How To Gather Testimonials, Reviews and Case Studies

We all depend on glowing reviews and recommendations when we are looking for a new tradesperson or restaurant to visit. Your business is no different. Word-of-mouth testimonials and reviews from your customers can convince someone new to buy from you.

Many people would believe that testimonials, reviews and case studies are the same but they aren’t. Here’s a little explanation of the difference between these:

What is a review?

A review is a quick comment left by a customer and is often in the form of a five-star rating or ‘great service’ comment.

What is a testimonial?

A testimonial is provided by a customer or client and goes into more detail than a review. It often outlines how the product or service was used by the customer and what impact it had. For example, “Laura helped me with social media management and I got 10 new clients as a result.”

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth document that highlights the challenges your customer had, the action that was taken and the results of the work carried out. Many of our case studies can be found here.

Where should these reviews be used?

You can collect reviews and testimonials in a number of places such as your website. We have a section on our homepage that highlights all the testimonials we have received from current and past clients. Companies can also use review websites such as TripAdvisor or CheckaTrade to collect reviews about their company and service.

Other websites you can collect review very easily are Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The reviews on Google sit on your ‘Google My Business’ page and can help towards boosting your listing. Facebook company pages allow customers to leave reviews about your services and products. LinkedIn is a channel that collects ‘recommendations’ instead of ‘reviews’ and these help towards boosting your personal brand.

How to gather reviews and testimonials

Many companies forget that people are busy and don’t always automatically tell others about your services or products. We all need a little nudge in the right direction, so don’t be afraid to ask for reviews or testimonials even if you feel uncomfortable asking. We would advise if you are looking to source more case studies then this would need more thought and time because specific information needs to be included and the detail needs to be more in-depth.

“Reviews and testimonials on the other hand should be easy to achieve.”

How to avoid the “It was so nice to work with you” reviews

From past experience you should try to avoid the ‘nice to work with you’ reviews. These don’t say much about the service or product you provided and won’t necessarily convince someone else to contact you to find out what you could do for them.

When you approach a customer or client about a review or testimonial try to guide them towards the feedback you want to achieve. Don’t leave it up to the person to say what they want to say. Think about why you want the testimonial – you want to demonstrate to your potential customers that you have helped people just like them.

What to ask

When you approach a client or customer ask them three questions:

  • What was the problem?
  • What did we do to solve that problem?
  • What was the outcome?

When you receive the answers to these three questions you can remove the questions and you have a great story that people can resonate with.

What happens if you get a bad review?

Sometimes, you might receive a negative review as people can be very quick to complain.

Our advice if this happens is to:

  • Try to reply to a negative comment asap and if possible try to take the conversation off your social media channel and into a private direct message or email.
  • Try not to take things personally and keep a cool head.
  • Be clear about your complaints process from the outset so that people know how to contact you.
  • Take any feedback on board and always try to find ways to improve in the future.

For more information or advice on this topic, please contact us.

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