realize if you’re just copying and pasting messages to all your reviews. Instead of giving a generic “Thanks!” take the time to write a thought-out, personalized message.
• Respond in a day or two. Fast responses show you’re paying attention. While you’re not expected to drop everything to respond to reviews, a quick response—especially on social media—can keep customers engaged with your brand. Reduce your response time by integrating your social media apps with your cloud-based communications system. RingCentral connects with top social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, so you can easily respond without needing to switch platforms.
• Show your personality. This is your chance to engage directly with a happy customer, so make the most of it. Respond with some personality—humor, kindness, wit, you get the idea—to really connect with your customer. Regardless of your brand’s personality, be authentic. Your audience will be able to tell if you’re not.
• Give a recommendation. Now is a great time to point your customer in the direction of another product, a piece of content, or something related to their review. (This is a great way to personalize your response!) For example, if they say they enjoyed a product, recommend they look into a supplementary project, or suggest they check out a blog post that tells them how to make the most of their purchase. Your main goal is to keep them engaged! 
• Ask if you can showcase their review. If someone leaves you a particularly stellar or unique testimonial, ask for permission to share it! Display it on your website, show it off on social media, or create user-generated content out of it. Showing off the kind words of your happy customers is more powerful than just telling people how awesome you are.

How to respond to a negative review

Negative reviews are much less exciting than positive reviews. They can be stressful, and responding can feel like a lost cause. But even the most unhappy customer can change their opinion with the right encouragement. 

Responding to a negative review is a little less “just be yourself” and a little more strategic: 

• Respond promptly. Again, you may not need to drop everything you’re doing to respond, but it’s more important to get to negative reviews quickly than positive reviews. If a negative review is posted for too long without a response, not only is it frustrating for the unhappy customer, but it can also leave a bad taste in prospective customers’ mouths. Do your best to get to negative responses in just a few hours.
• Put the customer first. You may not agree with what the customer is saying, but that doesn’t mean you should be on the defensive. Instead, listen and see where the customer is coming from—you have to identify where their frustration lies. Think about the response you would want in their shoes and try and find a solution.
• Respond publicly, but push the conversation to a private channel. You don’t want to get into a debate with an unhappy customer on Yelp, but you also don’t want it to seem like you’re not acknowledging negative reviews. Reply to unhappy customers on the platform they’ve left the review on, but encourage them to continue the conversation through a private message on social media, email, or phone call. 

If you have a phone or communications tool, it can make this part easier. For example, RingCentral integrates with other popular social media apps to let you switch between platforms while keeping the integrity of your conversations:

(When frustrated customers don’t have to repeat their issues over and over, it might help soothe them a bit and give you a better shot at turning the interaction around.)

• Follow through. Don’t just apologize and call it settled. In order to change your customer’s opinion, you need to find a solution to their problem and follow through on it. Work with the customer to discover what will change their opinion—and follow up after to see if you’ve been successful.
• Don’t get it taken down. It can be tempting to get a negative review removed, but it can hurt the trust you’ve built with other customers—especially if that unhappy customer realizes they’ve been silenced. If you respond the right way, leaving the review up also proves to prospective customers that you care about your customers’ opinions. Sometimes, an unhappy customer will even write a positive follow-up review to show people that you actually turned things around for them:

Replying to reviews (both positive and negative) appropriately means having open communication with your customers. Bringing reviews in as part of your customer feedback cycle can help you identify communication gaps or other areas where you’re not meeting expectations. 

What can you learn from these customer review examples?

Asking your audience to buy from you without any reinforcement from other customers is an uphill battle. Without any reviews or social proof, you’re expecting them to invest solely on blind trust—and it doesn’t work well. 

Rather than making your job more difficult, make the most of the happy experiences your customers choose to share. From peer-to-peer pages to your own website and social media accounts, showcasing positive reviews—and responding to negative reviews the right way—can help you land more customers.

1 thedrum.com/news/2017/03/27/online-reviews-impact-purchasing-decisions-over-93-consumers-report-suggests

2 statista.com/statistics/272835/share-of-internet-users-who-watch-online-videos

Originally published Feb 19, 2020, updated Jan 29, 2023

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15 types of employee performance reviews (with templates and examples)

An employee performance review is a meeting between a manager and their employee to discuss how the team member is pacing toward organizational goals. Though simple in design, there are many ways to create a more effective process that brings your reviews to life. See the top 15 performance review templates to measure success and improve your review skills.

Measuring success is a key piece to leading an effective team. After all, you can’t improve until you know what skills you need to build. 

You can measure success in different ways—from peer reviews to self reviews and different performance evaluations in between. To figure out the right review style for your team, we’ve put together 15 employee performance review templates to measure job performance effectively.

What is a performance review?

An employee performance review is an evaluation where managers, peers, or other stakeholders assess a team member’s job performance over time. While the performance review process differs depending on the period you evaluate and who is leading the review, there are a few key pieces to a successful review. 

Your performance review process should include:

Employee strengths: Always include feedback and praise regarding the team member’s strengths, such as effective problem solving and communication skills. This offers insight into what the employee is doing well.

Employee weaknesses: It’s also valuable to discuss any weaknesses or areas of opportunity for the team member. Areas of focus could include the ability to work in a team setting or when and how to share ideas more effectively. This is an opportunity for the team member to gain insight into where they have room to improve.  

Rating system: To determine areas of improvement, your performance review should include a system to gauge each employee’s skill level in pre-set categories. A common example is rating employees based on standards such as: consistently exceeds expectations, often exceeds expectations, consistently meets expectations, needs development. You might use these ratings to evaluate the employee across different categories, like strategic mindset, communication skills, and team collaboration.

Review period: During the performance review process, you will measure an employee’s performance relative to a set period. Each organization does this slightly differently, but common periods include annually, bi-annually, or quarterly. 

Set goals: Clear SMART goals give employees a sense of where they can improve and what they should focus on in the future. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. This helps to clearly define performance expectations for your employees. 

Every performance review will have the above elements, but there are other considerations to keep in mind—such as individual skills—that can’t be easily measured. These skills could include your ability to brainstorm in a team setting or support team members for the good of the organization. 

How to give constructive feedback

Before you dive into the structure and style of various performance reviews, you must understand how to give constructive criticism effectively. Constructive criticism focuses on providing helpful feedback supported by specific examples. This gives team members the context they need to understand why they received the feedback they did.

To give effective feedback , be sure to do the following. 

Notify the employee before you meet

If you don't have a lot of experience giving feedback, it can be tempting to launch into a feedback session and get it over with as soon as possible. But in fact, the opposite is true. The more time you give your team member to prepare to receive the feedback, the more valuable the session will be. That’s because team members who are notified in advance can get into the right mindset to receive feedback openly without becoming defensive or passive. 

Be sure to let the employee know about the feedback session before you sit down for the official conversation. If possible, tell the employee what the feedback will be about. For example, you might say “During our quarterly performance review next week, I’d love for you to walk through your three proudest accomplishments from the last quarter and three things you want to focus on during the next quarter. Then, I’ll share the same thing. Together, we’ll come up with next steps and focus areas for you to dive into in the coming months.” This will give them time to prepare for the meeting and prep any relevant questions on their end.

Communicate in private

It’s easy for constructive feedback to accidentally turn into a negative experience if you share it in a group setting. No matter the type or style of performance review, make sure you’re communicating feedback in a private one-on-one setting. This ensures the employee doesn’t feel targeted in a group setting. 

If the type of performance review style you’re using includes feedback from more than one person—for example, peer reviews—it’s your responsibility as the team manager to aggregate that feedback and present it to your team member in private. Keeping the feedback session between you and your team member gives them a chance to process the feedback on their own time.

Offer actionable feedback

To ensure your feedback is constructive, always pair it with data-backed insights and actionable next steps. Doing so creates transparency around why the employee got a specific review based on their work. Offer specific feedback with details around what's been working well, what they can improve, and how to get there.

For example, imagine your team member has missed some important deadlines. You want to share that feedback with them so they can prioritize hitting their due dates in the coming months. In this example, it's significantly more valuable if you can include specific examples of due dates they missed. That way, you and your team members can refer to specific instances, work to figure out what went wrong, and then come up with concrete action items and processes they can implement in the future.

Document feedback in writing

Be sure to document constructive feedback in writing. You can do this in a feedback system or a tool like Asana . This way, you and the employee can look back on past performance and measure objectives accordingly.

This goes for positive as well as constructive feedback. Oftentimes, we overlook documenting positive feedback since, well, it’s positive. But keeping track of the team member’s major wins is a great way to increase team morale while reducing impostor syndrome and burnout .

Time-oriented employee review templates

Now that you have a few feedback best practices in your toolkit, let’s take a look at the first type of employee performance review: time-oriented review periods.

1. Annual performance review

Review frequency : Once a year. 

An annual performance review measures a team member’s accomplishments over a year’s time. Overall performance may focus on core competencies as well as individual goals relative to performance management. 

An annual review is a great way to analyze performance history over the course of a year. Be sure to write the performance review down in a shared space. Documenting work in a central source of truth allows you and your employee to review what they did over the course of the year. This creates transparency around expectations and milestones . 

2. Mid-year performance review

Review frequency : Twice a year. 

A mid-year performance review measures a team member’s accomplishments bi-annually. This is a great option for teams who want to create transparency around performance.

That’s because giving team members an opportunity to see where their performance lands every six months allows them to gauge their performance and implement changes where needed. On the other hand, positive performance also gives team members a sense of what they’re excelling at. 

3. Quarterly performance review

Review frequency : Four times a year. 

Take transparent communication one step further with a quarterly performance review. A quarterly performance review evaluates a team member’s success four times a year, and gives your employee a more consistent opportunity to turn weaknesses into strengths. 

Just as other performance review styles, it’s also important to focus as much time and energy on positives as you do on constructive feedback. Both encourage good performance.

4. Year-end performance review

A year-end performance review measures a team member’s success against the financial success of the company. This review is commonly scheduled alongside the evaluation of long-term company goals and is used frequently for operations and marketing teams. This is because their work is closely aligned with financial revenue goals. 

While each company starts and ends their financial year on different timelines, it’s common for a year-end review to happen around the end of the calendar year.

5. 30-60-90 performance review

Review frequency : Once a month for the first three months of employment.

A 30-60-90 day performance review measures a new team member’s success. Often paired alongside a 30-60-90 day plan , this method reviews the new team member against job expectations after their first, second, and third months in the role. 

This review is a great way to give new team members a baseline of how they're meeting their role expectations. It also creates transparency around areas where they should focus more energy and time perfecting skills. Employee onboarding is tricky, and your team members may need to adjust their expectations, focus areas, and priorities as they learn more about the role. Without doing a 30-60-90 review, a new employee might not get a performance review for their first 6+ months working at a company—so they have very little understanding of how they're performing. 

As a manager, one of the most valuable things you can do for new team members is to provide multiple feedback sessions often to show that you're involved, engaged, and invested in your new team members' growth.

Team-oriented performance review templates

As a manager, you have a unique understanding of how your team member is performing in their role. But you can’t always see everything they’re doing. Employee performance review templates centered around team goals are a great way to gather feedback from other members of the team. Use these in combination with more traditional manager feedback to get a holistic review of an employee’s performance. 

6. Self evaluation review

Review frequency : Annually, bi-annually, or quarterly. 

A self-evaluation is where a team member evaluates their own performance. This gives you a better understanding of how each team member views their skills. It’s important to know that a self evaluation isn’t used to take work off your plate. Instead, it has its own benefits such as giving the team member a chance to communicate their viewpoint. 

Oftentimes you will then provide your employee feedback on the self-evaluation, using a physical or digital form. This creates balance between manager vs. employee viewpoints to ensure both are aligned. This is done during a one-on-one meeting where you’ll both chat about your feedback to perform a holistic performance review. 

7. Peer review

Review frequency : Annually or bi-annually.

Oftentimes, annual or biannual reviews will also have a peer review component. This gives peers an opportunity to answer questions and evaluate their coworkers—most commonly in written form. To use this feedback, collect the peer feedback, your feedback, and any self-review feedback during an annual or biannual review period. 

The main value of a peer review is giving team members an opportunity to see their value and areas of opportunity from other perspectives. Depending on the size of your team and your relationship with the team members, you may not have insight into everything each team member does. Peer reviews are an opportunity for team members to share that perspective with you, so you have a more holistic picture of the employee's performance.

8. Team performance review

A team performance review is where a group of individuals rate the performance of the team as a whole. Hearing multiple opinions from different individuals can help you understand the group’s needs, as well as identify where growth opportunities lie. This type of review is most valuable for managers. 

You can do this by asking each team member to fill out a self-assessment and answer questions about the team and the team’s goals. For example, you might ask:

How well did the team work together as a group?

Name one example of good team collaboration in the last period. 

Name one example where team collaboration was less effective in the last period.

How comfortable are you communicating feedback to your peers? What about your manager? 

What improvements could be made to enable better team collaboration?

Performance review templates

If none of the above performance review templates felt quite right, take a look at general employee performance review templates that work for most situations and teams. 

9. Simple performance review

A simple performance review focuses on performance phrases rather than numbers. This is because it’s crucial to give team members context about how they’re doing. Providing a rating without context can be confusing to team members and hinder their growth. 

A simple performance review helps keep expectations as clear as possible, without confusing the employee. Overall, it’s the best style when looking for a basic yet effective way to communicate performance.  

Center a performance review around goals and use examples to back up data. Without that, it can be challenging for team members to understand exactly how they can improve and meet expectations.

10. Goal setting review

Review frequency : Annually or bi-annually. 

Goals setting reviews focus on a team member's expected objectives. These goals can focus on an employee's professional objectives and how they align with the company's long-term strategy. For example, as a team lead , your goal over the next quarter might be to streamline cross-functional communication. This aligns with the company’s goal to create greater transparency across all departments.

Goal setting reviews should follow the SMART goal acronym to ensure they are specific and measurable enough to evaluate. SMART stands for s pecific, m easurable, a chievable, r ealistic, and t ime-bound. 

11. 360 performance review

A 360 performance review measures an employee’s performance from the perspective of all relevant team members. This includes self-feedback, peer feedback, manager feedback, and employee feedback about the manager if applicable. 

This type of review is particularly useful for managers who want feedback from their direct reports. Use this review template if you want insight from the people you work closely with, regardless of how their role relates to yours.

12. Professional development review

A professional development review measures a team member’s personal goals. This is important when you’re looking to evaluate a team member’s career trajectory. It ensures they’re meeting their role’s needs and developing personal objectives such as growing their leadership skills. 

By connecting job and personal goals, the employee can better understand how their role is supporting their career development. For example, imagine your employee shared that they eventually want to grow in a leadership position. Part of their professional development plan is to identify areas where they can get involved in a more strategic role. During your professional development feedback session, you can review the concrete steps they took towards that goal and outline additional next steps they can work towards.

13. Performance improvement review

Review frequency : Only when an employee is underperforming.  

Before using a performance improvement review, make sure you have an improvement plan in place. It’s important to communicate the expected performance goals ahead of time so the individual has a chance to meet their expectations. Once objectives are clear, you can use a performance improvement review to measure the team member’s success against previously defined expectations.

An improvement review measures your team member’s success based on a previously established performance plan. Use an improvement plan to clearly define expectations on how an employee can work to meet those objectives. Put a performance plan into place when an individual is underperforming based on their job description. 

14. Compensation check-in

A compensation check-in is a review of a team member’s performance to evaluate the merit of a raise. This type of review doesn’t guarantee a promotion, but it can  help create transparency around the expectations associated with an annual raise.

To do this effectively, be sure to provide examples of work where the employee went above and beyond their job description. This will create transparency around performance and promotion trajectory. 

15. Excelling feedback review

Review frequency : Only when an employee is excelling in their role.  

On the opposite end of the spectrum, use an excelling feedback review to measure and detail an individual’s successes. This review template gives the employee additional context about how their excellent work has positively impacted the team or company. This is why it’s commonly used in unison with a compensation check-in.

Taking a moment to acknowledge this performance can help boost employee morale , giving you both a moment to reflect on what went well. 

Sample performance review example

Now that you understand the 15 most popular employee review templates, it’s time to craft one of your own. We created a sample performance review to give you an idea of what a general review template might look like. 

Employee name: Daniela Vargas

Review period: Q4

Date of review: January 1

Employee rating: Often exceeds expectations

Strengths: Daniela had an excellent quarter. She excelled in team collaboration by stepping up to help team members brainstorm solutions in order to meet deadlines. It’s clear that Daniela really cares about her work and her teammates and embodies Apollo Enterprises’ core values. 

Opportunity: While Daniela excelled in collaboration, I believe she could improve her thought leadership. There are opportunities for Daniela to learn new skills by attending workshops and keeping up with industry news which she can then bring back to the team. 

Learn one new industry skill a month in Q1. 

Lead two team meetings to share thought leadership by the end of Q2. 

While you can use this sample as a starting point for your own effective performance review process, remember to put your own team flare into it. 

Boost collaboration with performance review templates

A performance review is an excellent way to measure a team member’s performance. It offers transparency around expectations and serves as an opportunity to communicate honestly with your team. 

Making the process as transparent as possible is the best way to foster honest feedback and the desire to improve performance. Communication is at the center of an effective review process. 

From giving feedback with context to streamlining collaboration, Asana can help. Improve your communication not only during a performance review but every day with Asana’s team communication software. 

Related resources

What is self-management? (7 skills to improve it)

What is a mental health day? Plus, when—and how—to take one

What is a brand voice? Plus, 7 tips to develop one

What are the stages of group development?

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6 Email Templates to Use When Asking for Reviews

More than 90% of customers read reviews before making a purchasing decision. This means most of your potential sales are at the mercy of what former customers say about your products or services.

Unfortunately, study after study has concluded that an unhappy customer is more likely to leave a review than a happy customer. The web has many more Simon Cowells than Paula Abduls – especially if you’re a brand. People expect satisfaction when they pay for something. If they don’t get it, you and all your potential customers will hear about it. Reviews can make or break a brand.

In a world where gratification is often expressed through silence, you’ll need a tactful way of asking your customers to speak up about what you’re doing right. Otherwise, how can you expect people to trust your company? Feedback is all-important when running a business. So, how do you get it?

