If you have ever received an unsolicited compliment from one of your customers, then you know how good it feels. What could be better than knowing you pleased someone with your customer support, or the quality of your products?
Even if you haven’t already received Customer Testimonials for your business, you can solicit them, and use them to your marketing advantage.
Getting Customer Testimonials
If someone receives great service or truly enjoys using the product they purchase from your company, they don’t necessarily tell you so. It is up to you ask to ask for feedback.
There are several ways to do this. For one, follow up every single sale with an email message. The message can include a short survey to return, or include a link to an online survey with space for adding comments. Include a line on the form that asks the customer if you can include their comments in future promotions so you already have permission in place.
Another way to solicit feedback is to include a short, postage paid postcard in the shipment of each shippable order.
Add a guestbook to your website where visitors can leave comments. If you find an entry that could be used as a testimonial, contact the author and ask for permission to use it elsewhere on your site.
Getting compliments verbally? Ask the customer to take a moment and put it in writing, either via email or typed on their company letterhead. Visitors will be especially impressed if the testimonial comes from a large, well known company. Ask permission to scan the letter and post it on your website.
If you are finding that customers are not taking the time to fill out a satisfaction survey, offer them an incentive for doing so. This can be a really effective way to encourage Customer Testimonials that costs you very little, and can easily pay for itself if the resulting feedback serves to convert a future visitor into a paying customer.
How To Use Testimonials
Once you’ve amassed several customer testimonials, don’t let them go to waste. Add them to your sales letter, and feature them prominently throughout your website, not just on a single page. If the testimonial touts the superior quality of a particular product, be sure to add that to the product sales page.
Customer testimonials may also help you create a very effective tag line for branding your business. If a customer compliments your speedy fulfilment service, you might consider a tag line along the lines of “Get the Best Widgets – Fast”.
Do not discount the power of Customer Testimonials. Visitors to your site are much more likely to be swayed by the comments of actual people than the claims you make as obvious attempts to convert sales.
About Sean Rasmussen
Great post Sean… Testimonials are powerful, but it can be difficult to present them in a way so potential customers know that they are genuine as it is easy to create fake testimonials.
Integrity is key… video testimonials are powerful as its generally unlikely that people will create fake video testimonials, and video is often more credible.
Keep up the great content Sean, love it!
Nathan Hulls
Hi Nathan,
Video is taking the online world by storm, if you get the opportunity to gain some video testimonials from your customers…all the better.
Regards – Sean
Event organisers are doing this now. It’s rare to go to an event without having a plea to the crowd for a video testimonial. Makes sense to ask when you have the customer right in front of you. And there’s less pressure, because it’s not a direct request to the individual customer, it’s to the whole audience.
Video’s would be fantastic but I imagine it would be extremely hard to get them however I have seen a few sites with them and they do make a great impact.
I was thinking the same thing Bill. I suppose as long as you get the testimonial that’s the main thing.
Great tips Sean
Hi Sean,
I’m not sure how I feel about testimonials. Maybe I’m cynical but I don’t generally believe them when I see them. I always assume that the people are friends and relatives of the person selling the product.
Maybe I would prefer to use a guestbook that people could leave their feedback in; both good and bad. I wouldn’t edit it in any way and it would always be there for people to read.
Hi Sean,
I like customer testimonials more now then I once did. Like Jazz, I once thought they were all fake however now I give them more credibility.
I think the seminar video testimonials that Lina mentions actually did a lot to boost the credibility of testimonials in general. They show real people that seem genuine, who are talking about something they experienced at the seminar.