How to Ask for Testimonials (Without Being Awkward)

Want to know how to ask for testimonials without being awkward, and without it taking up a ton of your precious time?

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you know how important testimonials can be for building trust and credibility with potential customers. The thing is, asking for testimonials can feel uncomfortable, especially if you're not sure how to broach the subject.

Thankfully, collecting customer testimonials can be easy and painless—if you have the right strategies and tools in place. 

We're going to show you exactly how to ask for a testimonial that will help you attract more customers and get the feedback you need to improve your business.

The Benefits of Testimonials

Testimonials can be an extremely powerful tools for any business. By sharing positive experiences from past clients or customers, testimonials can help establish credibility and create a positive image for your business. If a potential client or customer is on the fence about buying your product, hearing from someone who has had a fantastic experience can be the just the thing that pushes them to take the leap.

In addition to building trust and credibility, testimonials can also help you improve your products or services by providing valuable feedback from customers. Armed with real world feedback, you'll be able to identify areas for improvement and make the necessary changes to keep your customers happy.

But the real impact of testimonials can be seen in conversion rates. In fact, we found that adding testimonials boosted the conversion rate of our own sales page by 25%! Just think—what could you accomplish with an extra 25% in revenue?

Now that you're feeling motivated, let's discuss how to request a testimonial.

How to Ask for Customer or Client Testimonials: 5 Key Steps

Good testimonials can transform your business - it's as simple as that. 

Unfortunately, for most people, asking for testimonials isn't so straightforward. 

We're here to help you get the most out of this awesome marketing tool, and these are the steps we're going to look at:

Let's dive in!

Step 1: Install Thrive Ovation, the Best Testimonial Collecting Tool

It might be possible to manually reach out to every customer and manage testimonials when your starting out and only have a few customers. 

But it soon becomes unmanageable. 

If you're going to be efficient and successful, then you need the right tools. 

You need a good email marketing provider, but just as importantly, you need a way to manage testimonial collection - enter Thrive Ovation. 

Thrive Ovation is specifically designed to help you capture, manage, and display testimonials on your  WordPress website.

This powerful testimonial plugin allows you to ask your happy customers for testimonials by creating custom forms for gathering feedback.

Then, Thrive Ovation can automate the process of publishing those testimonials so your website will always display the latest reviews from your customers.

The best part? With Thrive Ovation, you get access to a wide range of form and display templates that you can fully customize to match your brand's look and feel.

So whether you're going for a sleek, modern design or something more classic, Thrive Ovation makes it easy to create a polished, professional look that will impress potential clients.

To install Thrive Ovation, simply head to the pricing page and complete your purchase. 

You'll then be able to install the plugin using this handy guide (don't worry it's painless - even for complete WordPress beginners), and then you're just a few simple steps away from getting way more positive testimonials. 

Step 2: Make it Easy for People to Give Feedback 

When you're asking a customer for a testimonial, you're really asking for a favor. 

What's in it for your customer?

Well, they get to be heard, and they get to help out an awesome business they feel connected to, but this only goes so far. If you make it a hassle for people to give you a testimonial, they will give up. 

You've got to make the testimonial process simple, convenient, and even fun. 

This is where Thrive Ovation comes into it's own, giving customers and clients multiple ways to effortlessly give feedback. 

Create a High Converting Testimonial Request Page + Form

Your main point of contact with clients is generally going to be email - but that's not how you'll get the majority of your testimonials. 

If you simply write an email asking for people to reply with a testimonial, you're going to struggle to convert.

Why?

Because you're asking the customer to do all the work. 

They've got to think about their experience, ask themselves the right questions, write out their answers, format the email, and more. It's a huge barrier to someone giving you a testimonial. 

Instead, you've got to use your emails to drive people to a page that does a lot of the hard work for them. 

A good testimonial request page should show people that they're not the only ones wanting to praise your products or services, give them good sample testimonial examples of what you're looking for, and have a highly optimized testimonials form. 

With an attention-grabbing form that asks the right questions (open-ended questions get great results) and make the process simple, you're going to get way more testimonials - and not only that, but much higher quality ones. 

Thrive Ovation gives you a host of conversion optimized testimonial form templates, so you can start using them on your site immediately. These layouts are proven to attract high-quality testimonials, all you've got to do is use our drag and drop builder to craft the perfect questions for your brand. 

Yes, having good reviews on external platforms like Yelp, Amazon, or Google (great for SEO) are a big help, but you also want to have this strong social proof where the conversion takes place - on your website.

Thrive Ovation is going to make sure this happens!

Ask for a Testimonial as Part of a Survey

Incorporating a testimonial request into a survey is an excellent strategy for collecting customer feedback without making your loyal customers feel pressured. 

By framing the request as part of a broader survey, you can gather honest opinions about your product or service (good and bad) and potentially turn those into powerful testimonials.

The key is crafting the right questions, so how can you make sure you're leading people in the right direction?

1. Keep it focused: Stick to one to three key questions that target the most important aspects of your product or service. Too many questions can lead to survey fatigue and lower completion rates.
2. Be specific: If asking generic questions like "What did you think of our product?" doesn't garner the types of responses you want, try asking about specific features or results that customers may have experienced. This may help you gather more detailed comments that can be used as testimonials.
3. Encourage honesty: Frame your questions in a way that invites honest feedback, both positive and negative. This approach can help you collect more authentic testimonials and provide valuable insights for improving your product or service.

