Tweet

Small Business Tips: Terrific Testimonials

Guest post by: Ingrid Cliff

Article Overview: Testimonials are a critical part of effective copy to help build credibility and to reduce objections to purchase. But many of my clients have been asking lately – how do we go about getting terrific testimonials?

Small Business Tips: Terrific Testimonials

Testimonials are a critical part of effective copy to help build credibility and to reduce objections to purchase. But many of my clients have been asking lately – how do we go about getting terrific testimonials?

Here are my top 5 pre-requisites before getting great testimonials.

1. Do great work. This should go without saying, but unless you do exceptional work you will not get people commenting about your exceptional quality or service.

2. Do what you say you will when you say you will do it. If you promise something, you need to deliver it either before or on time. It does no one any favours to promise much in order to get business and then under-deliver.

3. Be open and honest in your dealings with people. Give people your honest advice – even if that means you do yourself out of an immediate client. They will remember the honesty and tell their friends.

4. Be consistent. Don't be brilliant one day and so-so the next. Keep your standards consistently high and you will get great results. That means if you promise you will deliver a newsletter weekly, quarterly or monthly – then stick to that schedule. Don't only send information out when you are trying to sell something.

5. Be friendly and warm. If you do great work but have the personality and warmth of a vanilla ice-cream you will not be memorable. Be friendly and warm with all of your clients – discover the great things about each person you work with as this makes a huge difference in how you approach them. Focus on what you can do for them and not what they can do for you.

Before you go out and hunt down some testimonials – here are a few rules to remember.

• Ask! People mean well and may think great things about you, but unless you ask them they generally will not tell you what they are thinking. You need to ask for feedback.

• Get consent. NEVER use someone's words without their recorded consent.

• In their own words. This is a hard and fast rule – never never never write a testimonial on behalf of someone else and get them to sign it. For starters it is not in their language style – so it stands out a mile. If someone asks you to write it, these are great candidates to talk with them on the phone about what they like about your service. By talking with them and then jotting down their answers you can get around their writers block.

• Don't make them up. It is illegal and will get you into very hot water with companies such as the ACCC.

• Keep it current. The best testimonials come immediately after purchase, or within a short space of time after purchase. Don't leave your testimonial gathering too late after the event.

• Specific is better than general. Mrs Mary Smith of Littletownship in North Stradbroke is much more powerful than MS, Brisbane.

• Film is the most powerful. All testimonials are great – but film is more powerful than recordings, which are more powerful than words.

Now, assuming you have the pre-requisites and the rules down pat – here are my top ways to actually get testimonials.

Systematise the process. Build in asking for testimonials as part of your process for purchasing. Send a follow-up email through your auto-responder program 7 days after purchase asking for feedback on the product or service.

Client satisfaction doubles as testimonial gathering. Finding out what your customers like and dislike about your product or service through a client satisfaction survey serves two purposes. You get early warning of things that need to be improved with your business as well as potentially some great testimonials you can use in your marketing.

Make it easy for them. Contact your best customers and ask them to "jot down a few words" about what they liked about your business. This could be in an e-mail or on a postcard. You need to be clear that you only want them to "jot" rather than "write a testimonial". Jotting is much less confronting for people than writing a testimonial and you are more likely to get a favourable response.

Call them. Telephones are not dead in the age of email. You can call your top customers to ask them for feedback on your services – both good and bad. As they are talking, jot down what they say. Action the things they mention that need to be improved (and tell them when you have actioned them).

If you get someone raving about you on the phone say "wow – thank you! I am so glad you loved our service. Would you mind if I used some of the things you just said in a testimonial for our business?" Email them the words they used and ensure you get written consent before using the words.
Use a tick sheet or scale. People often are more willing to fill in a tick-a-box survey, or circle their satisfaction with your service on a scale. This allows for some great statistical compilation data – "98% of all our customers say we give great to exceptional service".

So now you have some great ways to get terrific testimonials. Use them everywhere in your copy – your website, your brochures, your flyers and all marketing.

Remember - words have power!

Related Articles
  Best Practices for Using Testimonials
  7 Tips for Getting Glowing Testimonials that Will Increase Sales
  10 Ways to Use Customer Testimonials
  ••••••> Including Testimonials for as an SEO Methods
  Strategic Tips For Effective Testimonials According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

Article Tags: credibility, favours, honest advice, honesty, objections, personality, pre requisites, testimonial, testimonials, vanilla ice, vanilla ice cream, warmth



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
These maybe the coldest franchises out there: - Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops. WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure % 1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56% 2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94% 3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18% 4 COPY CLUB 36.36% 5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71% 6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71% 7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59% 8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78% 9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48% 10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33% 11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33% 12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33% 13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33% 14 BLIMPIE 31.39% 15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77% Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Biz Plan Competition - i just wanted to say that posting Small Business Events on CanadaOne is a great resource. Thanks Julie!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Earn More Money - Easy Home Business Ideas

Improve E-mail: Avoid the Quicksand

Ten Things You Can Do To Be a Better Leader

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.