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THIS WEEK
Terrific Testimonials & How to Get Them
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Copywriting - Terrific Testimonials & How to Get Them |
Testimonials are a critical part of effective copy to help build credibility and to reduce objections to purchase. But many of my clients have been asking lately – how do we go about getting terrific testimonials?
Here are my top 5 pre-requisites before getting great testimonials.
- Do great work. This should go without saying, but unless you do exceptional work you will not get people commenting about your exceptional quality or service.
- Do what you say you will when you say you will do it. If you promise something, you need to deliver it either before or on time. It does no one any favours to promise much in order to get business and then under-deliver.
- Be open and honest in your dealings with people. Give people your honest advice – even if that means you do yourself out of an immediate client. They will remember the honesty and tell their friends.
- Be consistent. Don't be brilliant one day and so-so the next. Keep your standards consistently high and you will get great results. That means if you promise you will deliver a newsletter weekly, quarterly or monthly – then stick to that schedule. Don't only send information out when you are trying to sell something.
- Be friendly and warm. If you do great work but have the personality and warmth of a vanilla ice-cream you will not be memorable. Be friendly and warm with all of your clients – discover the great things about each person you work with as this makes a huge difference in how you approach them. Focus on what you can do for them and not what they can do for you.
Before you go out and hunt down some testimonials – here are a few rules to remember.
- Ask! People mean well and may think great things about you, but unless you ask them they generally will not tell you what they are thinking. You need to ask for feedback.
- Get consent. NEVER use someone's words without their recorded consent.
- In their own words. This is a hard and fast rule – never never never write a testimonial on behalf of someone else and get them to sign it. For starters it is not in their language style – so it stands out a mile. If someone asks you to write it, these are great candidates to talk with them on the phone about what they like about your service. By talking with them and then jotting down their answers you can get around their writers block.
- Don't make them up. It is illegal and will get you into very hot water with companies such as the ACCC.
- Keep it current. The best testimonials come immediately after purchase, or within a short space of time after purchase. Don't leave your testimonial gathering too late after the event.
- Specific is better than general. Mrs Mary Smith of Littletownship in North Stradbroke is much more powerful than MS, Brisbane.
- Film is the most powerful. All testimonials are great – but film is more powerful than recordings, which are more powerful than words.
 Now, assuming you have the pre-requisites and the rules down pat – here are my top ways to actually get testimonials.
Systematise the process. Build in asking for testimonials as part of your process for purchasing. Send a follow-up email through your auto-responder program 7 days after purchase asking for feedback on the product or service.
Client satisfaction doubles as testimonial gathering. Finding out what your customers like and dislike about your product or service through a client satisfaction survey serves two purposes. You get early warning of things that need to be improved with your business as well as potentially some great testimonials you can use in your marketing.
Make it easy for them. Contact your best customers and ask them to "jot down a few words" about what they liked about your business. This could be in an e-mail or on a postcard. You need to be clear that you only want them to "jot" rather than "write a testimonial". Jotting is much less confronting for people than writing a testimonial and you are more likely to get a favourable response.
Call them. Telephones are not dead in the age of email. You can call your top customers to ask them for feedback on your services – both good and bad. As they are talking, jot down what they say. Action the things they mention that need to be improved (and tell them when you have actioned them).
If you get someone raving about you on the phone say "wow – thank you! I am so glad you loved our service. Would you mind if I used some of the things you just said in a testimonial for our business?" Email them the words they used and ensure you get written consent before using the words.
Use a tick sheet or scale. People often are more willing to fill in a tick-a-box survey, or circle their satisfaction with your service on a scale. This allows for some great statistical compilation data – "98% of all our customers say we give great to exceptional service".
So now you have some great ways to get terrific testimonials. Use them everywhere in your copy – your website, your brochures, your flyers and all marketing.
Remember - words have power!
References have a lot in common with testimonials - they are all about building credibility. Every final candidate for a position should be reference checked prior to engagement. Unless you have some other evidence than your interview to back up the claims, you are asking for trouble.
I prefer to telephone check referees - always starting with the question "so can you tell me when you worked with Mary/Bob and what was your role when you worked with them". By doing this up front you generally get the relatives or friends who have been roped in to help out the candidate identified early.
 Ask questions against the important criteria in the role - "can you tell me how effective Mary/Bob was when dealing with angry customers".
Also ask a few more probing questions "What is the best way to manage Mary/Bob" and "How would I know they are stressed" to confirm what the candidate told you in interview.
Always ask under what conditions would they rehire Mary/Bob.
With written references read the wording very carefully. As an ex-HR Manager of many years I can tell you that most HR Managers are extremely careful in what they put into writing, but we still give strong clues in what we say.
"Strongly independant worker" usually means don't put them into a team. "Outgoing extroverted personality" usually means they talk to anything that moves rather than doing their work. "Strong theoretical underpinnings of their work" means that are so academic that no-one else can understand them.
Oh ... and if you need to ask someone to be your referee, call them first and ask them. Also check what they will say when someone calls (it is amazing how many people don't do that and they end up with some dreadful references as a result).
I have a thing for brilliant photographers - people who can capture the essence of a product or person on film. This week my business of the week is Fullframe Photographics.
They are truly exceptional. Check out their portraits of Casey Barnes and Terry Mackenroth to see true art. Terry Mackenroth (a retired politician) is something out of Shakespeare in their shot of him.
But they are also stunning with product shots. One of my clients has products in tubes - very very boring to look at. Fullframe have managed to create interesting and enticing images just through their set-up and lighting and have turned something boring into something brilliant. And if you are looking for stock photos their range is great.
So why are they my business of the week - quite simply they are exceptional at what they do - which is taking amazing photos.
They are also very easy to work with, quite humble and self effacing. If you have a photo job coming up I would certainly recommend Fullframe Photographics.
I discovered a website with all of the BIG monuments to business around Australia. I have seen the Big Banana, the Big Prawn and the Big Merino ... but the big pavlova? Check out my thoughts on being BIG in business (as well as a photo of one of the BIG monuments that really should have been left on the drawing board).
Can your business survive Christmas?
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's blog also included posts about Opportunities vs Problems and What I wish I had known as a teenager.
PPS: Go Ezio (one of my past teachers) on "The One" on channel 7! It is the top rating show on TV at present in Australia. Ezio has given us some inside info that next week is a real "eye opener".
He has some great seminars and sessions coming up if you are in the Sydney area http://www.eziodeangelis.com.au/. You can also find him on Facebook (as well as many of the other mediums and judges).
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