A review request is one message on one of three channels, and the channel decides what you are allowed to write. An email request is five fields: subject, message, From name, Reply-to and button text. A text message has to fit 133 characters, not 160, because the review link takes the other 27. A WhatsApp request has no message of its own, because Meta only lets you send a template it has already approved.
You can send up to three messages per request, each with its own delay, and the whole sequence runs on one channel. It stops on its own when the person reviews, clicks, or unsubscribes.
Email costs $5 per 1,000. SMS costs $5 per 100 segments, so a thousand texts inside the character limit is $50 and a thousand texts one character over is $100. WhatsApp is not metered.
Nobody can tell you which channel converts best. Every published number comparing them belongs to a company selling one of them. Send to a small segment on two channels and read your own result.
What a campaign needs before it will send
A campaign will not go live half configured. When something is missing, the page names it, so you never have to guess. There are four things.
A review link to send people to. Every campaign has its own, created with it.
At least one objective. A platform, and optionally a specific profile. Google Maps with no profile means "get as many Google reviews as possible". A profile sends everyone to that one listing.
Who it sends to. A contact segment.
Your message. Complete, for every message in the sequence.
Who receives it
Contacts get in two ways, and the second one is the one worth setting up properly.
A CSV. Upload the file and map your columns to contact fields. If you run several locations, either send the whole file to one location or point at the column that names it. The column wins per row, so a mixed export still lands correctly.
A connected tool. Reviewflowz reads contacts from over 600 tools. When you connect an integration, we send a review invitation whenever a specific event is recorded on your system of record: case closed, appointment honored, order delivered.
Reviewflowz keeps the contact list current instead of asking you to. Connect the system your customer data already sits in and new contacts arrive on their own, so the request goes out on the event rather than on the first of the month. Review generation on Reviewflowz connects to over 600 tools.
Following up, without sending the same thing twice
One message is where most review programmes quietly end. A request can carry three, each with its own delay, counted from the moment the contact enters.
The channel is picked once and applies to the whole sequence, so a sequence is three emails or three texts, not one of each. To reach the same people on another channel, run a second request.
What stops it matters more than what sends it. A sequence stops chasing someone the moment they review, click your link, or unsubscribe. The review check looks back 48 hours before the request went out, so somebody who reviewed you on the way home, before your first email landed, is not chased for it afterwards.
Which channel to send on
SMS | |||
Cost per 1,000 | $5 | $50 at 133 characters, $100 at 134 | Not metered |
Message ceiling | None in practice | 133 characters | The template's own |
What it needs first | Nothing beyond the campaign | A signed consent attestation | A Meta approved template |
Time to first send | Minutes | Same day | Days, Meta approves the template |
Read the SMS row twice. Segments are billed in packages of 100, so one character over the limit doubles the bill. The character counter in the editor is not decoration.
All three channels run out of the same contacts and the same links, and report into the same place. Running email, SMS and WhatsApp on separate tools means three contact lists to keep in sync and no single screen that says which one produced the review. Reviewflowz sends on all three.
What has to be switched on before anything sends
Three gates, in the order you will hit them.
Your plan, your trial, and the check we run
Requests is on Premium if you are billed per review profile, and on Pro or Premium if you are billed per location.
A free trial sends 10 messages in total across all three channels. Lifting that takes an active subscription and a check by our team on each channel you want, and until that check clears a paid account is held for validation rather than given a bigger number. After it, volume is not capped.
Run out of credits mid campaign and it pauses itself rather than half sending, then starts again when credits come back.
SMS: the consent wording you sign
Before your first text you sign off on the exact opt-in wording your customers must have agreed to. It is pulled straight from the campaign registered with the US carriers on your behalf, so what you sign and what is on file with them cannot drift apart.
Opt-outs then handle themselves. STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END and QUIT all unsubscribe the contact the moment the reply arrives. On a shared number a STOP unsubscribes that person everywhere, because they cannot address a STOP to one sender.
There is a whole article on the US texting laws in plain English.
WhatsApp: nothing sends until Meta approves the template
Every WhatsApp template goes to Meta and comes back approved, pending or rejected. Only approved ones send, and Meta does not commit to a turnaround, so submit yours before you need it.
Watch the status, not the selection. A template that is still pending looks chosen in the picker exactly like an approved one, and it is refused at send time. That is the most common reason a WhatsApp request does not go out.
Where the request sends people, and what you get back
The link belongs to the campaign, and the objective on it decides where each person lands. Point it at Google Maps and everyone goes to your Google listing. Point it at a profile and they all go to that one. On a location-billed account the link carries a location too, so a code scanned at your Harbour Street branch reaches Harbour Street.
Every click is recorded against the campaign, so whether the text beat the email is a number rather than a guess. There is more on reading review collection performance, and the QR code version of the link points at the same place.
The link routes and it reports: each person goes to the platform you picked, it resolves to the right branch on a location-billed account, and every click lands against the campaign that sent it. A raw Google review URL pasted into an email does none of that. See what review generation tracks.