A customer testimonial is one of the most useful marketing and sales tools you could hope to have, but many people struggle with how to ask for testimonials from their customers.
This article will show you just how easy it can be.
What’s the Best Way to Ask for a Testimonial?
Unless you have a close relationship with your customer, email will likely be the best way to reach out to a customer for a testimonial.
Be sure to download the email testimonial request template, and start asking customers for testimonials today!
For more on using testimonials, see the Video Testimonial Playbook.
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Testimonial Request Email Template
A simple and effective way to ask your customers for testimonials.
What’s So Great About Customer Testimonials Anyway?
Simply put, customer testimonials work.
Testimonials work for the same reason word-of-mouth and referrals work: social proof.
You could have the best salespeople in the world working for you, but nothing they say will ever hold a candle to what your real live customers have to say about you.
There are many reasons to video testimonials should be part of your sales and marketing strategy. The most compelling reason is that they get results, and the numbers don’t lie.
- 84% of B2B decision makers star the buying process with a referral, according to Heinz Marketing and Influitive
- Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions, according to McKinsey & Company.
Getting Video Testimonials from Customers Made Easy
Video testimonials far outperform written testimonials, but they’ve traditionally required dragging a camera crew into your customer’s office and taking up a big chunk of their day. That’s all changing now though, due to social distancing measures.
Remote Directed Video (RDV) is a turnkey solution for quickly acquiring high-quality video testimonials from your customers — we’ll even coordinate with your customers, to ensure they have a high-end experience.
RDV makes it possible to collect a professionally-directed, professional-grade testimonial from your customers in just 30 minutes – and all your customers need is an iPhone or a webcam.
It’s easy and customers love it. The result is high quality testimonials that will produce marketing and sales results far greater than any written testimonial.
How to Ask A Customer for a Testimonial
Asking one of your customers for a testimonial doesn’t have to be awkward or uncomfortable for either party.
If you provided a valuable product or service to the customer, they should be more than happy to help you out with a few kind words. Still, how you ask your clients is going to have a big impact on your response rate, and the overall quality of your testimonials.
Here are some quick tips that will make asking for testimonials easy.
5 Tips for Asking for Testimonials
1. Ask at the Right Time
The best time to ask for a customer testimonial is when the success of your solution is fresh in their minds.
This may be right after you’ve delivered on a project, or sometime later, after your customer has had a chance to fully assess the value you’ve added. Keep your finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction and ask your customers to participate when they are most likely to say yes.
2. Ask The Right Way
How you contact your customers for a testimonial will have a major impact on your response rate.
If you have a history of communicating one-on-one with a customer, it’s best to contact them through those existing channels, whether it be phone, email or something else.
If you haven’t had prior communication with a customer, you’ll likely have to test to determine the best approach. However, no prior communication with a customer is a sign that an email might be more appropriate than a phone call, for example.
Download our free testimonial email template and make asking easy!
3. Make it Easy for Customers
The last thing you want to do is make your customers feel like they’re working for you, so make providing a testimonial as easy as possible.
Look for ways to remove friction from the process of providing a testimonial, and you’ll have much greater success with getting customers to follow through and provide a testimonial.
The Remote Directed Video (RDV) process  makes collecting testimonial videos from customers easy. With just an iPhone or webcam, a trained interviewer can record a testimonial with your customers in a mere 30 minutes.
There’s no travel to schedule and no film crews will visit your customer’s home or office or interrupt their day.
4. Make Your Customer the Hero of Their Own Story
Let your customers know that you’re interested in their story.
Customers get nervous when they think they might have to advertise for you. Ensure them that you want to capture, in their own words, how they selected and now use your solution. Honest, genuine input is what you’re after.
Let them know that you want to make them the hero of their own story. Not only will your customer testimonials be far more impactful, but your customers will also be far more eager to participate.
5. Remind them It’s in Their Best Interest
Video testimonials attract new customers and new customers generally mean more products, services, and support for existing customers.
When customers contribute their success stories, they’re participating – ever so passively – in your sales and marketing efforts. They’re helping potential customers make an informed decision about what product or service to buy, and why they should buy it.
Those additional sales will fund more research, more R&D, more skilled employees, and better professional support services that all customers will benefit from.
Remember this when you feel a little uncomfortable asking customers for a favor.
Recruiting customers is easier than it seems
It may seem like a daunting task but getting customers to participate is not as hard as it may first appear.
Armed with the above tips, it should make more sense to both you and your customers that creating testimonials helps everyone. And, our turnkey Remote Directed Video service makes the whole process safe, fast, affordable, and easier than ever before.
Email Template: Asking for Testimonials
Here is a simple email template for requesting testimonials that you can customize and send to your customers.
It lays out the case for participating in the testimonial process, and hits all the right message points for assuring your customer that their involvement will be both effortless and enjoyable.
FREE DOwnload
Testimonial Request Email Template
A simple and effective way to ask your customers for testimonials.