A good testimonial from a happy customer is worth more than 1000 words of bland sales copy. A compelling customer testimony validates the claims you make about how great your business is and adds credibility and believability to your product or service.
Here are a few tips that will not only help you gather testimonials, but will also teach you how to weed out the most useful ones!
- Use your "thank you's". If a customer sends you a glowing letter, immediately ask for permission to use what they’ve said as a testimonial.
- Most clients probably aren’t sitting at home, wondering how to send you praise about your service, so get proactive. Send a letter to clients who are happy with your service asking for their opinion of your business.
- Ask for feedback. Make sure to state that constructive feedback on how to improve your services are also welcomed. By not asking for a testimonial, you’re showing that you’re eager to please your clients and willing to make changes to do so.
- Offer a promotion. Consider offering a discount or special promotion for those who respond to your request for feedback.
- Use their own words. Ask your clients to write the testimonial themselves. Writing something and having them sign it will usually sound unbelievable. But the clients own words show sincerity.
- Don’t try to polish the customer’s words so it sounds like professional ad copy. Testimonials are usually much more convincing when they are not edited for style. Writing your own testimonials sounds phony and will hurt your credibility.
- Longer is better. A few short words sound too generic and may even sound like they’ve been edited to take out unflattering info. A few sentences are enough to be clear but not so overwhelming that no one wants to read them.
- Look for specifics. “We love your product,” could refer to nearly any business but “Your service techs quickly fixed our network problems. Jim even showed us to prevent problems!” personalizes what your business can do.
- Attribute the testimonial to a real person. “Sally T. of Raleigh” doesn’t sound as believable as Sally Thomas, Office Manager for Thomas Insurance of Raleigh. “Sally T.” sounds like she’s trying to remain anonymous.
- Get permission! Make sure you also explain you want to use their full name and business name.
- Keep asking...Request testimonials directly on your web site or include a line in outgoing emails.
- Return the favor. Offer to write testimonials for other companies you do business with in return for testimonials written for your company. In your praise to them, it’s easy to also promote your own business.
If your marketing needs attention, call FatCat Strategies, we can help.
