Importance of Customer Testimonials
A customer testimonial is a written statement or verbal quotation from an individual who has had personal experience with the product or service being promoted. The individual’s opinions and findings may be provided by an expert, industry professional, customer service representative, or someone unaffiliated with the company.
Importance of Customer Testimonials in Business
I. Jonathan Osler San Francisco states clearly that the primary purpose of a testimonial is to establish the credibility of a company or business. It is an oral or written statement from outside sources who are not associated with the company. Testimonials from satisfied clients help in building trust in the company.
II. Customer testimonials are essential because they can reach out to potential customers in a way that most advertising can not. The problem with advertising is that it’s tough to reach everyone. When you have a potential customer who sees your advertisement and does not respond positively, there isn’t a lot you can do about it because you do not know who it is and where they are located.
III. Although testimonials are effective, people still try to get away with getting fake testimonials. Now I’m not saying that everyone who gets fake testimonials is trying to be dishonest, but it does happen. Because of this, you have to be careful about who you allow to disclose their personal experience about your product or service.
IV. Once you acquire an actual testimonial, it must be good. Suppose a potential customer gets the wrong impression. In that case, it can be very detrimental to your business, so you need to make sure that any testimonial that is given is honest and truthful. You also want to make sure that you do not accept testimonials from someone associated with your business because of the protection you receive from such an agreement.
V. Not all testimonials should be used at face value and should be treated as proof of concept. What I mean by this is that if you have a testimonial that says that company X was very successful with their new business, it does not seem like they are having the same success when you look around at other companies in the same industry. There may be something wrong with your testimonial.
VI. The point of having a customer testimonial is to have an unbiased opinion about what your product or service has done for someone and to put it out there for all potential customers to see.
VII. An example of a customer testimonial would be if a potential customer went on the internet and did a search on your company’s product or service and saw that your company has good customer testimonials, but then goes on to check out other companies and sees that they do not have any good customer testimonials.
VIII. You want to ensure that you do not leave out information when you have a customer testimonial. I mean things like where the person lives and how many times they interacted with your company, especially if they are an expert in your field.
Jonathan Osler San Francisco states that the primary purpose of a testimonial is to establish credibility and inform the potential customer that there has been someone who had a personal experience with your product or service and is giving their opinion about it.