5 Tips to Get Better Quality Testimonials and Reviews

Gathering reviews and testimonials can be awkward. When customers do leave them, they might be too short to really tell other customers about your business. The quality of testimonials and reviews can be just as important as the quantity. If you’re wondering how to get better quality testimonials and reviews, try these tips.

5 Tips to Get Better Quality Testimonials and Reviews

One of the key issues that many businesses have when it comes to getting better quality testimonials and reviews is the information that customers present. With some customers, getting them to talk about the details is tough. They might say something as simple as “Great!” or “Love this product,” but they won’t say why. While this vote of confidence is kind and appreciated, some more information or details would be more powerful.

1. Ask Open-Ended Questions

If you’re interviewing your customer to get a better quality review or testimonial, you can guide the testimonial by asking the right questions. In this case, open-ended questions will be your best tools to get more details. If you’re creating a landing page for your customers to submit their testimonial themselves, include these questions on the page.

You’ll want to focus on the customer’s experience. Ideally, the following questions will help them elaborate on why they like your business, what they were looking for, and how their expectations were met.

What were you hoping to solve or accomplish when you started working with us/ buying our products?
Have you tried alternatives/competitors? What was missing?
How were we able to solve your problem or provide what you were looking for?
What is your favorite thing about our business/ our products?

2. Know Your Customer

When you’re interviewing your customer for a testimonial, take some time to gather some facts about their experience with your product or service. This can help you ask the right questions. Or, include these facts when you request a testimonial from your customer. This will help to remind them of why your business relationship matters, and help them know what to talk about.

Gather the following information and see if you can work it into your testimonial questions.

How long has the customer been working with you? Or, how many purchases have they made?
Did the customer switch from a competitor?
Has your business helped them improve productivity, sales, or efficiency? If so, by how much? Gather numbers if you can.
If your business’s benefits aren’t easily measurable in numbers, does the customer have an interesting or remarkable story about how they use your service/product?

If your customer doesn’t mention these facts or it doesn’t fit naturally into the testimonial, consider creating a case study. With a case study, you can highlight the testimonial the customer provided, while also providing context and facts about the customer’s experience.

3. Provide an Example

Examples help to set the standard and show others what you’re looking for. Use an example testimonial video or text review to give your customers some direction. If you don’t have any testimonials or reviews yet, it’s okay to make one up, as long as you clearly state that it is just an example.

Choose or create an example video or text review that focuses on the customer’s experience. The best examples will talk about particular things that the customer enjoyed, or benefits that they have had. When you show the example testimonial or review to your customer, either in-person, on a landing page, or in an email, highlight these aspects of the video.

4. Give Questions in Advance

While open-ended questions can help you get better quality testimonials and reviews, they might catch your customer off-guard. If you’re interviewing your customer in-person to get a video testimonial, provide these questions to them in advance. You might make suggestions or provide examples of responses you’re looking for, just to give your customer some direction. Obviously, don’t tell your customer specifically what to say; staged or fake testimonials can land you in legal hot water. However, you can provide examples, questions, or even a rough outline of the testimonial interview in advance.

5. Know What Type of Testimonial You’re Looking For

If you don’t know what you’re looking for in a testimonial, you can’t expect your customer to provide it. Before you even ask for a testimonial or review, be sure you know what you’re going to use it for and what will make it high-quality. Also, consider your potential buyers’ decision-making process. If customers put in a lot of thought and consideration before buying your products or services, your testimonials should be detailed and in-depth. However, if the decision-making process is faster, prospective customers probably won’t take the time to read or watch a long testimonial, so these won’t be very useful for you. This will help you outline what type of testimonial you’re looking for.

Keep these tips in mind to get better quality testimonials and reviews. When you know what you’re looking for, you have questions in mind, and you have details about your customer, you’ll be in the best position to gather a high-quality, informative testimonial or review.