When it comes to learning about your customers, customer feedback is a crucial practice worth implementing into your business operations.
Customer feedback is a tricky beast—we need it to grow our companies and give customers a better experience… but it isn't easy to get.
We want customer feedback because it gives us valuable data and insight into their thinking: are they satisfied with our products? Did they have a good experience? Will they recommend our brand to their friends?
But the problem with feedback isn't just that it's hard to collect—it's also difficult to analyze and act on. Gartner says that although 95% of companies have collected customer feedback for years, only about 10% actually use it to change their processes and improve the customer experience.
The good news is that we can use our customers' words to make our businesses better, and sending out customer feedback emails that get a response is the first step.
In this article, you'll learn:
- How to ask for customer feedback via email
- Four examples of how to ask for customer feedback over email
- How to create and send a customer feedback email campaign
Let's dive in.
What Is A Feedback Email?
A feedback email is an email used to get answers from your customers concerning their perceptions and feelings about your brand's products and services, which can help grow your sales and provide a better customer experience.
How to Write Feedback Email
Asking customers for feedback should result in one thing for your business: positive change.
Ultimately, a customer feedback email should get the answers you've been looking for and help improve the experience for other customers. A great customer feedback email—one that will get the most responses—has a few things in common:
1. Optimize your email timing
Make sure your email lands in their inbox at the right time, whether it's after a purchase, a cancellation, or a product return.
2. Personalize your subject lines
Customers should be able to tell what's inside the email prior to opening.
3. Keep the email clear and simple
Your request should be short and sweet and clearly state how much time it'll take the customer to complete.
4. Include personalization
Include their name and any other relevant info you can to make the email more genuine.
5. Write a captivating and convincing email
Encourage customers to respond by explaining the purpose of your feedback message and how important the customer's opinions and feedback are to your business.
6. Add a call to action (CTA)
Add a clear call-to-action, so the customer can complete your request.
7. Start and finish with a friendly salutation
And finally, say thank you!
An effective customer feedback email tells people exactly what you want them to do. If you want their feedback on a product feature, ask that specifically. If you are requesting a testimonial or review, make it clear.
For instance, if you’re a small business looking to gather valuable insights from your customers, you can craft a thoughtful email expressing your gratitude and appreciation. A small business thank you message to customers can go a long way in building strong relationships and fostering loyalty.
We've found four examples of how to ask for a review over email—and actually get it. Let's take a closer look at them!
Customer Feedback Email Templates (Copy/Paste)
The tone of voice and wording used when drafting up customer feedback emails is useful to define. Depending on the formality of your relationship with customers, you may want to opt for something more conversational in tone.
Play around with the tone and working until you find a format that works for your bran vething that works for your brand voice. Here are some template examples to use for customer feedback emails.
Template 1: Customer feedback survey email template
Are you satisifed with our service?
We hope you like [customer portal] and that you find it beneficial.
We’re always looking at ways our improving our services, for all those that use [customer portal]. We’d love to get your valuable feedback with a customer survey.
[Fill in our survey here]
We appreciate your help greatly. Thanks for your time.
Template 2: Customer feedback request email template
Good morning [name],
We’ve just seen you’ve registered and are now using the [customer portal].
Do you have any feedback that’s worth sharing?
How are you finding our services? What would you suggest needs improvement?
We want to make sure our customers get the best service and value for money possible. If you’d like to leave a review, it will only take a minute of your time!
Provide your review or feedback here [link]
Thank you for your input,
[Customer portal employee name]
Template 3: Customer feedback Post-purchase email
Hello [name],
Thanks for trying out [customer portal]
As part of our brand mission, we’re dedicated to providing the highest quality service possible. We also care a lot about what our customers think of us.
Do you have some feedback or suggestions on what we could do better when it comes to the [customer portal]?
We appreciate any feedback greatly and for taking the time to do so.
Kind regards, the [customer portal] team
Template 4: Post-interaction email
[name],
You’re one of our most valued customers and therefore your feedback is essential for our business. We always want to improve our services to ensure our customers get value for money.
To help us continue providing a flawless experience, would you take a minute to share your feedback? We’d appreciate it greatly!
We hope you continue to enjoy [customer portal]
Thanks, the [customer portal] team
Template 5: Send customer feedback from the customer service team
Subject: We appreciate your helpful feedback
Dear [Customer Name],
We hope this email finds you in good health. We would like to take a moment to express our gratitude for selecting [company name] and for your recent purchase. We are dedicated to providing our customers the best possible service and products.
We would be delighted to hear your thoughts on your recent experience with us. Your feedback is valuable to us and will assist us in improving our services. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and answer a few quick questions by clicking on the link below. Our goal is to get valuable information about our customers' experience.
[Insert short survey link]
Thank you for your time and for choosing [company name]. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.
[Customer Support Team]
3 Customer feedback email responses
Template 1: An email to the customer for positive feedback email
Subject line: Thank you for your feedback email template
Dear [Customer Name],
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your recent feedback. We are thrilled to hear that you had a positive experience with our company and that our team was able to assist you in a timely and efficient manner.
We appreciate your brand loyalty and look forward to serving you again in the future. If there is anything else we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you again for your customer interactions, and have a great day!
Template 2: Email response to the customer for negative feedback
Subject: We’re sorry for your experience
Dear [Customer Name],
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your recent feedback. We are sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with our company and that our team was not able to assist you in a timely and efficient manner.
We take all feedback seriously and will be reviewing your comments with our team. We appreciate you and hope that you will give us another chance to serve you in the future.
Thank you again for your feedback, and have a great day!
Our mission is to keep our customers happy!
