I have received an email from a customer this morning informing me that she has been asked twice to leave a review of the cards she purchased from me. She thinks that I have demanded this and is quite rightly annoyed.
I have never and will never ask a customer to leave a review so I assume that it’s Folksy who has hassled her. It’s absolutely wrong to demand that a customer leave a review - a review is entirely voluntary and it’s up to a customer as to whether they want to leave a review or not.
My customer is not happy that she has been hassled, twice no less, and neither am I.
Why on earth would Folksy alienate both customers and sellers in this way? It’s a total turnoff.
Folksy do send out an email reminder asking customers to leave a review but she should have only received a single reminder - the email reminders were introduced as part of a big overhaul of the reviews system which were a big bugbear of sellers (customers just didn’t leave reviews, they forgot/ couldn’t find out where to leave them). There have been a number of glitches with the email system (sellers not receiving sales notifications is the one I’ve heard most about) so my best guess is that when they rebooted an email server it resent a bunch of emails which had previously been sent causing this duplication. I’d email Folksy (support@folksy.com) so that they can investigate what went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again.
Thanks for sharing the information, it’s a shame that Folksy has done that. I don’t like customers being asked to leave a review, and neither did my customer who received the emails. Reviews are voluntary and no-one should be contacted and asked to leave one. When a customer is annoyed at being asked to leave a review they won’t come back. I’ll have to include a note in my parcels now alerting customers that Folksy will chase them to leave a review so that they don’t think it’s me hassling them, as my customer thought.
I agree Poppy, I don’t feel comfortable with customers being asked to leave a review. I know I don’t like being asked and I also think it should be voluntary.
Hi Poppy @PoppyKayDesigns. My belief is that the reminder is only sent out for Guests who have purchased something from your shop. I like that, and am so very grateful Folksy has done this.
A customer of mine was so pleased with her purchase, and spent ages trying to find out how to send feedback, but she hadn’t registered. She emailed me a few days later to say that Folksy had got in touch, and had even left a link, taking her straight to the review page. She was so happy, and it was the longest review anyone has ever left me!!!
It surely must have been a glitch as Sasha @SashaGarrett mentioned, when your customer had two emails sent.
The review system was overhauled in September last year because lots of customers (and sellers) were frustrated that guest buyers were unable to leave a review, and registered customers couldn’t work out how to leave a review…
Here is a link to the original notification of the change with an example of the emal sent out to customers…
Thanks for the link, I’ve had a look at the email and I can see why my customer was so annoyed and thought it was me hassling her to leave reviews. There is nothing in that email that tells the customer that it’s an auto-generated email sent by Folksy. Regardless of who sends it though, I don’t want it.
Myself and @DaisyWings might be in the minority here but sellers should have control over whether they want to contact their own customers and ask them to leave a review. It’s not right that Folksy does this arbitrarily without a seller’s explicit consent - our customers are ours, not Folksy’s.
I do not want this email going out to my customers. How can I disable it?
I think one email to (especially) guest purchasers, is acceptable, as I had a guest purchaser who couldn’t work out how to leave a review. They emailed me to give a positive response which was great, but it is nice if it shows on your shop.
One email and only one, would be a good reminder, and if it links directly to giving feedback is helpful.
Jayne
Leaving a review is voluntary and I think the way the emails are worded makes it clear it’s not necessary but very appreciated if they can.
“Subject: Could you review your recent purchase?
Do you like your item?
Reviews mean a lot to designers, makers and artists. Would you be able to write a quick review about this: Link to write a review
Thank you for supporting craft. Every purchase and every review helps small independent businesses across the UK grow. You deserve to have a brilliant day. Best wishes from James and the Folksy team in Sheffield.”
I also think that makes it clear that the email was from Folksy and not the seller, as it does say “from the Folksy team”.
It’s only possible for guest buyers to leave a review if they receive an email with the link, and before the review system was updated, a lot of signed up buyers couldn’t find where to leave reviews without a link. Folksy should just send one email after the buyer should have received the item, and it’s something personally I appreciate and don’t feel hassled by, unlike with other websites that can send many worded in a much less polite way.
As you said your buyer has been asked twice to leave a review of the cards she purchased then that could be why. If she purchased 2 separate listings then I expect she will have received one email for each item.
Very well said Kim @konyskiw. Personally I myself never ask a buyer for feedback; never have and never will, but I love the idea that if a Guest Buyer wants to leave a review, it’s excellent that Folksy sends out an email. And to be quite honest, it gives me a boost, and I get quite excited when feedback is left. It means a lot to me.
SallyAnn
I had a guest buyer a couple of weeks ago who desperately wanted to leave me a review but couldn’t figure out how to and asked if I could find out for her, presumably she had missed the email that will have been sent to her. People do quite often want to leave a review but forget. Most sites I know of send a reminder to buyers to leave a review for purchases. I always leave a review on Folksy and similar sites as I know how important and how nice it is for sellers to receive them. Perhaps it was a glitch on the system if your customer was asked twice, personally though as a buyer I wouldn’t complain to a seller if I had been asked to leave a review.
You are right, a lot of sites send emails to remind buyers to leave a review and it’s incredibly irritating. Thankfully my customer has left me a nice review for all three cards after I explained to her that it was Folksy pestering her and not me.
However, not only did she think it was me hassling her for reviews, she was especially irritated by the fact her parcel hadn’t even reached her at the time she got the emails.
If Folksy are going to persist with asking customers to leave reviews it would be better to add a link for a voluntary review on the sales confirmation email, that way it is entirely up to the customer as to whether they want to leave any reviews or not, and they don’t get spammed with additional emails.
I’m pleased your customer left you a lovely review and you have sorted it with her.
I think if a reminder for a review goes out it needs to be a week after posting, I have had the same on other sites and I can’t/won’t leave a review until I have received the items.
Ideall and if there was a way, we could opt in or out of the review reminder system, that way those that would like to continue with the review system could and those that don’t could opt out.
However many people miss this/ don’t read these emails/ have forgotten about it by the time the item arrives (esp if they are over seas) hence the request for a review a week after the item has been shipped.
This is what the email asking for a review looks like in my inbox
to me that is obviously from folksy and could easily be deleted without reading. Your customer should not have received 2 copies of this - that is a glitch in the system and Folksy should be notified so that they can investigate why it happened to stop it happening again.
i’m glad for the email asking for a review - i’m excited about my pretty things arriving, and usually message the seller on instagram immediately to say thanks / it’s arrived safely. if it’s not a secret purchase i’ll splash it all over my insta-stories.
and then i always forget to leave a review.
since these reminders started going out i’ve been a lot more diligent about leaving a review, but never feel like it’s nagging.
please don’t change it, folksy, some of us have sieve brains.
I think it would be much nicer if the email asking for a review were to say ‘Please could your review your recent purchase?’. When I received one I thought it sounded very abrupt without a ‘please’.
Hi Debby. I had a shop on the “dark side” for a while, plus I purchased a few lovely things myself, and I remember wanting to give feeback straight away for someone because the product was so beautiful, but each time I tried they wouldn’t let me because they said I was too early!!! I probably tried about three times, so gave up in the end.
There is no right or wrong way, but I still want Folksy to remind Guest Buyers to leave feedback.
