What Makes a Client Testimonial Relevant, Effective & Valuable?
Recommendations from past clients work wonders for your business and your website. They create a positive image of your business and encourage prospective customers to trust you with their business.
While any and every positive word from your previous clients is beneficial and helpful, there are some essential elements that every well-written and effective client testimonial should have.
After all, the idea behind publishing client feedback is to provide a bird’s eye view of your interaction with the client from start to finish, and how your services helped their business achieve specific goals.
Let’s take a look.
Pre-Requisites of a Client Recommendation | Testimonial
When someone writes you a review, you should ideally specify some crucial points the recommendation should include or mention.
So the next time you send out a testimonial request to a client, remember these essential elements of a client testimonial –
RELEVANT: PROJECT’S GOALS AND HOW THEY WERE MET
When a prospective client reads a recommendation on your website, they are primarily looking for relevancy. They want to know if you have previously handled a project similar to theirs’.
Hence, it is important that your past customers, at least briefly describe their project goals and how your services helped them reach those objectives.
Hence, a client recommendation should (briefly) outline the goals of the project which were successfully met by you.
SPECIFIC: WHY SHOULD SOMEONE HIRE YOU?
Whether it is the content writing industry, web design or any other form of outsourced business, there is immense competition in every field.
Needless to say, there are thousands and thousands of websites on the WWW, all vying for the customer’s attention. The very fact that the client chose you over your competitors speaks volumes about your credibility.
When you request your client for a review of your services, ask them to specifically mention the reason why they chose you over your competitors.
A good testimonial becomes great and highly relevant when clients indicate what made them pick you.
There can be several reasons; some of them may include the following –
- Your reply to their initial inquiry was quick, to-the-point and impressive.
- Your costs were reasonable and within their budget.
- You ranked high on Google for the services they needed.
- You were highly recommended.
- You were willing to deliver the project on an urgent basis, thus, meeting their tight deadline.
INSPIRING: SHOULD DESCRIBE YOUR STRONGEST POINTS
Prospective customers would like to know your strengths and the benefits of hiring your services.
What can be better than reading about how your previous customers benefitted by hiring you?
A testimonial from a past customer is one that discusses some of your most beneficial traits and provides prospective customers with enough reasons to hire you.
DESCRIPTIVE: SHOULD DESCRIBE THE POSITIVE RESULTS
Prospective customers want to know how your services helped a client and to what extent. For a testimonial to be effective, it must share information about the positive results a customer can expect to receive from hiring your services.
Did the website (you designed) bring more business for your client? Was the newsletter (you wrote) a big hit with their subscribers? Did your product descriptions increase their product sales?
GENUITY: SHOULD BE REAL AND SOUND GENUINE
The most important feature of a relevant testimonial is that it is written in a truthful and sincere manner. When a past client talks about their positive experiences while working with you, their satisfaction reflects on their words.
Hence, a client recommendation should never be edited. It should come straight from the client and published as-is.
How do you make sure your client includes these elements in their testimonial, you might ask?
ALSO READ: Importance of Effective Client Testimonials and How to Use them Well
Getting Your Clients to Write Relevant Recommendations
Though you do not have the liberty of telling the client or customer what you want them to write in their recommendation, you can provide them some guidelines and elements that you would like them to address in their testimonial.
Here are some details you can request your past client to include in their review –
- How quickly you delivered the finished project (quick turnaround).
- Your company’s sensitivity to special requests and deadlines.
- Quick and proactive communication.
- Your fee structure
- The ease with which the project has been handled
- Their level of satisfaction, etc.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
A happy client will be more than willing to accommodate your requests and write you a relevant, valuable and effective review. Just make sure to ask for the recommendation sooner than later – preferably within a few days of closing the project successfully.
Client recommendations add credibility to your website and showcase to your prospective customers the value they can expect from you so go ahead and send a testimonial request to your past client today!
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