What makes a powerful customer testimonial? A testimonial becomes believable to a prospective customer the minute it starts to mirror their objections.
If you get receive customer testimonials that say “XYZ Company did a great job and I’d highly recommend them” that’s perfectly fine, however it doesn’t tell a customer who is considering purchasing from you how your product/service fixed their problem.
100% positive testimonials are lovely, however a reverse testimonial is very believable because it uses persuasion and psychological perspective to reassure a potential customer. Even in the yachting industry, prospective customers have doubt.
The Power of Reverse Testimonials
It may seem that publishing customer testimonials that discuss problems or objections first might seem like doomed tactics in getting new clients. After all, testimonials are usually glowing references with wonderful sugar-coated words. The truth? Any customer is already going through hesitation in their mind before buying with you, so anything that debunks their objections is a strong motivator. Having a third-party that isn’t your company do that for them is better than your company doing it.
A reverse testimonial aims to tell a story and highlight relevant specifics about the customer’s experience before and after they buy your product or service. Their job is to reduce risk and build trust.
You probably already give reverse testimonials in your daily life:
“You know that new restaurant? They haven’t updated the decor since the previous owners and the menu looked pricey, but we went there on Thursday and the food is incredible and the service is outstanding.”
Asking your customers for an effective testimonial
How do you get customer to write these powerful testimonials? You give them prompts. There’s two legitimate reasons why most customers give non-effective testimonials:
- Because they’re genuinely lost for words. They have no guidance from you about what to be specific about so they end up writing over-the-top fluffy testimonials about how great you are.
- You ask them for a testimonial so long after you’ve dealt with them that they struggle to recall results or facts.
Here’s 5 questions you can ask when approaching a customer for an outstanding testimonial:
- What was your main obstacle you had before buying our product/service?
- How did our product/service give a solution to your obstacle or problem?
- What made you choose our product/service over everything else on the market?
- What specific feature did you like most about our product/service?
- What surprised you about our product/service?
Do you have a strategy for asking customers for testimonials? Have you used reverse testimonials before?
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