Review Flow Settings Guide

This page covers every field available on the review flow form. For a conceptual overview of how review flows work from the customer’s perspective, see How Review Flows Work. For the steps to create a new flow, see Creating a Review Flow.

Basics

Flow Name

An internal label for this flow. Customers never see this name — it is only used inside the portal to help you identify the flow in lists and reports. Use something descriptive that reflects its purpose or the context it will be used in, such as “Post-Service Review” or “New Client Feedback.”

Location

Determines the scope of the flow.

Select Accessible to All Locations to create a reusable flow that can be used across all of your locations. When you send a request, you can identify the location for the customer so they do not have to choose it themselves. If the flow is accessed more generally, such as from a QR code on a mailer or event brochure, the customer can select their location instead.
Select a specific location to create a flow scoped to that location only. Location-specific flows always skip location selection.

Accept New Responses

This toggle controls whether Smart Links and new system requests can start the flow. Disabling it does not affect existing system-sent Review Records. Customers can still open those requests, even when the historical flow or Location is later disabled or soft-deleted.

Customer Details

Customer Information

Customer Information is split into two clearly labeled parts without adding another stage to the customer experience.

Customer Details — before choices

Choose whether to collect the customer’s name, email address, or mobile phone number on the existing Customer Details screen before destination and feedback choices appear.

Setting	What happens
Off	The field is not collected before choices.
Required	The field appears and must be completed before the customer can continue.
Optional	The field appears, but the customer can continue without completing it.

New fields begin as Required when enabled. By default, all three fields are off before choices, so existing flows keep the same customer experience unless you intentionally change their configuration.

When every visible customer-information field is optional, the screen is remembered after the customer explicitly chooses Continue. Browser Back can still return to that historical screen and let the customer add information. A full reload or resumed link returns to the furthest valid Flow stage.

Written Feedback — when feedback is typed

Name and email are always collected and required when a customer types written feedback. You can also enable a mobile phone number as Required or Optional. The phone setting applies both when the customer explicitly chooses Written Feedback and when Written Feedback becomes the fallback because no eligible external destination is available.

Phone is disabled by default. FSRevs validates US and Canadian phone numbers, but does not verify that a number belongs to a mobile carrier. Collecting a phone number alone does not grant SMS marketing permission. Use the Marketing Permission settings below when this flow should request it.

Collecting customer information improves customer matching and can provide a reliable way to follow up appropriately after the interaction.

Marketing Permission

Marketing Permission is off by default. Enable Request email marketing permission, Request SMS marketing permission, or both when this Review Flow is an appropriate place to ask the customer to receive future news and offers.

Email and SMS remain separate choices. A customer can select either, both, or neither.

Placement

Choose where the permission group may appear:

Placement	Behavior
Customer Details — before choices	Requests permission beside eligible contact fields on the Customer Details screen.
Written Feedback — when feedback is typed	Requests permission beside the contact details collected with written feedback.
Both — ask at the first eligible opportunity	Allows either screen to request permission. A channel accepted on Customer Details is not requested again for the same value during Written Feedback.

The editor helps repair missing prerequisites before save. For example, it can offer to add an email or mobile-phone field, let you choose where a missing phone field belongs, or enable Written Feedback when the selected placement needs it. Validation remains in place if the repair is dismissed.

Email is always collected with written feedback. SMS permission requires the Mobile phone number field at an eligible placement; FSRevs validates the number but does not perform a mobile-carrier lookup.

Customer-Facing Wording

The managed defaults are:

Heading: Stay in touch
Introduction: Choose how you would like to hear from us.
Email choice: Email me occasional news and offers.
SMS choice: Text me occasional news and offers.

You can customize the heading, introduction, and choice wording within the displayed limits. Email wording must identify email; SMS wording must identify text or SMS. Optional helper text is blank by default and must make the optional nature clear when supplied.

Use the section Preview action to review the group on Customer Details or Written Feedback. Preview choices are disabled so previewing never records permission.

What Customers See

FSRevs shows only choices that have a valid, visible contact value and still need permission:

A valid email can show the email choice.
A valid phone can show the SMS choice.
Existing permission for the exact value hides only that channel’s choice.
A known contact value can be shown prefilled when the value needs permission, so the customer can confirm or correct it.
Changing a contact value clears the corresponding selection. Formatting-only changes that normalize to the same value do not.
Leaving a choice unchecked does nothing; it does not revoke earlier permission.

