Your best sales representative might just be your satisfied customers. With diminishing trust in traditional business communications, 55% of consumers are skeptical of company claims, and 79% value online reviews as highly as personal recommendations. To leverage this, businesses need to master the art of requesting testimonials from customers. A strategic approach involves getting the timing right, deciding between automated or manual requests, offering incentives, and making the process easy through multiple submission options. Crafting simple questions can lead to impactful customer quotes that resonate with prospects.
Creating a testimonial page on your website showcases success stories, and asking for referrals can expand your customer base. Offering a backlink to a customer’s website can serve as an additional incentive for them to provide a testimonial. It’s important to allow customers the option for brief testimonials to respect their time constraints. Customizing email templates to align with the customer relationship can increase the chances of receiving a positive testimonial.
There are several methods to collect testimonials, including email requests with templates, interviews, co-writing testimonials, monitoring social media praise, and sending SMS messages. Each approach has its own advantages and can be tailored to fit the customer’s preferences. Effective email templates provided can be used to request testimonials, whether it’s an end-of-year appeal, a formal request, a casual conversation, an incentive offer, an automated send, or a prompt for a quote. Ultimately, customer testimonials are a powerful tool to turn your existing customers into advocates and fuel your business growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Customer testimonials are more trusted by consumers than traditional marketing and are essential for attracting new business.
- To effectively gather customer testimonials, businesses should consider the timing, provide incentives, and make the process easy and flexible for customers.
- Personalizing testimonial requests and offering multiple submission options can increase the likelihood of customers providing positive feedback.
“Customers trust traditional business communication — like marketing, advertising, and sales — less than ever before. In fact, 55% of consumers no longer feel they can trust companies, and 79% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”
More details: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/testimonial-request-template
