5 Ideas For Quickly Generating Real Customer Testimonials

If everyone else is doing it, it must be worth doing, right? Whether you agree with this statement or not, this sentiment is continuously echoed both consciously and subconsciously in the human psyche. Social proof is one of the primary ways we as humans evaluate the value of virtually everything. From potential mates, to restaurants, to vacation spots, to clothing, to celebrities – if something is generating a lot of interest from other people, we perceive it as valuable and worthy.

The same principle of social proof applies to your product or service. You may have created something truly valuable, but in order for a customer to open their wallet, they need to believe that they’re not your only customer. In other words, you need to demonstrate social proof.

One of the most powerful ways to demonstrate social proof is to display customer testimonials – these are real words from real people describing how much use, value, and/or enjoyment they received from your product or service. Displaying social proof through genuine customer testimonials will increase the conversion rate of your sales page significantly.

But how do you go about gathering quality customer testimonials? Here are 5 ways you can quickly gather real customer testimonials to use on your sales page:

Follow Up With Customers After Sales

Contacting customers post-sale is not only a great source of feedback and an opportunity to address any customer concerns, as well as build customer loyalty – it’s also an opportunity to obtain customer testimonials. Try following up with all of your customers 15-30 days after they’ve purchased your product or service. You can do this automatically with an email auto-responder, or for a more personal touch, you can give the customer a phone call.

Ask them if they’re happy with the product/service and if they have any concerns that you can assist them with. If they express their satisfaction with the product, you have a perfect opportunity to ask for a testimonial Given that you’ve just demonstrated exceptional customer service by following up with them after the sale, your chances of obtaining a glowing testimonial will be high.

Provide Surveys Or Questionnaires In Exchange For Prizes

Customers may not always want to fill out surveys or questionnaires, but they’re much more likely to do so if you offer prizes. This common technique not only gives you the opportunity to obtain positive customer testimonials, but it’s also an opportunity to gain constructive feedback about your product or service. You can offer the survey/questionnaires through your website, through email, or via social media.

Ask Customers To Leave An Online Review

If you’re not comfortable mailing out questionnaires, another way to obtain testimonials is to ask customers to leave you an online review, preferably on a review site that’s popular in your niche. This kills two birds with one stone – it leaves behind a positive customer review that might show up the next time a potential customer searches your company’s name in Google, and it also gives you a testimonial you can use on your website.

Use Google Alerts To Monitor Reviews

If you have an exceptional product or service in the age of social media, customers will leave comments and reviews about your business whether you ask them to or not. If you’re already actively monitoring social media channels, you can track positive mentions of your product/service/brand and turn them into customer testimonials.

If you’re not currently managing your social media presence, you can get started with a very simple, free solution – Google Alerts. Once it’s setup, Google Alerts will let you know when your business/product – or any other relevant keywords you specify – are mentioned on the web or on social media. Once Google Alerts is setup, you’ll be notified via email whenever a customer mentions your business, leaves a review, leaves a comment, tweets about your product etc.

This will not only allow you to quickly respond and quash potential public relations disasters by reaching out to dissatisfied customers, it also notifies you of an opportunity to obtain a customer testimonial. Simply reach out to customers who have already left you positive reviews or comments and ask them if you can use their words in a testimonial. If you’d like to use their name or perhaps one of their social media profile pictures in the testimonial, be sure to obtain written permission first.

Use 3rd Party Services To Gather Testimonials For You
If you’re too busy or you have little experience running a campaign for customer testimonials, there are also 3rd party services you can use to quickly and easily obtain genuine customer testimonials. These services can integrate with your website, email list, and/or social media to gather testimonials from your past customers.

Whatever method you choose, authentic testimonials are an effective way of overcoming buyer resistance and building trust. If you’re looking to improve your conversion rate and you don’t have customer testimonials on your sales page, try some or all of the techniques above to gather testimonials and watch your conversion rates skyrocket.