How Client Testimonials Will Help You Grow Your Business

Testimonials are the hidden magic that convert potential clients into paying clients.

“How can one simple word provide so much power over a buyer?” you might ask. Well, it starts with the fact that a client in a buying journey believes you may be the right person but is looking for social verification to ascertain whether or not you’re the right fit for them.

Testimonials are an opportunity for your raving fans to share their experiences of what it’s like to work with you at all stages of the process. It’s also an opportunity to ask raving fan clients to give you testimonials at various junctures of the relationship. Never just ask once.

Converting Clients with Testimonials

But why are client testimonials so valuable?

Clients want to know, what is it going to be like once they pay you? Yes, they want to understand that journey up until the point where they pay, but they mainly want to know what happens after. Do they become a forgotten cause, or do they get phone calls, updates, and information?

This is where you can let your client’s story and their own words convey volumes to your potential clients about what it’s like to work with you.

Timing the Ask

It is vital to ask for testimonials often and in different formats so that your audience, even though they may be busy upon one request, has the chance to step up and provide feedback at other milestones.

Many attorneys I know ask for testimonials just after big trials or outcomes where their client is super exuberant and happy. But many clients aren’t going to have those same big wins, and it’s hard to know if that relates to them.

However, a testimonial that shares that the team was empathetic and caring, attentive, returned calls, that is an experience every client can understand and value. That is why it’s best to focus on asking more questions to clients.

• How was your experience so far with us?
• Have we been attentive to your needs?
• Can you please share what’s been the best part of working with us?
• How has the team treated you?
• What could we do better or differently?

Gather research, find out what they’ll say, and when they rave about the company, ask them in that moment for a testimonial. Ask them for a video testimonial if you’re on Zoom. Ask them for a written testimonial afterwards if you’re on phone and you took notes. In fact, suggest that you send back to them what you heard and make it easy for them to simply authorize yes or no to what you wrote down, or they can embellish and extend the testimonial.

Sometimes you need them to go to other platforms, like your Google Business profile or social media – and providing them with that immediate hyperlink is the key to getting a testimonial. We all know that if we have to go and do the legwork ourselves and hunt down the information or the place, it is less likely to happen than when someone makes it easy for us to click one link and leave our review.

Testimonial Companies

There are many companies out there that tout that they can get you all types of client testimonials, and while I’m sure plenty of them are reputable and good, the bottom line is it still requires that we ask our client. And while you’re initially growing, sometimes you want to keep your hard-earned cash close to your chest and simply track it on your own, keeping a list of who you asked and when they gave you testimonials for different elements of their experience with you. In these early days, the owner is the Client Happiness Coordinator. 

As you grow, this is a great opportunity to train up a student, an intern, an assistant, or someone else who’s interested in learning about marketing and helping the company, giving them the “Client Happiness” hat. You could even provide them with compensation for every testimonial they’re able to obtain.

When to Ask for Client Testimonials: Best Timing Tips

Testimonials may be the most underutilized marketing secret weapon, and your Client Happiness Coordinator can be instrumental in doing this task for you. If it’s part of someone’s job duties and part of their KPIs, key performance indicators, then every week it will happen. It’s easy to hold the person accountable, and it’s easy to ensure that it gets done on a regular basis, not helter-skelter.

In training up dozens and dozens of Client Happiness Coordinators for other businesses, it is that joy of sharing the testimonials that thrills a team and connects the marketing with the customer service, with the servicing of the clients that creates an environment where everyone thrives. Don’t deprive your team of that exuberance. Have a Client Happiness Coordinator on your team, even if just for a few hours a week, so that they have that specific task and run that KPI for you.