When a customer leaves a review, they fill it out using one of our two review forms. This article covers both forms, the screens a customer goes through, and how to customize the form's fields, styling, text, and what happens after a review is submitted.

Customers can reach the review form through several channels — the Review Widget on your storefront, QR codes, shareable links, and review request emails. Each channel is covered in its own article; here we focus on the form customers land on.

How it works

The review collection flow starts when a customer chooses to leave a review. This can happen when they:

click the Write a review button on your storefront
click the Write a store review button on the Happy Customers Widget and Floating Reviews Tab
click the review link in a review request email
open a shared review link
scan a QR code

Customer starts the review process
- If the customer clicks the Write a review button on your storefront, they will open the in-store review form embedded on the page.
- If the customer clicks the review link in a review request email, opens a a shared review link, or scans a QR code, they are directed to either the external review form (Judge.me-hosted page) or the in-store review form, depending on your settings.
Customer fills in the review form – The review form guides customers through a step-by-step flow with up to 4 screens:
- In-store review form:
  - Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating. Once selected, the form automatically moves to the next screen.
  - Review content screen – The customer writes their review. They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
  - Customer information screen – The customer provides their email address and display name (required). They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
  - Reviewer media screen – The customer can upload photos or videos. They can click Next to continue or Back to go back.
- External review form:
  - Star rating screen – The customer selects their star rating. Once selected, the form automatically moves to the next screen.
  - Review content screen – The customer writes their review. They can click Next to continue.
  - Customer information screen – The customer provides their display name (required). They can click Next to continue.
  - Reviewer media screen – The customer can upload photos or videos. They can click Next to continue.
  Early user program participants can also choose a Compact form theme, where all fields appear on a single screen after star selection — instead of the multi-step flow described above. See Form theme below.
Customer submits the review – Once the review is submitted, the customer sees a Review submitted screen:
- In-store review form:
- External review form – You can also choose to ask customers to review additional products from the same order and/or leave a store review after they submit their first review.

Considerations

In the In-store review form:
- The X icon to close the form only shows on the Star rating screen. After that screen, customers can either continue through the form or refresh the page to exit.
In the Judge.me external form:
- The light mint green background color of the Judge.me-hosted page cannot be customized.
At the bottom of the Review content screen in both forms, we show this GDPR statement: "We'll only contact you about your review if necessary. By submitting your review, you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy". This disclaimer cannot be removed or edited, as it ensures transparency and compliance with data protection requirements.
An email address is required when submitting a reviews and can’t be made optional.

Customize the review collection flow

On the Collection flow page, you can manage:

Write a review flow
Verification process for reviews from widgets, QR codes and links
Review collection

To customize the review form itself, you can either:

go to Settings > Collection flow and click Customize flow
or go directly to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review

Both paths open the same Write a review flow settings page.

1. Which review details are collected

Review content

Available on the Free plan

By default, we ask for both the star rating and review content which accepts up to 5,000 characters.

To allow customers to submit a review with only star ratings without needing to write a comment (The Review content field remains visible in the review form but becomes optional):

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
Click the checkbox next to Enable quick star ratings.
Click Save.

Review title

Available on the Free plan

To allow customers to add a review title when writing a review:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
Click the checkbox next to Ask for review title.
Click Save.

Once review title is enabled enabled:

An optional Review Title field (up to 100 characters) will be added below the Review Content field.
As the customer types their review content, the Review Title field will be automatically filled with the first 50 characters of the content.
The customer can manually edit the title if they wish.

Review media

Available on the Free plan

To allow customers to review images and/or videos when writing a review:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Review content section.
To allow image upload, click the checkbox next to Ask for review images.
To allow video upload, click the checkbox next to Ask for review videos.
Click Save.

Note:

Videos: max 1 video per review (file size limit: 100 MB)
Images: max 5 images per review (file size limit: 10 MB each)

2. Form theme

Available for Early user program participants.

The review form uses a multi-step layout by default, guiding customers through separate screens for star rating, review content, customer information, and media upload. You can switch to a compact layout where all fields appear on a single screen after the customer selects their star rating.

To change the form theme:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, open the Flow settings section.
For Form theme, select one of the following options:
- Multi-step (Default) — customers go through separate screens for star rating, review content, customer information, and media upload.
- Compact — after selecting a star rating, all remaining fields (review content, customer information, and media upload) appear on a single screen.
Click Save.

3. Where customers write reviews (form location)

Available for Early user program participants.

When a customer clicks Write a review on your storefront widgets, the review form opens as a popup on the current page by default. You can change it to open in a new browser tab instead — useful for stores using page builders or where popups don't display correctly.

To change where customers write reviews from widgets:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Collection flow.
In the Review collection section, under Where customers write reviews. Select one of the following options:
- In-store popup (Default) — the review form opens as a pop-up on the current page.
- External form in a new tab — the review form opens as a standalone page in a new browser tab.
Click Save.

