How to Manage Reviews in the BFCM Rush (Without Hurting CX)

Alla Avgustinov

October 9, 2025

7 min read

BFCM is the ultimate stress test for customer experience. Reviews pour in as fast as orders, and how you handle them shapes buyer trust. This guide explores how to manage reviews in the heat of the rush - protecting the customer journey, resolving issues quickly, and using live feedback to strengthen long-term loyalty.

Please Note:

Account details may vary. The feature is now part of the subscription

See Pricing

Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring a flood of orders - and a flood of reviews.

While it’s important to plan your BFCM review strategy ahead of time - setting up collection flows and optimizing displays - the way you manage reviews during the event has the biggest impact on customer experience.

What you do in the moment can be the difference between losing trust or winning loyalty that fuels growth beyond peak season.

Summary

Reviews come in fast during BFCM, so responding quickly and with empathy is key to protecting customer trust.
Low-star reviews should be prioritized and escalated to the right team, while patterns in customer feedback need to be monitored in real time to spot recurring issues.
Coordinating across CX, ops, and marketing ensures that no review is missed and that insights are acted on consistently across the business.
Reviews need to be authentic, with reward-based reviews clearly labelled, suspicious activity flagged, and purchase verification showing shoppers which feedback comes from real customers.
Review analysis helps you learn what customers value most and what frustrates them, so you can improve both your BFCM performance and future campaigns.
REVIEWS.io offers AI-powered tools for review management, collaboration, moderation and analysis to make all of this easier during the BFCM rush.

Start your journey with REVIEWS.io today

How should I respond to reviews in the BFCM rush?

Review responses need to be fast, consistent, and empathetic when customer expectations are at their highest.

Getting this right protects your reputation; getting it wrong makes small problems bigger.

How to manage review responses

Acknowledge them fast:

Use REVIEWS.io Reply with AI to send immediate acknowledgments while your team prepares more detailed responses if needed. Real-time alerts keep you on top of new reviews.

A purple gradient background with a dark purple box where you input a review. A button to generate a reply to this review.

Escalate negatives straight away:

Route 1 - 2 star reviews to your support team so issues can be resolved quickly. With the REVIEWS.io Gorgias integration, review data can be linked directly to open tickets.

Keep the tone consistent:

Set up rules for how to respond to reviews so your whole team stays aligned. Even in a rush, responses should sound human and empathetic. Draft clear tone guidelines for your team to follow.

Celebrate positives:

Don’t just focus on negatives. Set up BFCM flows in Klaviyo to recognize 5-star reviews and build goodwill during peak trading.

Fast, empathetic responses protect your reputation and show customers you care, even in the busiest sales week of the year.

How do I deal with negative reviews during BFCM?

Unhappy customers are more common during peak seasons. Late deliveries, stock shortages, and long support queues can all lead to poor feedback.

It’s how you handle negative reviews that determines whether they damage your reputation or actually strengthen customer trust.

How to manage negative reviews

Send requests at the right time:

Pause review requests completely throughout the BFCM period, and only resume once deliveries are complete and customers have had time to use their products.

Sending invites too early - before a product is delivered or properly experienced - can cause frustration and lead to unhelpful feedback. Waiting ensures reviews reflect the full customer experience.

Learn more in our guide on the best time to ask for reviews after BFCM - including recommended timing by product type and automation tips using REVIEWS.io Flow.

Identify and prioritize them quickly:

Filter reviews by star rating in REVIEWS.io so 1 - 2 star feedback is flagged immediately and acted on first.

Escalate issues to the right team:

Route product complaints to ops and service complaints to CX. A clear escalation path prevents reviews from being left unresolved.

Follow up beyond the reply:

Don’t stop at posting a public response. Reach out directly to unhappy customers where possible and show you’re fixing the issue.

Track recurring problems:

Use REVIEWS.io AI Assistant to analyze negative reviews at scale and spot repeated pain points - like slow shipping - while the sale is still live.

Handled well, negative reviews aren’t a threat - they’re an opportunity to show accountability and build stronger customer trust.

How do I coordinate review management across teams?

Reviews affect more than one department. CX, marketing, and ops all have a role to play.

Without coordination, issues slip through, responses overlap, and opportunities get missed.

How to streamline review management:

Assign clear roles:

Decide who is responsible for monitoring, responding, and reporting on reviews so nothing falls between the cracks.

Use collaboration tools:

With user profiles and commenting built into REVIEWS.io, collaboration happens inside the platform. Team members can tag colleagues, leave notes, and assign ownership, reducing duplicated work.

A drop down list for 'invite team members' with options to type in their email and select their role. Pictures of 4 people in bubbles floating around it.