Enter the review request campaign.

Let’s walk through the basics of a feedback request, and take a close look at some of the very best review email template examples.

When to Request Reviews

Let’s get the basics down first — what is a review email? Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one: It’s exactly what it sounds like. In a nutshell, you’re sending an email to a client or (hopefully) loyal customer asking them (very politely) to review a product they’ve purchased or service they’ve received.

The success of a review request campaign hinges upon seizing the most opportune moment to ask for a customer review. Here are 5 of them:

• Almost immediately after a customer has bought a product or service, while accounting for how long you need to wait for the buyer to have used what you’ve sold. For example, a restaurant owner can send an email within 24 hours of a reservation request asking how the patron found their meal.
• Some goods, like groceries bought via delivery apps, lend themselves to repeat orders. In such an instance, you could ask the customer to rate their experience about 48 hours after they’ve made a repeat order or repurchase, which will give them enough time to have used the groceries.
• Because a customer who’s mentioned your brand on social media has already reviewed you and your product or service, they’ll likely be ready to be contacted almost immediately after having hit “post.” So, feel free to reach out in under 12 hours.
• Once you’ve demonstrated a successful product or service. Make hay while the sun shines by asking for a review while you know your customer is still satisfied.
• It’s perfectly alright to send out a review request email within a day or so of getting a referral.

Where Should I Send Reviewers?

Think about which of your brand’s online channels will benefit most from a positive review. Is it directly on a product page on your site? Is it in a niche industry forum? The Better Business Bureau? Make it a cakewalk for customers to review your business by adding the appropriate links for online reviews in your request email.

Here are a few examples of some of the most prominent review destinations across the web:

Amazon and Other Third-party Seller Sites

If you’re a B2C e-commerce company that generates most of its sales through Amazon, then make an Amazon review request the default for your company. The same applies for Etsy, eBay, Overstock and other e-commerce platforms. Third-party platforms are a great source of revenue for many businesses, and great online reviews can help accelerate purchasing.

Your Own Website

Alternatively, if you have an e-commerce store that doesn’t sell on third-party sites, encourage customers to leave a product review directly on your product pages. A B2B company can also use its website or blog to publish a customer testimonial, a case study, quotes from satisfied customers or all of these. For highly niche B2B verticals, targeted outreach to specific satisfied customers requesting a positive testimonial may be the only way to generate social proof, and your business page might be the only place to promote those positive reviews.

B2B Review Sites

A less niche B2B company may want to direct review traffic to another source. For example, a CRM company will benefit from user reviews on G2.com or TrustRadius .

Companies with a local presence – both B2B and B2C – should set themselves up on Google My Business (GMB) to manage their Google reviews and ratings. The overwhelming majority of web traffic occurs through search engines, meaning Google reviews are among the first reviews a would-be customer looking for a local business will see.

Optimizing a GMB profile is also essential for local search engine optimization purposes. It helps ensure that your company is listed in Google under the correct business name, with the right hours, address and other details.

Other Business Directories

These might include:

• TripAdvisor.
• Foursquare.
• The Yellow Pages.
• The Better Business Bureau.
• MapQuest (believe it or not, it’s still good for something!)

How to Request Reviews (+ Email Templates)

You need to make it as easy as possible for customers to leave an online review – or give any kind of customer feedback that could help you enhance your business.

Someone who wants to throw a tantrum on the internet will actively seek out the biggest audience for their tirade. But a delighted customer will only give you an attaboy if it doesn’t take very much time out of their day.

Start by including a “review us” link in the email signature of any transactional emails , customer service emails, etc. The recipient need only click this link to be taken to a review platform of your choice.

Also, consider leaving a “review us” or “provide feedback” form on your contact us page to solicit valuable feedback. If you offer online support, you can link to this page, or another review channel, after each interaction.

Even then, you’ll need to reach out to customers to encourage them to offer feedback, leave a review or speak positively on behalf of your brand. And, there’s no better way to do that than via email.

When the time is right, use a review email template below to ask for a review, rating, feedback, testimonial or referral. Make sure your tone isn’t naggy, as you want to persuade customers, not force them into giving a customer review. Being polite and conscientious are key. Talk to your customers as if you would to any manager or CEO.

For a Product Review

Email subject line : Did your purchase meet your expectations?

Hey [First name]!

Potential customers use reviews from people like you to decide if we have what they need, and we’d like your help.

If you have a moment to spare, please click on the button below to tell us if [product name] was everything you were looking for!

Rate it or review it.

Thank you for choosing [your brand or company name].

[Sender name]

For a One-time B2B or B2C Service

Email subject line : Was our service up to scratch?

Hi [First name],

Thanks for choosing us to [service you provide]. We appreciate your trust in us and value your support .

If you enjoyed our service , please take a moment to leave a review on [platform of your choice].

Your feedback allows us to provide you with the best service possible.

Take care ,

For a Hotel, Spa or Salon

Email subject line : Did you have a wonderful time at [venue]?

Of all the [business types] in [your location], you chose us. We really appreciate that!

So, we want to ask if you enjoyed your experience with us.

Please leave a review on [preferred platform] and let us know how your [service type] experience with [company name] went so that we can do an even better job next time round. Until then ,

For a Survey Feedback Request

Email subject line : We want to hear your thoughts!

Hey there [First name],

At [company name], we’re always working to improve our [list your type of product service], and we need your help to do just that. If you have a moment, please fill out this quick (we mean that!) survey. There are no red cards here, so you can be totally honest!

Complete the survey.

Thanks so much ,

For a Testimonial Request

Email subject line : Would you like to feature on our site?

Hello there [First name],

We hope this email finds you well (genuinely).

Your continued support is what keeps us going, and we want to spread the word — YOUR words, to be exact! We’d like to share your experience with us on our website and social media pages. Would you be keen to tell us a little about yourself and how you found our [product/service] so that we can create a custom testimonial?

We know that personal information is important, so we want to protect your privacy. With that disclaimer out of the way, please let us know if you’d be comfortable giving us your/your company’s name and some feedback you’d be OK with us sharing.

There’s no need to craft a perfect piece of writing, we’ll take care of that! All we need from you is some information and permission.

We look forward to hearing from you!

For a B2B Referral Request

Email subject line : We want more customers just like you.

Hi [First name]

I want to first thank you again for choosing us to serve your [service or product type] needs. We’re ecstatic that we’ve exceeded your expectations.

So much so that I’d like to ask you if you’d be happy to recommend us to other would-be fans of our brand.  All we need from you is to complete the [form, survey, attached document, etc.] and return it to us, if you have a few minutes to spare.

We would really appreciate your feedback, but please don’t feel pressured to respond. Either way, we look forward to doing more great work for you.

All the best ,

A Few Best Practices for Email Requests

Short, concise emails are always better – especially if you’re just asking for general feedback or a straightforward review.

The only exception is a testimonial request email, which will need to be much more personalized if you’re hoping to get a specific individual to speak on behalf of your brand.

Otherwise, here a few other general pointers to keep in mind in with any review request email you write:

• Include a clearly labeled, clickable “review button” somewhere in your email.
• Try to address recipients by their first name.
• Be polite, gracious and always thank the recipient for their business.
• Encourage honesty when soliciting survey feedback that only your company will see. You want the truth about where you can improve your business.
• Consider adding an incentive (free points to your next purchase, a discount, etc.) for a customer to leave a review.

How To Respond to Bad Reviews

Ask and you shall receive. Feedback is all-important but beware: You won’t always like what you receive.

When a dissatisfied customer expresses their ire, you can soften the blow to your reputation with a diplomatic, well-meaning response.

In 2021, a whopping 96% of potential customers said they search specifically for bad reviews . That means they’re also looking to see how brands respond to those reviews. The goal here isn’t to be combative or to make excuses. Rather, a response to a bad review achieves two goals:

• It opens the door to further discussion on the phone or via email with the dissatisfied customer to turn a negative customer experience into a positive one.
• It demonstrates to anyone else who’s watching that you value your customers’ opinions, even the not so flattering ones, and are willing to work toward a resolution with them.

Here is a potential template you can use to respond to a negative online review or social media comment:

Hi [customer’s name] – we’re sincerely sorry to hear that your experience with us hasn’t met your expectations. More importantly, we want to know more about your situation and figure out how we can make this right. Please [give us a call or email us ] at [insert phone number or business email ] so we can discuss this together, and hopefully earn back your business.

Avoid using your own company name in your response if at all possible. You don’t want to bring any more attention to the negative review than you need to, and you want to minimize your brand’s association with bad feedback.

Also, remember that you can’t win them all. Some relationships won’t end well and, in many cases, it will be through no fault of your own.

As long as you actively focus on review generation, the positive feedback will always outshine the negative.

Editor’s Note: Updated May 2023.

By Dominick Sorrentino

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12 Smart Ways To Ask For A Review [+Templates]

Having stellar customer reviews for your business is essential to getting new customers.

Today consumers don't trust brands as much as they did once. They want to ensure they make the right purchasing decision by learning about other people's experiences with the same brand.

Did you know 72% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations?

Customer reviews can convince other customers to take the plunge and purchase your products because they trust real people's honest opinions about businesses.

Consumer expectations have skyrocketed, and even the slightest of unpleasant experiences or one negative review can make your customers choose your competitors over you.

The importance of customer reviews can be appreciated by the fact that around 35% of shoppers are less likely to buy a product/service, 32% will hold off until they do more research, 23% will have a tough time in making the buying decision, and 2% wouldn't buy at all.

Source: CSP Global

93% of consumers read reviews online before making a purchase decision. However, asking your customers for reviews is not a simple task. A review request that appears forceful or spammy can do more harm to your business than having no reviews.

So how to ask for a review from customers? Below we will discuss 12 proven strategies designed to get more customer responses when asking for reviews.

Table Of Contents:

The Benefits Of Collecting Customer Reviews

12 proven strategies to get your customers to write reviews, 8 effective channels to ask for a review.

• How To Ask For Reviews On Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, & App Stores?

The Don'ts Of Asking A Review

• Ready-To-Use Review Request Templates

Ask Your Customers To Leave A Review Now!

Faqs (frequently asked questions).

You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.

Why do you want reviews in the first place? There are several benefits to having customer reviews on your website and other review listing sites. Here are the most essential ones to keep in mind.

Leads To More Purchases

Customer reviews are a highly trustworthy source of increasing sales conversion rates. Potential customers like to see user-generated content as proof that others have bought and are satisfied with your product and services, which nudges them to complete their purchase process.

Collect Customer Feedback For Actionable Insights

Some customers, while sharing reviews, signal opportunities for improvements in your products and even in your customer service. You will find a lot of such opportunities in the negative customer reviews . You can use such customer feedback to identify and improve the friction points in your customer experience.

Help With SEO And Search Results

Up-to-date customer reviews are essential for ranking on Google. And ranking highly on Google is essential for marketing, especially if you are a newer brand that depends on Google search results and ratings. Getting reviews and ratings front and center on search, and leveraging SEO, will help you stand out from the competition. High-quality and positive customer reviews increase the likelihood of a potential customer visiting your location.

Follow these 12 tactics to get your customers to leave a review.

• Begin By Asking For Reviews
• Then Create A System
• Ask From Your Happy Customers First
• Personalize Your Ask
• Describe Why Reviews Are Essential For You
• Use A Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
• Simplify Review Writing Process For Your Customers
• Provide A Sample/Template To Write A Review
• Respond To Each And Every Review
• Offer Rewards In Exchange For Reviews
• Keep Timing In Mind Post-Purchase
• Follow Up On Your Ask

1. Begin By Asking For Reviews

The best way to encourage your customers to write reviews is just to ask them once. More often than you think, your customers will be happy to write about their experience with your brand, product, or service.

Here are the different ways to ask customers for a review:

• Ask in the email you send, especially from the customer support team. Adding a link to a review website in your email signature can do the job for you.
• Reach out to customers on Twitter and ask them to write a review.
• Send your customers a QR code to your Google My Business page. Scanning the QR code will link directly to where they can write a review for your company and post it on Google.
• Include a call to action (CTA) on the base of your invoice, or receipt.
• After customers make a positive comment about your brand on social media, create a post on your social handle with its screenshot.

2. Then Create A System

One way to ensure that you are asking customers to write reviews is to have a proper process in place for making the ask.

Decide at which stage of the customer journey you will ask for a review. Also, decide how you are going to ask for a review. Keep a templated response prepared just to fill in the customer details while asking for a review.

Standardizing the review-asking process will save you time. It will also be easier for any of your team members to take up the job, thus increasing the reviews you will receive.

3. Ask Your Happy Customers First And Share On Social Media

You shouldn't just focus on getting customer reviews. Instead, you should focus on getting good reviews. You can do so by asking for reviews after a customer has expressed their willing satisfaction.

First, ask your customer to rate your business privately. If they give you a 5-star rating, then encourage them to write a review. But if they give you a bad rating, ask what you could do better, fix any problems they might have, and go the extra mile to make your customers happy. Then encourage a review.

Going a step further, you can share positive feedback on your social media and encourage other users as well to share their experiences using the product.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Creative Play Resources (@creativeplayresources)

4. Personalize Your Ask

You are likely to gather more reviews if you personalize the ask. Personalization is a key lever in relation-building and an excellent way to maximize reviews.

Another way to personalize your ask is to create a specific review funnel for each product or service.

For instance, if someone is buying a product directly from your mobile app, they should see an option to review it from the mobile app itself. But if someone is buying a service from your website using a desktop, they should be able to review the service via a follow-up email.

5. Describe Why Reviews Are Essential For You

To increase positive reviews for your brand, inform and educate your customers on how reviews are essential to your business. The customers who wish to support you will come forward with their support in the form of positive reviews.

Push the idea that leaving a review will benefit other customers. Some people are much more willing to help others to find the best business, product, or service - as opposed to helping the company collect more reviews.

6. Use A Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Review emails are all about asking your customers to perform certain tasks. That's where your call-to-action strategy becomes essential. You should ensure your CTA is clear and instructive.

The email body asking for review should be devoid of cluttered or moving pieces. Use bold texts and big and interactive buttons for a call to action. Usually, it's a good idea to stick to one CTA so that you can finish your email strongly.

Use action verbs and phrases while customizing your CTA button. A few great CTAs would be Review [product name] today, Spread the word, Click to rate, etc.

7. Simplify The Review Writing Process For Your Customers

It's essential to remove any friction from writing the review. You should make the process as easy as possible for your customers so that it will take the least time for them to review your business.

Provide your customers with several review site options to choose. Use review services that have their own platform to encourage reviews from non-tech-savvy customers without asking them to sign up for a Google or Facebook account in order to write the review.

8. Provide A Sample/Template To Write A Review

Another way to make it simple for your customers to leave reviews is to write some part of it for them.

Provide a template in terms of the response you are looking for. As a bonus, your customers will appreciate that they don't have to think too hard about sharing reviews, which increases the likelihood of them providing a testimonial.

9. Respond To Each And Every Review

One of the best ways to encourage customers to write reviews is to engage with those who have already written reviews.

Customers who wouldn't generally leave testimonials (regardless of whether they are satisfied) will feel encouraged to leave a review if they find the brand responding to reviews from other customers.

Using a review management tool like Statusbrew will ensure that you don't miss out on replying to reviews from your customers, be it positive or negative. Statusbrew helps you manage reviews on Google My Business, Play Store, App Store, Trip Advisor, TrustRadius, Yelp, and more all in one stream.

Not just review sites, but Statusbrew helps you manage communications on several social and messaging channels as well, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Whatsapp, Line, and more, from the same dashboard.

Here's how Statusbrew can help you manage reviews:

• Turn on notifications for reviews
• Understand audience emotions using AI-powered sentiment analysis
• Automatically route reviews to a particular inbox/team member based on their specialty
• Handle customer queries along with your team
• Mitigates compliance issues using controlled team member access and no password sharing
• Auto-hide spam and trolls across your social real estate
• Keep track of customer journey across platforms using the inbuilt CRM
• Identify new customers with listening solutions
• Get in-depth brand reputation insights

Try Statusbrew

10. Offer Rewards In Exchange For Reviews

In most cases, your customers would be happy to help you with a product review. You can make the deal sweeter by offering a reward. For customers who think it takes too much effort to rate or review a product, you can strengthen your case with a coupon, code, or product perks.

You can distribute coupons to upsell products by offering discounts on your next purchases in exchange for reviews. By offering rewards to your loyal customers, you can cultivate a sense of community while encouraging them to leave honest and authentic reviews.

11. Keep Timing In Mind Post-Purchase

When it comes to getting your customers to write reviews, timing is everything.

When asking customers to write a review, it is essential to get the timing right, but it varies greatly from business to business.

If you are seeking product reviews, time the email to ask for reviews in such a way so the purchase is fresh in your customer's minds and they have had time to use the product.

When you ask for reviews at the right time, i.e., when customers feel positive about your product, they are more likely to leave a review.

12. Follow Up On Your Ask

While asking for reviews from your customers is one of the best ways to get more reviews, it's helpful to ask more than once.

While your customers might agree to give reviews, they may forget it sometimes. Because let's face the fact: your customers are busy. They will fill out reviews only when they find the time.

That's why you should follow up with your customers regularly to fill up reviews. But don't bombard your customers with follow-up requests. Otherwise, it might fed them up and make them upset with your brand.

Design A Landing Page For Collecting Reviews

An excellent way to encourage customers to share their experiences with your brand is by creating a landing page dedicated to collecting customer reviews. The landing page can be created through a survey form, review generation software, or a review widget embedded on your official website.

Once the landing page is set up, you can develop a communications plan with your team to drive customers to this landing page after purchase to leave reviews. For example, you might want to include the link to this landing page in the email signature of the customer service team.

Image Source: GETitOUT.io

This is one of the most effective ways to ask for customer reviews. Email helps you to target your review requests based on customer loyalty and satisfaction and connect your request to a recent transaction.

Your email should direct the customers to a site where they can leave reviews. Make your ask short and personalized. Several customers prefer to send feedback through emails. So, extract quotes from customers' emails and showcase them on your website or in your marketing materials.