Permission is recorded when the customer submits the Review Flow screen containing the checked choice and FSRevs safely saves the customer and exact contact value. If Both is selected, a checked choice is remembered and is not shown again for the same value later in that interaction.

Permission is recorded only after the stage saves successfully and FSRevs can safely associate the response with a customer. An active unsubscribe, STOP request, complaint, or other strong restriction cannot be bypassed by this opt-in.

Reviews & Feedback

Controls whether the flow offers eligible external destinations. Destinations include review sites, social pages, and other configured links—not only review sites.

Destination Selection & Order

Controls how review sites are ordered and filtered when presented to the customer. The default options are a safe choice for most flows, but these settings also give you more control when you want to emphasize specific sites for a campaign or business goal.

There are eight options, organized into two groups:

Google Options:

Option	Behavior
Google first, then review & social sites	Google is shown first, followed by all other available review and social sites
Google first, then review sites	Google is shown first, followed by review sites only — social sites are excluded
Google first, then social sites	Google is shown first, followed by social sites only — traditional review sites are excluded
Google only	Google is the only option shown. The one-destination shortcut also depends on Continue to Completion After Opening a Destination.

Custom Order:

When you choose a Custom Order option, build your preferred list by clicking Add site to flow for each site you want to configure. You can drag and drop the rows to change their order.

Option	Behavior
Chosen first, then review & social sites	Your manually selected sites appear first, followed by all remaining review and social sites
Chosen first, then review sites	Your selected sites appear first, followed by remaining review sites — social excluded
Chosen first, then social sites	Your selected sites appear first, followed by remaining social sites — review sites excluded
Only chosen sites	Only the sites you have manually configured will appear — at least one must be selected

For most businesses, the default Google-first options are enough. Use a Custom Order option when you want more control, such as highlighting a specific site or supporting a campaign without manually managing every possible site.

Pinned Destinations

This field is shown when Destination Selection & Order uses a pinned option. Use it to prioritize destinations and customize how they appear in this flow.

Each entry in the list has:

Field	Purpose
Destination	Choose a review, social, or other configured link.
Custom Supporting Text	Optional text shown below the destination name.
Show This Destination in This Flow	Temporarily hide a row without losing its order or text. Turning this on can override a destination that is generally disabled.

Written Feedback

Offer Written Feedback

Controls whether customers can submit written feedback directly in FSRevs. Written feedback is not inherently private: approved responses may later be displayed as testimonials, on Public Pages, or in widgets according to your publishing and consent settings.

When written feedback is off but Offer External Review & Social Links is on, the section is labeled Written Feedback - Fallback. If the resolved Location has no eligible external destination, FSRevs offers Written Feedback so the customer still has a useful way to complete the flow. A destination may be unavailable because of its Location, enabled state, link type, or the flow’s destination-selection rules.

When both external destinations and Written Feedback are off, there is no fallback. After any required details or rating, the flow completes and proceeds to its configured follow-up or thank-you experience. Disabling Written Feedback therefore removes the normal written-feedback choice, but it does not disable the safety fallback while external destinations remain enabled.

Written Feedback Field Label

The label displayed above the written feedback text area on Stage 4: Direct Feedback. Defaults to “Feedback” if left blank. Customize this to match your flow’s context, such as “Tell us about your visit” or “Share your thoughts.”

Written Feedback Option Label

The label on the written-feedback choice at Stage 3: Options & Next Steps. Defaults to “Direct To Us.” Customize it to match the voice you want to project—for example, “Share Your Experience” or “Compliment the Team.”

Collect a Profile Photo

When enabled, customers can upload a single profile image alongside their feedback. This image is stored with the submission and can appear anywhere that testimonial content is displayed, including Public Pages and embeddable Review Widgets.

Testimonial Detail

Controls whether customers can add a short descriptor beneath their name when submitting feedback. A tagline can add quick context that makes a testimonial feel more credible, relatable, and useful when displayed later — for example, a city, company name, role, or customer type.

