Mattresses, furniture and other try-at-home products
Testimonial Request After Home Trial Period
A buyer who is still inside a 100 night trial has not decided anything yet. Ask them for a testimonial in week one and you get a polite guess, or a reminder that they can still send it back. Ask the day after the trial closes and you are talking to someone who chose to keep it. Enter the last day of a customer’s trial to get the dates.
- Anchored on the day the trial ends, not the order
- A support check-in before, the ask after
- Reminders spaced so the buyer is not chased
The problem, solved
Why asking during a home trial backfires
A trial is a promise that the buyer can change their mind. A request sent inside it reads like a nudge to decide.
Situation 1 of 5
Our review email lands mid-trial
An order-based request arrives while the buyer is still sleeping on it, literally. They answer cautiously, or not at all.
How StoryProof solves it
Keep trial buyers in a contact list and send the request by email yourself once their trial date has passed, rather than tying it to the order date.
Situation 2 of 5
The store automation asks a week after ordering
For a product with a long trial, a week after the order can be before delivery has even settled in.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, the order webhook automation sends its request a week after an order. Leave trial products out of it and ask them separately after the trial.
Situation 3 of 5
Asking feels like a reminder they can return it
Any message during the trial can prompt a second look at the returns page. A testimonial ask makes that worse.
How StoryProof solves it
Send the testimonial request only after the trial closes, and only to buyers who kept the product, using your own contact list.
Situation 4 of 5
Nobody remembers to chase after the trial
Trial end dates are scattered across months, so manual reminders slip.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, follow-ups wait three days after a request, remind once, wait four more days and send a last email, stopping as soon as the buyer replies.
Situation 5 of 5
A kept product can still disappoint
Some buyers keep the product because returning a mattress is a hassle, not because they love it.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, a 2 star or lower review can alert your team and send the buyer a personal apology email, and nothing is published until you approve it.
Timeline
Dates for one buyer’s trial
Pick the last day of the buyer’s home trial. Events before it are support contacts, not testimonial asks.
Day -21
Comfort check-in
A short support email: how is it going, here is how to adjust it, reply if anything feels wrong. No request for a testimonial.
Day -7
Trial ending notice
Tell the buyer when the trial ends and how a return works. Being open here is what makes the later ask credible.
Day 0
Trial closes
Mark the buyer as kept or returned. Only kept buyers move on.
Day +3
Send the testimonial request
Ask what changed since the product arrived: sleep, posture, comfort, the room. They can write, record a video or leave an audio note.
Day +6
First reminder
One short nudge for anyone who has not replied.
Day +10
Last email
A final note, then stop. A buyer who stays quiet after this has given you their answer.
Day +14
Review and approve
Read what came in, approve the specific ones, and reply personally to anyone unhappy.
Dates are worked out in your browser and nothing is stored. Run it once per trial length you sell.
The same buyer, asked at two different moments
Asked during the trial
- “Seems good so far, still getting used to it.”
- Buyer rereads the returns policy
- Request arrives before an opinion has formed
- Answers describe delivery, not the product
Asked after the trial closes
- Buyer has already chosen to keep it
- Answers describe weeks of real use
- Specific changes: sleep, back pain, the room
- No reminder of the exit door in the same email
In StoryProof
Set up post-trial requests in StoryProof
- 1
Keep trial products out of order-based requests
If you use the order webhook automation, exclude products sold with a home trial so nobody is asked a week after ordering.
- 2
Add buyers who kept the product as contacts
After each trial closes, add the kept buyers to a smart list for this week’s requests.
- 3
Send the request by email
One collection link lets the buyer write, record a video or leave an audio note in the browser, with nothing to install.
- 4
Let follow-ups run
From Pro, reminders go out on their own and stop once the buyer has replied.
- 5
Approve before anything is shown
Every answer waits in your queue, so a lukewarm one never reaches a product page by accident.
What happens next: Compare answers from buyers asked a few days after the trial with any you collected earlier. The later ones are usually the ones worth putting beside the add to cart button.
Before you start
What this timing does not solve
Your trial dates live elsewhere
StoryProof does not read trial end dates from your store. Someone has to move kept buyers into a contact list each week.
Requests are email only
StoryProof does not send SMS. If buyers only gave a phone number, share the link with them yourself.
Returned buyers need a different message
A buyer who sent it back deserves a question about why, not a testimonial request. Handle that outside this plan.
Trial length changes the gaps
A 30 night trial and a year-long trial both work with this plan, but a year-long trial needs more than one support check-in.
FAQ
Questions people ask
Short answers to what usually comes up next.
Is it ever fine to ask during the trial?
Only for feedback that helps the buyer, such as how to adjust the product. Keep the testimonial request until after they have decided to keep it.
How soon after the trial ends should we ask?
A few days. Long enough that the return window is clearly closed, soon enough that the buyer still remembers the first weeks with the product.
What if our trial is a year long?
Keep the same rule, but add a support check-in every few months so the relationship is not silent until the ask.
Should buyers who returned the product be asked anything?
Ask why they returned it, in a separate message. Do not send them the testimonial request, and do not mix the two.
Does the request need to mention the trial?
A light touch helps: “Now that your trial is over” tells the buyer you know they chose to keep it, which invites a considered answer.
Still have a question? Ask the StoryProof team or book a demo.
Ask buyers who chose to keep it
Send requests after the trial, let reminders run, and approve every answer before it goes on a product page.
Last updated 2026-11-06.