Image Source: REVIEWS.io

In this age of bite-sized reviews and voice dictation, it’s easier for your customers to write a review directly from their phone. This simply means that if you send a review request to your customers through SMS, it is highly likely that the customer will click through and even give a detailed review using voice dictation.

Research shows that the open rates of an SMS are 98% higher than the 20% open rates of emails. However, it is worth noting that crafting the request may be more time-consuming because of character limits, but it will yield strong results.

Image Source: EmbedSocial

Review Your Social Channels

If you review your social media pages, you will be surprised to see the organic feedback that your customers are already sharing. They offer positive quotes in the comments of your posts, so start finding out what these customers have to say.

When you find a compelling review, reach out to the customer and ask for permission to share the testimonial they have already written. This doesn’t require any extra effort from the customers, and it’s already out there for your prospective clients, but in an unorganized manner. So you only need to compile these reviews in an organized manner and ask for their permission.

REVIEW US TODAY! Help us improve our customer service by leaving a review on Google and Facebook. #keepitlocal #customerservice #customerfeedback #customer #reviewus pic.twitter.com/cxLnPMBdKm — Finewood (@finewooddoors) March 8, 2023

Are you tired of logging into each of your social media accounts individually to respond to comments and messages? Do you want to be able to monitor what people are saying about your brand online and respond in real time? Then SB Engage is the solution you have been looking for!

With SB Engage, you can manage all your incoming conversations from your favorite social media platforms in one place and respond to comments and messages directly from your inbox, so you never miss an opportunity to connect with your audience.

With our powerful reporting tools, you can ask for reviews wherever your customers leave positive feedback and track your progress over time.

Give Statusbrew a try and see the difference it can make for your business!

Conduct An Interview

You can also obtain reviews by interviewing your customers about your products, services, and overall experience with your brand. Some examples of questions you can ask your customers include:

• Can you share more about your experience with our brand so far?
• What made you decide to buy our product/services?
• Where did you hear about us?
• What was the most beneficial aspect of our product/services?
• Why would you recommend other users to use our product/services?

These open-ended interview questions will help you extract a review from your customer and guide them through the story-telling process.

You can even incentivize them in exchange for an interview, such as offering a discount, extending the free trial, free resources, etc. This would motivate them to get on an interview call with you and share their honest feedback.

Ask For Reviews In-app

Focus on creating in-app review prompts. Prioritizing in-app reviews will allow you to get more reviews as your users spend significantly more time using the app than on any review site and are also familiar with the platform.

Use different UI tools, such as banners, pop-ups, and slideouts, to create several types of engaging customer review surveys, including NPS (Net Promoter Score), CES (Customer Effort Score), and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score).

Image Source: Google Developers

On Review Sites

Another way to gather customer reviews is through review sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. Customers can leave their reviews and ratings on these sites. The reviews left on these sites can be seen by anyone who visits your business page on these sites.

Use Statusbrew For Review Generation & Management

Review generation tools can automate the process of requesting reviews from customers. You can also request reviews in bulk from these tools, making it easier to collect customer feedback and improve your online reputation. These tools even help you monitor and respond to customer reviews in real-time so that you can address any negative feedback as soon as possible and get the matter resolved at the earliest.

Statusbrew’s review management feature can help businesses like yours automate the process of collecting and managing customer reviews on different review platforms like Google My Business, Trip Advisor, Yelp, and more. You can easily request reviews from customers and even send bulk requests.

Statusbrew even allows you to monitor and respond to customer reviews in real-time, quickly addressing any negative feedback and maintaining a positive online reputation.

Here are some of how Statusbrew can help businesses generate more reviews, manage negative reviews, and turn them into positive ones:

Review Generation: Statusbrew's Engage feature lets businesses connect easily with customers on social and review platforms by consolidating all conversations in a unified inbox. Businesses can create custom messages and even templatize them to encourage customers to leave reviews on sites like Google My Business and Facebook.

Listening: Statusbrew's social listening feature allows businesses to create custom queries for keywords related to their brand or industry. By monitoring these keywords, businesses can identify opportunities to respond to positive feedback or address negative comments.

Comment Management: Businesses can use Statusbrew's comment moderation feature to prevent negative comments from razing their brand reputation on social media. They can choose to hide or delete spam comments and take the matter to private conversations for negative conversations.

Get started with Statusbrew’s review management feature today to enhance your customer feedback collection and management process.

Now that we have covered the right way to ask for reviews, let's also look at some strategies to avoid when trying to bolster your online reviews.

Don't Buy Reviews

You should not buy fake reviews ! Review sites like Google are pretty advanced and have numerous ways of detecting fraudulent behavior when it comes to online reviews. Be aware that you can be penalized, or your business listing could get canceled from the site for such behavior!

Don't Spam Customers for Reviews

Nothing will annoy your loyal customers more than spamming them with too many requests to get reviews. Repeatedly asking for reviews will make your customers prone to leaving your business with negative or inappropriate reviews. It can even take a happy customer and turn them into a sour one.

Don't Ask For A Specific Kind Of Review

While it's always good to make it easy for your customers to leave reviews and provide them with some samples and templates for inspiration, asking for a specific positive review or 5-star rating is not recommended. You shouldn't even ask your buyers to remove a negative review (although there are steps to outsmart fake negative feedback ).

How To Ask For Reviews On Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, & App Stores?

How to ask for review on google.

Step 1: Go to your Business Profile. Step 2: Select Customers -> Reviews -> Get more reviews. Step 3: Click the “Share review form” button Step 4: Share the link with your customers directly.

How To Ask For Reviews On Facebook?

Here’s how you can enable reviews on your Facebook Business Page:

Step 1: Log into your Facebook business page through the main administrator account and open the home page. Step 2: Click Settings from the left menu, then click Privacy in the left menu Step 3: Click Page and Tagging. Step 4: Toggle Allow others to view and leave reviews on your Page?

Send an email or text message asking your customers to leave a review and include a direct link to your Facebook business page so they can easily leave feedback.

How To Ask For Reviews On Trip Advisor?

Here's how you can get the link to the actual review page of Trip Advisor:

Step 1: Go to your TripAdvisor page. Step 2: Find the review section. Step 3: Click on the Write a review button. Step 4: Copy the URL or Website address in your web browser address bar.

Share this link with your customers and encourage them to share reviews on your Trip Advisor page.

How To Ask For Reviews On App Store & Google Play Store?

Asking for reviews from your customers on the App Store and Google Play Store is challenging, but the in-app review API and pop-up message can make it much easier.

You can display a pop-up message within your app asking users to leave a review on the App Store or Google Play Store. Ensure to include a clear and concise message that encourages them to provide feedback on their experience while using your app.

Using the in-app review API, you can prompt users to submit their ratings and reviews without leaving your app. This built-in feature provided by the Google Play Store allows users to rate and review your app on Play Store without leaving it.

Ready To Use Review Request Templates

Review request template for new customers.

Dear [Customer First Name], We are happy to hear you were satisfied with your recent [Product Name]. If you're happy with the purchase, please provide a brief review on our Google Business Page (add direct URL). Should you have any immediate feedback or concerns about your [Product Name], feel free to get back to us. Thank you for your time! [Email Signature]

Review Request Template For Repeat Customers

Hi [Customer First Name], Thanks for being a loyal customer. Will you be willing to write us a review? It should only take a couple of minutes and would make an immense difference to our company.* If you are willing, you can follow [Insert a link to add review] to submit your review. Thank you again for your business and time! [Email Signature]

After A Recent Purchase

Hey [Customer First Name], Thank you for your recent purchase of [Product/Service]! We are eager to know about your experience with us. You may leave us a review at [add direct URL to leave review]. We appreciate your time and thoughtful response. [Email Signature]

Ask New Users

Hey [Customer First Name], Thank you for doing business with us! As you have done business with us for the first time, we would love to hear about your first experience. So please leave us a review at [add direct URL to leave review]. We look forward to hearing your feedback. [Email Signature]

To Long-Term Customers

Hey [Customer First Name], You have been using our service for [X] years now, and we are happy to stay in touch with so long! We would be very grateful if you could share your experience at [add direct URL to leave review]. Thank you for being a loyal partner in our journey. [Email Signature]

Request From A Social Media Mentions

Hey [Customer First Name], We just saw your positive comment about our [Product/Service/Feature] on [Name Of Social Media Platform]. We are overjoyed to receive your comment, and thank you for mentioning us! We would really appreciate it if you could leave a review at [add direct URL to leave review]. Feel free to reach out with any questions. [Email Signature]

Request With An Incentive

Hey [Customer First Name], We are excited to offer you a [X]% discount on your next purchase. All you need to do is claim this offer by leaving a review at [add direct URL to leave review]. We look forward to you redeeming your offer! [Email Signature]

Customer reviews are powerful tools to build trust and support your marketing efforts. They can greatly impact a prospective customer's purchase decision and your business goals.

Now that you have a clear vision of how to ask for a review from customers effectively, it's time to start putting thoughts into action.

Take what you learn and put your efforts behind the best performers. That way, you will have positive customer reviews rolling in while your competitors are still trying to figure out how to ask for a review in the first place.

Need help tracking your online reviews on Google My Business, Google Play Store, App Store, Trip Advisor, TrustRadius, Yelp, and more? Sign up for a free demo with Statusbrew today to know how we can help! 👇

Statusbrew is an all-in-one social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and even Google My Business.

Here are some commonly asked questions on how to ask for an online review:

How do you politely ask for a review?

Request your customers to drop a review. Do not follow up on short intervals with your customers. Respect their time and make them understand why their reviews and feedback matter to your brand and other customers as well.

How do I ask for a review without sounding desperate?

Provide your customers with several options to drop in their feedback. Make writing a review simple for them. If possible, provide them with samples and templates of reviews that can help them write a review easily.

How to ask for a Google review?

Here's how to ask for a review on Google:

• Send an email to your customers
• Include a link to review or to your business page in the email itself
• Ask your customers at the right time
• Use a review management tool like Statusbrew to organize all reviews and respond to them quickly

How do you turn customers into brand advocates?

Use these tips to turn your customers into brand advocates:

• Improve customer service
• Ask for feedback
• Introduce a loyalty and referral program
• Keep them informed
• Build a community

How do you encourage customer feedback?

You can encourage customer feedback on your product/service through:

• Website feedback forms
• SMS surveys
• On your social media
• Asking them to review you on review sites

Rushali Das

Rushali is a content writer at Statusbrew. She is fond of writing content that compels people to slow down and look more closely to discover the unknown stories.

Explore the Statusbrew range of social media tools

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Blog Human Resources

21 Engaging Performance Review Examples [+ Tips From an HR Manager]

By Victoria Clarke , May 13, 2022

Performance review season can be a daunting period for both management and employees.

One-sided conversations, mixed messages and wordy documents leave both parties feeling like they have the same, stressful conversation each time.

But if you take the right approach, quarterly or annual performance reviews are an awesome opportunity to reinforce solid habits, redirect poor traits and drive professional growth for your employees.

In this post, I’ll give you tips from my own experience as an HR manager to make the performance review process a lot more painless, plus performance review examples you can customize now.

Performance review examples and advice:

What is a performance review.

• Useful performance review phrases

Performance review examples and templates

• Self performance review examples
• Quarterly performance review examples
• Annual performance review examples

Simple performance review examples

• What’s the purpose of a performance review?

How to write a performance review

A performance review is a regulated assessment in which managers evaluate an employee’s work performance to identify their strengths and weaknesses, offer feedback and assist with goal setting.

The frequency and depth of the review process may vary by company, based on company size and goals of the evaluations. It could be annually:

Or quarterly, to name a few:

Watch this quick, 14-minute video for performance review tips, templates and best practices:

This quarterly performance review example has sections for both achievements and areas of improvement. It also has a section for core values, as this must be a key performance indicator at this company. Different companies will have different measuring sticks for success.

Q: Can I customize the performance review templates in this post?

A: Yes, you can! All the templates are easy to edit. Some templates are free, some are paid.

Click any template and you’ll be asked to sign up for free. You’ll enter our online editor. Edit the text, apply your brand colors, add pages, upload your logo and more. Share a link for free.

Upgrade to our Plan for Professionals to download in PDF or PowerPoint format and access premium features and templates, such as real-time team collaboration and one-click branding.

Return to Table of Contents

Useful performance review phrases

Grappling with what to say at your next performance review? Choosing the right words is important to make the review as constructive as possible, not to mention motivating for your employee. Here’s a list of effective performance review phrases for managers and employees.

Performance appraisal comments for managers:

• She replies to calls, emails and instant messages in a timely manner (within 24 hours etc.)
• He has a talent for thinking outside the box.
• She tends to be risk-averse and prefers traditional approaches to creative ones.
• She maintains a culture of transparency in her team and encourages knowledge-sharing across all teams in the department.
• He consistently gives reports the training and resources needed to meet their goals.
• He is biased and openly favors some employees over others on his team.
• She is skillful in communicating difficult decisions and messages to her team.
• She creates chaos and miscommunication in her team by consistently communicating different messages to different reports.
• You embody a “win together lose together” philosophy.
• Your ability to reflect, plan and act is the key to your excellent performance.
• He uses his seniority to try to dominate and/or intimidate reports.
• He excels when working alone but has trouble working collaboratively with a team.
• He consistently meets his deadlines and prioritizes top goal work.
• She consistently focuses on lower-value work instead of high-lever activities.

Performance review phrases for employees:

• Can you tell me more about what you mean?
• I want to be sure I understand (your expectations).
• Let me give you a little more context here.
• What would it look like if I was performing at a top level?
• What would I need to do to score higher on this?
• Let’s discuss my goals and priorities for the the next quarter/year.
• Is there a way to get more frequent feedback about my performance between evaluations?
• How will I know if I’m on track between evaluations?

If you want to see a list of common skills you can comment on for your employees, check out this section .

To conduct an effective performance review, it’s important to deliver a positive and solution-focused message. This will be less discouraging to the employee.

This performance review example  shows how you can offer constructive feedback, while also praising the employee’s efforts. The majority of the sections focus on the employees’ achievements and strengths.

Suggested areas of improvement are positioned in the middle, letting managers cushion criticism with praise.

This appraisal example shows how managers can give constructive feedback to their employees by giving them clear direction on what things to keep doing and what actions to take in future.

While Felicia did not meet her goal, her manager acknowledges that the goal was set deliberately high and that 74 percent of the goal still has significant impact.

This employee review form also points to specific positive behavior, such as self-education, teamwork and a strong work ethic.

There are also specific recommendations for improvement, such as putting together a plan to get more press mentions and scaling her experiments.

Another way to do a performance review, or kick off the process, is to use a quadrant. Both the employee and manager can plot where they think the former falls on certain key values and build out discussion points from there.

You can change “get it done/get it right” in the employee review template below to “uphold core values/contribute to company culture” for example.

Self-performance review examples

In a self-performance review, employees assess themselves using the same rubric as their managers would and submit them to HR and/or their manager prior to their official review meeting.

The benefits of doing self-assessments have made them a common part of the employee review throughout many companies.

Self-assessments are an encouraging opportunity for employees to share their thoughts about their job, goals, desired responsibilities and aspects of either their role or environment that they may be struggling with.

Set employees up for success in the self-assessment process by giving them a robust employee evaluation form with thoughtful questions.

Annual self-evaluation employee review template

This first example is perfect for a thorough annual review. The targeted questions prompt the employee to reflect on their achievements and shortcomings, while also rating themselves on specific skill sets required for their job.

The above employee self-assessment example allows for multiple sign-offs, plus a section to list colleagues who can back up the employee’s statements.

Yearly performance self-evaluation templates

A yearly performance self-evaluation isn’t just a great chance for employees to assess their past performance.

It’s also a way for employees to plan for their professional future as they can see where their strengths lie and what skills they need to build to move up in the company. An annual self-evaluation can also build an employee’s case for their compensation review.

This employee self-evaluation form is broken into sections that cover all these factors: about your job, achievements, goals and professional development .

This yearly performance self-evaluation template has space to expand on goals met and alignment with core values, as well as skills they’d like to build in the future:

Self-assessment employee review forms

Many performance reviews are incredibly detailed. Sometimes, a higher-level overview is all that’s needed.

Quadrant evaluations, like the template below, are a great way for employees to do an assessment and for managers to quickly add their own evaluation, without getting into the weeds.

Employees can add what’s being evaluated in the easy-to-edit template below (instead of get it done/do it right). The employee adds an icon where they think they fall in the quadrant, and the manager does the same, with room on the last page to further break down the evaluation.

Sounds tough? Our real-time collaboration feature (part of the Business Plan ) lets both manager and employee work on the same doc online, leave comments, share private links and more.

The self employee review form below lets the employee write out their job description. That way, they can reference their deliverables in the Goals Achieved and Areas of Excellence sections and directly demonstrate their impact on the organization:

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Click any text box to change the words or the font. Choose from brand fonts (you can set this), template fonts or from our font library. There are plenty of modern options. This article on how to choose fonts can help you decide.

This self-performance review example gives employees the chance to reflect on their achievements on a quarterly basis.

This way, employees can demonstrate meeting quarterly goals. It can also give them a chance to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and have a chance to act on them before their big annual review:

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Want to change the background colors? Click any section and then select a new color from the color picker tool. You can choose from a color from the color wheel, one of your brand colors (use My Brand Kit to set this up) or pre-set template colors. Or enter a HEX code if you want to get super specific.

Self-assessments also help enlighten managers of how employees understand their place within the company’s organization and culture.  

The information disclosed in self-assessments should serve as a major element of official performance reviews in order to ensure that both a two-way conversation occurs and that the needs of both parties are being met moving forward. Looking for a better way to enhance employee engagement, to avoid quite boring meetings? Try out the top 14 inspiring games for virtual meetings , to learn how to add a live poll, word cloud, spinner wheel or even live Q&A sessions to elevate your presentation!

To make for the most effective self-assessments, employees should be sure to consider how their managers’ perceptions of their performance varies from their own.  

With this in mind, the information shared in a self-assessment can guide or pivot a manager’s perception and assessment of an employee’s performance .

Quarterly employee performance review templates

Quarterly reviews are important because they provide multiple opportunities for employees to receive helpful feedback on how to improve as the year progresses.

