Asking for that Testimonial and 22 Questions You Can Use to Guide Your Client

How important are testimonials? They're very important. According to testimonial plug-in website, Wisernotify, 92.4% of B2B decision-makers read reviews before making a purchasing decision. That's huge. Moreover, just by adding testimonials to your website can, on average, increase your revenue by 62%! According to Demand Gen Report, 97% of B2B buyers are influenced by peer-to-peer recommendations and testimonials. And statistics website, Famewall, reports that just over half at 54% of people surveys are more than open to leaving a review for a family-owned small business. Most people reading this blog fall into that category. Testimonials are important.

Let's dial back and talk more in a 30K foot view. Social proof is a segment into buying psychology (behavioral economics) where people are influenced by others' decisions. Yes, you're a cleaner. But put on your marketing hat for a minute. We're influenced by ads, tv, radio, social media, and more. But a component of that marketing is social proof. Testimonials are just one example of many for social proof. Other examples include celebrity influencers, case studies, influencer endorsements, expert social proof, online rankings, and more. 

In the context of cleaning, we used multiple examples. Within our proposals, we had a page filled with recognizable logos from clients we had. In another, we had a page of success stories where we shared reference contact info, and included a write-up of their cleaning problem and how we solved it and invited the reader to contact our client as a reference. We also had hidden web pages within our site that we shared in our email marketing that highlighted a client success story complete with pictures and video. Video was another where we did video and written testimonials. Online, you have aggregate sites like Yelp where you can have reviews left, and in your own social media and on your Google profile, you can include ratings for your services. There are many ways you can demonstrate social proof and grow your business!

The challenge many face is asking for that testimonial. Fear of rejection is a very real fear. There are a few things you can do to help prepare you for the big ASK:

 1) Do a client survey. Part of our surveys include a Net Promoter Score which uses a 1-10 scale. If they're responding with an 8-10 to the question of, "How likely are you to refer our cleaning business?", then they're probably open to doing a testimonial or rating in some form or another.

 2) Go on a sprint of offering 110% to your client. Go above and beyond. This way when you do ask days or weeks later, there's no hesitation.

 3) Check in with your client regularly to show that you're interested in their feedback.

Once you've prepared your mind to make that big ask for a testimonial, you need to decide how you want that testimonial if they were to say yes. There are many ways you can do this:

Video Testimonials
Written/emailed testimonials
Reviews on social media
Reviews on sites like Thumbtack, Bark, Yelp, or others
Reviews on your Google profile
Or take testimonials or reviews through software like Famewall or Testimonial.to

Now that you have everything you need to decide whether or not to ask for that testimonial, and your plan of action, you just need to ask. Below is a simple guide on questions you can ask your client and helps in their creation of that testimonial. Just use 2-4 of these questions with your request. 

I hope the above helps. Testimonials are powerful. It's a great way to highlight your experience and it's a great revenue generator too. It's definitely a missed target by most cleaning businesses. 

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