Share insights across teams:

REVIEWS.io AI Insights lets you generate instant reports from review data. These can be sent to relevant teams with one-click sharing, so everyone acts on the same real-time feedback.

When review management is shared across teams, nothing gets missed and customers see faster resolutions.

How can I deal with fake or spam reviews during BFCM?

Big sales events attract more than just genuine customers. They can also bring fake or malicious reviews.

Left unchecked, these undermine trust at the very moment shoppers are deciding whether to buy.

How to manage fake or spam reviews

Use a platform that follows the rules:

REVIEWS.io has a strict fake review policy, so you know every review reflects a genuine customer experience. We enforce compliance across all regions - including the UK, US, and EU - so your feedback stays authentic and trustworthy.

Rely on fraud detection and moderation:

Our tools combine automated fraud checks with human moderation to catch suspicious patterns like duplicate IPs, repetitive content, or sudden spikes in activity.

Flag reviews for investigation:

You can flag suspicious reviews directly in your dashboard. Our moderation team investigates quickly and removes any that break policy.

Show authenticity with transparency:

All genuine reviews remain visible - positive or negative - and “Verified Buyer” tags give shoppers extra confidence that feedback is authentic.

With compliance, fraud detection, and clear moderation, fake reviews are removed fast so only genuine customer voices shape buying decisions.

How do I stay compliant with incentivized reviews during BFCM?

Offering rewards can help you gather more feedback during BFCM - and draw customers to your loyalty program. But you must follow the rules on incentivized reviews.

Transparency is essential. If disclosure slips, you risk losing customer trust or running into regulatory trouble.

How to manage review incentives

Mark reviews as incentivized:

Any review collected in exchange for a reward must be clearly disclosed. With REVIEWS.io, you can mark reviews as incentivized manually or automatically when using Quick Invites.

An example of a list of reviews collected for a theoretical product, one review with the 'Incentivized' tag.

Use the Influence integration for automatic tagging:

With the REVIEWS.io + Influence integration, incentivized reviews are automatically flagged and tagged at the point of collection, so every reader knows when a reward was offered.

Keep incentives consistent:

Rewards should apply to all invited customers, not just those most likely to leave a positive review. This ensures fairness and prevents cherry-picking.

Keep rewards small and fair:

Tokens of appreciation should encourage participation, not pressure customers into leaving only positive feedback.

Clear disclosure keeps you compliant and ensures reviews remain a source of trust, not doubt.

How do I use reviews for real-time insights during BFCM?

Reviews are more than ratings. With the right tools, they become live intelligence.

AI sentiment analysis allows you to interpret reviews as they come in. You can see what customers love, what frustrates them, and how opinions shift throughout the sale.

A phone shaped screen in the background, slightly blurred, showing a product page for skincare. In the forefront, a box showing an AI summary of the reviews left for this product.

This insight isn’t about process, it’s about what you learn:

Spot live pain points:

Reviews reveal delivery delays, product faults, or service gaps within hours, not weeks.

Identify winning themes:

AI highlights the product features or experiences customers rave about, giving you messaging to amplify during the event.

Measure sentiment shifts:

Changes in review tone flag if CX is slipping under pressure, so you know when to step in.

Plan for next year:

Review data doesn’t just help in the moment. You can use AI sentiment analysis to optimize your BFCM strategy for next year, focusing on what mattered most to customers.

AI sentiment analysis turns reviews into real-time insights that guide action during BFCM and shape smarter campaigns for the future.

Strengthen your BFCM strategy with REVIEWS.io

In the busiest shopping week of the year, how you manage reviews can define the customer experience.

It’s not just about keeping up with volume. It’s about showing you listen, acting on feedback in real time, and building trust when competition is at its peak.

Handled well, reviews don’t just protect your reputation during the rush. They shape the customer experience in the moment and fuel smarter strategies that drive growth well beyond peak season.

Book a demo with REVIEWS.io today and turn reviews into your competitive edge this BFCM.

Frequently asked questions

Stay on top of volume with real-time monitoring, respond quickly and empathetically, and prioritize low-star reviews. Using AI insights helps you spot trends while the sale is still live.

Yes. Responding quickly and empathetically shows you’re listening and helps to protect trust. Even a short acknowledgement is better than silence.

They can. Fake reviews risk penalties from platforms and search engines, and they damage customer trust. Verified Buyer tags and fraud detection tools help keep reviews authentic.

Reviews highlight real customer experiences. AI sentiment analysis makes it easier to spot recurring issues and product strengths, so you can adjust stock, service, and messaging for the next BFCM.