This quarterly performance review example reflects on specific areas of improvement, such as scaling her experiments and developing content partnerships.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Want to add a text box? Click “Text” in the left-hand navigation bar. Drag the text box you want onto the canvas (“Text” is good for body copy). Then, click the text box and start typing!

Quarterly reviews from Q1 to Q3 serve as a means of providing specific, deliberate feedback to employees so they know exactly how to improve on their goals and skills.  

This enables the final, annual evaluation conducted at the end of Q4 to serve as a final assessment that will have the most weight in determining how the employee will excel into the next year, discretionary bonuses, salary increases, etc.

Quarterly reviews offer a documented and tracked record of an employee’s progress throughout the year.

This means that each quarter should be assessed using the same rubric throughout the entire year. This will aid in ensuring an accurate representation of an employee’s development is recorded.

That means, if you use the below employee review template in Q1, you should also use it again in Q2 and Q3:

Quarterly employee review template

This quarterly review template is a more condensed version of the example above.

If you’d like to keep your quarterly reviews short and to the point, this template will suffice. Employers can then use the expanded version above for their annual review.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Want to change the text? Click any text box to open the text toolbar above the canvas. From here, change the alignment and size, add bold or italic styling and add numbering or bullet points, too. It behaves just like any other text editor you’ve used before, so it’s simple to learn.

If you want a template that’s filled with useful information on the types of performance review phrases you can use for a quarterly review, you can edit the one below:

Employee self-evaluation sample answers

It’s also important for employees to comment and reflect on their reviews.

They can both point out specific milestones that were missed:

• I generated five new leads and, as a result, I exceeded my sales quota by 20%
• I wrote a blog post based on original research that doubled our organic traffic in June

And also to acknowledge areas of improvement:

• I recognize that I need to form new content partnerships. I plan to do so in Q3 by putting together a list of 10 potential targets based on past linkbuilding partners and sending a customized pitch email.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Want to add your logo to the top of this template? Click the “My Brand Kit” tab in the editor. You can import your logo from your website. Drag and drop it onto the canvas. You’re done!

Annual performance review templates

At large organizations, there may not be enough resources in order to devote the time needed to conduct quarterly performance reviews for every employee.  

This is also true in the case of a supervisor who has a large number of direct reports working for them whereby time management is their main issue.  

In these situations, an annual performance review would work best, especially if the employees being evaluated are experienced in their line of work and have been with their company for a long time.

Annual employee performance review templates

In this employee review template, staff are evaluated on only four factors: ability, goals, areas of improvement, and core values:

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Change the background quickly by clicking the “Background” tab in the left-hand navigation bar. Choose from your brand colors or pre-set template colors. Add a gradient or pattern, if you like. Click “Undo” at any time to fix a mistake.

Annual evaluations are typically geared towards determining employee raises and discretionary bonuses.  

Regular one-on-one meetings between direct reports and managers throughout the course of the year would be a great way to supplement this process.

This annual employee review template can simply include scores (out of 100 etc.) in each box. Or put notes in each section to explain the overall performance score.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. You can move any element in our templates just by clicking it and holding. Drag the text box, column, row, image etc. to a new spot. Change the size by grabbing a corner of the bounding box and making it bigger or smaller. It’s as simple as drag and drop.

This being said, annual appraisals would need to take a more general approach to evaluating employees than just providing a summary of their performance over the year.

The following employee review template takes a graphic approach and neatly summarizes overall performance using a score out of 100 for factors such as adaptability and project quality:

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. The charts in this template can easily be changed to fit your stats. Click any chart and our chart editor will open. For example, you could click the blue donut Aptitude chart and enter the number “60.” The chart will automatically adjust. It’s that easy.

Employee evaluation examples

Aside from the categories in the template above, there are a number of other factors that employers can use to evaluate performance.

Common performance review skills:

• Interpersonal skills
• Quality of work
• Communication
• Problem solving
• Adaptability
• Punctuality and attendance
• Self-education and learning
• Accountability

Even if you want to do a basic performance review, you should always include:

• Elements of the employee’s strengths.
• Areas for which the employee can develop.
• How the employee contributes/could contribute to the company’s core values and culture through performance and actions.

This performance review mind map shows the basics for setting up a simple yet effective performance review–from setting specific goals to soliciting employee feedback.

A simple performance review should still reflect the goals of your business’s performance review management system —and this will vary by company.

It’s important to understand the purpose of your assessment before determining what information will be required to assess in order to meet the goal.

For example, some smaller companies may use performance reviews throughout the year to track employees’ development and growth.

While other, larger companies may use performance reviews to summarize employee performance, help to calculate the priorities of the new year, adjust compensation or establish bonus amounts.

An HR checklist can come in handy to streamline the process.

Simple employee review template

Each of these simple employee review templates are easy to edit in our online editor. Customize the text to match your own criteria, add your brand colors, upload your logo, add or delete pages and then share a private link or download in PDF or PowerPoint formats ( Business Plan only ).

This template uses quadrants to see how employee and manager evaluations match. Or only use it for self-assessments or manager assessments.

Simple performance review template

This more traditional performance review template focuses only on big categories, like meeting goals, areas of excellence and areas of improvement.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. Click the “My Brand Kit” tab to add your brand colors with one click (we’ll grab them automatically from your website). Or try one of our custom color palettes. Click “Shuffle” to try different color combinations.

Simple employee review form

The below form is an even more condensed version of the above. Use it for a quarterly review to keep things focused or even for an annual review to help you and your report stick to the most important points. Change the text to include your own categories of evaluation.

How Do I Customize This Template? Click the template, sign up for free and enter the Venngage editor. If you need to add new text boxes, open the “Text” tab and drag a text box onto the canvas. The text box will resize as you type.

What’s the purpose of a performance review?

At Venngage, our people are at the core of everything we do as a business—whether it’s developing new features on our tool, growing our international reach or meeting customer needs.

With a people-focus within our company, we are passionate about continuous learning and improvement, self-reflection, creating great customer experiences , owning our jobs, teamwork and making our office feel like a second home

It should come as no surprise that our leadership team spends a considerable amount of time at the end of each quarter conducting performance reviews with each of their direct reports.

Here are some things we’ve learned about how to conduct effective performance reviews:

• Make it clear at the beginning of a new hire’s employment how and when employees will be evaluated. This should be part of your onboarding process  and is especially important if you’re managing a remote team .
• Allow employees to prepare for their review by completing a self-assessment prior to their appraisal, then allow the employee to walk their manager through the reasoning behind their self-assessment.
• Deliver a positive and solution-focused message (whenever possible), this will result in a less discouraging message.

To make the most of the actual review conversation with your employee, it’s important to avoid:

• General, vague feedback; be specific on which behaviors you want your employee to continue, stop and explore.
• Making it personal; feedback is about actions and behavior , not the person.
• Loaded language; focus on asking what and how , not why . Enquiring why someone acted the way they did is akin to searching for a ‘motive’ and may come across as accusatory.

Having an employee-friendly performance review process can not only make or break the development of your employees but also disrupt the relationship between managers and their reports.  

Beyond creating a robust performance review strategy and performance review form, managers must also consider their delivery of the appraisals. Communicating a performance review effectively is the final touch to executing a constructive, celebratory and effective review process.

When creating an effective assessment, it’s important to include the following:

• Calculate an overall rating for the employee; although a manager will be highlighting both the strengths and weaknesses of an employee’s behavior , it will aid the employee’s morale to communicate how the employee averaged on this rating scale.
• Ensure the employees are engaged in their own reviews; thus, be sure to include the employees’ goals and developments toward reaching such goals in the assessments .
• Celebrate employees improvements; highlighting an employees’ developments are a powerful way to impact employee engagement and boost overall team performance .
• Company culture and values; dedicate a section of the assessment to evaluate how employees align with the company’s core values thus contributing to a positive company culture .

Based on my involvement in building out our own effective performance review process at Venngage, I suggest taking the following steps into consideration when constructing a performance review:

1. Set expectations early

Early in an employee’s career with a company, managers should communicate the details of their review process including the expectations. It should be included in your employee handbook , for example.

In this way, managers set and communicate clear expectations of the key job functions and competencies of the role when an employee joins the company. The information presented in performance reviews should align with this define as well as use familiar language and terms. This strategy will work to eliminate any potential confusion or surprises for both parties.  

2. Don’t make it personal

Feedback is about actions and behavior, not the person.

When writing a performance review, it helps to take a look at the issue(s) you’ve included and ensure that they apply to actions and behavior of the employee rather than the personal attributes of said employee.

This will also help to regulate the information mentioned in the review, to guarantee it is relevant and appropriate information.

3. Beware of biases and limitations

While there may be a general ‘right’ way of doing things, there are often multiple — and equally good — ways to reach the same end goal.  

Please ensure your review is not biased or limited in favor of your personal work style and beliefs. Try to consider the various aspects of the employees role and experience that may impact their decision to pursue alternative methods or working habits. Be empathetic towards these factors when writing your review.

4. Be specific

The information presented in the review should be task-focused, clear and to the point.

General comments will leave an employee feeling confused and in the dark as to what aspect of their work needs to be corrected or how they can pursue improvements.  

Failing to be direct in your messaging will impact the way your message is received and create further confusion about what the expectations are. Managers should be specific on what behaviors of their employees they are celebrating and what actions require improvements.

4. Offer guidance

Managers play a critical role in understanding the career goals of their employees and crafting development opportunities to help their reports achieve their goals.  

It is important as a manager to offer your advice and expertise to your employees to help further their development.

If, as a result of the feedback given, the employee (or yourself) may feel as though they need additional training, consider the benefit of workshops, mentoring or coaching.  

Be sure to use performance reviews as a way to guide employees whether it is toward further greatness or for areas requiring some improvement.  

5. Follow up

Follow up in writing and check in continuously to ensure improvement.

Both managers and employees should receive a copy of the review to refer back to moving forward.

Whether reviews are scheduled annually or quarterly, they should be a continuous topic of discussion for both managers and employees. When writing a review, ensure that the review is clear and specific. Being mindful of this will help to ensure the employee can easily refer back to the form on their own after the meeting.

Related: How to Write a Performance Review That Inspires Growth (With Examples & Templates)

Create a performance review strategy before writing an employee’s review

Having an employee-friendly performance review process can not only make or break the development of your employees and but also disrupt the relationship between managers and their reports.

That’s why it’s crucial to create a robust performance review strategy and employee evaluation form before implementation to ensure the process is both constructive, celebratory and effective. This will even help you in the future if you choose to write a letter of recommendation for the employee as you’ll have all his performance reviews to reference.

By considering the six steps above when writing a performance review, you’ll have completed the final step in executing an employee-friendly review process.

The satisfaction gained from an increase in employee engagement and people power will make the effort expended on administering performance reviews entirely worthwhile, and ensure you have more effective reviews moving forward.

Take notes of the effective performance review phrases you can use during any of review sessions, as well as creating a visually appealing assessment using Venngage performance review templates. It’s free to get started.

You might also like:

10+ employee evaluation templates to sail through review season.

17 Essential Human Resources Poster Templates (Updated)

How to Write an Effective Incident Report [Incident Report Examples + Templates]

• Reputation Management , Review Management , Review Monitoring

11 Review Response Templates For Great Reviews

• Andrew McDermott
• December 9, 2019

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This post was updated: 3/30/2023

A good review deserves a worthy response.

If a happy customer decides to leave you an amazing review due to a successful email review request , you’re going to need to respond in some way.

If you respond well, these reviews can easily become evergreen tools that spur more and more customers to respond in kind. The first step in being able to celebrate your happy customers is knowing that the positive review was published by monitoring reviews .

What’s an appropriate way to respond to great reviews?

We’re going to look at several examples now, taking a closer look at the positive review responses that make a praiseworthy review even better.

Let’s dive in.

First, you need to know your review elements

Understanding the components of a positive review is essential to crafting a review response that builds on your existing success.

A positive review has (at least) four essential components:

• Experience . The overall experience customers have with an individual business. This can be positive, neutral or negative. A customer’s experience is largely guided by unseen factors (e.g. psychological health, mental schemas , past experiences and met/unmet expectations).
• Response . A business’ positive, neutral or negative response to a customer’s experience. This is essentially boiled down to a simple idea: “ When X happened, [company] responded by doing Y. “
• Helpfulness . This measures the helpfulness of a particular review. Does the reviewer offer clear and concise details outlining their experience or events? Is it easy for readers to reconstruct a customer’s experience in their own mind?
• Advice . What sort of advice does the reviewer offer? Is it offered to the business, management, specific employees or to readers reading their review?

These aren’t requirements (obviously). But, they’re details you should keep in mind when responding to a particular customer’s positive review.

Another thing to keep in mind?

Every business is different. Every business has its own approach, culture, tone and voice when it comes to reputation management .

This means that you’re going to need to take the time to customize these review responses for your business. The idea here is to treat these positive review response templates (and their negative counterparts ) as a framework or general guide for your team and less like a script that absolutely must be followed.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at our first review response.

Review response template #1: The happy/unhappy customer

The happy/unhappy customer is mostly happy. They’ve left a positive (four or five star) review. But there are still a few sticking points these altruistic customers feel compelled to share.

Here’s an example:

A glowing review isn’t always full of flattery and praise.

Sometimes, it’s the opposite.

Sometimes an amazing review has elements that are disappointing or discouraging to the business owner. Businesses often make the mistake of ignoring these minor details in their review response, choosing to focus exclusively on the positives.

This is a mistake.

Here are three templates you can use to respond to your happy/unhappy customers.

Template #1:

Dear [ Reviewer Name ],

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. We want you to feel comfortable sharing good or bad news with us. I’m so sorry that your [ visit/experienc e ] with us fell short of expectations. I also want to thank you for giving us a chance to make things right.

We’re using your feedback to make some important changes:

[ Specific yet concise list of changes ]

I’m pleased we were able to make things better and I hope we see you again soon.

[ Manager name | contact number ]

Template #2: 

Dear [Reviewer Name],

Thanks so much for the chance to make things right. We’re disappointed to learn that your previous [visit/experience] did not meet your expectations. Thanks to your openness, we’re making the following changes to our staff policies. 

[Specific yet concise list of changes]

I’m pleased we were able to turn things around for you; please reach out to me directly if you ever have any issues or concerns in the future. 

[Manager name | contact number]

Template #3: 

You shouldn’t have had this experience with us. It’s disappointing and upsetting news, but I’m thankful that we had the chance to change circumstances for the better. Thank you for your trust, and your willingness to share your experience with us. 

Here are the changes we’re making to prevent this from happening in the future. 

If there’s anything else we can do to make this right, please let us know.

Why it works:

This template uses a few specific ingredients to boost reader trust, credibility and admiration even further. Let’s look at how you did it:

• You thanked them for sharing. This isn’t easy to do, it can be stressful and difficult for customers to be open and honest.
• Acknowledgment and empathy. Your review response didn’t invalidate, omit or ignore your customers problem. Your response faces it head on, acknowledging mistakes were made. Think maximum empathy and zero excuse making.
• Ownership and acceptance. These responses weren’t argumentative. They didn’t look for ways to save face, manipulate the situation, or save face; there was no Darvo . These responses started with taking ownership.
• Action steps and specificity. You’re showing reviewers and potential customers that (a.) You’re trustworthy and interested in their business and (b.) You’re eager and willing to do what it takes to take care of them.

See what I did there?

Review response template #2: Happy but difficult to please

Some customers are difficult to please.

This customer gave the hotel a four-star rating. It’s still a great review but a large portion of it is centered around details the hotel had no idea about and weren’t given the opportunity to fix.

You’ve most likely experienced this.

You do everything right for your customer. Everything is done by the book. Your customer seemingly has a positive experience but still refuses to give you the full five stars.

It happens.

Here are three templates you can use to respond to these “happy and satisfied” customers.

Template #1: 

It was a pleasure serving you [ and your family ]. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and being so open with us.

I’m glad you felt [ reiterate positives they mentioned ].

We hope you’ll come and see us again soon!

Template #2

Thank you for the opportunity to serve [you and your family]. I also want to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughtful review. We appreciate your trust. 

I’m happy we were able to [reiterate positives they mentioned].

We’re grateful for your support, and we hope you’ll stop in and see us again soon! 

Template #3

Thanks so much for your kind words! Your support means the world to us. We appreciate your support, and we’re thankful for your trust. 

I’m glad you felt we [reiterate positives they mentioned]. I’ll be sure to let the team know. 

Please stop by any time you’re in town. We hope to see you again soon!

This is the time to ignore the details you can’t (or shouldn’t) try to control. If you’re dealing with a positive yet slightly unreasonable customer, this will be evident in their review. There’s no need for you to point it out. There’s no need to argue or become defensive with your reviewer.

Choose gratitude instead.

Make a note about this particular customer in your CRM system. Tag them, then be sure to go above and beyond the next time you see them.

Review response template #3: The customer evangelist

Your customer evangelists are true believers. You have an extended relationship with these customers. They love, admire and engage with your business on a regular basis.

Give them what they need.

Their need is implicit, you hold a special place in their hearts so it’s important that you show them they hold a special place in yours .

Here are three templates you can use to do just that:

[ Reviewer Name ], it’s always a pleasure seeing you. Thanks so much for your [ positive feedback ] and good vibes. You’ve always taken the time to [ memory of something good they’ve done ].

We’re happy that you’re happy, and we’re looking forward to your next visit.

Hurry back!

Template #2:

[Reviewer Name]! 

You’re the best! It was great to see you again. Thanks for the [positive feedback] and support. You’ve always been [generous and kind]. It’s always a pleasure having you visit.  

We’re happy to see you, and we’re looking forward to your next visit.

Don’t be a stranger! 

Template #3:

[Reviewer Name], you’re always so thoughtful and kind, it’s truly a pleasure taking care of you and your family when you visit. [ compliment or supportive comment].

My door’s always open to you, stop by or call anytime. If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.

See you soon!

This reviewer shows their customer relationship with you isn’t like all the others. They know, like and trust you. They’re fans of your business and they depend on you. There’s a real relationship here. Ignoring their review is a serious missed opportunity.

It’s far more likely to produce hurt.

