As a business manager/owner, you should always be on the prowl for ways to improve your company’s profile and reputation. If your company’s website is a key component to the company’s prospects for success, there are a few things that can be done to enhance the website while providing a little unsolicited advertising. One way this can be accomplished is through the use of customer testimonials. Nothing speaks clearer to your company’s true performance than written words from satisfied customers with something meaningful to say.

The Value of Testimonials

The world is filled with cynics. Today’s consumer tends to approach marketing with a bit of skepticism. They inherently understand that most company’s are willing to say most anything to help sell its products. Far too often, these self-initiated claims prove to be unreliable at best and outright false at worst. This is the reason why so many consumers prefer testimonials for customers who have actually dealt with the company and bought/used its products and/or services. Testimonials are usually effective because they:

• Build trust. When customers consistently make positive comments about your company and products, they are telling the buying public that your company performs as advertised. Over a longer period of time, your company will build a reputation that invokes immediate trust on the part of potential customers.
• Are void of self-promotion. To hear a company official boast of the benefits and usefulness of a product tends to go in one ear and out the other. If that same information is provided by an impartial third-party, the words have a deeper meaning and are more likely to be heard.
• Overcome skepticism. Even the most ardent skeptic has difficulty arguing with the point of view of a customer who has actually dealt with the company and tried one of its products. Experience is a great teacher.

Tips for Improving Client Testimonials on Your Website

Given the fact testimonials can be very useful in promoting the positive aspects of your business, you need to give them all due consideration and use them as effectively as possible. In time, you will come to realize how profound an effect they can have on the company’s profitability. Here are a few tips to consider for improving the quality of your company’s testimonials.

1. Perform to the Level of Your Testimonials – If your company is blessed to receive good reviews from customers, it is important to make sure the company’s performance matches what is being offered in a testimonial. Failure to do so renders your testimonials useless and decreases the possibility of getting additional testimonials in the future.

2. What Have You Done for Me Lately – Keep your testimonials as current as possible. If all you offer up are testimonials from over a year ago, potential customers are likely to wonder why nothing positive has been offered in recent months. In many cases, they will assume your business has fallen back a bit, offsetting any benefits usually derived from good testimonials.

3. Get Permission – It is very important for you to get permission from your customers to use their testimonials for promotional purposes. If you let them know from the outset that you would appreciate any kind of feedback about the products and/or sales process and how you intend to use that feedback, they will tend to put more time and thought into their offering. When you find the testimonials that give you what you need, you will already have permission to move forward and include them on the website.

4. Details – General comments about the company and its products are nice, but they don’t provide prospective customers with much useful information. Try to select testimonials that go into detail about how the customer benefited from the product and how the product and/or company performed. The information needs to address a potential customer’s needs and concerns.

5. Give Your Testimonials Credibility – Each testimonial has to give the appearance of coming from a real person. If you can secure the first name, last name and hometown of each of the people whose testimonies you wish to use, your viewers will find the testimonials to be more believable, especially if they come from a group of customers with which other potential customers can relate to after reading the information provided.

6. Matching Testimonials to Company Claims – If the company’s marketing/advertising information makes specific claims, you want to try to find testimonials that support the claims made. Consistency is a wonderful attribute.