Collecting reviews with post-purchase invitations

Vendably sends post-purchase review invitations to your customers and tracks each one from dispatch to completion. Reviews that arrive via an invitation are marked as verified.

Invitations are currently sent manually, either one at a time or by bulk upload. Automatic triggering from order data is not yet available.

The invitations area is under /trust/. From there you can view your invitation list, create a single invitation, and bulk upload many at once. Invitation settings (including how long an invitation stays valid and the language it is sent in) are configured in your Trust profile settings.

Creating and managing invitations requires the Admin role or above. Viewers and above can view the invitation list.

Creating a single invitation

1. Go to /trust/ and open the invitations area.
2. Select the option to create a new invitation.
3. Enter the customer's email address, their name, and the order reference.
4. Submit the invitation. Vendably queues it for sending.

Bulk uploading invitations

1. Go to /trust/ and open the invitations area.
2. Select the bulk upload option.
3. Prepare a CSV file with columns for email address, customer name, and order reference.
4. Upload the CSV. Vendably queues each row as a separate invitation.

Invitation statuses

Vendably tracks each invitation through the following statuses:

• Queued. The invitation has been created and is waiting to be sent.
• Sent. The invitation email has been dispatched to the customer.
• Opened. The customer has opened the invitation email.
• Completed. The customer has submitted a review. The invitation links to the review it produced.
• Expired. The invitation passed its validity window before the customer completed it.

Invitation validity and incentives

Invitations expire after a configurable number of days. The default is 90 days; you can set any value between 7 and 365 days in your Trust profile settings.

If you offer a reward for leaving a review, mark the invitation as incentivised. This label is carried through to the resulting review so it is disclosed correctly.

Troubleshooting

Invitation not delivered. Check that the email address is correct and that the customer has not previously unsubscribed from invitation emails. If both are fine, allow a short delay for delivery.

Invitation expired before completion. The invitation passed its validity window. Send a new invitation to the customer.

Invitation sent in the wrong language. The language is set by the primary locale configured in your Trust profile settings. Update the locale there before sending further invitations.