No matter what kind of business you run, client testimonials can be incredibly valuable.
They give potential clients an insight into what it’s actually like to work with you, from someone who has experienced it first-hand. They can answer questions you might not even realise people have and provide the kind of reassurance that’s difficult to create yourself.
But a great client experience doesn’t automatically lead to a great testimonial.
Your client might be absolutely delighted with your work, tell all their friends how much they loved working with you… and then leave you a review saying:
“Great service. Highly recommend!”
There’s nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t tell future clients very much.
The good news is that you don’t need to tell people what to say or write the testimonial for them. You just need to make it easier for them to talk about their experience.
Here are a few ways to get better client testimonials.
1. Start by doing work worth talking about
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: The best testimonials come from genuinely good work and a good client experience. You can’t fix a disappointing service by becoming better at asking for reviews.
Before focusing on testimonials, make sure you understand what your client actually needs. What are they hoping to achieve? Why did they hire you? What would a great outcome look like to them?
Doing excellent work is important. But delivering something your client actually needed is what gives them something meaningful to talk about.
If you want to make sure you’re giving your clients the outcome they want, start by asking the right questions before you even begin the work. We often assume we know what our clients need, but good onboarding is a skill in itself. How to do that well is probably a topic for another day.
2. Make leaving a review as easy as possible
Don’t make people search for your Google Business profile or choose between five different places to leave feedback.
Pick one platform and give them a direct link. Whether that’s Google, Facebook, Yelp or somewhere else, make the next step obvious. The less effort it takes, the more likely they are to actually do it.
3. Give them something to think about
Instead of simply asking: “Would you mind leaving me a review?”, give them a little help.
You don’t need to provide a script or tell them what to write. But a question can jog their memory and help them think about what was valuable about working with you.
For example:
- Why did you decide to hire me?
- What were you hoping to achieve when we started working together?
- What was it like to work with me?
- What was the outcome and how has it benefited you?
- Did anything change or improve as a result of working together?
- What would you say to someone who is considering hiring me?
You don’t need to send every client a long list of questions. Pick one or two that feel relevant to their experience. And don’t always ask the same thing.
One testimonial might help future clients understand why someone chose you. Another might reassure someone who’s nervous about the process. Another might show the results or transformation you helped create.
Over time, you’ll build a much more useful collection of testimonials than if everyone simply says, “They were great!”
4. Ask at the right time
Think about when your client is most likely to have something meaningful to say.
For some businesses, that’s immediately after a project finishes. For others, it might be a few weeks later, once the client has had time to see the benefit of what you provided.
There isn’t one perfect moment for everyone. But don’t wait so long that the experience has become a distant memory either.
5. Make asking for feedback part of your process
It’s easy to have the best intentions and then simply forget to ask. Which is exactly why asking for feedback shouldn’t be something you remember to do when you have time. Make it a non-negotiable part of your client process.
You could set up a feedback questionnaire in your CRM, Google Forms or Typeform and send it automatically when a project comes to an end. Depending on your process, you might want the email to send automatically or require you to approve it first. If you don’t want to automate the email itself, simply make requesting feedback a step that needs to be ticked off before you archive or close a client project.
There are a million ways to set this up. The important thing is to create a system that works for your business and means you’re not relying on memory.
And there may be another benefit to making feedback part of a process: it can feel less personal.
Asking someone, “Could you please say something nice about me?” can feel surprisingly vulnerable. When feedback is simply a normal part of how you finish every client project, you’re not having to make that decision every time. It’s just the next step.
6. Ask for private feedback too
Public testimonials are great for showing future clients what it’s like to work with you. Private feedback is for making that experience even better. Airbnb does that, so why shouldn’t you, right?!
Consider sending clients a simple feedback form and asking what worked well, what could have been better and whether there was anything they found confusing or frustrating.
Not everyone will tell you these things in a public review. But honest feedback can help you improve your process, your service and the client experience.
And ultimately, that’s how you get better testimonials too.
Better testimonials start with better questions
Your clients probably don’t need much convincing to talk about you if they’ve had a genuinely great experience. They may simply need a little help remembering what made that experience great. So don’t tell them what to say. Don’t write their testimonial for them.
Make it easy to leave a review, ask a thoughtful question or two, and let them tell their own story. You might be surprised by what they say.