Take the time to acknowledge your customer evangelists whenever and wherever you can. Make continual deposits in your relationship bank and relationships with these evangelists will continue to blossom.

Review response template #4: The professional reviewer

This reviewer isn’t like your average reviewer. These reviewers are diverse – entrepreneurs, bloggers, or a customer with a considerable amount of clout. It could be an influencer or power broker.

These reviewers have one of three things (1.) reach or access to a considerable amount of people in your target audience (2.) an active and engaged audience of their own or (3.) the ability to connect with millions of other people on a powerful, established or well known platform.

This requires a nuanced, multi-faceted approach.

Here are three templates you can use with these professionals:

Thanks very much for your balanced and fair review of [ business name ]. I’m glad you felt [ positive detail from their review ] was well done. It’s something we’ve worked hard on and we’re pleased our efforts resonated with you.

I also want to thank you for your feedback and criticisms. We’ve taken your thoughts to heart and we’re planning on making some internal changes based on your recommendations.

I appreciate your kind words and professional demeanor and look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

You’ve brought up some key points in your review. Your feedback is balanced, fair, and precise. We took a risk with [positive detail from their review], so I’m glad it met your expectations. It’s something we’ve worked hard on, and we’re happy to see it made an impact.

Your critique is also clear, concise, and fair. I’ve shared your feedback with the team, and we’re making specific changes based on your comments. I’d like to share this feedback with you when it’s available (my contact info is listed at the end of my review). 

Thank you for your evaluation, it’s always encouraging when it’s based on genuine pros and cons you’ve experienced directly. Thank you for your kind words and professional demeanor.

Warm regards,

Thank you for your balanced and fair review. I appreciate the time you took to evaluate our [products/services]. I also want to thank you for your criticisms. You’ve shared important details with us that I think we missed previously.

Please let me know if you have any additional feedback or concerns. We welcome any additional information that helps us to improve.

If you’re dealing with a professional there’s a good chance they’re using social media to promote their work. You can share your direct messages, status updates or tweets with them directly. Be sure to add a link to your full response (see above), like this:

.@[ twitter handle ] thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback with us. We’re grateful for your honest feedback and we’re glad you feel we’re on the right track! [ li.nk/t0yo45c0n7ent ]

The reality here is it’s all about gratitude. Even if you paid for positive exposure gratitude is still the appropriate response to their review. These professionals didn’t have to write a positive review. They didn’t have to share their honest feedback with you.

But they did.

They took the time out of their busy schedule to build your organization up. To spread the word about the great things you’re doing for those you serve.

Respond with gratitude.

Meet these professionals where they are whether they’re on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Post your long form response to their reviews on your website as a blog post or a comment to their review. Accept their gift, then give some more.

Find a tangible way to say thank you.

It could be a card, a nice bottle of wine or an inexpensive gift delivered to them after the fact.

Review response template #5: Fear, Felt, Found

These customers arrive with baggage. Their baggage comes from one of three sources.

• Past experiences. This could be their experience or someone else’s. Maybe they were burned by a similar business in the past. Or they were forced to deal with an empty promise.
• Perceptions is another name for bias. When it comes to buying and selling, we all have biases (e.g., used car salespeople are crooks). They’re simply a reflection of the thoughts, beliefs and expectations that are buried in our subconscious. These perceptions shape behavior. Sometimes they create fear.
• Inexperience (or a need to know). When you’re buying something new for the first time there’s a fear of the unknown. What if this goes wrong? What if things don’t turn out the way I expect? Inexperienced customers arrive with questions and concerns. When sellers run from these questions and concerns, customer fears grow.

Here are three examples of fear, felt, found.

Experiences like yours are far too common. I’m so glad we were able to help you feel comfortable. I’m also happy that we were able to help you resolve your problem.

I’ll be sure to relay your message to [ employee ].

Thanks for placing your trust in us and your willingness to share.

I have to admit we were shocked when we read your story. If we had experiences like yours, I imagine we’d feel the same way you do. This makes your willingness to trust us even more extraordinary. I want to thank you for sharing the information we needed to put you at ease. I’m so happy you had a positive experience with us. 

I’ll be sure to relay your message to [employee].

Thanks for your support and your openness with us. It means so much.

I’m so sorry you experienced the trauma and fear you did. Thank you for sharing your story with us and showing us how to take good care of you. I’m so happy we were able to help you feel comfortable, address the issues you came to us with, and relieve the fear and tension you felt.

Thanks so much for your trust, it means so much to us. 

You’ve acknowledged their fear, feelings and previous experience. That’s huge because it’s something many customers are willing to do. Thanking them discreetly boosts psychological it also increases openness and honesty.

Review response template #6: The conscientious objector

This is similar to the “happy but difficult to please” and “happy/unhappy customer.” What sets this reviewer apart is the fact that they’re focused on one of these six common objections.

• Price : Too expensive, I can get it cheaper, etc.
• Complacent : We don’t need to purchase this yet, we can put this off a bit longer
• Distrust : Have you done this before? What happens if you…?
• Politics : Your customer has another company in mind, but they’re using you to gain leverage.
• Timing : Can you come in again in X months? (Then they string you along indefinitely)
• Disinterest : Send me some information and I’ll look it over.

Here are three templates you can use to respond to these customers:

We’re happy you had a fantastic time with us!

Thanks for your trust, we’re thankful for amazing customers like you.

We hope to see you again soon!

We’re honored and thankful for your support. We’re so happy that you enjoyed yourself. 

Thanks so much for your kind words and the compliments..

Come again soon! 

Thank you for your generous words and thoughtful review. 

We’re thankful for your support and your willingness to spread the word.

It means so much!

These review response templates are very subtle.

These reviews are gold mines. They sell customers on your business in a way that no salesman can. These customers acknowledge their objections, defuse these objections and advocate for your business.

You’re thanking them for their visit, for the opportunity to serve them, for their trust and for being an amazing customer. You’re also inviting them back for another visit in the future — you’re reinforcing the fact that you’re trustworthy and the fact that your customers are well behaved.

It’s a subtle way to create the kind of experience you’re looking for.

For Agencies Only: Learn how to craft an irresistible sales pitch, win more clients, and drive agency growth with our Review Management Revenue Generator guide. 

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Review response template #7: the comparison shopper.

Comparison shoppers aren’t focused on your business.

They’re focused on your product, service, pricing or offers. They want to make sure they’re getting the highest quality product and the best deal.

These customers may have given you a positive review but they aren’t as loyal and it shows in the review. Here’s a review template you can use to respond to these customers.

[ Reviewer Name ], I’m happy you’re pleased with the results and that we were able to help. If there’s anything else we can do to help, please let us know

This review response is short, sweet and to the point.

This review response template focuses on the details that matter most to you. It doesn’t bring up the comparison-shopping because it’s not a great way to attract ideal customers. That’s important if you’re looking to minimize comparison-shopping.

If you’re not in the business of attracting bargain hunters, minimize bargain-hunting discussion on your end.

Response template #8: The altruistic reviewer

These customers are simply about reporting the facts as they see them. Their focus is on helping others – prospective buyers who are interested in an unbiased account of their experience with you.

See what I mean?

It’s not about you so much as it is about your customers. Here are three templates you can use to respond to these reviews:

[ Reviewer Name ] , thanks so much for your thoughtful and detailed review. This is incredibly helpful. I wanted to let you know we’ve taken the good and the bad elements you’ve mentioned in your review to heart.

Here are some changes we’ll be making based (in part) on your feedback:

[ concise list of changes ]

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us. We’re grateful for customers like you.

[Reviewer Name], you know us so well! Thank you for taking the time to write this thoughtful and detailed review. I’d like you to know that I’ve shared your feedback with the team; we’re making changes internally, based in part, on your feedback. 

Here are some changes we plan on making:

[concise list of changes]

Thank you again for your openness and your willingness to share your experience. Even if it’s bad news, it’s good news to know. 

[Reviewer Name], thank you for your detailed review. You’re a regular, so it helps that you’re taking the time to share your feedback with others. I want to let you know that we’ve taken the good and the bad portions you mentioned in your review to heart.

Here’s what I’d like to do to improve. 

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us. We’re grateful for your trust. 

You’ve expressed gratitude, but you’ve also shared some facts of your own. This shows your reviewer and your customers that you take their account seriously and you’re willing to act on it.

It’s an easy way to attract more customers and reviewers.

Review response template #9: Storytellers

Storytellers leave amazing, story-driven reviews that draw customers in. Here’s a review of the product Poo Pourri:

This story, for a hygiene product, has a beginning, middle and end. It has problems, and it has compassion. It’s a fantastic way to attract, hold and convert customer attention.

Here are three review response templates you can use:

[ Reviewer Name ] , your story is incredible; thank you for sharing that with us! It’s wonderful that [ product ] has made such a difference for you.

One part that really stood out to me was [ quote from their story ].

Would it be alright if we shared your story with our team here?

Thanks for your trust.

[Reviewer Name], that’s so sweet of you! It’s wonderful that you go out of your way to take good care of Mom. We’re happy that we get to be a (small) part of your story. 

Can we share your story with our team and other customers? 

It’s a touching story.

Oh no! That’s terrible! I’m sorry that [your mom] experienced that, but I’m thankful that we were able to help. Has everything worked out the way you expected? We definitely want to make sure mom is taken care of. 

This response acknowledges the key parts of your customer’s story. It reinforces the captivating portions of their story, increasing goodwill with your reviewer, future customers and your business.

Review response template #10: Comedians

These customers are true comedians. They craft reviews that attract a significant amount of attention and goodwill.

This customer’s story is hilarious, but it’s even better when you’re able to match your customer’s tone and voice. Here are three examples to show you what I mean:

What fart? 😉 [ Play on the joke ]

[ Reviewer Name ] is one of our best (and freshest) customers. It’s easy to be a professional when you have clients like [ Reviewer Name ].

Stop by any time [ Reviewer Name ].

I couldn’t smell a thing. 😉 [Play on the joke]

[Reviewer Name] is one of our best (and freshest) customers. He’s a sharp, witty cat who puts us at ease. 

Stop by anytime! 

Silent but never deadly.. 😉 [Play on the joke]

[Reviewer Name] is a smooth cat, he’s always prepared and always clean. It’s a pleasure working with the Fresh Prince.    

Here when you need us. 

Your customer’s funny review needs to be the star. An effective review response should amplify your customer’s review, making them look even better. You’ll also want to make sure that your review doesn’t insult, humiliate, challenge, scold or bully your customer.

It requires a significant amount of care.

Review response template #11: Hyperbolic reviewer

These customers are passionate about your product or service. They’re prone to hyperbole and exaggeration when they describe your product or service.

These customers aren’t lying when they use descriptors like greatest, best ever, cleanest, nicest, etc. They’re telling the truth. The only problem with their review is the fact that it’s completely subjective.

Why is that a bad thing?

Remember what it was like when someone raved about a product, service or experience? They built the experience in your mind up so high that reality failed to deliver.

The disappointment was inevitable.

You’re in a similar situation. Here are three templates you can use to respond to these reviews:

Wow [ Reviewer Name ]! It sounds like you had a [ good ] time with us.

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. It means so much when our best customers share their experiences.

I’m glad we were able to meet your expectations!

[Reviewer Name], that’s amazing! 

I’m so glad we were able to meet your expectations. We’re happy you’re happy! 

If there’s anything else we can do for you, please let us know. 

[Reviewer Name], we’re blown away! 

We’re happy to hear that we met your expectations! It means so much to us that we were able to take good care of you. 

We hope to see you again soon! 

This response template conveys gratitude, but it downplays the hyperbolic statements made by your customer. This is important because it minimizes buyer’s remorse. It’s also a subtle way to decrease refunds and control customer expectations coming in.

What if these don't work?

What if these review responses don’t strike quite the right tone or voice with customers? Is there anything you can do to craft an appropriate, relationship building response?

Absolutely.

Focus on a formula.

Review response = Gratitude x (Mirroring + Feedback + Specificity)

Let’s break this down.

Your review response is made up of four distinct components.

• Gratitude : This creates psychological safety, improves your customer’s schema, gives them peace of mind and improves their willingness to share more in the future. Everything in your response should be dipped or slathered in gratitude. It’s a must.
• Mirroring : This conveys empathy. It tells your customers you hear, understand and accept them. That they will be heard in the future. This provides them with a deep sense of satisfaction, that all’s right with the world (at least temporarily).
• Feedback : This calibrates your customer’s expectations. If your customers have fuzzy, implicit or unrealistic expectations , your feedback calibrates and tames these unruly expectations. Your feedback should be factual and free from negative, condemning or accusatory statements. Your feedback is designed to create alignment between you, reviewers and future incoming customers.
• Specificity : Weasel words, vague statements and glittering generalities amplify distrust. Specificity is the antidote to these trust killers. With specificity, you’re able to draw a clear line in the sand, outlining the specific who, what, when, where, why and how of your circumstances with your customers. Specificity builds trust.

Use this formula to craft the perfect response to a positive review.

These components give you the tools you need to give your responses structure and impact without coming off as pretentious, disinterested or ungrateful. It gives you the foundation you need to improve your relationship with your reviewers and new customers visiting your business for the first time.

Which is precisely the kind of response your business needs, especially when you’re generating great reviews.

Avoid these mistakes. Don't ruin a great review.

When customers vouch for you, they take a risk. 

When they go out of their way to write a great review for your business, they’re publicly stating that they’ve used your products and services, support your business, and are willing to back you up. 

It’s a big deal. 

Why do businesses go out of their way to frustrate their happy customers? No one in their right mind would make these mistakes if they knew what was on the line, right? 

Take a look at this review. 

So what does this 5-star review tell us? 

• This was a long-term customer (since 1990)
• Something went wrong, and they walked away from this business
• 10 years later, this customer decides to give them another shot
• She’s billed for services she didn’t receive during Covid but sticks by the gym anyway

Okay then. 

Let’s take a look at her most recent review. 

So let me get this straight. The customer who was cheated but returned after a 10-year hiatus, wrote a five-star review, and paid for services and access she didn’t receive during Covid is rewarded for her loyalty by being asked to pay more for the services she already paid for? 

This is no good. 

This is the kind of behavior I’m talking about. 

This is still kind of vague. 

Here’s a more precise list of the offenses that sour a customer’s experience. 

• Asking customers for more money or favors 
• Ignoring the good things (loyalty, kindness, support, favors, etc.) they’ve done for you
• Completely ignoring their feedback or reviews 
• Arguing with them over details in their review 
• Demanding that they change their review or do something for you
• Responding to their heartfelt review with corporate-speak
• Not respecting their role in your business
• Neglecting customers who’ve given your business, product, or service a positive review 
• An inconsistent experience; your customers are treated poorly the next time they visit
• Compensating customers for their review

Did you see it? 

The issue at the heart of this list? 

It’s expectations. 

When customers take the time to write a five-star review, they’re committed. These customers have self-identified as loyalists. That’s a problem if the company they’ve reviewed refuses to acknowledge them as loyalists. 

Here’s why that’s a problem. 

Loyal customers are better than ‘customers.’

These customers have high expectations. What sort of expectations are we talking about here? 

• Fidelity. Customers don’t want you to cheat on them. They want to be included in the big decisions you make, and they want you to ask for permission. If they’ve committed to you, they expect you to make the same kind of commitment to them. This isn’t a thing they state openly; it’s something they expect you to understand implicitly. 
• Ownership. With loyalists, your business becomes “our business.” Customers throw a collective tantrum when you make drastic changes to the product or service they’ve come to love without their permission. When movie studios changed the design of Sonic the Hedgehog, fans were outraged . The same thing happened to Google when they changed their logo. Users hated it . 
• Stability. Customers want a stable relationship they can count on. They want to know you’ll continue to provide them with the care, guidance, and protection they expect. DuckDuckGo billed itself as the champion of privacy and free speech. They always stated that they “don’t track you.” All of that changed in 2022 when they allowed Microsoft to use trackers on users’ browsers by default without their consent . DuckDuckGo pulled the rug out from under their users.
• Consistency. Customers want you to be consistent, to stay true to who you are. In 2011 Netflix decided to increase its prices by 60%, spin off its DVD business, and call it “Qwikster.” The internet lost its mind, and customers let the company know they were unhappy. CEO Reed Hastings said, “Qwikster became the symbol of Netflix not listening.”

What does this have to do with writing a response to great reviews? 

Everything. 

Great reviews are a journey, not a destination. If you want to keep your great reviews, you’ll need to meet the implicit expectations your happy customers have above. 

No pressure. 

The amazing five-star reviews you receive from your customers aren’t free. As we’ve seen, they come with expectations. Customers expect you to fulfill your end of the (unspoken) deal. Your customers deserve it; they’re loyalists, after all.

A good review deserves a worthy response

It’s a high status way to acknowledge your customer’s contribution. A positive and appropriate response to a thoughtful review that you’ve earned from a well designed email review request  is necessary. It becomes an evergreen tool that automatically attracts more of these high-value customers to you.

Your goal is simple.

Make your customers praiseworthy review even better than it already is by responding to their reviews. If you’re focused on a specific industry or niche, craft review responses that are specific to your industry . Find a way to express genuine gratitude, to empathize with your customers feelings, struggles and concerns.

Show them that you’re listening. It’s good  review management .

With the right review elements you’ll have what you need to create a compelling and noteworthy response to positive customer reviews.

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Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

What can proofreading do for your paper?

Scribbr editors not only correct grammar and spelling mistakes, but also strengthen your writing by making sure your paper is free of vague language, redundant words, and awkward phrasing.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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How to Ask Customers for Reviews: 7 Compelling Review Request Templates

July 19, 2022 Contributor: Mark DiGiammarino

Encourage customers to give feedback to improve your search rankings, brand reputation and conversion rates.

To experience the benefits of reviews, you’ll first need to collect them from existing customers. Collecting reviews for your product or service is the easiest way to build trust with software buyers: 49% of customers say they refer to user ratings and reviews when evaluating what to buy ( full report available to Gartner clients ). 

People like sharing their opinions or experiences, but they need a little extra nudge before leaving a review. Do you have a review collection strategy in place to capture users’ experiences? 

