Would you like more of your customers to review the products they bought? RewardsWP gives customers points for the product reviews you approve. They can write the review right inside the rewards widget, or on the product page.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through turning on review points and limiting how many reviews earn them.
We’ll also cover what your customers see in the rewards widget, and how to link to a review form from your emails. Points arrive once the review is approved.
- Checking What Your Store Needs
- Turning On Review Points
- Writing a Review in the Rewards Widget
- When Review Points Arrive
- Showing the Points on the Product Page
- Linking to a Review Form From Your Emails
- Reviewing Orders Placed as a Guest
- Telling Customers That Reviewers Earn Points
- FAQ
Requirements: Reviews in the rewards widget need a WooCommerce store with product reviews turned on, or an Easy Digital Downloads store with the EDD Reviews extension.
Before you get started, make sure RewardsWP is installed and activated on your WordPress site.
Checking What Your Store Needs
Review points work with your store’s own review system:
- WooCommerce: product reviews must be turned on in your WooCommerce settings. When they’re off, the review action doesn’t show in the rewards widget.
- Easy Digital Downloads: reviews in the rewards widget need the EDD Reviews extension.
For more on each store, see Using RewardsWP with WooCommerce and Using RewardsWP with Easy Digital Downloads.
Turning On Review Points
To get started, we’ll open the Write a product review action and set how many points it gives.
From your WordPress admin sidebar, go to RewardsWP » Settings and click the Points tab. Under Ways to Earn, the switch beside Write a product review must be on. If it’s off, click the switch to turn it on. Then click its Edit button.
In the drawer, set these options:
- Points per approved review: how many points a review earns. The points arrive once you approve the review.
- Verified buyers only: RewardsWP turns this on by default. Review points go to customers who bought the product.
In the rewards widget, customers see this action as Leave a review.
Limiting How Many Reviews Earn Points
You can also cap how many reviews earn points in a set time.
The limit is off by default. Every approved review earns points. Turn it on if you want to cap how many points reviews can add to a balance.
To set a cap, turn on the toggle under Review points limit in the drawer. Then choose a number of reviews and a period of one day, seven days, 30 days, or 365 days.
For example, “Points for up to 2 reviews in any 7 days” pays for two reviews in any rolling seven-day window.
When a customer reaches the limit, the rewards widget tells them when review points unlock again. They can still write reviews in the meantime. Those reviews earn no points.
At the bottom of the drawer, a summary sums up your review points settings. When you’re done with the drawer, click Done.
Your changes aren’t saved yet. To save them, click Save Changes in the save bar at the bottom of the screen.
Your review points settings are saved.
Next, see how customers write a review in the rewards widget.
Writing a Review in the Rewards Widget
Here’s what your customers see once review points are on. In the rewards widget, the Ways to earn panel shows Leave a review with a Review button.
The Review button shows for signed-in customers who have a paid order, or guest orders waiting to join their list. It doesn’t show for visitors who aren’t signed in, or for guests who joined with just an email address.
Clicking Review opens the Leave a review panel. It lists the products the customer bought that are open for reviews, with the newest order first.
The panel shows ten products at a time, with a Load more button for the rest. A product the customer already reviewed shows its status: Awaiting approval, Not published, or Reviewed.
Picking a product opens its review form. The form shows the product, its variant, and the date the customer bought it. Before the customer writes anything, it also tells them how many points the review earns once approved.
The form has a star rating and a text field for the review. On WooCommerce, the form uses your own review settings, so it shows stars only if you allow star ratings, and requires them only if you do.
On Easy Digital Downloads, the form also asks for a title.
After the customer clicks Submit review, the widget thanks them and says what happens next. That’s either the points they just earned, or a note that the points arrive once you approve the review.
Their points balance in the widget updates in place. A Review another product button also shows below the message.
A product the customer already reviewed opens a Your review view instead of the form. It shows the review, its status, and the points it earned, with a link to the product page once the review is published. The Your review view is read-only.
To see how the rest of the widget works, read Understanding the rewards widget.
When Review Points Arrive
A review earns its points when it’s approved, never on submit alone. RewardsWP has no moderation setting of its own.
On WooCommerce, your WordPress discussion settings decide whether a review is approved at once or held for you to check. On Easy Digital Downloads, the EDD Reviews extension decides.
To learn how those WordPress settings hold or approve comments, see Beginner’s Guide on How to Moderate Comments in WordPress.
Each customer can review a product once. Each product earns points for one review. A second review of the same product is blocked.
