Email timing best practices
The delay on each step decides whether your request arrives while the visit is still fresh or long after the customer has stopped caring. This page explains exactly how Trustaroo counts the delay and gives sensible starting numbers per type of business.
This is part of Trustaroo Premium. Upgrade from Account and billing in the app to switch it on.
How the delay is counted
Each step has a Delay (days) value, and Trustaroo measures it from a reference point:
- Step 1 counts from the moment the contact entered the queue.
- Every later step counts from the last email that was actually sent to that contact.
So a sequence of 1, 3 and 5 days does not send on days 1, 3 and 5. It sends on day 1, then three days after that, then five days after that: roughly days 1, 4 and 9.
A background job checks the queue every 15 minutes and sends whatever has come due. That means the delay is a floor, not an exact time: an email due at 09:00 goes out at some point in the following quarter of an hour.
A step with a delay of 0 days is sent on the next run of the background job, within about 15 minutes of the contact entering the queue. Use 0 when you want the request to feel like it came straight after the transaction, and expect a short lag.
Starting numbers
There is no universal best delay, but there is a reliable shape: ask once soon, remind once, stop. Two or three steps covers almost every business.
| Type of business | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, cafe, bar | 1 day | 3 days | Not needed |
| Hotel, holiday rental | 1 day after checkout | 4 days | 5 days |
| Hair, beauty, wellness | 1 day | 4 days | Not needed |
| Dental, clinic, practice | 2 days | 5 days | Not needed |
| Garage, vehicle service | 2 days | 5 days | 7 days |
| Home services, trades | 2 days after the job | 4 days | 7 days |
| Retail, web shop | 2 days, or after delivery | 5 days | Not needed |
Two rules of thumb sit behind that table. Send the first request once the customer has had the experience but before the next day blurs it. Leave enough room between reminders that the second email does not read as nagging.
When to wait longer
Push the first delay back when the value of what you sold only becomes clear later. A customer cannot judge a boiler repair an hour after the engineer leaves, and cannot judge a mattress the same evening. In those cases a first request at 3 to 7 days beats a same-day one.
Push it forward when the experience is immediate and memorable, such as a meal or a treatment. Waiting a week there just means the customer has forgotten the detail that would have made a good review.
When to stop
Stop at three emails. If somebody has ignored three requests they are not going to write a review, and continuing to email them costs you goodwill and raises the odds of a spam complaint.
Remember that most contacts never reach the last step anyway. Leaving a review sets a contact to Unsubscribed, so the reminders only ever reach the people who did not act.
Editing a step changes the calculation from that point on. Contacts already in the queue keep counting from their own last-sent date, so an edit can make the next email arrive sooner or later than you expect for people who are already mid-sequence.
Test the timing before you trust it
Add yourself as a contact and set step 1 to a 0-day delay. Within about 15 minutes you should have the email, and the contact should move to In Progress in the Contacts Queue. Once you are happy with the wording and the link, put the real delays back.
Click your own review link and complete a rating to confirm the sequence stops for you. That single test proves the most important behaviour in the whole feature.