Despite its immense value for customers, collecting reviews often becomes an afterthought for marketing teams due to competing priorities. Review recruitment should be a top priority since reviews don’t just impact purchase decisions at the bottom of the sales funnel, but also increase product visibility at the top. Software providers using Gartner Digital Markets typically see a 127% increase in traffic to their product landing pages or product profiles when they have 10 or more reviews . 

Which reviews influence customers the most?

One of the top reasons B2B buyers read reviews is to get advice from people with similar needs and experiences. Understanding and identifying what makes a high-quality customer review is vital to effectively collecting and leveraging these social proofs.

Great reviews usually have four characteristics:

• Great reviews are specific. Look for reviews that include thorough product information with details such as the software used and features the reviewer liked or disliked.
• Great reviews are verified. Verify the customer name, job title, and purchase status of the reviewer to show that the review is legitimate. 
• Great reviews are unbiased. Vet the feedback to ensure no bias or other agenda factors compromises the integrity of the review. 
• Great reviews are recent. Collect recent reviews (three to six months old) to keep information relevant. The software industry is constantly evolving, making recency important to a lot of buyers. 

Use a compelling review request template to give customers the push they need to leave reviews. Here are some customizable review request templates and best practices to kickstart your review recruitment strategy.

How do you ask for reviews? Set the tone with these 7 review request email templates

When crafted with the right words and timing, requesting reviews throughout the customer journey can make your users feel heard and create a solid foundation for your brand’s reputation. 

Use these basic templates as a starting point to request reviews for different scenarios. Customize your message depending on the customer’s context, including where they are in the customer journey. While email is the most effective B2B marketing channel , you can also adapt these messages for other communication mediums. 

It’s a good idea to keep the tone of customer emails personal, friendly and empathetic. Thus, most of the review request templates here are personalized and have a human tone. Establishing one-on-one connections goes a long way in building stronger customer relationships. 

1. Prepare buyers to submit a review

Customers aren’t always ready to give feedback. They may not be sure of what to say or may not be motivated to leave a review in the first place. Send them an email explaining why they should leave a review and include a direct link to your review form. 

Here is a customizable customer review email template to try out: 

Subject : We’d love to hear from you! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for choosing  <INSERT: Product name>  to address  <INSERT: Key business challenge or problem> . I am confident we are going to achieve great things together!

I had a quick question for you:  What can we do to receive a review from you?

By leaving a review you create a better experience for yourself and other customers like you.

Please help us keep up with your needs and serve you better. You’d be able to share your thoughts here: <INSERT: Review link>

Would you let me know if you are (or aren't) interested?

Use this template for all types of customers, regardless of where they are in the buying journey — whether they have just made a purchase decision or are considering software renewal — to receive their feedback. 

If you’re sending large email blasts, it’s best to segment your list based on your buyers’ needs. Mass email blasts will get you plenty of reviews, but they are also likely to generate low-quality reviews. This will increase the chances of being flagged by platforms you wish to publish your reviews on, such as third-party review sites or search engines.

Also read: How to Segment Your Audience and Ensure an Effective Demand Generation Program

 2. After the purchase

The best time to make a review request is after buyers purchase from you or the software implementation phase is complete. That said, give them some time to experience your product. The idea is to reach buyers when the product is still fresh in their minds but to give them sufficient time to explore its strengths and weaknesses. While two weeks might not be enough time to generate meaningful insights, a year might be too late to garner engagement. 

Check out the templates below to make a review request post-transaction: 

Subject : Tell us what you thought about <INSERT: Product name> 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for being a valued user of <INSERT: Product name> !

We’d love to hear how your experience went with <INSERT: Company name> .

Do you mind taking just a few minutes to leave a review?

You can give your feedback by visiting this link: <INSERT: Review link>

Subject : How are we doing?

Hi <INSERT: Client name> ,

Thank you for your business! We're excited to see the returns our work generates for you. I know it's going to be amazing.

We have a quick favor to ask you. Would you take a moment to let us know: How did we do? What could we have done better?

Your opinion matters to us. We will use your feedback to improve our operations and serve you better in future.

Please share your thoughts here: <INSERT: Review link> 

Subject : Help us improve, <INSERT: Client name> !

I hope you’re feeling great about your experience with <INSERT: Product name> , but we want to know for sure.

Please take a minute to tell us how you really feel right here:  <INSERT: Review link>

Your feedback will help us serve you better. 

Use this email template to target new customers after their first purchase. Make sure to time it right; requesting feedback too soon or too late can be counterproductive. 

If you request a review too quickly (a couple of weeks), then it’s likely that customers are still getting up to speed after implementation. If you request a review too late (nine months to a year), users may not remember their initial reactions or may not be interested in providing feedback.

Three to six months is usually a good starting point to request software reviews. 

3. Schedule an interview for in-depth feedback

Software buyers like referring to reviews that give a detailed and qualitative commentary about the experience of working with a product. Schedule a five to 15-minute call with your past buyers to capture their feedback in depth. You can structure this call as an interview or record it as a monologue by the buyer. It’s also a great opportunity to ask for a video review if the buyer agrees to speak to you on a video call. 

Additionally, the constructive feedback provided in an interview could be used to inform your product team and influence product roadmap. Detailed feedback helps not only customers in selecting the right product but also software providers in improving their product offerings and brand messaging by hearing out what clients have to say through voice of the customer (VoC) analysis . Remember, customers are more eager to offer both praise and constructive criticism when they feel they can influence product improvements to fit their needs. 

Here are some sample email templates to schedule interview reviews:

Before the interview:

Subject : Did our <INSERT: Product name> meet your expectations?

In the past, some of our clients reached us after being disappointed by a competitor. Most of them paid huge sums for <INSERT: Product sought> that didn’t work out well for them. We’re trying to learn from their experience.

We would like to get a sense of your experience so far with our <INSERT: Product name> . Have you run into any frustrations? Would you be willing to share your story in a quick 5-minute call?

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you! 

After the interview:

Subject : Thank you for your time!

Thank you again for taking the time to meet with me today. Our team is happy to hear that you have been experiencing <INSERT: results or outcome> .

I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about your decision to buy from us, and your feedback about using <INSERT: Product name> so far.

Here’s a transcript of our interview: <INSERT: Link to interview>

Would you be willing to share this as a review on one of our key review sites?

It’s a quick copy and paste here: <INSERT: Review Link>

No worries if you can’t. You’re amazing either way!

Reserve interviews for your customers with whom you share the strongest relationships. Some customers may not take the time to speak with you. Some signs of a customer that might share their experience through an interview:

• A satisfied customer who gives an all-star rating
• A happy customer who leaves a review immediately when asked
• A customer who informs you after leaving a review
• A customer who maintains continuous communication
• A customer who is an influencer (or expert) in the industry
• A previously dissatisfied customer with whom you made things right

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Generate value with software reviews., 4. for your happy customers.

Satisfied customers are the ideal reviewers for any business. Leverage these customers by inviting them to write or record a testimonial. Testimonials are slightly different from reviews, as they tend to be from a customer who has had a highly positive experience with your product and can clearly speak to its merits. Extremely positive or glowing user reviews can also serve as testimonials.

Make your satisfied and loyal customers feel special with a custom-made invitation for feedback. When done right, this process can turn your customers into your biggest advocates . You can offer them special incentives such as extended maintenance periods and discount coupons. 

Use this template as a reference point to make a testimonial request:

Subject : We want to hear from you!

I’m reaching out to the top <INSERT: Percentage> of our customers, and that’s you. You’ve been using <INSERT: Product name> for a while now, and I’d like to check in and hear from you about your experience.

I have just <INSERT: Number> questions to ask, and it should only take <INSERT: Number> minutes.

Would it be okay if we talked on the phone? Let me know if <INSERT: Day of the week> at <INSERT: Time> works for you.

If you’re busy, please let me know if there is a more convenient time or you can also share your thoughts here: <INSERT: Review link>

We appreciate you! 

Find your happiest customers by segmenting existing customers under criteria such as repeat customers, high-engagement customers, admirers, and high spenders. Then filter out people who qualify for multiple criteria (three or more). You can also use this method to target customers for interview feedback.

5. After providing training or a service

Don’t miss the opportunity to receive a positive review after providing a customer support service or staff training (whether scheduled or emergency). Send customers a review request email right after. If you provided them with an amazing experience, happy customers will willingly share their feedback. And if it didn’t go well, disgruntled customers will have a chance to express their dissatisfaction and suggest improvements. 

Subject : How would you rate the service you received?

Thank you for contacting us for <INSERT: Matter attended to (training exercise, support request, or others)> ! We are always working to make our services better.

How was our service today, <INSERT: Client name> ?

If we exceeded your expectations, please consider leaving us a review:  <INSERT: Review link>

If not, still consider leaving us a review. Your feedback will help us improve <INSERT: Product name> for you and for future customers. We’d love to know more about your experience so we can do better next time.

Thank you for your time! 

6. After a product demo or free trial

Product demonstrations and free trials are central to the software sales process. Asking for a review can be a great way to follow up with potential customers and lead them further down in the sales funnel. It also expands the purview of your reviews from customers to other people who may have liked your product but didn’t go through the final purchase due to other business or personal reasons. 

Here is a review request template for each:  

After a product demonstration: 

Subject : Thank you for choosing <INSERT: Company name> !

<INSERT: Client name> , we are happy that we could connect on <INSERT: Day> for the demo of our platform.

Did we do a good job of explaining how our solution can help you <INSERT: business challenge or problem or buyer’s pain point that drove them to you> ?

We would like to know more about your experience. Could you take a few minutes to tell us what you think?

Any thoughts on how we can serve you better will be much appreciated.

Let us know here:  <INSERT: Review link>

After a free trial: 

Subject : How is it going so far?

You’ve got <INSERT: Number of days> days left on your free trial. Do you feel <INSERT: Product name> is right for you?

I would like to know - what were the most frustrating and wonderful things about your experience with <INSERT: Product name> ?

Please help us serve you better by sharing any thoughts you’ve had about our platform, or leave a review for us on our review site:  <INSERT: Review link>

7. For unhappy customers

Did you received a negative comment or an angry email? Don’t stress–negative feedback is an opportunity to get authentic customer feedback. Show unhappy buyers that you care about their experiences by responding promptly and professionally. 

Customize these templates as per the situation to respond to an unhappy customer:

Subject :  <INSERT: Client name> , we want to get it right!

We’ve really messed things up. We're so sorry. I know where we went wrong, but I would like to learn as much as I can from this.

Would you be willing to share how we could improve? Please send me an email on everything that you would like to be changed about your experience with <INSERT: Product name> .

This isn't only about keeping you with us, but also to prevent an experience like this from happening again.

Thank you for being awesome!

Subject : Problem with recently purchased <INSERT: Product name or category>

Hello <INSERT: Client name> ,

Thank you for contacting us. My name is <INSERT: Your name> , and I appreciate you giving us a chance to make things right.

I would assume this <INSERT: Problem or overlook that happened> was probably a fluke. I apologize for the disappointing experience.

To mend our relationship with you, I want to offer a <INSERT: Give discount coupon or other incentive to stay> as part of my apology for what happened. More importantly, I would also like to hear more from you.

Would you be willing to share your thoughts with me?

Please give us an opportunity to improve with the help of your feedback. 

No matter if a negative review is authentic, the three mantras to deal with them are: professionalism, openness, and promptness. 

Responding with respect shows prospects that you are reachable in case things go south. Additionally, genuine users who leave a negative comment tend to update their response to reflect a positive customer experience once their problem is properly resolved.

Make review collection easy

It takes extensive and continuous effort to collect reviews and manage them for quality and authenticity. Make the process easy by working with our Review Collection Service to collect high-quality and credible reviews effortlessly. Attract a global audience of reviewers with in-language review collection resources, and show reviewers your appreciation with e-gift card incentives – paid for by us. 

Mark DiGiammarino 

Mark DiGiammarino is the Senior Director of Vendor Services for Gartner Digital Markets. His department helps vendors improve performance through review recruitment, profile optimization and landing page creation. When he’s not at work, you can find him exploring Kentucky’s breweries with his wife, daughter, and their goldendoodle. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn . 

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How to ask for reviews: best practices and templates

Learning how to ask for reviews is an essential skill that’s critical for long-term business success. Businesses looking to attract new customers through influential platforms such as Google, Facebook and Yelp need to practice the art of asking for reviews. 

We’re here to help with tips on how to ask for customer reviews. Plus, using our review request email templates to follow up with happy customers can help you secure compelling testimonials. 

Catch the eye of potential customers and boost your conversion rates across relevant social media channels and review sites.

Dive in — Table of contents:

How reviews drive business.

• How to ask for online reviews
• How to ask for reviews over email
• Review request templates for Google, Facebook and Yelp
• How to get more reviews

See what Broadly can do for your business in just 30 days

Generating buzz about your products and services via online review platforms is an important part of any effective marketing strategy, even for local small businesses. After all, nearly all customers ( 87% ) say they check out reviews.

Here are ways positive reviews empower businesses and marketers to drive growth:

• You can identify promoters: These are super fans who conduct word-of-mouth outreach on behalf of a given company, helping to increase overall Net Promoter Scores (NPS), which​​ ask how likely the customer is to recommend your business to friends or family on a scale from one to 10.
• You can attract new customers: By offering the social proof today’s information-hungry customers seek before committing to a new product or service for the first time.
• Build your online reputation: Positive ratings serve to build credibility for first-time customers.

How to ask for online reviews: tips for success

With as many as 47% percent of customers saying they post reviews as frequently as once a month, you want to snag those important reviews for your company as a small business owner. 

When is the best time to ask for a review?

Looking to get more positive reviews and wondering when to ask a happy customer to leave a review? The ideal time to ask is soon after a customer has made a purchase and has had a positive customer experience with the product or service.

• For companies offering products: Ask within one to two weeks of when a customer has had a chance to use the product.
• For service businesses: Ask right after performing the service.

How do you politely ask for customer feedback?

There is a certain finesse to asking for reviews that can increase your chances of receiving more reviews and future happy customers. Follow these suggestions to ensure successful review requests.

• Ask for feedback first, so you can help if they have had a poor customer experience. 

Asking for customer feedback instead of a review can be much less intimidating for the customer. It shows you care about their experience. If they are unhappy about their customer experience, you have the chance to resolve any issues first before they post a poor review. 

• Explain the benefits of customer reviews to your small business and potential customers.

When satisfied customers take the time to verbally thank you for a great service or product, follow up and explain that by sharing their customer experience via Google review, Yelp review or on Facebook, they can help potential customers find the right product or service — and help you grow your small business.

How to ask for reviews over email: best practices

While some customers may take the initiative to write reviews about your company on their own, you can help inspire potential submissions by emailing review requests to your customers directly. 

Before messaging your customers, it’s important to keep these best practices for crafting an email that’s requesting a review in mind:

• Personalize the email: Address your customer by first name and sign off by including the first name of the customer support team member who is reaching out.
• Make it easy for the customer: Include a link to the page you’re requesting a review for, such as Google or Facebook.
• Keep the email short: You don’t want to overwhelm your customer with a lengthy request.

Review request email templates for Google, Facebook and Yelp

Below are simple review-request email templates that you can use to send to your customers. 

These templates should help you avoid negative reviews altogether by generating positive buzz about your business right from the start. Be sure to tweak these templates as needed to better reflect your business.

How to ask for Google reviews

Did you know that 59% of customers go to Google to read reviews and view it as a trusted authority? That’s where you want to start to build a stellar online reputation.

If you have a Google My Business Page (and you should), you should be seeking out Google reviews. Google reviews increase your visibility when people search for your services or products via Google and can also help improve your local SEO.

Here’s an example of a review request email template you can use as a guide and send to a customer via email or text message:

Subject line: Share your customer feedback Dear [CUSTOMER’S NAME] We want to thank you for your business and are committed to delivering the highest quality to our customers. In today’s digital world, online reviews are very important to companies like ours.  Will you take a moment of your time to jot down some feedback on our Google Business Page <insert direct URL>? It’s a quick and easy way for you to make a difference. Please feel free to give us a call should you have immediate feedback or concerns about your [product or service purchased]. We want to hear from you and are happy to answer your questions. Thank you for your time and business! [YOUR FIRST NAME] [BUSINESS NAME] [PHONE NUMBER]

Don’t forget to check out this resource to create a Google review link !

How to ask for a Facebook review

Facebook is a powerful avenue for small businesses to gather online reviews because 1.84 billion people already log in to the site every single day. Most customers have a personal Facebook account, and this makes the task of getting reviewed easier. Roughly two out of three Facebook users check out a local business page at least once a week.

If your company wants to generate more Facebook reviews , use this review request template to grow your social media reputation.

Subject line: Will you write us a Facebook business review? Hi [CUSTOMER’S NAME], Thank you for choosing [business name]. Would you be willing to write us a Facebook review? It should only take a couple minutes and would make an immense difference to our company. If you are willing, you can follow [this link] to submit your Facebook review. Please let me know if you are not pleased with [product or service], and we can speak about it personally so your customer feedback is heard. Thank you again for your business and your time! Best regards, [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME] [PHONE NUMBER]

How to ask for a Yelp review

Ninety-two percent of customers visiting Yelp are already loyal — they are looking for a business they can return to. That means if you get your fair share of positive reviews on Yelp, your business is set up for success.

Regardless if you work for an ecommerce website or restaurant or are a lawyer, consultant or contractor, your company can greatly benefit generating positive Yelp reviews. 

However, Yelp’s review policy clearly states, “Don’t ask customers, mailing list subscribers, friends, family, or anyone else to review your business.” 

While you can’t ask for reviews directly, you can provide a link to your Yelp profile page in an email as a follow-up after a recent purchase and nudge the customer in the right direction. (And if you’re wondering why Yelp filters some reviews check out this post, which explains what you can do about it.)

Hi [CUSTOMER’S NAME], I see you’ve recently visited our establishment, [business name]. I wanted to follow-up with you to check in about your experience. Did you enjoy everything? We are committed to providing our customers with a fantastic experience, and your feedback helps us make that possible. LINK TO YELP PROFILE Thank you for your time, [YOUR FIRST NAME] [BUSINESS NAME] [PHONE NUMBER]

When using these review request templates, be sure to adapt them and use your company’s voice. Good luck with your outreach and with getting new online reviews !