Option	Behavior
Don’t collect	No testimonial detail is collected.
Optional	The customer can add a tagline, but does not have to. This is a good low-friction choice when taglines are helpful but not essential.
Required	The customer must provide a tagline before submitting. Use this when that extra context is important to how the feedback will be displayed, filtered, or understood later.
Add fixed text automatically	Required fixed text is stored without showing a customer field.

Response Format

Only visible when Testimonial Detail is Optional or Required. Controls how the customer responds:

Option	Behavior
Free text	Best when you want natural detail, such as a city, company name, or short role
Dropdown selection	Best when you want clean, consistent labels, such as customer type or service category

Field Label

The label displayed above the tagline input field. Use this to clearly ask for the kind of context that will make the testimonial more meaningful later — for example, “Your City and State,” “Company Name,” “Your Role,” or “What best describes you?”

Help Text

Optional helper text displayed below the tagline field to guide the customer toward a short, useful answer. This is a good place to explain what kind of detail you want and why.

Answer Choices

Only visible when Response Format is Answer choices. Add at least one nonempty choice. Choices can be reordered by dragging and remain stored when another mode is selected.

Story Photos

Collect Story Photos

When enabled, customers can upload up to six supporting photos that highlight their experience or results. These are separate from the single profile photo in Feedback Settings and are intended for richer, more illustrative content — for example, before-and-after photos, completed work, or real-world customer moments.

Photo submissions in this part of the flow also gather separate photo-use permission, which makes the content more useful later in testimonials, website updates, and campaign content. This content permission does not grant email or SMS marketing permission. If customer photos are part of your broader content strategy, this feature can make them much easier to collect consistently. See Key Concepts for the bigger-picture content and marketing use case.

Story Photo Heading

The heading displayed above the photo upload area. Defaults to “Share Your Photos.” Customize it to match the kind of photos you want customers to submit, such as finished results, project photos, or before-and-after images.

Story Photo Instructions

Optional rich text displayed above the photo uploader. Use this to explain what kind of photos are most helpful and set expectations for how they may be used. For example: “Got photos from your experience or results? Share them here and we may feature them on our website or in future marketing.”

This field uses the Rich Editor, including Customer destinations and image blocks.

Experience Rating

When Should Customers Rate Their Experience?

Controls when — or whether — the customer is asked to provide a sentiment rating.

Sentiment can be useful when you want a simple way to measure customer experience across locations, employees, services, or campaigns. If your main goal is keeping the flow as fast and friction-free as possible, you may prefer to reduce or skip it. For the broader strategy behind this choice, see Sentiment in Key Concepts.

Option	Behavior
Before destination choices	The customer rates before external-destination or written-feedback choices.
Only with written feedback	A rating is required only when effective written feedback is available.
Don’t ask for a rating	No rating is collected.

Sentiment is most useful when someone on your team will actually review and act on it. It can support reporting, follow-up, coaching, and trend analysis, but it is not required for every flow.

Rating Style

The visual rating interface shown to customers.

Option	Customer Experience	Best For
Star Widget	The customer selects 1–5 stars.	Familiar, fast review flows where a simple rating is enough.
Customer Recommendation Score	The customer answers “How likely are you to recommend this business to someone you know?” on a 0–10 scale.	Flows where you want a wider, loyalty-oriented recommendation signal while keeping the customer experience quick.

Customer Recommendation Score helps you understand how likely a customer is to recommend your business. It is useful when you want a simple loyalty-oriented signal that can be tracked across locations, employees, campaigns, and review flows.

Scores are grouped into three ranges:

Range	Category	Meaning
0–6	At-Risk	The customer may need follow-up or service recovery.
7–8	Neutral	The customer had a generally acceptable experience but may not be strongly enthusiastic.
9–10	Advocate	The customer is highly likely to recommend your business.

In portal reporting and exports, Customer Recommendation Score appears as a 0–10 score. On public pages and review widgets, it displays using the familiar star visual, including half-star increments when needed.

Team Member Attribution

How Should a Team Member Be Attributed?

Controls whether customers can identify a specific team member as part of their flow experience — and if so, how.

