Last updated on December 11th, 2017
Online customers want to verify quality and other aspects of a product before placing an order. Besides getting recommendations from friends or relatives about a product, website design and the website selling that; they also go through the testimonials on the website. These testimonials give an insight into the products or services sold by the online site. A website, therefore, should have a separate testimonial page having some encouraging words about the products or services from the satisfied users. The new customers will read the comments to help them make up mind for buying the things.
But how do you get the testimonials from your past clients or buyers? Here are some tips.
First, keep in mind that you do not ask for the testimonials directly. While there is nothing wrong with that, you will get a boring testimonial with a weak praise for your products. This is because you have not given your past clients any direction for a persuasive testimonial. So, ask a client for testimonial with a bit more direction.
So, how do you give them the direction? You need to form a question cleverly while requesting for testimonials. These questions may be part of your feedback surveys. Here are some questions that you can dispatch to the users.
1. What prompted you to approach us for your logo, website etc. project?
Such a question gives clients a good baseline to talk about their frustration with the previous services or products. They may describe their unhappiness with last services and that how your service or products were used. This question serves the purpose of an introduction to the story that a client would like to share.
2. Did our product meet your expectations?
This question further encourages clients to reveal more about your product. They usually want to add some emotion to their words at this stage when telling how happy they are using the products. You can expect them to write more about the usefulness of your products or services.
3. How was your experience working with us?
This is another great question to get desired reactions from the clients. Since they are satisfied clients, they would like to share how much they enjoyed working with you. Your new clients would surely like to know about past work experiences of your old customers while working with you.
4. How have your new logo/website/etc performed for your business?
This question is aimed at very old clients who can really judge the value of your product or service for their business. They have been already using your product for a long time.For the recent clients, you can give them a month or two to answer.
After you get answers to these questions, the next step is to take permission of your old clients to use the answers as a testimonial. They usually let you use the answers but taking the permission is important to avoid any issues later.
When forming a testimonial out of the answers, make sure that you do not edit too much. Also, do not edit out of context. The testimonial must reflect the views of your clients and not yours in the edited version.
5. Email excerpts
If your clients sent you positive emails, praising your work, use them as testimonials. Often, these are the true appreciation of your work since you did not request for that. The clients praised you without being prompted. But make sure that you take permission to use email content for the testimonial.
