What are people saying about you?
“We loved working with Susie. She was so wonderful and responsive and was a genuine pleasure. She always returned our calls so quickly, had such a can-do attitude and did great work for us. I can’t recommend Susie enough. Thanks, Susie”
Wow! Susie sounds like a really nice, responsive person. And if I was looking for someone really nice who responded quickly and did great work (although I don’t know the benefits of her work), Susie is my girl.
But I’m not.
I’m looking for someone who can drive my business forward and deliver results. And your clients are looking for the same thing, too. So, if the testimonials on your website and sales materials read like the one above, listen up!
We all do it every day.
Read reviews and testimonials of past satisfied (and unsatisfied) customers. When was the last time you searched for and purchased something new on Amazon and DIDN’T read the reviews? Social proof is one of the best ways to show potential customers you are worth hiring.
The opinions of others who have done business with you previously are a great way to prove your ability and help future customers feel confident in their decision to work with you.
Yet, as important as testimonials are, so many struggle to do them well. There is a difference in speaking positively about someone (à la Susie) vs. communicating HOW they helped you.
There are three questions every customer testimonial should answer:
Describe the challenges your business was facing that led you to hire xxx?
What was it like to work with xxx?
What was the result for your business after hiring xxx?
People want to know you can solve their problems. So, make sure you’re providing testimonials that speak to the problem past clients were experiencing that caused them to hire you in the first place. And how working with you was the solution. And if you are a ray of sunshine, even better!
Now that you have testimonials addressing what your future customers care about most, website placement is another area business owners struggle. Too often, we see websites include a dedicated testimonial page. One testimonial after another. Sometimes 20 deep. That’s great you have so many good testimonials but be careful of making the sales story about you. A long list of testimonials without context isn’t very helpful.
Consider placing testimonials throughout your website next to the relevant topic it speaks to for the most significant impact. For example, if your past client’s testimonial praises you for saving them 40% in 3 months, then place it next to the part of your website that speaks about that service. This way, website visitors don’t have to search for feedback on a particular service of interest to them - if they choose to search at all.
Is it time to update your customer testimonials? Click here to let us know, and we’ll be happy to share with you our email template specifically created to request testimonials from satisfied past customers.
