Credit. Collect. Rinse. Repeat.

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As business owners, we’ve all heard that we must “collect testimonials from satisfied clients.”

And yet, too often we ignore these wise words and/or ‘urgent’ tasks take priority. Just like anything else in our businesses, remembering to do things is made much easier if it is part of our process.

Collecting testimonials should be part of our customer satisfaction process. Outlined here is a simple process for collecting testimonials to be repeated with each and every client.

Show your appreciation for your clients from the beginning – create an onboarding process to celebrate your new clients. Help them to feel special, appreciated, and excited to work with you.

Surprise them with a gift letting them know you are grateful for their business, and include gratitude for them all the way along.

Strike while the iron is hot – ask for a testimonial when you’ve begun to deliver quality work/results. If you are selling a product, ask them for a testimonial upon receiving it. If you are a service provider, request the testimonial once you have begun to deliver quality service and/or results.

Don’t wait until the end of your delivery process to ask for testimonials and referrals!

Make it easy for them – oftentimes, people resist writing testimonials because it seems like a large task, or they don’t know exactly what you want them to say.

This tends to result in weak testimonials, such as “Meghann is awesome, I loved coaching with Meghann.” Although those are nice words, there is no “meat on those bones” for future prospects to sink their teeth into.

Give them some questions to answer that will help them in writing the testimonial, and then ask them for permission to use all/parts of their answers. Here are some questions you can ask to help gather a benefit-oriented testimonial:

What were the biggest problems you feel you hired me to help you solve?

What have I helped you with specifically to make your life/business better?

What results have you seen thus far?

Would you recommend me to your friends, and if so, why?

Ask any other questions you feel will support you in gaining future ideal clients.

Ask for visual/audio/photo enhancements– it will always increase the value of the testimonial to have it on video/audio. If you can’t get either of these, then ask for a photo so that you can include it with your testimonial.

Yes, testimonials have been accompanied by photos for decades, and there’s a reason for that! Trust comes easier when someone can identify words with a ‘real’ person.

Repurpose the testimonials you gather – after you have received your testimonials, you should edit them to make them short, sweet and to the point. Then, place them on your website.

Next, reach out to the people who wrote them for you so they can also post the testimonial to your Facebook page as a Review and to your LinkedIn profile as a Recommendation.

Utilize the most effective testimonials on your social media, email marketing campaigns and marketing collateral.