Getting and Displaying Customer Testimonials

Endorsements and social influence have a big impact on consumer purchases. Before clicking that Add to Cart, Buy Now, or Download button, shoppers want to hear what others have to say about the item for which they are about to pay. But rather than sending your potential customers to other websites to search for online reviews, we recommend keeping them on your site by featuring your favorite customer testimonials. In this blog post, we’ll suggests ways to obtain those testimonials and best practices for showing them off.

Getting Customer Testimonials

As if you don’t have enough to do running your small business, now you have to collect customer testimonials? Yes, add this task to your to-do list, but there are ways to make it a less daunting chore. Here are the two simplest ways we can think of.

Ask for them.

• Receipt or Purchase Confirmation – The process varies from business to business, but upon purchase, your clients receive some type of confirmation, right? This usually occurs on your website, which is then followed up with an email. At both points of contact, take advantage of these opportunities to ask for feedback.
• Website – If your business is eCommerce, each product page (whether it’s a physical or digital item) should include the opportunity to provide a testimonial. If your company is service-based, use your contact page to invite past and current clients to submit a customer testimonial.
• Email Newsletter – Requests for reviews and feedback should always be a part of the content of your email newsletter.

Take them from review websites.

Whether published on Yelp, your Facebook page, TripAdvisor, or any other online review platform, positive reviews about your small business can be featured on your website. Just be sure to give credit to the source from where you got the review. Some sites (such as Yelp) even have options for you to embed a review.

Displaying Customer Testimonials

Now that you’ve done all this work to capture rave reviews, we urge you to showcase them. Now is your chance to let website visitors know what is so amazing about your business.

Feature them on your homepage.

Forget about being humble. Feature your favorites front and center. We recently redesigned the website for All Natural Dog Beds. The image below is of the testimonials displayed on their homepage. It’s only three, but, wow! What a great impression they make. Take note of the Read More Testimonials button in the lower right corner. This brings us to our next recommendation.

Build a testimonials page.

An entire page of good customer reviews gives potential customers even more reason to consider purchasing your product or service. Be mindful of keeping it fresh. You may love that review that Ruth S. from Texas gave you three years ago, but a recent online review submitted just a month ago is more likely to instill trust. Take a look at the customer testimonial page we built for our client All Natural Dog Beds. It even includes images, which adds interest and charm.

Another thing to consider, especially as you invest time into gathering customer testimonials, is that these pieces of feedback (even the negative ones) provide you with market research and help you learn more about what is working and what isn’t working for your company. If you’re running a restaurant, and diners are saying your service is slow, wouldn’t you want to know that so you can make improvements?

Customer testimonials are like precious gems. Use them to their fullest potential, and never be afraid of showing them off. They have impact. Take advantage of that.

Are you featuring reviews and testimonials on your small business website? Tell us how in the comments below. If you need assistance figuring out how to display what your customers have to say about your company, contact us. We’d love to help.