Best Time of Day to Send Testimonial Request Emails
When a team asks for the best time of day to send a testimonial request email based on open rate data, it needs a usable schedule rather than a universal promise. Timing matters, but it works alongside relevance and convenience. A customer who has just completed a purchase, booked a service or visited a venue is more likely to respond than someone receiving a generic request during a busy week.
A useful starting point is 9:00-11:00am on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, using the recipient’s local clock. This window often falls after the morning commute and before meetings, lunch and inbox overload. It is a testable hypothesis, not a fixed rule; ecommerce campaigns, shift workers and different industries can produce another pattern.
Australian geography makes local time essential. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane share Eastern Time; Adelaide and Darwin use Central Time, while Perth uses Western Time. An email sent at 9am Sydney time arrives at 7am in Perth and 8:30am in Adelaide, so one account-wide schedule leaves some customers behind.
Measure what happens after the open. A subject line might deliver a 35% open rate without generating a usable quote, while a well-timed email with a clear question can turn a brief reply into a video case study. The right schedule connects audience data with a simple request, a safe collection process and an easy publishing workflow.
What Open-Rate Data Says about Send Times
Major email-platform benchmarks have commonly placed average open rates in the low-to-mid 40% range, although figures vary by industry, list quality and definition. That headline number does not reveal the best hour. For scheduling, teams need campaign-level comparisons arranged by send time, followed by stronger measures such as replies, qualified stories and published testimonials.
Within many campaign breakdowns, weekday mornings outperform late-evening sends for business and local-service audiences. Customers clear overnight notifications, scan messages before starting work and may answer an easy request before it disappears into the daily workload. The proposed 9-11am window also leaves room for a considered reply before lunch.
Evening opens deserve careful interpretation. A recipient may read an email on a phone after dinner, yet lack the time or privacy to write a testimonial or record a video. Run a controlled pilot that compares at least two send windows with the same offer, audience and creative. Track the full sequence from delivery through open, reply, qualified testimonial, video completion and publication. Judge the winner by usable customer proof, not by the open alone.
Match Australian Workdays and Customer Habits
The Australian workday begins differently across occupations and regions. Office-based customers may check email with coffee before their first meeting, while tradespeople and retail staff often check phones between jobs or customers. Some workers have a clear desk routine; others reach their inbox only during a break. Customer habits should determine the schedule, not a generic business-hours assumption.
Australia’s market includes many sole traders, small professional firms, franchise operators, cafés and independent retailers. Their customer-facing hours rarely match a standard 9-to-5 office day. A café owner might welcome an email at 10am after the breakfast rush, while a consultant may prefer a message at 7:30am. Separate recent purchasers from dormant accounts, and identify the hours when each group already communicates with you.
Review behaviour also shapes how customers think about testimonials. Before trying a new trades business, gym or café, shoppers often compare Google Reviews, while local Facebook groups remain a familiar source of recommendations. When asking for permission to reuse a customer’s words, name the likely channels and avoid publishing identifying details the customer has not approved. A testimonial that feels accurate and respectful is more valuable than an extra quote harvested without consent.
Australia’s Spam Act 2003 is relevant to the campaign process. Commercial electronic messages generally require consent, sender identification and a functioning unsubscribe route, although service-related communications can be treated differently under the Act. Keep your business details and contact preferences visible, record any consent relied upon, and check the exact wording of promotional material against your legal obligations before sending.
Build a Request People Want to Answer
The request itself should reflect a specific customer experience. “Could you share two sentences about the result you achieved?” is easier to answer than “Tell us why you love us.” Offer a text or video response, provide one or two prompts and set a reasonable deadline. For video, ask for a short answer to a single question rather than a polished presentation; 60 to 90 seconds can provide enough material for a website, email or social post.
Timing becomes more effective when paired with thoughtful follow-up. For customers whose last purchase is six months old, a tailored re-engagement message can work better than a feature-heavy request; this guide on re-engage dormant customers shows how to reconnect without making the testimonial sound like an advertisement. Reference the earlier interaction, explain why the feedback would be useful and make responding straightforward.
If there is no reply after 48 to 72 business hours, send one brief reminder. Choose a channel the customer has used before, such as email or SMS, and keep the follow-up lighter than the original request. Do not send several variations or imply that the customer missed a promised reward. Ask for permission to publish, capture any required consent and record where the final story will appear.
Test the Timing with Your Own Audience
Build the first test around matched campaigns rather than impressions. Select engaged contacts from similar industries and customer stages, then divide them into groups that receive the same request at different times. Keep the subject line, email copy, sender and call to action identical. Run the test across several weeks or use enough recipients in each group to avoid reacting to a few unusually responsive customers.
The working schedule turns the evidence into an operational choice:
| Send window in recipient local time | Directional open-rate pattern | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday-Thursday, 9-11am | Usually the strongest weekday window | Default for business and service customers |
| Monday, 9-11am | Often softer than midweek | Test separately to protect the comparison |
| Tuesday-Thursday, 12-1:30pm | Moderate and sometimes strong | Alternative for customers active around lunch |
| Friday, 9-11am | Variable but commonly weaker | Use for smaller, targeted batches |
| Weekday, 7-9am | Strong for early risers, weak elsewhere | Follow up with known early responders |
| Weekday, 5-9pm | Often lower for an initial request | Reserve for a reminder or second contact |
Treat these patterns as starting hypotheses rather than universal benchmarks. Privacy features such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection can generate machine opens and make hourly engagement appear busier than it is. Record each campaign variant, delivery time, unique open, reply, qualified testimonial and permission to publish. Choose a schedule based on the complete customer journey, then repeat the test when seasonality or customer behaviour changes.
Turn Attention into Shareable Customer Proof
A video testimonial contains more than a marketing asset. It can include a customer’s name, appearance, employment details and comments about a business. Protect recordings and related information with restricted access, sensible retention periods and clear sharing permissions. If recordings are stored in cloud infrastructure, use a cloud security checklist to review access controls, backups, logging and other safeguards before expanding the collection process.
Keep editing and publishing under control. VidScout helps teams request, capture, edit, manage and share testimonials in text and video formats, reducing the need to scatter files across inboxes. Review each submission, remove sensitive information and obtain approval before placing it on a website, sales deck, product page or social channel. A polished edit should preserve the customer’s meaning rather than change the substance of their experience.
Measure the return from the whole testimonial programme. Record views on published videos, clicks from embedded proof, influenced enquiries and any opportunities connected to the content. Separate performance by testimonial format, customer segment and campaign so that the team can identify which subjects encourage action. Better scheduling can improve attention, but strong positioning and credible evidence determine whether that attention becomes business value.
Create a free VidScout account, build a short testimonial request, schedule it for your audience’s strongest local-time window and give customers an easy way to reply. Capture, edit and organise the result, confirm publication permission and reuse the approved proof where buyers are making decisions. Start collecting testimonials with VidScout today.