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How to set up and manage product reviews

WooDonkey Product Reviews allows you to collect, moderate, and display verified product reviews directly on your WooCommerce store. This guide explains how to set up and manage your review system to build shopper trust and provide valuable product feedback.

What it is

Access Product Reviews from the WooDonkey dashboard at app.woodonkey.com. Navigate to the sidebar, select Advanced Tools, then Product Reviews. The page title is Product Reviews, with the subtitle ‘Collect, moderate, and display verified product reviews on your store.’ This feature is organized into three tabs: Reviews, Design, and Emails. While you manage reviews and settings in WooDonkey, shoppers submit and read reviews directly on your WooCommerce store. Reviews are stored within WooDonkey, separate from native WooCommerce comments.

How it helps you

By implementing WooDonkey Product Reviews, you provide shoppers with authentic feedback from verified buyers, helping them make informed purchase decisions. For your store, this system centralizes review management, allowing you to publish or reject each review before it appears on the store.

What is included

  • A dashboard to view and moderate all collected product reviews.
  • A snapshot of Reviews collected, Published, Rejected, Pending approval, and Average rating, plus Rating distribution from 5 to 1 stars.
  • Filters All reviews, Pending approval, Published, and Rejected, plus a Search field for name, email, or product. The list shows up to 100 reviews.
  • Actions to Publish or Reject individual reviews. There is no delete and no admin reply.
  • Design cards for Product rating, Review writing page, Review form, and Reviews carousel, each saved with Save settings.
  • Shortcodes [woodonkey_product_rating], [woodonkey_review_form], [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='product'], and [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='all'].
  • Carousel card fields: Customer name, Rating, Review text, Images, Product name, Product image. Customer email is never a storefront card field.
  • A small VERIFIED BY WOODONKEY link to woodonkey.com under every carousel.
  • Optional review-request emails after a paid order, off until you turn Enable review request emails on. Days after purchase defaults to 7.
  • Thank-you emails after submit, on by default, with Enable thank-you emails.
  • A dedicated review writing page buyers open from the request email.
  • Up to 5 photos per review (jpeg, png, webp, gif, about 3 MB each), stored in WooDonkey cloud, not on the WordPress server.
  • Only a verified buyer can submit. The email must match a paid order in processing or completed that includes that product.
  • The WooDonkey Companion plugin is required for shortcodes on the store. Shortcodes are not auto-placed.

How to turn on and manage each capability

Open Product Reviews

  1. Log in to your WooDonkey dashboard at app.woodonkey.com.
  2. From the sidebar, select Advanced Tools.
  3. Click on Product Reviews.

Moderate reviews

  1. Navigate to the Reviews tab.
  2. Review the stats cards for an overview of your reviews.
  3. Use the filters (All reviews, Pending approval, Published, Rejected) or the search field to find specific reviews.
  4. For each review in the list, you will see customer details, status, product, order number, stars, review text, and photo thumbnails.
  5. To approve a review, click the Publish (check icon) action.
  6. To decline a review, click the Reject (X icon) action.

Design the product rating

  1. Navigate to the Design tab.
  2. Locate the Product rating card.
  3. Adjust the Text color, Background color, and Component size (12-48px) for the star rating display.
  4. The shortcode for this component is [woodonkey_product_rating].
  5. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

Design the review writing page

  1. Navigate to the Design tab.
  2. Locate the Review writing page card.
  3. Adjust various color settings such as Page background, Title color, Card background, Button color, and Star color.
  4. Select the Text alignment (Left, Center, Right, Justify) and Content direction (Left to right (LTR) or Right to left (RTL)).
  5. Edit the default text for fields like Page title, Order label (use {order_number}), Page subtitle, Empty products message, Name label, Rating label, Review text label, Photos label, Submit button, Update button, Sending label, Thanks (pending), Thanks (published), Expired link title, and Expired link message.
  6. Observe your changes in the live preview.
  7. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

Design the review form

  1. Navigate to the Design tab.
  2. Locate the Review form card.
  3. Adjust the Background color, Text color, Field background, Field text color, Button color, Button text color, Corner radius, and Text alignment.
  4. The shortcode for this component is [woodonkey_review_form].
  5. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

