Every franchisee could be doing this better. The reason that getting testimonials is not something that most franchisees excel at is because firstly they simply don’t ask for them and secondly, when they do ask for them, they don’t know how to ask.
With everything, I always think that it is best to remember that if you are asking another person for something that is of no benefit to them, but of benefit to you, remember to respect their time. If you want someone to do something for you, if you make it too hard or too complicated or it is simply going to take them a lot of time to do, then you are probably not going to ask and they are probably either not going to do it or they will have a bit of a ‘sour taste in their mouth’ as it is taking too much of their time and effort.
Getting testimonials is one of those things.
I don’t believe that you should ‘fake’ testimonials. It is simply wrong and unethical. Don’t ever do this. Don’t ask a member of your family to give you a glowing testimonial because it is easy to ask them for one, get real testimonials from real customers, real people.
Now remember we have to make this easy for the customer right? I have a very simple way of doing this and all it requires is for you to remember to ask.
You have a customer verbally tell you that you have done something great. Let’s say in this instance you did a service for someone and they loved how the work was completed with low fuss to them. All you have to do is ask for the testimonial. I’d say something like this:
“Mrs Smith, I’m so pleased you loved our work. Would it be ok if I wrote down what you just said that you loved how the work was completed with low fuss to you and then put your name to it to use on our website and maybe some marketing items in the future? I can write it down and put it into an email for you to approve it you’d like? Would you be ok with that?”
Nine times out of ten, the customer will say yes and not even require the email. If you have been trustworthy doing the job, they will trust you to write the testimonial as they say it. This makes it easy for them to give you a testimonial with little, or in fact no effort, on their part.
If someone does send you an email thanking you, simply email them back and ask if you could use their email or part of the email as a testimonial. Show them what it would look like if you use only part of the email.
Instead of going to customers after the transaction and asking for a testimonial or feedback, get it while you are completing or just completed the transaction. It is amazing how many more testimonials you can gain if you ask for them and help the customer rather than waiting or hoping for a customer to offer a testimonial.
I’ve also found that as a customer I give more testimonials than the average person. A few years ago I decided I wanted to ‘get’ more testimonials, so I decided that if I wanted people to make the effort of giving me testimonials then I should lead the way and ‘give’ more testimonials. It is amazing, but it worked. It also feels really good to give someone praise when they least expect it. I only do it for those that deserve it, which always makes me sharper in my business because I have to ‘deserve’ my testimonials too.
Testimonial are vital for your business as it shows that others have gone before prospects, used your service or purchased products from you and had a good experience, so builds trust for prospects considering using your services or purchasing from you.
The biggest key to testimonials is you need to do good work. If your business is doing great work, has high service standards, happy and friendly, clean, professional, knowledgeable, then you you have completed the first and most important step in gaining testimonials. People will want to give a testimonial if you can first show you deserve them.
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