Questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial

Do you routinely ask customers for testimonials? Do you know the questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial? Social proof is critical in marketing, especially in the consideration phase of the customer buying cycle. We reveal three questions that have helped us extract rich stories from our customers.

Before you start: building a process
Before we look at the specific questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial, let’s think about the best way to gather those testimonials in the first place.
The purpose of gathering testimonials is to create a connection between a prospective customer and the success stories of your existing customers. Those with a similar need are more likely to place their trust in you if they can see you have already helped others.

The best testimonials of all highlight the customer’s initial pain point, your unique role in solving it and some numbers as measurable proof.

While automated feedback surveys can be useful, if you really want to tick those three boxes properly, you need to be present to guide the conversation. That involves talking to them and recording their responses.

As a process, I suggest you get in touch with your customers and ask them for five minutes of their time on the phone (or on Zoom/Teams/Meet, etc.) to answer three questions. Make sure they are comfortable with the call being recorded.

Then, set up a call and run through the following:
The three questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial
Intro: Thank you for this. As discussed, I have three questions…

1.WHAT DID YOU ORIGINALLY COME TO US FOR?
This will take them back to the issues they were facing when they first started looking around for help.

It is likely the problems they needed to solve will crop up for other people too. By reading the testimonial, those people will recognise a shared pain point that you could help them with.

The answer to this question will also help you to audit and refine your value proposition.

Optional additional questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial: What was life like before you came to us?

2.WHY DID YOU CHOOSE US?
This question is aimed to make the customer think about their decision-making process. It can help you to clarify and strengthen your existing USPs, and maybe even identify new ones. What did you do/say differently to the competition? Why did it matter?

Additional questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial: How did you find us? What made our product/service stand out? Did anything almost stop you contacting us? What was the deal clincher?

3. WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO CHOOSE US?
This may seem a strange question, but this leads into the results the customer has had. If you can get them to dig out specific stats or facts for you, these can provide really strong social proof.

Additional questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial: What’s the best part about working with/buying from us? What has our product/service enabled you to do? What has surprised you the most? What would you tell someone considering us?

Now you know the specific questions to ask clients to get a good testimonial, you are can leverage their full potential as customer advocates.

Getting answers to these three questions not only helps you with your marketing, it also boosts customer retention. The questions serve as a reminder for the client of where they were before they found you, and reinforce your value to them now.

Top tip: If you can get a number of customers together in one place, you could consider filming a testimonials reel, using Vu’s video production service.

To access further powerful marketing tips, we recommend you book a place on one of our Digital Marketing Training Courses. A Vu marketing maestro will cover everything from creating a marketing plan and building personas to setting content strategy and choosing your digital platforms.

Best of all, they will be on hand throughout to answer any specific questions you have.