I WAS TALKING to a client about testimonials one morning. He explained that over the years he had received many warm letters from customers thanking him for his work. He reached into a drawer and presented me with a folder.
His business involves carrying out the work in people’s homes. After the work is completed he sends an invoice and customers post him a cheque within a 14-day period. Many people had written mainly small notes expressing gratitude, and included them with their cheque. Given that he undertook several hundred jobs a year, the total number of testimonials and thank you notes probably represented one in 100 jobs that he had carried out.
One note of thank you for every hundred jobs completed does not in itself mean that he was doing a bad job. Far from it. In fact, he has an excellent reputation in the town and was a very well-respected business. It does, however, show how few people will take the time to write testimonials for the work you have carried out for them.
At this time we were in the process of updating his website. I suggested that a series of rolling testimonials on each page through the site would give a sense of confidence to a prospective customer. We therefore decided to actively seek testimonials from his customers.
The way that we did this was quite simple. We included with the invoice a single sheet of paper containing five questions which people could answer on a scale of 1 to 10. They were all linked to their direct experience of his work. For example, had the workmen turned up on time, had they done a good job, did they represent good value for money etc. At the bottom of this piece of paper was the option to write a comment that summed up what the company had done for them.
For two months, these questionnaires were sent out with every invoice. The next time we met, he showed me the new testimonials that he had received. In the two-month period, he had collected more testimonials than he had in the previous 20 years of business.
Was it because he had become much better over that period? Unlikely. I think it’s fairly clear that it was because people were asked their opinions at a time when they were going to be contacting him anyway. It gave people a genuine chance to complain if they were unhappy about any aspect of the service just as they were about to pay for it. It also gave them a chance to say thank you for the work that had been carried out.
It’s only right to point out that not everybody completed the form, and not everybody who completed the form wrote a positive testimonial on the bottom of it, even if they had said positive things in the form. Some people are too busy or too uninterested to help you. And that is fine. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you, it just means they haven’t taken the time and trouble to fill out the form. We found around one-third of his customers completed the form and about half of those gave a positive testimonial. However, because of the volume of work that was carried out, this resulted in plenty more testimonials than we actually needed for the website.
You may not be able to copy this model exactly, but think about ways that you can ask your customers for testimonials when they’re most likely to give them to you. It might be when you’re in a face-to-face meeting with them; or it might be at the end of an event such as a seminar where you are about to close and they are all in the room already. It may be when they are waiting for something to be signed for. There is no end of opportunities to ask people to write a testimonial. The point is that you find some way, during your day-to-day operations, to ask. If you don’t, you too will probably end up with only a small number over a 20-year period. Just by asking, you could have more testimonials that you need.
You can never have too many testimonials!
For marketing advice specific to your business, get in touch and speak with a marketing specialist on 01858 374 170 or email info@idealmarketingcompany.com
MD & Head of Digital Marketing
Jessica has worked in digital marketing for over 10 years and has watched it evolve from an experimental marketing option to an essential tool for most businesses. She is driven to help businesses achieve their objectives using the best digital marketing resources available and recognises that each business is different. Jessica devours the latest news about digital marketing and is constantly learning in order to stay ahead of the trends for clients.