How Broadly can help you get more reviews

We work with small local businesses to help you get more reviews through automation. Our products can also help you better communicate with your team and your customers or revamp your website — so you can focus on running your business.

Related Reading:

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• 5 easy ways to market your customer reviews

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Designs for Requesting Customer Reviews Online

Discover edit.org's editable templates to create the best posters or banners for customers to leave a review or opinion about your business..

Find the best customizable templates from EDIT.org to create banners or posters asking customers to leave their feedback online.

Edit a ' please leave a review' template online

Customize a design to ask clients to leave an online review about their experience with your business. It's very flattering for your company and builds its reputation through increasing trust and the possibility of gaining new customers. Also, it's essential for web positioning: the more reviews, the more visible you'll be in the digital world.

With EDIT.org's online editor, you can easily create these designs by selecting a template from this article and customizing it as much as you want, incorporating your logo, corporate colors, and other elements. Finally, you'll be able to print it in high quality and your preferred format. On the editor, you'll also find customizable templates to share customers' reviews and opinions already written , as well as templates for customers to follow you on social media .

Although these printable designs are usually placed in the checkout or entrance area of an establishment, digital banners on social media, business cards, or even emails inviting users to write these types of reviews are becoming more and more common. Use whichever method you want, but always do it through eye-catching and original designs.

Start your design now! Go to the editor and customize a template to invite customers to leave an opinion, write a comment, and give feedback.

See the designs

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100+ Review Reply Templates

Make it easier, faster, and more fun to respond to reviews. Get over 100 reply samples for all review types delivered to your inbox! Assemble unique replies to fit your business needs in minutes.

5 Benefits of Replying to Reviews

• Meet your customer’s expectation of a reply
• Positively influence online conversations about your brand
• Delight your customers to drive brand loyalty
• Increase your visibility in local search results
• Convert more customers!

We'll help you build a better business

Our goal is to help you connect with your customers to gain valuable insight on what’s important to them. While you happy customers will help your marketing, your unhappy customers will point out where you can improve and our system will help you communicate with them to keep them with you.

Gather feedback and reviews to drive your business up

GatherUp will make customer experience the backbone of your business, building a continuous cycle of happy customers and powerful reviews to help you capture your next customer.

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FREE 26+ Book Review Templates in PDF | MS Word

A good book review is elementary in attracting a larger gamut of readers. It is the first impression of the story plot and the narration style of the book. Book Article Review Templates are a reflection of the story telling that gives the readers just the right cue to take up for further reading of the sample book . A good book review template will also give a general detail of the author. Here are some templates that offer the perfect framework that can be used to make the most interesting book review formats. You may also see performance review samples

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Book Review Example

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Books for kids have to be given an especially interesting look and feel. The review of this book should be having a special touch that will develop the interest and the curiosity of the young readers. This template has the most unique design that offers information such as the title and the author of the book, the name of the publisher and also a sample brief story line. The template also has other interesting features such as the section that illustrates the best and the worst aspects of the book.You may also see management review

Book Review Format

Size: 78 KB

Easy to download and use, this simple and clean template supports the picture of the reviewer. The template can support the information of the reviewer, a synopsis of the plot of the story and recommendations as to why one should read this book.You may also see product review

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Simple yet effective this book review template has a number of features that helps this template to be the most suitable for creating the most professional book reviews. The template is fully editable and has responsive features. The resolution range of the template is very good that allows very high quality printouts. The template supports information about the plot of the book, information about the author and also a description of the important characters of the book.You may also see employee review

Sample Book Review Template

Size: 70 KB

It has separate boxes that hold the information about the plot of the book and also the background settings of the book and how does the same contribute to the thickening of the plot. The template is fully editable and it is very easily navigable. You may also see review systems .

Sample Book Review Form Template

Size: 260 KB

Simple, informative and elegant, this template format provides a very formal and a professional structure of a book review. On one hand just as the user can provide the information such as the title of the book and the name of the author and also the rating of the book, the user can also explain the ratings that he is providing.You may also see literature review

Simple Book Review Template

Size: 76 KB

The detailed layout of this book review template highlights a good resolution, the template is print ready. It can be downloaded for free and with a lot of ease. It provides the basic information pertinent for a book review.You may also see movie reviews .

Book Review Juniors Template

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Perfect to attract the attention of the kids, this template is used to write the reviews of children’s books. The template offers the name of the author, the synopsis of the plot, important characters and also star ratings.You may also see after action review 

Formal Book Review Template

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Absolutely print ready this template has been provided with a great many technical features like super responsive features that are very easily navigable. It provides information on the plot of the book, a general propagation of the salability of the book etc.You may also see employee review forms

Basic Book Review Template

Book review template provides the users with the perfect structure or format that can be used for the purpose of making the crispest, attractive and professional book reviews. You may also see  book summary 

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Rolling Stones Unveil ‘Hackney Diamonds’ in a Trendy London District

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood provided details about their first record of new material in 18 years, which will be released on Oct. 20.

By Alex Marshall and Christopher Kuo

Alex Marshall reported from London, and Christopher Kuo from New York.

When the Rolling Stones released “Beggars Banquet” in 1968, the band had an unusual way of grabbing attention: a surprise food fight.

At the end of a feast with journalists in a posh London hotel, Mick Jagger celebrated the record, which includes “ Sympathy for the Devil ” and “ Street Fighting Man ,” by smashing a cream pie into the face of the guitarist Brian Jones. The event quickly descended from there, with band members and guests throwing food at one another, leaving faces drenched in cream.

On Wednesday, Jagger, 80, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Wood, 76 — the band’s three current members — promoted their new album, “Hackney Diamonds,” in somewhat more sedate fashion: with a livestream on YouTube hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

Named after old British slang for the shards of glass that are left after a break-in, “Hackney Diamonds” will be released on Oct. 20.

Richards, wearing a hat and shades, said that playing live is a “holy grail,” but that recording albums is “where the guys can get together and pass around ideas without any interference.”

“When it works, it’s great,” he said.

Jagger, wearing a patterned jacket, said he didn’t “want to be bigheaded, but we wouldn’t have put this album out if we hadn’t really liked it.” He then added that he hoped the group’s fans would love it too. “I’ll drink to that,” Wood said, raising a glass.

After the 20-minute event ended, the band premiered the video for the album’s first single, “Angry,” featuring Sydney Sweeney. Jagger earlier said that the album had many tracks themed around anger and disgust.

The lunchtime event was held at the Hackney Empire , an old theater in the trendy Hackney district of London. Fallon, sitting in front of a broken-up version of the band’s lips logo and near three smashed chandeliers, interviewed the group before an audience of journalists and invited guests, although questions were not allowed from the floor.

The anticipated 12-track “Hackney Diamonds” is the group’s first album of original material since the release of “ A Bigger Bang ” in 2005, and its first since the drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021 . Two of the tracks were recorded in 2019 with Watts, Jagger said, including “Live by the Sword,” which he described as “retro.”

Richards said the band was obviously different without Watts. “He’s No. 4, he’s missing, he’s up there. Of course he’s missed incredibly.” He said that Watts had recommended the band’s new drummer, Steve Jordan, and that moving on “would have been a lot harder without Charlie’s blessing.”

Jagger joked about the long delay before this album, saying that the band — known for its extensive tours — had been a bit “lazy,” and that the group needed a deadline. They forced themselves to hit the studio in December, he said. “We cut 23 tracks very quickly and finished them off in January, and mixed them in February.”

Fans of the Stones, which formed in 1962 and went on to become one of rock’s most enduring acts, have been awaiting a new album since “ Blue & Lonesome ” in 2016, which featured a dozen blues covers. Jagger told The Los Angeles Times in October 2021 that “Hackney Diamonds” would have been finished long ago if not for the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, the Stones teased the album via an advertisement for a fake glass repair company , called Hackney Diamonds, that appeared in a London newspaper. The ad’s text referred to several of the band’s well-known songs: “Our friendly team promises you satisfaction. When you say gimme shelter we’ll fix your shattered windows.”

In the interview with Fallon, the band said other album titles it considered were “Hit and Run” and “Smash and Grab.”

Philip Norman, who wrote “The Stones,” a major biography of the group, said in an interview that the release event was far from the band’s raucous 1960s and ’70s image but still managed to give its members an air of being “tearaways” by being held in London’s trendiest district. That was “typical Stones’s fakery,” Norman said, because the band had no previous association with Hackney.

Although the Stones have said “Hackney Diamonds” marks a “new era,” Norman said he was anticipating a classic Stones sound. “This is the Stones we know and some of us have loved for the past six decades,” he said.

The livestream generated interest online (at points 53,000 people watched live), but there was less hype on Hackney’s streets on Wednesday. Before the unannounced event, a few dozen fans waited outside the theater to catch a glimpse of the band walking the red carpet.

Sam Poullain, 42, a marketing director, said that two months after he watched a school play on the Empire’s stage, he was back to see “the original rock ’n’ roll band.”

The enthusiasm was not unanimous. As the huddle to see the band grew, three schoolgirls walking past asked what was happening. Told it was the Rolling Stones, Anya Morrison, 16, said, “I’ve heard of them, I think.” Then she got on a bus home.

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surnames of two people interviewed near a London event for the Rolling Stones. They are Sam Poullain and Anya Morrison, not Poullan and Morrisson.

How we handle corrections

Alex Marshall is a European culture reporter, based in London. More about Alex Marshall

Christopher Kuo is a culture reporter for The Times and a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class . More about Christopher Kuo

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A letter from Gear Patrol CEO Eric Yang to the DPReview community

Editor's note: We know many of you have questions about DPReview following the sale of the site to Gear Patrol. In this letter to readers, Gear Patrol's founder and CEO, Eric Yang, shares his own photography journey, talks about the importance of community, and discusses what it will take for DPReview to be sustainable.

To the DPReview Community,

I'm Eric Yang, and I'm an amateur photographer and a long-time lurker on the DPReview forums. My primary setup is a Fujifilm X-T4 attached to a lovely and sometimes confounding Fujinon 50mm F1.0 lens. My first camera was a Canon AE-1, and my first (real) digital camera was a Nikon D90. My weirdest camera was a Nishika N8000 3D Lenticular Camera. My dad's SX-70 Polaroid Land camera sits on my desk as a fond reminder of who got me into photography.

I'm also the CEO and founder of Gear Patrol, which many of you may or may not have known about until DPReview announced it had become a part of our company in June.

But First, Thank You: I want to thank you for your patience and loyalty. Like you, as a long-time reader, I was crushed to read the original shutdown announcement. I found myself fueled by the community's collective enthusiasm to try and do something. DPReview represented the kind of independent spirit and enthusiast passion that inspired me to start Gear Patrol in 2007.

These past few months have been quite a journey, but in the end, we were able to work with the Amazon team, who considered feedback from the community, and together, we were able to do what was best for DPReview.

Different companies rowing in the same direction

While DPReview and Gear Patrol address different markets, the two publications share a common language in our love of where products and passions intersect.

DPReview was built on world-class product journalism, and in doing so, it became a global gathering place for the photography community and its constituent enthusiasts. I have zero intention of changing that core essence. DPReview will pursue its own plans not just to exist but to thrive as the internet's go-to destination for photography content and conversation for today's generation and, importantly, the next.

It's easy to compare and contrast Gear Patrol and DPReview. The two sites will not conform to one another. However, I believe both can impact the other to better their respective missions. We're only at the beginning of that journey.

But before any changes are made, our teams will ask, 'Are we respecting the heritage of DPReview with this decision?'

Helping DPReview where we can, getting out of the way for the rest

The team at DPReview had been working on plans to improve and grow the site long before they knew me. My charter is to help find ways to bring their ideas to life and put the entire operation on a sure footing. To do that, we have to be clear-eyed about the fact that DPReview is in the business of photography journalism.

The DPReview team has a desire to stand on their own. They also have ambitious plans to grow and modernize. Gear Patrol and DPReview will work together to set those plans in motion so that DPReview can reinvest in the team, its newsroom, the technology, and – importantly – the community that makes it what it is.

As for the rest, you can expect Gear Patrol to politely get out of the way.

Ensuring DPReview stands on its own

There's a phrase we've been saying, which is, 'The hard work is done; now the hard work begins.'

I firmly believe DPReview can thrive without placing a financial burden on its users. We do not plan to ask you for donations – after all, DPReview isn't a non-profit – or immediately set up a paywall. Yes, we need to be thoughtful about how others – including AI – draft off the hard work of DPReview and its community, and we will take actions accordingly, but at the end of the day, we believe we can run a successful publication and community without asking you to pay for what's inherently been available for free for 25 years.

"The hard work is done; now the hard work begins."

Operating a free content model will require advertising and affiliate revenues, where we earn a small fee when you purchase a product through the links on the site. We have already been working to get these things into place, and we ask for your patience as we sort through all the logistics and processes to make this work.

In exchange, we ask you to be a regular visitor and use the site more, and when you're ready to make a purchase or know of someone who is, please point them to DPReview's tools and guides and purchase through our links. What we earn from advertising and affiliates goes directly to fueling this team, its journalism and the infrastructure required to run DPReview's community. Importantly, we are doing this in a way that never interferes with independent editorial decisions or community members.

Shifts to Expect:

• Adding multiple vendors/outlets for purchasing products where possible and improving the live pricing we show you.
• Increasing editorial output and trying new formats and franchises to foster more reasons for you to come back and engage with DPReview on other platforms like email and video , revamped buying guides, quicker reviews of top cameras, and a variety of new story formats and franchises.
• Addressing technical issues to improve DPReview's visibility in search.
• Improving the quality and increasing the quantity of ads on the site – to help our business, please consider turning off ad blockers. It will take some time for us to improve the quality and experience, so please bear with us.
• Adding new passive affiliate linking technology to ensure we receive credit when visitors are taken to retail stores and make purchases.
• What else we need from you: Invite friends, register, research and make purchasing decisions, and use the site more!
• And if you're an advertiser or brand interested in working with us, please reach out to our advertising team – we'd love to chat about how we can help you reach this incredible audience.

The photography community's gathering place

I firmly believe that the community forum belongs to the DPReview community and should exist here at DPReview. I want to help create whatever space or canvas is needed to contribute to its success. There will be no changes to the DPReview forums or the availability of the archives.

This work means better understanding the needs of the community and the moderators who work selflessly to keep these forums alive and safe. We want to learn from them and find ways to help grow the community to a new generation of photographers and creators. Beyond the business, one of the most important parts of our jobs here is ensuring that DPReview's gathering place is brightly lit, safe, and welcoming to anyone interested in photography.

We want to foster a growing community that welcomes both longstanding members and newcomer enthusiasts who share a zeal for photography on whatever sensor/lens/mount they prefer. The world is already full of polarization; if you love photography or content creation, then you should feel welcome here.

A personal note

I've been reading through the comments since DPReview became a part of our company, and one thing is clear: This is a great moment and one we don't want to mess up. As a fellow user, I also have plenty of opinions and questions. But my job is to make sure we take our new responsibilities seriously and ensure a healthier, growing DPReview. I know we need to listen, learn, and continuously improve to do that.

We're embarking on a new chapter in photography journalism, and I humbly ask for your patience, support, and continued passion as we work together for a brighter future for DPReview. Visit the site often. Encourage others to get into photography. Share stories. Be part of the community. Tell me how I can better shoot a 50mm f/1.0.

Thank you to the incredible team at DPReview (current and former), the users, and the entire photography community. Together, we may make some mistakes, but we will do our best and we will listen.

Eric Yang CEO and Founder, Gear Patrol

This letter is exactly what I wanted to hear from the new owners of DPR. Thank you - I think that this is exactly the right approach (for now).

Dear Mr Yang

1. Thank you for your generosity, empathy & for taking decisive action on a just cause 2. As a kind of anonymous founder reader since DPReview opened shop online I truly appreciate that 25 years later there's still a belief in something other than content, likes & retweets. That truthfulness, honesty, independent & unbiased publishing are core values in media. 3. Terabytes of data by DPReview are stored by Amazon somewhere cold in the world.

The library of Alexandria is a Greek myth. Like all myths, it's a story. Like all stories it can be true or false, partially true or vice versa. But in the end, the myth survived wether or not we are certain that there ever was real content in there. Nothing remains. The myth says it was burned. The Library of Alexandria, real or not, exists as a myth.

Now we have real content measured in terabytes. What will be our legacy regarding DPReview? Will we legate a myth? Or will we legate a library?

Ramón A Sánchez

This website is about photo gear. Alexandria, just causes, myths, and legacy are beside (far above?) the point.

Hi Eric I'm glad to meet you and appreciate that you addressed the user with this message. Regarding the fact that I use DPReview as a resource when I need to decide whether to make a purchase or read gear reviews, I discovered that it has less coverage in the Middle East, where I live.

Involving the local Arabian community in the coverage of additional news and information about them will be a wonderful idea.

I wish you well as you take on your new role and work to save DPReview.

Best of luck with the new venture and thank you for your willingness to share the details. I am very happy to see DPReview still alive and plan on staying around.

I couldn't reasonably ask for a better intro - nice to meet you, and looking forward to the journey!

Good for you, Eric! And hope you will be able to support this website and help it reach its potential and make it live on and thrive, for the photo (& video, tech etc.) community!

As a reader of DP Review for a bit less than 20 years, I really appreciate you doing this, and preventing this website from either reaching the Internet dumpster, or from being cryogenated and remain in the 2023 state forever!

Kudos to you and your team, supporters, as well to the DPReview staff and for the decent, reasonable and well meaning commenters (of course, this does not include: trolls, bots, psycho-fanboys etc.)!

I will for sure use affiliate links here at DPreview, provided you guys can make them work also for different countries outside the US.

I would also like to comment on the following goal: "quicker reviews of top cameras".

As we know from various "influencer" channels on YouTube or tech review sites, the fastest reviews are not necessarily the best ones. Often, they are quite superficial - the opposite of what DPreview became famous for. Moreover: Sites that present a full camera-review on "day 1" of release usually had gotten review sample weeks before. This creates an inherent conflict of interest: If the review is too negative, the manufacturer may very well stop delivering early review samples. So, I don't know any good solution to this problem, but can only tell that it's been DPreview's historically scrutinizing super-detailed reviews that built the DPreview brand and cemented its reputation as #1 authority in the field.

