Really quick… read the quote to the right.
That’s what I tell my clients all the time. If you invite people to give you testimonials, people will provide them for you… but you have to ask!
Also, a lot of those same clients are uncomfortable in asking for these testimonials. And they feel this way for a number of reasons (not limited to):
- I don’t want to impose on them. They are busy.
- I feel weird asking for praise.
- I don’t want to pressure my clients into feeling like they have to give me one.
- If they provide me with a testimonial, I have to provide them with one.
- What if they are not happy with the work that I did?
- I will be uncomfortable if they say no.
Do any of these sound familiar? If so, then you are not alone. The good news is that we have something that may just help you… a testimonial template.
Now our testimonial template is a guideline that you can easily change but you are free to download it and use what you would like.
One of the easiest ways (that we have found) to get a testimonial is to corner your client and threaten them with a large object like a baseball bat……. I’m just seeing if you were still reading! 🙂
But really, one of the easiest ways is to have some sort of a form (or survey) already set up for them just to fill out. We used to request testimonials from clients and they would almost immediately reply with “How should we submit this? Is there a specific format? Are there any specific questions you have?”
Not only that, but once they received the request, it would easily take a month for most of them to come back because people need to be in the right mood to think about exactly what you want them to say.
So make it as easy as possible and set a form up for them on your website. Then you gather all of your client email addresses up and put them in an email program (which you should be doing anyway) and send them a testimonial invite (after the job is complete of course).
The invite goes:
Judy,
We’re compiling testimonials for our website/marketing materials and as a current / past client we were wondering if you would take 3 minutes to provide us with a testimonial. We have a form ready to go and just a few questions you can answer (there is a blank area where you can write comments in as well). You can complete this on our website at: https://https://mancinidigital.com/testimonial-request/
Please be as honest as you can and understand if you provide negative feedback, we welcome this as we want to improve the experience for all clients (including you). We also know that everyone may not be comfortable with this and if you choose not to do this, we completely understand (honestly).
Thanks so much for your time, we do greatly appreciate it. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Mike Mancini
Now we do three main things in that invite email. First, we let people know that this is going to be a quick process (three minutes). Second we tell them that negative feedback is welcome as we want to improve how we serve people. Third, we tell that it’s OK if they don’t do it.
We take away those road blocks up front. And to be completely honest, I have received more than a 50% bump in responses by doing it this way.
This Will Just Take A Few Minutes
Now I used to get a higher response by signing the email with my assistant’s name instead of mine. It put people more at ease if they wanted to provide negative feedback, however I want the feedback directly. I want my clients to know that it’s going to me because I want to fix it.
The return rate dropped a bit when I signed my name but I’d rather they know that I’m asking for it directly. And to be honest, there was never any negative feedback as much as just some other suggestions (that we greatly appreciated).
Now when they get to the page, it’s pretty basic but it spells out exactly what we need in a few lines above the form.
The first thing we say is that it should only take about 3 minutes or so. We are disarming them again about this taking a long time and letting them know that it wont. Secondly, most people don’t know what to say in a testimonial so we just let them know we are going to ask them 3 questions. Take those fears away from them up front.
We need to have (for FCC regulations) their Name, Company, Email Address, and City and State. We ask them if we can print their name and company or if they would like us to list it as Jeff F – Minneapolis, MN. And then we ask them these 3 questions.
- Before you started working with Mancini Digital, what concerns might have prevented you from using our service?
- What, specifically, was your favorite part about working with us, and why?
- If you were to recommend us to your a friend, colleague, or fellow business owner, what would you say?
And that’s it. Once they hit submit, it’s immediately emailed to us where we can upload them to our website and file them away so that we have a record of this customer’s comments.
Feel free to copy our questions that we have or use them as a jump off point.
Hope that helped…