Employee attribution can be useful when you want clearer coaching, recognition, follow-up, or reporting. The best setup depends on how confidently you know which employee was involved, and whether asking the customer to confirm that information would help or add unnecessary friction. For the broader strategy behind this choice, see Employee Attribution in Key Concepts.

Option	Behavior
Disabled	No employee selection is shown. Best when employee context is not important, would be unreliable, or would add unnecessary friction.
Customer chooses from a list	Customer sees a text list of eligible team members.
Customer chooses from photo cards	Customer sees names and profile photos.
Sender selects; customer cannot change	The sender assigns the team member and no customer selector is shown.

Team Member Name Format

Controls how employee names are displayed to customers when employee attribution is shown. If an employee has a nickname set, the nickname is always shown instead of the selected format.

Available formats include:

Option	Example
Full Name	`Sam Smith`
First Name Only	`Sam`
Last Name Only	`Smith`
Full First Name, Last Initial	`Sam S.`
First Initial, Full Last Name	`S. Smith`

Choose the format that makes employees easiest for customers to recognize while still matching your privacy or presentation preferences.

Show Job Titles in Photo Choices

When employee tracking is set to the With Photos option, this toggle controls whether the employee’s job title is displayed beneath their photo. This can help when titles make it easier to identify the right person or add helpful context. Employee titles are maintained in Managing Users.

Team Member Prompt

Optional text displayed just above the employee selection list. Use this to set context and make the choice feel clearer for the customer: for example, “Who helped you today?” or “Please let us know who you worked with.”

Completion

What Happens When the Flow Is Complete?

The destination the customer is sent to after completing the flow. Selecting a destination here sets what happens at Stage 5: Completion.

Type	What Happens
Simple Page	Customer is shown a branded Page you created in FSRevs
Smart Link	Customer continues through a reusable Smart Link
My Link	Customer opens a managed review, social, booking, or other business link
(none selected)	Customer sees the On-page Thank-you Message configured below

See Followup Destinations for more detail on each type.

On-page Thank-you Message

Only visible when no followup destination is selected. A short text message shown to the customer after they complete the flow — for example, “Thank you for your feedback!” Defaults to “Thank you!” Maximum 255 characters.

Continue to Completion After Opening a Destination

This setting appears in External Destinations on the Reviews & Feedback tab.

When customers leave the flow to visit an external destination — such as clicking through to Google or Facebook — they have effectively left your site. There is no guarantee they will see the completion page or followup destination you configured.

Background followups help solve this. When enabled, the customer’s selected review site opens in a new tab or window, while the original flow page stays open. After a short delay, that original page automatically redirects to your configured followup destination.

This delay gives the customer time to return if needed. For example, they may open Google, realize they do not have their password, then return and choose written feedback instead. If they do not return, the original page can still continue to the configured completion target.

Customize Step Introductions

These fields let you customize the content customers see at specific points in the flow. You can leave them blank for a very clean, low-friction experience, or use them to add context exactly where it is most helpful.

All of these fields use the Rich Editor and support formatted text, headings, links, lists, and image blocks. You can add an ordinary Web address or a managed Customer destination, and you can place full-width or centered images. They work best when used sparingly to set expectations, clarify the next step, or answer a likely question before it is asked.

Image blocks can be useful here when a visual example will explain something faster than text alone. Images support alt text, an optional caption, and optional click behavior.

Customer Details Introduction

Displayed at the top of Stage 2: Details & Context, above the rating, employee, and contact-detail fields when they are shown. Use this for a brief welcome, reassurance, or context before the customer begins.

If left blank, nothing is shown here by default.

Example: We'd love your feedback. This should only take a moment.

Destination Introduction

Displayed above the review site buttons at Stage 3: Options & Next Steps. Keep this short and direct, since it appears immediately above the site choices.

If left blank, nothing is shown and the destination buttons move up to use the available space. Select H3 in the editor when you want the introduction to appear as a heading.

Example: Choose where you'd like to share your experience.

Text Above Written Feedback Option

Displayed above the written-feedback choice at Stage 3: Options & Next Steps when both external destinations and written feedback are enabled.

If left blank, nothing is shown and the written-feedback choice appears as the last option after the external destinations. Select H3 in the editor when you want the introduction to appear as a heading and visually separate the choices.

