Google Customer Reviews is a special program from Google that allows the Merchant Center to collect customer reviews about the online store and products. These reviews are collected separately from your Google maps profile, which you set up through GMB.
How Google Customer Reviews work on the customer side
After ordering, the customer gets a pop-up asking if he wants to take part in the survey:
If the client gives his consent, then in 7-10 days he will be sent a questionnaire by Google:
Based on the feedback received, Google generates an average score about the online store and shows it next to the ads for that store.
How to activate and set up Customer Feedback in Google Merchant Center
The online store must already have an account in Google Merchant Center and have passed initial moderation. If this stage is already completed, go in order…
1. Activate the program
Go to “Manage Programs” and click “Join” on the “Customer Reviews” program card
In the next step we agree to the rules of participation in the program after which we are redirected to a page with scripts.
2. Installing the script on the site
We have two scripts:
- The basic script for gathering feedback
- A badge to display the seller’s rating on the site
You can install the second one at will. But the first is mandatory. It’s the one that generates the popup on the thank you page with the offer to take the survey.
<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js?onload=renderOptIn" async defer></script>
<script>
window.renderOptIn = function() {
window.gapi.load('surveyoptin', function() {
window.gapi.surveyoptin.render(
{
// REQUIRED FIELDS
"merchant_id": 123123123,
"order_id": "ORDER_ID",
"email": "CUSTOMER_EMAIL",
"delivery_country": "COUNTRY_CODE",
"estimated_delivery_date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
// OPTIONAL FIELDS
"products": [{"gtin":"GTIN1"}, {"gtin":"GTIN2"}]
});
});
}
</script>
Instead of “123123123” it will be your Google Merchant account ID. This code should be sent to the developer and asked to be placed on the thank you page, where the buyer gets after placing the order. The script contains dynamic variables that should be inserted automatically.
Required fields that must be filled out to send information to Google Merchant:
order_id — order number
email — client email, where Google will send the survey email in the future
delivery_country — the country of delivery of the customer’s goods in the format ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. For Ukraine it will be “UA”. The rest of the list can be found at Wikipedia.
estimated_delivery_date — Approximate date of delivery of the order, for example 2022-05-20. It is better to pass the date of ordering +7 days. As I understand it, the questionnaire will be sent to the customer’s mail not earlier than this date.
Optional field:
products — is an array where you pass the GTIN of the products, in order to collect not only the reviews of the store, but also the reviews of the products. This parameter may not be passed.
3. Check that everything works
If everything is set up correctly, after 8 days in the Merchant Center you will see “movement” on the chart. This is the number of people who have agreed to leave feedback.
This graph shows data with a delay of 7 days. So even if the developer installed the script correctly, the first week the graph will show zero. This is normal. You will just have to wait a bit.
There is an option to check if the script works right away: place a test order in the online store and press “Ctrl+U” on the thank you page. You will see the source code of the page and there you will need to find the script, which was installed by the developer. Check that all variables are filled in correctly.
As time passes in the Merchant Center, you can see your rating and how it changes over time:
The rating will be displayed next to the store listings after at least 100 reviews have been left and the average rating is above 3.5 stars.
How to install Google reviews script on Shopify
You can install Google Customer Reviews script on Shopify through add-ons (which are most often paid) or manually, which is very easy. Exactly the manual installation method is described below.
Go to “Settings => “Checkout” and search for “Order status page”:
In the “Additional scripts” field, you can insert any scripts that should be triggered on the thank you page. Including our script for collecting feedback from the seller.
Insert the following script here:
{% if first_time_accessed %}
<!-- BEGIN Google Customer Reviews -->
<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js?onload=renderOptIn" async defer></script>
<script>
window.renderOptIn = function() {
window.gapi.load('surveyoptin', function() {
window.gapi.surveyoptin.render(
{
"merchant_id": 123123123,
"order_id": "{{ order.name }}",
"email": "{{ order.email }}",
"delivery_country": "{{ shipping_address.country_code }}",
"estimated_delivery_date": "{{ order.created_at | date:'%s' | plus:604800 | date:'%F' }}"
});
});
}
window.___gcfg = {
lang: '{{ shop_locale.iso_code }}'
};
</script>
<!-- END Google Customer Reviews -->
{% endif %}
In this script, you only need to replace “123123123” with your Merchant Center ID. Everything else is already set up. Anything in double curly braces, such as “{{ order.name }}” – are dynamic variables in a format understood by Shopify. The system will automatically substitute the necessary data to send it to Merchant Center.
Next, save the settings and that’s it, done. Google Customer Reviews script is installed and configured.
