Post-Purchase Follow-Up

Purchases that complete while ratings and reviews barely arrive, and low satisfaction that only surfaces later as a public review or a support request, are the case for this journey. It needs purchase completion and the related delivery or use moment tracked as events, a rating response tied to its purchase, a defined low-rating threshold and a known email subscription status. If public reviews mostly complain about delivery or damage, the problem is fulfillment, not follow-up; fix that first, because this flow measures satisfaction rather than creating it.

Incremental published review rate vs control

Rating responses and clicks to the review destination are intermediate steps; the journey's value is how many more verified reviews the invited group leaves than the control group.

How it is counted: Among all purchases assigned at entry to the journey group and the control group, the share with a review reliably verified as published within the same follow-up window from assignment. If you cannot verify publication, limit the outcome to visits to the review destination and say so; email delivery or open status does not change the denominator.

Also track

• Rating response rateCustomers who rate within the response window after the rating email, as a share of all entries; the intermediate step before a review. Treat silence as neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
• Low ratings and support contactHow often ratings come in low and, after the support email, how many of those customers actually reach support; this branch exists to help, not to collect reviews.
• Invitation share by rating bandConfirm that the invitation reaches low, high and unrated customers at the same rate; a missing band means the rule has been tied to the rating.
• UnsubscribesTrack email unsubscribes and complaints after each of the three emails; if the rating or invitation email costs subscribers, revisit timing and frequency.

• Trigger and entryEntry happens on a completed purchase; no follow-up goes out for an incomplete order, and the rating is requested only once the related delivery or use moment has passed. Hold back a random share of eligible purchases as a control group that receives none of these emails; the rest form the journey group.
• Who must not enterThis flow opens on every completed purchase; do not confuse it with First-to-Second Purchase, which opens only after the first one. An order with a reported problem passes to Post-Purchase Issue Resolution and this flow ends there. Each purchase opens one flow, with no second invitation.
• Timing and channelsA thank-you and first-use email goes out immediately, a rating email 3 days later; then the response window runs, and the flow moves on as soon as the customer rates. A low rating gets a help and support email, every other case the rating-independent review invitation; match the wait to the product's experience time.
• Exit and handoffSupport offered and review invited are the journey's only two exits; nothing is handed to another journey. No new rating request is sent when the response window closes, and a customer offered support gets the review invitation under the usual rule once the issue is resolved.
• Frequency and consentEach purchase gets at most three emails, all to customers with an email subscription. The review invitation does not depend on the rating: the same invitation goes to every eligible customer, and no reward is offered for posting, changing or removing a review.

1. 1When the journey group publishes no more reviews than the control group, the invitation may have reached customers who would have reviewed anyway; high opens or rating responses do not make up for it. A high review rate from an invitation sent only to happy customers is not a win either, it is a rule violation.
2. 2Change the email order, the 3-day wait or the response window, and the measurement starts over. The outcome of a purchase with a reported problem belongs to Post-Purchase Issue Resolution; credit reviews only to purchases this flow actually invited, and check for overlap with Feedback Request reaching the same customer in the same period.
3. 3Published reviews are a rare outcome. Enter the current review rate and the smallest gap you want to detect into the sample size calculator to see how many purchases each arm needs; do not call the journey a winner or a loser before reaching that count and the end of the follow-up window.