If you set a limit, a review that waits for approval doesn’t hold a place under it. So if the limit fills before you approve the review, that review earns no points.
The Leave a review panel looks like this for a customer who has reached the limit.
Sometimes your store or another plugin turns a review down. When that happens, the widget shows the reason and a link to the product page. The customer can go to the product page from there.
Showing the Points on the Product Page
The product page review form also tells customers what a review earns. A signed-in customer sees a line below the Add a review heading, above the star rating. It shows the points they earn when the review is approved. Visitors who aren’t signed in see nothing extra.
Next, you can ask customers for a review from your emails.
Linking to a Review Form From Your Emails
The best time to ask for a review is once the customer has had time to use the product. Two links open the review flow in the rewards widget. You can add them to your emails.
The simple link works in any email. Add ?rewardswp=earn-review to your store’s address, such as https://example.com/?rewardswp=earn-review.
This link opens the customer’s own list of products to review. It’s one link for every customer, because the widget knows who is signed in.
If your email tool can insert a product ID, you can link straight to one product’s review form. Add ?rewardswp=earn-review- followed by the WooCommerce product ID or the Easy Digital Downloads download ID, such as https://example.com/?rewardswp=earn-review-123.
Both links still work when the customer has to sign in or join first. The widget opens the review list or form once they do.
We recommend sending the link in a follow-up email a week or two after the order. Your email marketing tool can schedule that email.
The WooCommerce Completed order email isn’t a good place to ask, because it arrives when the order ships, or at payment for a download. At that point, the customer hasn’t used the product yet.
Reviewing Orders Placed as a Guest
Some customers bought from your store as a guest before they joined your rewards program. Those orders join their review list once they confirm their email. Until then, the Leave a review panel explains this, with a link that says Email me the link.
For more on guest customers, read Guest participation.
Telling Customers That Reviewers Earn Points
RewardsWP gives the same points for every honest review, good or bad. No setting ties points to the star rating.
We recommend telling customers that reviewers earn points. Put the note near your reviews and near your average rating.
RewardsWP doesn’t add this note for you, so your store adds it.
The FTC’s questions and answers on the consumer reviews rule explain what the rule allows. This isn’t legal advice. Where you sell, check the rules that apply.
That’s it! Your customers can earn points for the products they review, right from the rewards widget. Next, to see the other ways customers can earn points, read Earning points from signups, reviews, and first orders.
FAQ
Below, we’ve answered some of the most common questions about earning points from product reviews.
Am I allowed to give points for reviews?
RewardsWP gives the same points for every honest review, good or bad. We also recommend telling customers that reviewers earn points. To see what the rules allow, read the FTC’s questions and answers on the consumer reviews rule. This isn’t legal advice. Where you sell, check the rules that apply.
Can my customers earn points for reviewing the same product twice?
No. Each customer can review a product once. Each product earns points for one review.
Do my five-star reviews earn more points?
No. Every approved review earns the same points, whatever its rating.
Can my customers edit a review in the rewards widget?
No. A reviewed product opens a read-only Your review view.
What happens to the points if I reject or delete a review later?
The points stay in the customer’s balance. This is also true when you mark the review as spam. The product still counts as paid. A new review of it earns no points. To take the points back, adjust the customer’s balance by hand.
See Manually adjusting points.
Does a pending review keep its points if my limit fills?
No. A review that waits for approval doesn’t hold a place under the limit. If the limit fills before you approve it, the review earns no points.
Why don’t my customers see the Review button?
The Review button doesn’t show in these cases:
- WooCommerce product reviews are turned off.
- Your store runs Easy Digital Downloads without the EDD Reviews extension.
- The visitor isn’t signed in.
- The customer joined as a guest with just an email address.
- The customer has no paid order and no guest orders.
Do the review links work when I turn review points off?
Yes. The links open the review list and the form for any signed-in customer, even when the Write a product review action is off. The form then shows 0 points.
Can my customers review an order they placed as a guest?
Yes. Once they confirm their email, the order joins their list in the rewards widget.
What happens if WordPress or another plugin turns a review down?
The rewards widget shows the reason, with a link to the product page.
Does spam protection check my reviews?
No. RewardsWP spam protection guards the rewards widget’s sign-up form, and the friend gift form on Basic and up. Cloudflare Turnstile also guards sign-in. Reviews go through your store’s own review moderation.
Do I need a Cloudflare account?
You need one if you choose Cloudflare Turnstile for spam protection. Turnstile needs a free Cloudflare account, a site key, and a secret key. Honeypot, the default, doesn’t need an account. Review points don’t need either one.