Use Written Feedback Option Supporting Text when you want a short plain-text description beneath the written-feedback button. It uses the same presentation as the supporting text beneath review-site buttons and is empty by default.

Example: Prefer to share your feedback directly with us?

Written Feedback Introduction

Displayed above the written feedback text area at Stage 4: Direct Feedback. This is a good place to help the customer think about what to write without sounding scripted or pushy.

If left blank, the default text is: Please tell us about your experience.

Example: You might mention what stood out, what problem was solved, or anything else that would be helpful for us to know.

Smart Link

Creating a Smart Link is optional. A flow can still be used by system-sent requests without one. Once a primary Smart Link exists, its slug is required; clear or delete the link through Smart Link management instead of silently blanking the slug here.

Flow availability and Smart Link availability are separate. Accept New Responses can block the flow even when its Smart Link remains enabled.

Primary Smart Link Address

The URL-friendly slug for the Smart Link. Leave this blank on create if you do not want a Smart Link. Existing slugs cannot be silently cleared from this form.

Smart Link Enabled

Controls whether the primary Smart Link can start customer interactions. Disable or manage/delete the link through Smart Link management when appropriate.

The flow form manages only its primary Smart Link. Open the Smart Link record to add destinations, reusable attribution configurations, QR designs, or analytics. Changing the Smart Link’s Base URL or a configuration suffix breaks previously shared versions of that URL.

Request Messages

Email Request

These settings apply only to review requests sent by email from the portal — for example, via the Sending Requests workflow. QR codes and smart links are not affected.

Use this section to choose the template, theme, and reminder timing for this specific flow. For the broader strategy behind these choices, including permission-first sending, inbox placement, channel selection, and reminder philosophy, see Deliverability, Consent & Inbox Placement.

The template fields in this section all work the same way: select an existing template, leave the field blank to use the system default, or choose Create New Template to build one while editing the flow.

Default Review Request Email Template

The message template used when a review request is sent by email. Choose from your configured message templates.

When writing or choosing a template, keep it aligned with the real customer interaction. Clear sender identity, a recognizable subject line, and one simple call to action usually perform better than clever or sales-heavy copy.

If you are also choosing an email theme in the template editor, the default minimal theme is usually the better fit for review requests. It tends to feel more like direct follow-up and less like a designed campaign. See Deliverability, Consent & Inbox Placement.

Customize Reminder Email

The message template used for follow-up reminder emails sent after an initial request has not been acted on.

Reminder templates should feel like a light follow-up to the original request, not a new campaign. Keep the message narrow, recognizable, and consistent with what the customer already agreed to receive. For tone and structure, follow the Off-the-Hook Review Reminders guidance.

Send an Email Reminder

Controls whether an email reminder is sent, and how long FSRevs waits before sending it.

You can disable reminders entirely, or choose a delay from 2 to 14 days after the original email request.

In most cases, the best choice is a single reminder sent soon enough that the interaction is still fresh, but not so soon that it feels repetitive.

SMS Request

These settings apply only to review requests sent by SMS/MMS from the portal. QR codes and smart links are not affected.

These settings choose which text template this flow uses. They do not replace the need to get permission first. In many cases, the strongest sending strategy is email plus SMS together, with SMS helping the request get noticed and email supporting completion and reminders. For the broader strategy behind this, see Deliverability, Consent & Inbox Placement.

Default Review Request SMS/MMS Template

The message template used when a review request is sent by SMS/MMS. Choose from your configured message templates.

SMS templates work best when they are short, immediately identifiable, and clearly tied to the conversation your team just had with the customer. If SMS is not the right fit for the moment, consider using the flow’s smart link or QR code instead.

Link Preview

Link Preview controls the title, description, and image that messaging and social applications may show. It applies to Smart Links, request routes, and completion sharing metadata. The preview updates while you type without saving each keystroke to the server.

How Review Flows Work — Customer-facing stage walkthrough
Creating a Review Flow — Getting started
Followup Destinations — Completion behavior in detail
Smart Links — Shareable links and QR codes
Flow & Form Reports — Flow-specific results and drilldowns
Message Templates — Customize email and SMS request messages
Deliverability, Consent & Inbox Placement — Permission-first sending and inbox strategy
Sending Requests — Send flows directly to customers