How to Make the Most of Customer Testimonials

When it comes to getting customers to come to your company and trust you before they know you, customer testimonials are the way to go.

Think about it. What would give you more confidence in a company - an advertisement with the company telling you how great they are? Or customers who have used them, telling you how great they are? The customers, right? It makes sense. When a company puts the words together to talk about themselves, you expect them to only say good things.

A customer, on the other hand, has gone through the experience of working with the company and then has said something good about it. Knowing someone else has gone through the experience and it has gone well holds a lot more weight for a potential customer.

Now the question becomes 'How do you get customers to say good things about you to the masses?' Chances are, your customers are already saying good things about you. They may compliment you in person after a transaction, or maybe they send a thank you card or e-mail.

You are getting these comments. You just haven't thought to use them to your favor - yet.

Instead of just saying thank you to the compliments and having that warm fuzzy feeling inside, you need to use these comments to get new customers in the door. The way to do that is to publish testimonials in your marketing and advertising material.

Before you pull out those thank you notes and post them all over town, you need to know there is a delicate balance to using testimonials.

Unfortunately, many companies are inundating the market with testimonials. To make matters worse, many of them have even used testimonials that are not real, but are the creation of copywriters. This makes many people leery of testimonials.

Countering this perception takes a little work.

The Real Thing

You need to make sure your testimonials are 'real'. This does not just mean they need to be real people who have given you these testimonials, but they need to seem real to your potential customers.

First, you need to talk to the person who offered the testimonial and ask if you can use their words and likeness in your advertising. This should not be a problem, as the people who give you testimonials are happy customers and are usually thrilled that you appreciate what they had to say.

The extra step here is that you want to be able to use their picture. Once you put a picture with that quote, they become a more 'real' satisfied customer in the eyes of those looking at your marketing materials.

You should also try to use the customer's full name, if they don't mind, in connection with their quote.

Testimonials with Impact

Next, make sure the testimonial is going to have an impact. You need to make sure that what is said in the testimonial has a positive impact that calls potential customers to action.

The first part of this is giving potential customers a feeling that the solution to their problem is in coming to your company. Testimonials that talk about having a problem and that your company solved it will help bring this image to life in their mind.

Additionally, a testimonial that says 'I saved a lot', doesn't get someone's attention as much as one that says 'I saved $125 over what I would have paid somewhere else'. There is nothing wrong with asking your satisfied customers for a testimonial and asking them to be specific and include numbers, if they can, when it comes to savings.

While your job may well be to serve your customers, there is nothing wrong with letting them serve you a little as well. Happy customers and positive customer testimonials can be a pathway to new customers coming through your doors.