The best time to ask for a review

Timing is one of the biggest levers on your response rate, and it is free to get right.

The principle: ask at peak goodwill

There is a short window after a job or a purchase when the customer feels the value most strongly. Ask inside that window and a lot of people say yes. Ask a week later and the feeling has faded, life has moved on, and your message gets ignored.

By business type

Trades and home services (plumbing, electrical, building, cleaning). Same day once the site is tidy, or the next morning. If you invoice afterwards, one day after the invoice is paid works well because there is nothing left to be annoyed about.

Retail and product sales. A day or two after delivery, once they have had the thing in their hands. For in-store purchases, at the counter or same day by text.

Bookings and appointments (salons, clinics, studios). A few hours after the appointment, same day. They are still thinking about how it went.

Bigger projects (renovations, events, long installs). When the final walkthrough is done and they have signed off, not at some arbitrary point mid-project.

Time of day

Late morning and early afternoon on weekdays get the best response. Early morning messages get buried. Evening messages can feel intrusive.

Set quiet hours so nothing goes out before about 9am or after about 7pm in the customer's time zone. It is common courtesy and it keeps you on the right side of messaging rules.

Follow-ups

Most people who are going to respond do so on the first message. If you send a reminder, send one, a few days later, and then stop. Spam rules in New Zealand and Australia expect you to back off when someone does not engage. An ongoing drip is both ineffective and non-compliant.

Automate the timing

The reason timing slips is that you are busy finishing the next job when the last one is at peak goodwill. Setting a rule once ("send the request the day after the invoice is paid, never before 9am") means the good timing happens without you.