Design the reviews carousel

  1. Navigate to the Design tab.
  2. Locate the Reviews carousel card.
  3. Adjust colors such as Card background, Card text color, and Star color.
  4. Set display options like Font size, Star size, Gap between elements, Card corner radius, Cards per row (desktop) (1-6), Cards per row (mobile) (default 1), Carousel speed (ms), Text alignment, and Scroll direction (Leftward or Rightward).
  5. Toggle on or off the display of Customer name, Rating, Review text, Images, Product name, and Product image on each carousel card.
  6. Enable or disable Autoplay and Pause on hover.
  7. The shortcodes for this component are [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='product'] and [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='all'].
  8. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

Place shortcodes on the store

  1. Ensure the WooDonkey companion plugin is installed and active on your WooCommerce store.
  2. Copy the desired shortcode:
    • [woodonkey_product_rating] to display the star rating for a product.
    • [woodonkey_review_form] to display the review submission form for a product.
    • [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='product'] to display a carousel of reviews for the current product.
    • [woodonkey_reviews_carousel scope='all'] to display a carousel of all store reviews.
  3. Paste the shortcode into your WooCommerce theme, a page builder, or a product template where you want the component to appear.

Turn on review-request emails

  1. Navigate to the Emails tab.
  2. Locate the Request a product review card.
  3. Toggle the Enable review request emails switch to ON.
  4. Adjust the Days after purchase slider (1-90 days, default 7) to set when the email is sent after an order is created.
  5. Click the Design email button to customize the ‘Product review request’ template using merge tags like {customer_name}, {order_number}, {review_url}, and {product_names}.
  6. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

Turn on or off thank-you emails

  1. Navigate to the Emails tab.
  2. Locate the Thank you for your review card.
  3. Toggle the Enable thank-you emails switch to ON or OFF as desired.
  4. Click the Design email button to customize the ‘Thank you for your review’ template using merge tags like {customer_name}, {product_name}, and {rating}.
  5. Click Save settings to apply your changes.

What to know before you start

  • Review request emails are OFF by default and must be manually enabled.
  • Thank-you emails are ON by default.
  • The companion plugin must be installed and active on your WooCommerce store for shortcodes to function.
  • Shortcodes are not automatically placed. You must paste them into your theme, a page builder, or a product template.
  • Only verified buyers with a matching paid WooCommerce order (status processing or completed) can submit a review.
  • A shopper can submit only one review per product per email.
  • New reviews always arrive with a ‘Pending approval’ status and do not appear on your store until published.
  • WooDonkey does not support deleting reviews, replying to reviews from the admin, or importing reviews via CSV.
  • There is no auto-approve feature for reviews.
  • Storefront review form labels (Name, Email, Rating, Your review, Photos (optional), Submit review, Write a review heading) are controlled by the companion plugin and cannot be edited in the WooDonkey dashboard.

Problems you may hit, and how to fix them

  • Symptom: A shopper’s review submission is rejected, or they cannot submit a review. Fix: Ensure the shopper’s email matches a paid WooCommerce order (processing or completed status) for the specific product they are trying to review. Only verified buyers can submit.
  • Symptom: The reviews carousel appears empty on the storefront even after reviews have been submitted. Fix: Reviews must be manually published in the Reviews tab of your WooDonkey dashboard before they appear on your store.
  • Symptom: Shortcodes like [woodonkey_product_rating] or [woodonkey_review_form] do not display anything on your WooCommerce store. Fix: Verify that the WooDonkey companion plugin is installed and active on your WordPress site.
  • Symptom: Customers are not receiving review request emails after purchase. Fix: Navigate to the Emails tab and ensure the Enable review request emails switch is toggled ON.
  • Symptom: The review list in the WooDonkey dashboard does not show all reviews, even though more have been submitted. Fix: The review list displays up to 100 reviews. Use the search and filter options to locate specific reviews if needed.
  • Symptom: You need to remove a review entirely from the system. Fix: WooDonkey does not offer a delete review function. You can only Reject a review to prevent it from appearing on your store.
  • Symptom: You want to respond to a customer’s review directly from the WooDonkey dashboard. Fix: WooDonkey does not provide an admin reply feature for reviews.
  • Symptom: You want to change the labels for fields like ‘Name’ or ‘Your review’ on the storefront submission form. Fix: These specific storefront form labels are controlled by the WooDonkey companion plugin and cannot be edited within the WooDonkey Design tab.
  • Symptom: Review request emails are not sent at the expected time after an order is placed. Fix: The timing for review request emails is based on the order’s creation date, not a later payment date.
  • Symptom: A customer tries to submit a new review for a product they’ve already reviewed, but it’s blocked. Fix: If a customer has already submitted a published review for a product, they cannot submit another. If their previous review is pending or rejected, a new submission will replace it.

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