How to get testimonials people will actually read

Most small business websites have a testimonials page somewhere. Most of them say something like "Great service, would recommend. J, Cambridge." Which is lovely for J, and kind of them to say, but it could have been written about a dentist, a dog groomer or a double glazing firm, and a new customer reading it learns nothing about you at all.

A testimonial is doing a specific job. Someone is on your website, interested, but not quite sure, and they want to know whether people like them have used you and been glad they did. That's a question a vague compliment can't answer.

What a useful one looks like

Compare these two, both about the same imaginary heating engineer:

"Very professional, great service, highly recommended."

"We'd had two engineers out and the boiler still kept cutting out. Dave came the next morning, found the problem in about twenty minutes and explained why it had been happening. Not a peep out of it since." A homeowner in Soham

The second one tells you what the problem was, what he did about it and what it was like to deal with him. If your boiler has been playing up and you've already been let down once, that's the one that gets Dave the phone call.

What to ask for

Most people, asked to "write a quick review", freeze and produce the first version. So don't ask for a review. Ask about what was going on before they got in touch, and what's different now. Those two answers are most of your testimonial.

If they're happy to give you a bit more, ask whether anything nearly put them off getting in touch. It might have been the price, the distance, or worrying that they were too small for you. Whatever it was, your next customer is probably worrying about the same thing, and a real person saying "I nearly didn't, and I'm glad I did" deals with it better than anything you could write.

It also helps to do the writing for them. Plenty of my clients send me voice notes rather than emails, and a two-minute voice note or a quick chat on the phone usually gets far better material than a blank email ever will. Write it up in their words, send it back, and ask if they're happy for you to use it with their name and business. Tidy the spelling if you need to, but leave the way they speak alone. "Not a peep out of it since" is worth more than anything more polished.

When to ask

The best time is straight after something has gone well, when they've just said thank you. That's when they remember the detail and still feel the relief. Leave it three months and you'll get "Great service, would recommend", because that's all anyone remembers by then.

Which ones to use, and where

If you have a choice, pick the testimonials from customers who look like the customers you want more of. A big local name is nice to have, but a business owner reading your site will trust someone in the same position as them more than someone impressive. If you want more work from small manufacturers, a quote from a small manufacturer will do more for you than one from a household name.

Then put them where people have doubts. A line from a happy customer next to your prices, beside the contact form or on the page for the service it's about will get read. A separate testimonials page tends to get clicked on by about three people a year, one of whom is you checking it still works.

And if your own testimonials page is currently full of "Great service, would recommend", you're in very good company.