Don't lose that, guys!

Moreover, I want to express my gratefulness to Mr. Yang for saving this precious place. Thank you, sir! Last but not least: very nice photographs, you are very talented as a photographer.

We’ve been patiently waiting. It’s good to hear that people are working on it. Thanks!

Great to hear from you Eric, and to learn a little about yourself and your passions. I can see this being a complementary partnership, especially since you "get" DPR and what makes it viable, stretching across a couple of decades. Digital photography and the web itself have changed, a LOT.

Very nice to meet you 👍🏻

Nice to meet you and thanks for taking care of DPR.

If I could suggest one thing, please consider affiliate links providers from other markets than US, to allow people from outside of US to buy gear with local warranty.

Thank you Eric, and thank you in advance for what you will do.

Sharing the background and future plans is a great idea, and solidifies what the community can expect in the years to come.

Giving us confidence that DPReview is in good hands is much appreciated on many levels.

The golden rule for displaying ads is to not make them intrusive or offensive. Using Google ads will sometimes bring up porn or fake businesses.

They have little control over what ads the person is seeing - given that google delivers the ads their algorithm feels are the right one for each individual.

Eric, I want your Polaroid camera. Is it for sale?

Thank you very much Mr. Eric Yang, for saving DPR, after ~25 years, and from the closure by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

DPR is a jewel, and the knowledge into the forums needed to be save, it was great to read that GearPatrol saved DPR some time ago.

After seeing many sites going down the drain (DCview, Imaging Ressource, Steve's Digicams, etc, etc.) it's refreshing to know, DPR would be stable, alive & kicking...and does have a bright future, here into the photography community.

Hopefully for the next 25 years and beyond, kind regards.

The ads do not bother me at all. They are done such that the content is not blocked and still totally usable. There are other sites that are much worse to a point of not being usable at all due to clutter from the ads.

With that said, I am totally game with a paid model to help with the revenue stream. Over the years, the knowledge I have gained from Dpreview cannot be measured in dollars.

Thank you Eric and team for keeping the site alive.

A nice honest letter, you seem like a straight shooter in it for the right reasons. Great photos and use of the Seinfeld quote, well done.

Thank you Eric Yang for saving DPReview, and for this genuine and personal letter. I take this opportunity to ask you to consider offering a (optional) subscription for ad-free experience of DPReview.

Mr. Eric Yang

I congratulate you on your courage in taking on a great challenge. Dpreview, as you say, is essentially its community and the reports of its staff.

I think it is a good thing that you have communicated openly.

In my Dpreview inbox, I only have an announcement from the previous owner informing me of the closure. It would be good if you sent one with this current optimistic outlook.

I think a premium model of $1 or $2 per month coexisting with a free one with ads would be a way to sustain itself financially.

Good luck on this journey that we have ahead.

Best regards,

Agreed. An ad free subscription model would be very welcome…

I'd be ready to pay a (reasonable) yearly subscription, but will never disable my ad blocker. I hate ads, ads are disgusting.

I think good decisions behind the organization of the ads on the page can do a lot to help with that "hate". I have no problem with ads so long as they don't slow me down or require me to click away or any other frustrating time consuming moments like that.

They can be organized in a way that is classy and unobtrusive. The question is, will they? Eric and team can figure that out.

It would be great if both approaches could be combined - free access with adds, and paid membership without, user's choice!

I can't predict the future, but the new guy is saying all the right stuff. Good luck!

Suggestion: Especially if there are going to be more affiliate links etc., the integrity of DPR's review process needs to stay conspicuously simon-pure. I seem to be the only person who was put off by the Leica M11 sample-gallery episode, but I'm sure Eric realizes what "cherry-picking" means in a research context...

Thank you for investing in DPReview, which continues to perform a valuable and unique service to the community.

Many of us also invest in that service, especially in the form of regularly contributing useful forum postings. Perhaps there are ways community expertise could be leveraged to help pay the bills without instituting a paywall?

Well I feel very good now about the future of the site. A very well written piece that seems very genuine. I will be continuing to use this site as my photography gear research engine and will also try to start all my online purchasing from links posted here. Ads are never fun, but if that is the price necessary to keep DPReview free and thriving then I think it is a more than fair trade.

Thanks Eric Yang and Gear Patrol for keeping DPReview running.

Dear Mr. Yang,

Like others let me thank you for being the white knight in this DPR saga. Kudos to you. Unlike some others who want some way to avoid the ads (although I don't mind paying nominal subscription fees for something I look at every day), I have another perspective.

You see, I actually like targeted ads. The problem is all the "targeted ads" that are about as accurate as russian missiles. What I would be happy to do, especially here and at Gear Patrol, is to tell you exactly what I am interested in, very specifically, and then get ACTUAL targeted ads for stuff I might actually think about buying. I hope your team will consider such an option. Good luck!

Your letter is very much appreciated and thank you for saving the site and keep taking superb photographs.

Interesting, and THANKS.

I do prefer to pay 5€ per year, than turn off my adblocker system

(Yes, it's a system - I use a multiple lvls adblockers )

Really glad you have stepped up and saved DPR. I'll happily support your efforts by hanging out here. I wish you nothing but the best in making this work for you and for DPR to continue to grow and thrive.

Met Richard Butler a couple of weeks ago at the big Fuji event and it was nice to be able to chat in person and thank him for his contributions. Very cool fellow.

Keep up the good work!

If a yearly subscription model would help, then offer it. This is a website after all, where people plunk down $2,000 to buy lenses to take pictures of cats.

"(...) where people plunk down $2,000 to buy lenses to take pictures of cats". Say it for yourself. I would never do that. I'm more of a dog person...

Thank you again, for your time, introduction letter, and saving of what we all cherish-DPReview. I look forward to the fruits of your (and the staff's) vision. And will wholeheartedly consider purchasing products from the site in the future...because I believe you and the team are that important. Viva la DPR!

Thank you for keeping dpreview alive. Advertisements are a necessary evil. Just don't put auto-play video advertisements with sound enabled. Those are intolerable.

Just....thank you.

I really valued this post, for it's openness and candour. Thank you Eric. Thank you too for sharing your images and your personal experiences. I for one feel much happier knowing that DPReview is now owned by a person who feels passionately about photography, and is open to sharing their personal images as well as a business strategy.

As others have said, thank you for the letter and the support to keep the site alive and thriving. What I did notice is you consider yourself and amateur photographer and, your goto cam is an X-T4! May I invite you to share your images on the Fuji X forum in its Weekly thread! Just don’t let too many know your screen name.😀. And, nice images!

A deeply appreciate your willingness to save this site. I believe it isn’t a risk-free entrepreneur but it is driven by a sharing passion for photography and genuine respect for the DPreview intangible value. So, thanks a lot for your initiative, and hope you succeed for the benefice of all of the subscribers.

Thanks for saving DPR Eric. It sounds like it's in great hands.

Thanks for keeping the dpr forums open. I do not have a problem with ads in general, but do wish there were some way to designate the type or content of ads. I am old and easy going, but frequently have guests and children in our home that I do not want to expose to much of the content in the visible ads that are now here. I do not run ad blockers, as I understand the value of advertising, and have no problem with simply ignoring anything that does not interest me. But I am at the point where I am either going to need to run an ad blocker or at least limit my use of dpr when there is a possibility of children or folks that would find much of the advertising repulsive being in my home. There are many times that I would like to share something on dpr like a photo with my friends and grandchildren, but don't for fear of what naked lady might show up in an ad.

lol... this might speak more to your browsing habits than DPR. I never get "naked ladies" on my DPR ads. Just sayin' :)

I wonder what other websites you (or someone else using your computer) have been visiting lately? By default, almost every website you visit will track you in various ways. The adds you see are generally based on that tracking data from past browsing history. Personally, I have never seen an add on DPReview that would even remotely be considered indecent, and am currently seeing an add for wiper blades at the top of the screen.

The distasteful ads are from a company I never heard of and have not been a visitor of, much less bought anything from. One company is called Alibaba and they advertise everything from bikinis to atomic helicopters and the other is Temu. Neither one is anything I have heard of before seeing them here.

Sounds like you need to clamp down on who uses your network then. The ads will come to you if someone in your household is looking those things up. Alibaba is like the "Amazon" for the majority of the world.

@Bob A L Adds from websites you have never visited is completely normal. However, the "topic" of the add is typically based off of your search and browsing history from other websites. For example, if you are frequently browsing real estate listings, you are more likely to see adds from moving and storage companies. If you are constantly seeing adds with scantily clad people, then you are probably browsing/searching for.....

Excellent and reassuring essay, so thankyou. A thorny issue is that of new third party manufacturers, for example of lenses, who may or may not have licensing agreements with mainstream camera body manufacturers. It is clear that some of these, Viltrox and Yongnuo are good examples, have outstanding products and are making a significant contribution to consumer choice. Clearly a relationship with camera (and lens) manufacturers has to be balanced against or in harmony with the reasonable need to keep your readers informed. Perhaps it is time to find a landing ground where all can agree to allow world class journalism and technical expertise to cover what it feels is relevant rather than succumb to corporate interests, if indeed that is happening...

Thanks for giving dpr fresh air to be survived.

Thank you, Eric, for keeping DPR alive, for telling your story as a photographer, and for explaining the changes to come. I'll keep visiting this invaluable resource !

I saw this mention twice about in the comments:

"To do that, we have to be clear-eyed about the fact that DPReview is in the business of photography journalism."

I would say most think of DPR as a site that does Gear Reviews. Where others can gather and talk about new and Old Gear. When I see the term, Photography Journalism, that's not necessarily what I think of.

Cool, so I can still argue with all the know-it-all, wannabe photographers in the forums. Good times =)

Thanks, Eric, for a refreshingly honest letter, which includes an analysis of some of the challenges facing your company as well as us, the readers at DPReview. As many have already said, I was very pleased to see that Gear Patrol had stepped in to save the day.

I'd be very happy to use affiliate links when buying new gear, but down here at the southern tip of Africa, B&H, Adorama, et al are not an option. We certainly have large (relatively) retailers - Orms in Cape Town, Outdoorphoto in Pretoria, Kameraz in Johannesburg - but whether it would be worth your while, or theirs, to set up an affiliate scheme is open to debate.

Which then opens the question about a subscription-based model. Frankly, I have too many subscriptions already and when we put the tragic South African Rand against the mighty US $, I'm uncertain I would want any more....

Let's hope that your US-based advertising model wins the day, and the rest of us can ride free on the back! Best wishes whatever the outcome.

Eric, thanks for saving DPReview from collapsing totally!

I had one of those Polaroids when I was young, and now I'm over 70, surrounded by Nikon and Ricoh stuff.

Well written introduction as well, and all the best to you and your sweet kids!

Nice introduction. A Seinfeld quote as a caption for a photograph? You're good in my book!

Thank you for introducing yourself Eric!

Nice essay. Much thanks to you and team for keeping dpreview alive and to the dpreview staff for all of their efforts during and after the transition. Onwards and Upward!

"Digital Photography Review's mission is to provide the most authoritative coverage of digital photography gear in the world, including news, articles and expert reviews."

Mr. Yang writes "To do that, we have to be clear-eyed about the fact that DPReview is in the business of photography journalism."

Does this statement represent a shift in DPReview's focus?

Short version: no subscription fees *for now*.

Thank you, Mr. Yang! I also appreciate you're a good photographer.

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Legal Templates

Home Personal & Family Credit Report Dispute Letter

Credit Report Dispute Letter Template

Use our credit report dispute letter template to contest inaccurate items on your credit report.

Published September 11, 2023 | Legally reviewed by Brooke Davis

A credit report dispute letter allows consumers to challenge inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information on their credit reports. This document can allow you to correct any mistakes in your credit history, which can help you take charge of your credit rating and financial future.

What Is a Credit Report Dispute Letter?

What can you challenge in a credit report dispute letter, how to dispute an item on a credit report, tips for writing a credit report dispute letter, other ways to dispute a debt, frequently asked questions.

A credit report dispute letter is a type of written communication sent to the credit bureaus to contest any errors, discrepancies, or inaccuracies on your credit report.

Unfortunately, mistakes are more common than many people realize. Failure to address these issues can create long-term credit issues. If you wait to report an issue, you may lose the evidence to prove the inaccuracies.

You can dispute credit report information like:

Incorrect Account Details

You may notice an incorrect account number on your credit report. Two numbers on your account may be transposed, or your report may show an entirely incorrect account number. In any case, you can settle these details in a dispute letter.

Payment Errors

Your credit report may show you failed to make a payment entirely or made a payment late. If you have the evidence to prove that these claims are false, you may consider writing a credit dispute letter.

Duplicate Entries

Review your credit report and look for instances of duplicate accounts. If the same account appears multiple times, you can request the removal of the duplicates.

Outdated Information

Dispute any negative items beyond the legally allowed reporting period, as determined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). For example, according to the FCRA, debt and foreclosures older than seven years must be removed from individuals’ credit reports in most cases.

Questionable Accounts

If you suspect fraudulent accounts or identity theft, dispute the accounts immediately. Someone may have tried to open an account in your name, but you can challenge this issue easily with a credit dispute letter.

Disputing an item on your credit report involves a systematic process to increase your chances of success. These steps can help you challenge an item on your credit report:

Step 1 – Get Your Credit Report

Request a credit report from any of the three major credit bureaus, which are Equifax , Experian , and TransUnion . According to 15 U.S.C. § 1681j(a)(1)(A) , you can receive one free report from each bureau annually, which you can obtain through AnnualCreditReport.com .

To obtain your credit report, you’ll provide the following information:

• Your current address and any previous addresses, if applicable
• Your date of birth
• Your Social Security number (SSN)

Step 2 – Identify Potential Inaccuracies

Thoroughly review each credit report for any discrepancies or errors. Pay close attention to personal information, account details, and payment history. Some of the most common errors include late payments, duplicate entries, and outdated information.

Step 3 – Gather Evidence to Support Your Case

Gather all relevant materials that support your dispute. These materials may include account statements, receipts, correspondence with creditors, or other evidence proving the inaccuracy.

Compile the evidence into documents so you can easily submit them with your credit dispute claim and letter.

Step 4 – Create and Send the Credit Report Dispute Letter

Use a credit dispute letter template to draft your correspondence. Be clear, concise, and specific about the items you are disputing and the reasons for your dispute. Include the date, source, and type of the item. Make sure to enclose copies of the supporting documentation.

Send the letter via certified mail with a return receipt requested to ensure delivery confirmation and to create a paper trail of your dispute. You can find the mailing addresses for the three major credit bureaus below:

• Equifax. Equifax Information Services, LLC, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374
• Experian. Experian, P.O. Box 4500, Allen, TX 75013
• TransUnion. TransUnion Consumer Solutions, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016

If you prefer to submit your dispute letter online, you can do so through Equifax , Experian , and TransUnion through each company’s portal.

Step 5 – Wait for the Response

The credit bureaus typically have 30 days to investigate your dispute. They will communicate with the creditor or information provider to verify the accuracy of the information. The credit bureau must update your credit report if the information is inaccurate.

If you provided additional information after your original claim, the bureau to whom you submitted your claim will have an additional 15 days to review your disputed items.

A credit report dispute letter is a vital tool for safeguarding your financial reputation and ensuring the accuracy of your credit information. Some tips you can follow to improve your chances of writing a successful credit dispute letter include:

While the credit dispute letter is an effective method for disputing errors, there are other ways to initiate a claim, which include the following:

Request a Validation of Debt

15 U.S.C § 1692g(b) states a debtor can inquire about the origin of a debt by writing and submitting a  debt validation letter to the original creditor.

If the debtholder can’t obtain the original creditor’s name and address within 30 days, the debtor can have the debt taken off their credit report.

Wait Six Months from the Last Dispute

If the debtholder validates the debt by writing back with the original creditor’s information, you can consider waiting six months to try sending another debt validation letter.

Companies often sell their debts, so the new debtholder may not respond to your letter. Without a timely response, you can have the debt taken off your credit report.

Wait Seven Years for the Debt to Expire

15 U.S. Code § 1681(a)(4) states all debts expire after they’ve been on an individual’s credit report for seven years. After this period, you may have to submit an additional claim since the debt won’t be removed automatically.

Knowing how to write an effective credit dispute letter can help you confidently challenge erroneous information on your credit report. You can use the following credit report dispute letter template (which is available to download as a PDF or Word file) as a guide and tailor it to your situation:

What should I avoid with credit report dispute letters?

When dealing with credit dispute letters, avoid submitting multiple disputes for the same item without providing new evidence or information, as it may lead the credit bureaus to dismiss your claims as frivolous.

Most importantly, avoid disputing accurate information on your credit report. Doing so can damage your credibility with the credit bureaus and make resolving genuine discrepancies in the future more challenging. Before you dispute anything, ensure that the information is actually incorrect.

What should I do if the credit bureaus don’t correct my credit report?

If the credit bureaus don’t correct the inaccuracies after your dispute, you have several options:

• Request an investigation reconsideration. Contact the credit bureaus and provide additional evidence to support your claim.
• File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Lodge a complaint with the CFPB , which oversees credit reporting agencies and may help to resolve the issue.
• Consult an attorney. If your attempts to correct your credit report are unsuccessful, consider seeking legal counsel to explore your options for further action.

How long does it take to resolve a credit report dispute?

The credit bureaus have 30 to 45 days to investigate your dispute. Sometimes, the process may take longer if the investigation is complex or requires additional verification from the creditor.

Once the investigation is complete, the credit agency will notify you of the results and any changes made to your credit report.

Is an Experian credit report better than a TransUnion or an Equifax credit report?

All three credit bureaus provide comprehensive credit reports, so one isn’t better than the other. They use different methods to calculate credit scores, but they’re all credible credit agencies within the U.S. You can submit a credit dispute letter with any of the three major credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian).

Related Personal Finance Documents

• Debt Validation Letter : Create a free Debt Validation Letter to request the validity of a debt you may or may not owe.
• Cease and Desist Debt Collection Letter : Use this document to warn debt collection agencies to stop abusive communications.
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