Template 3: Customer loyalty feedback email
Subject: Thank you for your loyalty
Dear [Customer Name],
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued business with our company. We appreciate your loyalty and are committed to providing you with the best possible service.
We would love to hear your feedback on how we can improve our product or service and better meet your needs. Please take a few minutes to complete our customer feedback survey by clicking on the link below.
[Insert survey link]
Your feedback helps, and it is important to us and will help us continue to improve our services for potential customers. Thank you again for your purchase, and we look forward to serving you in the future.
We will be waiting for your next purchase!
[Your Name]
4 Examples of Customer Feedback Emails
1. Customer feedback emails to get actionable advice
Asking for real, actionable feedback from customers means asking for their time to fill out a form or write a survey.
The problem for companies is that to get customer feedback they can actually use to improve, they need to find a way to ask people to give up their time. Achieving this means you must convince the customer that taking the survey is worth their time and feedback is important.
There are some ingredients you should always include in a simple, goal-oriented feedback email like this:
- Tell the customer how much time they'll need to spend on the feedback form
- A clear headline that makes your ask (i.e., feedback, survey) clear
- Your brand logo, so customers immediately recognize it's you
- A strong, goal-oriented call-to-action (CTA) that stands out from the rest of the text
- A quick thank you note
Look at how MeUndies asks its customers for feedback:
It starts by saying how important customers' opinions are to them (talk about making them feel special!) and then outlines exactly how much time they will need to spend on feedback: just a few minutes.
And it's wrapped up with a clear, stand-out CTA and a thank you.
This email is a great example of a quick customer feedback email that gets straight to the point and leaves out the fluff. You may be tempted to throw in a few GIFs or promotional offers (and in any other scenario, we’d definitely recommend that.) However, adding them to emails like this distract from your main goal: getting feedback.
And if you ever catch yourself thinking… should I add something else in this email? Try turning to the inverted pyramid for help:
This way, you’ll be able to effectively keep recipients focused on giving feedback without adding unnecessary fluff.
Pro-tip: Before you hit Send on any customer feedback email, read it aloud to yourself to make sure the feedback request is clear. Or, better yet, send a test email to a team member using Sendlane to get their opinion first!
2. Customer feedback survey email
Surveys are easier for your customers to respond to because they require less thinking: they either like or dislike your product.
Now, customer feedback surveys follow a similar formula as asking for feedback:
- Always tell the customer how much time it'll take
- Explain to them what the survey will involve
- Embed a CTA that's impossible to miss
- Say thanks!
You should also try to personalize customer satisfaction surveys wherever you can. Signing off emails from someone on your team humanizes your brand. Trust us, customers know when companies send out generic emails with a we-just-sent-this-to-literally-everyone vibe—and these emails are not good at getting them to give thoughtful feedback.
This quick survey email from Ritual ticks all the boxes:
And to finish the email, the head of the program, Amy, signs off using her name and signature. This adds a personal touch that makes the entire email feel more genuine.
3. Customer review emails to boost online presence
Collecting customer reviews is absolutely essential to boost a successful business online.
Roughly 95% of customers read reviews before purchasing a product, and 72% of customers won’t take any buying actions until they’ve read one.
When it comes to getting reviews, people are more likely to help you out with something when you tell them why it’s important to you and how they will benefit from responding to your request. When creating a customer review email, try adding in:
- Why you’re asking for their opinion, and
- What you intend to do with the feedback they provide
That way, it's easier to convince the customer that providing feedback will make a difference.
We love this customer review request email from Bellroy:
Take a closer look at the wording that Bellroy uses:
“So we can keep your journey on track, we’d like to know how it’s been so far”
“Tell us how much you like it”
This is a very convincing way to get a customer to leave a review because:
- It effectively communicates the reason for sending the request
- It hints that they're already having a positive experience
Adding in a section at the end to ask how likely the customer is to refer the brand to a friend can encourage them to do just that.
4. Product feedback request emails
Product feedback requests emails are important, but the fear of poor feedback makes many vendors shy away from even asking.
Here's the deal: the best time to ask for product feedback is immediately after a customer has bought something from you. Asking for feedback early allows you to gather positive reviews for your website and handle any fallout from unhappy customers.
Here's an example from Everlane:
When Everlane asks customers what they think of their recent clothing purchases, they can use the feedback to learn what customers like and don't like. The company can also post these reviews on their website so that potential buyers can see how happy past customers are with their new clothes.
Ideally, product feedback request emails should be sent out to customers:
- 3 days after their order was delivered
- If they buy but then cancel before it’s shipped
- If they return an item
- If they leave a poor review
However, sending out this many emails can take your team a lot of time and effort. The good news is that you can put customer feedback email campaigns on autopilot.
Here's how!
How to create and send a customer feedback email automation
With the right tools, you can use AI to collect customer feedback with automated email campaigns to have great customer retention and collect feedback in the background. Automations are made up of four parts:
- Triggers: User-based actions that start your automation, like someone buying a product
- Actions: Everything that happens in your email funnel, such as customers being added to a feedback automation workflow
- Communications: Your content and messaging, such as sending a customer feedback email
- Goals: Checkpoints in your email funnel that help customize the journey for each customer and determine what happens next
//[inject:ad-personalized-email]
Putting all those parts together, you can build an automated workflow that asks customers for product feedback that looks something like this:
And the best part about building email campaigns like this is that once they're built, your team will save a ton of time chasing up customer feedback which will be collected automatically.
Want to automate your customer feedback process? Start your free 14-day test drive of Sendlane today!
Want to learn more about emails? Check out our similar posts:
5 Automated Email Workflows for eCommerce To Boost ROI
7 Re-Engagement Email Examples to Win Back Inactive Customers
7 New Product Announcement Email Examples & Templates