3 Ways To Obtain Customer Testimonials

Think of the last time you bought a product or booked a service online. Where did your search start? If you’re like most potential customers, probably with a little bit of research followed by a good look at some customer reviews. Why? Because reviews are personal and real. They are not published by the company selling the product or offering the service, they are not written by a professional or exaggerated with marketing lingo in any way. They are written by people just like you. For this reason, we tend to trust customer testimonials more than anything else. They’re also great for your search engine optimisation, so how do you get your customers to review your business?

THE 3 RULES OF CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS:

1. Never make up fake customer testimonials. It makes you untrustworthy and it tends to be obvious.
2. Even if a customer sends you a testimonial, always ask if you can publish their review on your website and social media pages.
3. Always ask before you include their name on a published testimonial.

THE 3 WAYS TO OBTAIN MORE REVIEWS:

JUST ASK

Chances are customers don’t know that you want them to write a review about your business, so you need to ask. As the old saying goes; “if you don’t ask, you don’t get”. A quick email or phone call to the customer saying how much you enjoyed working with them and asking how they’ve been since you last spoke is a great way of getting onto the topic of testimonials.

EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE

Asking customers for a testimonial should be an automatic part of your workflow, however it is very easy to forget about in all the hustle and bustle of business. One of the easiest ways of factoring it into your process is by adding it into your email correspondence. There are two main ways of doing this. The first is to simply ask a client to write a review on the back of one of your final emails to them. The other is to add the request into your email footer saying something like; “our business survives on customer testimonials and recommendations. We would very much appreciate any words you can pass on to us.”

P.S. Don’t forget, when you’re asking clients for testimonials to tell them how to review, for example via email, Facebook or Google+. Also remember to include any necessary links right there in the email so that your client doesn’t have to search high and low.

REWARD CUSTOMERS

We’re all more likely to do something if we have a good incentive. Why not offer clients a discount off their next booking if they write a testimonial? Or perhaps even send a “thank you” gift card for their kind words? It will also make you more memorable to clients.

How do you ask clients for testimonials? Do you make it an automatic part of your email correspondence or do you make personal contact?