Some example questions to include in your survey might be:

• Which feature of our product did you find most helpful?
• Can you share a specific example of how our product helped you achieve your goals?
• Would you recommend our product to a friend or colleague? If so, why?

The quality of your testimonials is reliant on your ability to ask the right questions, so make sure you focus hard on this step. 

You can integrate survey questions as part of your form, or for the best results, check out Thrive Quiz Builder.

Use Positive Blog Comments as Testimonials

If you already have an engaged audience leaving comments on your blog, you can turn these positive remarks into testimonials. This time-saving strategy is an easy way to gather testimonials without putting pressure on your audience. 

I hear you asking: do I need permission to use blog comments as testimonials?

While blog comments are public, it's always a good idea to ask for permission before using someone's comment as a testimonial, as it shows respect for the commenter's privacy.

Luckily Thrive Ovation makes it super easy to reach out to commenters and ask permission to use their comment as a testimonial. With just one-click, it can send out an email and request permission. You're in complete control of the testimonial request email template, and if the commenter says yes, the comment will automatically import to your testimonials library, ready to be displayed (more on that later in the article).

Gather Client Testimonials from Social Media Comments

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be a goldmine for testimonials. People often share their thoughts and experiences about products or services on these platforms, making it a perfect place to find authentic, unsolicited testimonials for your business.

The problem is, how do you showcase social proof that comes from social media?

Well, Thrive Ovation gives you an easy place to store your testimonials so you can keep track of them. It even offers tagging so you can categorize each testimonial based on the products they refer to, the platform they were left on, and much, much more.   

Step 3: Get the Timing Right 

This seems like a simple point, but it's actually one that's easy to get wrong. 

If you want to know how to ask for testimonials, then you've also got to know about timing!

Picture this: you get an order for your awesome new product and you're super excited to get some feedback, so you send an email 3 days later. 

The problem is, the product takes 5 days to ship and the customer hasn't even received the product yet. All you've done is make them aware that you have slow shipping - not the best way to get good feedback. 

It's an extreme example, but the point stands, you've got to ask for the testimonial at the right time. 

So, when is your customer or client most likely to give you a glowing online review?

Well, it's normally when you've offered a great service, showcased how you can help them solve their pain point, and demonstrated results. It's difficult to know when this point is, which is why your customer after care is so important. 

You should be following up with customers regardless of testimonials and learning about the experience each person has with your business. When you consistently do this, then you're going to identify the perfect time to ask for a testimonial. 

Good customer relationships are always key to getting more testimonials!

Step 4: Always Follow Up

Your customer might love your brand and be completely blown away by your product. Naturally, they want to give you a positive review, but they're busy people!

For whatever reason, they might miss the first email you send, or even the second.

This doesn't mean they're not going to give you a testimonial, it just means they might need a little reminder.

Obviously, you don't want to spam people and you need to be respectful, but you should be sending multiple follow ups if you see that your initial email hasn't been opened or replied to.

Step 5: Maximize Your Testimonials by Showcasing them in the Best Possible Way

After implementing these strategies to collect dedicated testimonials, why not make the most of them? Make sure you're using them to attract new customers and grow your business.

Here are some suggestions for what to do next:

Showcase Testimonials Prominently on Your Website

Don't let your hard-earned testimonials go unnoticed. Feature them prominently on your website, such as on your homepage, product pages, and landing pages. This will help build trust and credibility with potential customers who visit your site. Use a tool such as Thrive Architect to showcase testimonials in just a few clicks.

Share Testimonials on Social Media

Post testimonials on your social media channels to spread the word about your satisfied customers' positive experiences. This not only boosts your brand image but also encourages others to share their customer success stories and engage with your content. Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories are popular places to share testimonials.

Split Test Your Pages

To truly make the most of your testimonials, it's important to optimize their placement and presentation on your website. One way to do this is by split testing (also known as A/B testing) which allows you to compare different versions of your web pages to determine which one performs better. A tool like Thrive Optimize will help you optimize all your marketing materials in just a few clicks. You can experiment with things like placing testimonials in different locations, text versus video testimonials, testimonial design, and proximity to a call-to-action. 

Now Improve Your Conversion Rate Even More

Every improvement you make to your conversion rate is like gold dust. It's where you really turn your business into a profit generating machine and testimonials can help immeasurably with that. 

But we want you to take your conversion rate to the next level, which is why you need to read this checklist to make more WooCommerce sales. Check off all the points and make sure you're giving your business the best possible chance of success.  

You Know How to Ask for Testimonials - Put it into Action!

Now that you have learned how to ask for testimonials without being awakward, it's time to put them into practice.

The easiest and most effective way to do this? Use the right tools.

Throughout this article, we've mentioned various Thrive Themes products — Thrive Ovation, Thrive Architect, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Optimize, and Thrive Automator. While you could purchase these tools individually, we recommend purchasing Thrive Suite and getting the best value for your money.

Thrive Suite can help you take your business to the next level — and we've got more handy resources to help you do just that!

• How to Sell Online Courses from Your Own Website
• How to Create a Membership Site on WordPress
• How to Create an Evergreen Webinar Funnel

And, check out our video:

Now there's just one last thing to do: Get Thrive Suite today!