4. What happens after customer submits the review

Available on the Free plan

You can choose to collect more reviews after a customer has submitted an initial product review:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
In the Flow tab, scroll down and open the Post review submission section.
To request reviews for other products in the order, click the checkbox next to Ask reviewer to review other products in the order.
To request store reviews, click the checkbox next to Request store review after product review is submitted.
Click Save.

Example:

Customize the review form

1. Color scheme

To choose a color scheme for the review form:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Open the Styling tab.
For Color scheme, select one the following options:
- Default colors (from your brand settings) – to use the same Primary color from your Branding setting.
- Custom colors – to pick colors for these elements of the form:
  - Star color (available on the Free plan)
  - Text color (available on the Awesome plan)
  - Form background color (available on the Awesome plan)
  - Field background color (available on the Awesome plan)
  - Button color (available on the Awesome plan)
  - Button text color (available on the Awesome plan)
  - In-store page overlay color (available on the Awesome plan)
Click Save.

2. Corner style

Available on the Awesome plan

To adjust the corner style of the review form (applied to background card, input fields, and buttons):

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Open the Styling tab.
Open the Background card, input field and button dropdown.
Select one of the following options: Square, Soft, Round, Extra round.
Click Save.

3. Texts

Available on the Awesome plan

To customize the texts in your Write a review form:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
Go to the Text tab.
Under each section below, adjust the texts to your liking.
Click Save.

Review content

Field	Default texts
Screen title	How would you rate this product?
Introduction	We would love it if you would share a bit about your experience.
1 star review guidance	Poor
5 star review guidance	Great
Review title	Review title
Review title placeholder	Give your review a title
Review content	Review content
Review content placeholder	Start writing here...

Customer information

Field	Default texts
Screen title	About you
Introduction	Please tell us more about you
Reviewer display name	Display name
Reviewer display name placeholder	Display name
Reviewer email address	Email address
Reviewer email address placeholder	Your email address
Label for hidden customer name	Anonymous

Reviewer media

Field	Default texts
Screen title	Share a picture or video
Introduction	Upload a photo or video to support your review.
YouTube URL placeholder	Paste your YouTube URL here

Custom questions

Option	Default text
Screen title	Your experience in more detail
Introduction	Here are a few questions to help us understand more about your experience.

Store review

Option	Default text
Screen title	Would you like to share your experience of shopping with us?
Introduction	We value your feedback and use it to improve. Please share any thoughts or suggestions you have.

Note: You can enable the option to collect a store review after a product review in the Submission flow.

Review submitted

Field	Default texts
Review submitted screen title	Thanks for your review!
Thank you message	We are processing it and it will appear on the store soon.
Email verification message	Please confirm your email by clicking the link we just sent you. This helps us keep reviews authentic.

Negative review resolution

Field	Default texts
Screen title	Tell us more
Negative review resolution	Your experience matters to us. If there were issues with your purchase, we're here to help. Feel free to reach out to us, we'd love the opportunity to make things right.
Button text	Contact us

Advanced settings

Field	Default texts
Next step button text	Next
Close review button text	Close

Troubleshoot

"This field is required" error

When writing a review, if your customer run into the "This field is required" error even though they have filled in the star rating and the body of the review, it might be because the Review Widget is duplicated on the product page, which causes form conflicts and prevents proper validation.

To avoid the "This field is required" error from showing when both the star rating and body have been filled in, double-check and remove the duplicated Review Widget.

"inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText" error

If the preview of your external review form looks like the screenshot above (showing placeholder texts such as reviewPageText.whatDoYouThinkAboutProductText or inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText instead of the proper field labels and buttons), or if customers see the inputLabels.widgetSubmitReviewText texts when trying to upload a photo or video, it usually means you're using the Legacy styling template together with the external form.

To check if you're using the Legacy styling template:

From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Email templates.
Under Review request and reminder emails, check if the Legacy styling template is "On".

The Legacy styling template doesn’t work well with the external review form. To fix this, you can either:

Keep using the Legacy styling template, but switch to the in-store review form instead of the external form.
Keep using the external form, but change your email templates to the Smart styling template (recommended).

Star icons not showing in the Star rating screen

In the Star rating screen of both your In-store review form and Judge.me external review form, if you only see the “Poor — Great” labels without any clickable star icons, it's likely that the star icons were set to the same color as the form background.

To make sure the star icons are visible in the Star rating screen of both your In-store review form and Judge.me external review form:

First, check which color scheme you're using for your review form:
1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
2. Go to the Styling tab.
3. For Color scheme, check whether "Default colors (from your brand settings)" or "Custom colors" is selected.
If "Default colors (from your brand settings)" is selected, make sure your Primary color is not set to white:
1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Branding.
2. In the Color section at the top, if the Primary color field is set to white, change it to a more visible color.
3. Click Save.
If "Custom colors" is selected, make sure your Star color is not set to the same color as your Form background color:
1. From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Widgets > Write a Review.
2. Open the Form Styling section.
3. For Custom colors, set a different color for either the Star color or Form background color
4. Click Save.