What is a customer testimonial?
A customer testimonial is an affirmation from one of your customers that is content with, and passionate about, the service you provide. Typically, a customer testimonial will include a brief explanation of the customer’s experience with your product, with evidence of its success in their life.
We'll cover everything you need to know about customer testimonials in this comprehensive guide.
- Why should you use customer testimonials for sales?
- What are examples of customer testimonials?
- What makes a good customer testimonial?
- Questions to ask for customer testimonials
- How to get customer testimonials
- When to share customer testimonials
- How to get started with customer testimonials
Why should you use customer testimonials for sales?
Customer testimonials are a fantastic tool for your business and provide many benefits for your sale strategy:
- Adds credibility by showing customers are getting good results.
- Provides inspiration for new customers who have similar use cases.
- Increases awareness and exposure for your solution because the people in your customer testimonials share the testimonials with their network.
What are examples of customer testimonials?
There is no one-size-fits-all format for a good customer testimonial - there are a few different ways to showcase a customer’s satisfaction with your product. Here are examples of certain types of customer testimonials:
Video Testimonials
Video testimonials are short video clips from your customers explaining how and why your product worked for them. You can film live with your customer, record over a video meeting, or request an asynchronous video testimonial. You can share these on your website or send them in email using using Sendspark
Video Testimonial Example:
This is a video testimonial we have embedded on our signup page.
Quotes
Quotes are a single statement from your custom on the value you deliver. These are great to share on your website pages as additional credibility.
Quote examples:
“We use Sendspark across many sales and marketing teams, and consistently see 200-300% higher engagement” - Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing, Userpilot
“We got 2x more positive replies using Sendspark in our outreach messages over LinkedIn vs just text alone” - Josh Schachter, CEO, UpdateAI
Case Studies
These are in depth articles on how a customer is using your product. It should full research and share the problem, solution, and results, as well as the special ways your customer is using your product. These are helpful to share with prospective customers with similar problems.
Case Study examples:
See some examples of case studies on our customer stories page.
What makes a good customer testimonial?
A good customer testimonial is told like a “hero’s journey” story. Yes, you read that right. Though your customer testimonial doesn’t need to be as lengthy as The Odyssey or Moby Dick, it should generally follow the steps of famous heros’ journeys, like Odysseus and Ahab. This makes it super memorable and impactful.
- First, the testimonial will introduce the “hero”: your customer. This customer should be relatable to other similar prospective customers.
- Next, the testimonial should introduce the challenge, or, the villain in the story. This would typically be whatever fault or plight that your product works to combat.
- Then, the testimonial will explain your solution as a weapon to help the aid the hero on their mission. They can weild your product as a tool to combat the villain!
- Finally, the testimonial should conclude with victory. This is how your hero was able to conquer their villain and achieve the desired outcome.
Questions to ask for customer testimonials
You want to ask the right questions to be able to tell the customer story correctly. Here are the top 5 questions you should ask when requesting a customer testimonial: 1.
1. Who are you?
Start by asking your customer to explain a little bit about who they are and what they do. Having them introduce themselves and their job/company will help to put their testimonial into perspective for similar viewers.
2. What was the problem that you were struggling with?
Allow your customer to explain what problem prompted them to try out your product. Viewers who are dealing with a similar problem will be more likely to give your product a shot.
3. How/why did you choose our product as your solution?
This is a great time for your customer to explain how they came to your product in the first place. Why did they decide to try out your product, as opposed to other competitors? What stands out about your product?
4. In what way did our product help solve your problem?
Encourage your customer to really send the message home by explaining in simple terms, how your product was successful as a solution. It doesn’t need to be complicated - in fact - the more straightforward, the better.
5. Would you recommend our product as a solution to others?
Wrap up your customer testimonial in a neat bow with a wonderful little soundbite of your customer recommending your product.
How to get customer testimonials
There are many ways to get customer testimonials. It really depends on what type of customer testimonial you want to share, and what is mutually convenient for you and your customer.
There are a few places you can ask customers for testimonials.
- Live in person (when possible)
- Via email
- Within your website or application
If you choose to request a video asynchronously, you can send a Sendspark request video link.
When you do this, we highly recommend you use video to ask for a video testimonial!
Once you have a video testimonial, you can use it to create clips, case studies, and quotes.
When to share customer testimonials
Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of customer testimonials and how to go about getting them, it would help to determine WHEN exactly you should share these testimonials.
- Share your customer testimonials during the sales process! This is a fantastic way to beautifully illustrate how you can help, with customer stories acting as proof.
- Showcase your customers’ positive experiences through nurture emails. This give ‘em a little FOMO to show how other people (like their competitors) are winning with your product!
- Exemplify customer satisfaction while activating new users. You can inspire new users with great use cases for your solution.
- Harness the power of customer testimonials when pushing prospects over the hump. You can add credibility to your claims to prove they’re making the right decision.
How to get started with customer testimonials
By creating a Sendspark account, you can easily start requesting customer testimonials and begin sharing them in emails to your potential new clients. Sendspark makes the customer testimonial recording and sharing process simple and seamless. Why not give it a try? Get started with Sendspark, today!
