How to integrate customer testimonials on your website

You’ve been running a business for a while; your customers adore what you do and they let you know. If you’re a company who has received plenty of testimonials praising your work- great! Did you know customer feedback and testimonials could be used to entice new customers towards your business? It shouldn't come as a surprise that a new customer is much more likely to trust your business after reading positive reviews of what you have to offer. Thus, it’s important to consider integrating these testimonials on your website.

It may seem difficult to find an organic way to include customer testimonials within your website. That’s why we’re here, offering up some tips and tricks for adding feedback to your website so that it’s an available reference for prospective clients.

Strategies to integrate customer testimonials on your website

Collecting testimonials from your customers: what you need to know

Of course, for you to include customer testimonials on your website, you’ll need to start by gathering a bunch. To do this, start by creating a list of your returning or most frequent customers, as well as the ones you have the best relationship with. As should be obvious, you’ll want to include customers who love what you do as they will be able to highlight specific or detailed information regarding their feelings about your business.

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Customer testimonial basics

If you’re going to include customer testimonials on your website, you’ll need to incorporate them in the right way. Simply copying and pasting text won’t be as effective as you might hope it to be, since these may appear hollow or haphazardly added for prestige. Remember, the customer testimonials you chose need to be credible. Since content should be published with intent, it’s important that it be both personal and unique. If the testimonials you publish are simply regurgitations of your sales pitch or call-to-action, then be warned that most customers will not buy it. So, when choosing testimonials to use, complete this process carefully.

Another note is to make sure testimonials are specific in that they discuss or point to something about your business that sets you apart from your competitor. Of course, general compliments are nice too but they are less likely to entice people to interact with your business. Keep your chosen testimonials short, sweet and engaging, as it’s unlikely that people will be willing to read through long blocks of text. Lastly, make sure that testimonials sound natural. Avoid those which sound scripted or use highly technical language, as these will only work to alienate customers. Now, we’ll get into specifics about the ways in which to integrate customer testimonials.

How to get testimonials from customers

So, now you have a better idea of what we’re looking for when it comes to publishing customer testimonials, but how do you actually obtain these testimonials in the first place? You’ll need to start by gathering a list of your most loyal and best customers. Of course, you need to choose customers who adore what you do and these will likely be those who have used your business or services more than one time. A repeat customer will be someone who you’ve already fostered a relationship with as a result of the exceptional services you’ve provided them.

Another point of consideration is that you know what information you want the customer to reveal about your business. Due to the fact that you've likely collected specific and detailed data about the services you’ve provided for them, you’ll want this information to be at the forefront of the testimonial. As we expressed in the previous paragraph, it’s crucial for the testimonial to be as specific as possible, so choose customers who can make a straightforward claim.

The easiest way to get customers to fill out a testimonial is to draw up a preset form to request them. This can be sent by e-mail or can be prompted in a phone conversation. Follow up with customers who have recently used your services, as your company will be fresh in their minds. When it comes to your best customers, approach them individually instead of sending out a targeted email to many different people.

Another common way to gather customer testimonials is by way of social media posts and comments. Although these comments can be used without consent, we’d recommend reaching out to the customer and letting them know that you’ll be using their comment as evidence of your exceptional work.

Do bear in mind that there is a difference between a customer testimonial and a case study. With a customer testimonial, you’re looking to create and foster trust with other clients. When it comes to a case study, this is much more lengthy, detailed narrative derived by a person or business that clearly maps out how you helped them. Case studies can be important to the development of your business as well, but this topic of conversation is left for an additional article.

Ask the right questions

We’ve touched a little bit on who to target as well as how to grab those customer testimonials, but let’s expand on this further. Of course, when it comes to reaching out to customers, you don’t want to be too upfront and simply state that you’re looking for website text. Instead, begin by asking questions about specific products or services that the customer has used. As we’ve mentioned, you are looking for testimonials to be both appreciative and informative. You want the customer to articulate the ways in which your products or services have benefited them. Consider asking these questions as initial prompts:

• How does our product or service improve your life: does it save you time? Money?
• What is the largest benefit you’ve noticed from using our product or service?
• Would you recommend our product or service to a friend or loved one?

These questions can really help your customers craft some excellent testimonials to be used on your website.

Personalize

When you’ve collected a few customer testimonials that will get the job done, you’ll need to begin integrating them into your website. The way you go about this will, of course, come down to the design specifics of your website. Do take time to carefully strategize how testimonials can be carefully integrated into your website without looking like they were copied and pasted or as a simple addendum.

A great way for your testimonials to really stand out is to personalize each one by including a customer name as well as a picture. This will help your testimonials to be quite effective in that potential consumers will know they’ve come from a real person. In some cases, a customer may want to maintain their privacy and thus, will not offer a picture. Putting an image next to the testimonial will work wonders towards legitimizing it.