Testimonials requests

Testimonials requests

Since today’s consumers are less inclined to trust traditional marketing and advertising, collecting customer testimonials and reviews has never been more critical. Customer testimonials can make a truly big impact on influencing prospects to do business with you, and help you enhance your online reputation, build credibility, and drive more sales. However, getting your happy customers to share their positive experiences with your brand might be challenging as many businesses simply don’t know how to ask for testimonials.

What is a testimonial?

Testimonials are recommendations from satisfied customers that affirm the quality, performance, or value of a product or service – given either voluntarily, or upon a company’s request. Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools. In fact, studies suggest that testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating (89%) than any other type of content marketing.

How to ask for a testimonial: best practices

Here are some general tips and best practices on how to collect testimonials from your customers.

• Be proactive – if you don’t ask clients for testimonials, you’ll hardly ever get them.
• Choose proper timing – completing a project, a milestone reached by the customer, end of the year, etc.
• Think of the right tone (formal or casual) that’s the most appropriate to your business and your audience.
• Writing a testimonial can be a hassle – make it easier for customers by asking them a number of guiding questions.
• Express gratitude, tell customers how important their feedback is and why you are collecting testimonials in the first place. 
• When using testimonial templates, customize and personalize your request to ensure it makes sense within the context of your relationship with customers. 
• Share a link to your testimonial page so that customers can get some ideas from existing testimonials.
• Provide multiple testimonial format options (text or video) and let customers submit a testimonial in a format they’re comfortable with.
• You my use some incentive (discount, free subscription, gift card, etc. ), but it isn’t always necessary.
• Your testimonial request can be forgotten or get lost in your customer’s inbox – don’t be afraid to follow up, if needed.

12 Testimonial questions to ask your customers

Getting customers to share specific details of their experience with a company, product or service is what makes a good testimonial. When being asked though, most will hardly know what to say right off the bat. Below are some of the basic testimonial questions for clients that can be customized in align with your business. 

1. What was it like before you had our product/ service?
2. What was your biggest challenge prior to purchasing our product/ service?
3. Where did you start your search for the solution/ How did you find us?
4. What problems did you try to solve with our product/ service?
5. What made our product/ service stand out from other options available on the market?
6. What have you managed to achieve since using our product/ service?
7. What are the specific benefits that you get from using our product/ service?
8. What do you like most about our product/ service?
9. What has exceeded your expectations?
10. What was your main concern that could have prevented you from buying our product/service, and what reassured you?
11. What’s the main reason you recommend our product/ service?
12. What would you say to someone else who is considering to buy our product/ service?

5 Testimonial request letter templates

Most of your loyal customers – no matter how happy they are with your products or services – are not likely to share testimonials, unless they are being asked. But how exactly should you approach a customer for a testimonial? Here are some tried-and-true email templates you can use when requesting testimonials from your clients.

Formal request

Informal request

Service industry request

Incentive offer

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