Marketing with Survey Questions

People are more likely to trust your company when they believe that someone else has used your company before and liked it. That’s why websites like Yelp and Angie’s List are so popular – they are experiences of those that have come before the potential customer (both good and bad), and are thus useful in helping the individual make the decision about whether or not to become a customer. Many companies try to use this to their advantage, offering “testimonials” on their websites that state how great the business is and why they will always come back.

But testimonials have rules: It’s illegal to have a fake testimonial. If they seem too fake sounding, customers will be turned off. Creating multiple testimonials can be difficult.

It is not necessarily legal to create testimonials yourself from scratch, but collecting real ones can be nearly impossible and those that do want to take the risk and create fake testimonials often find themselves struggling with authenticity.

If you’re running a customer satisfaction survey , however, you have a strategy available to you that can help you collect testimonials without calling up all of your old clients. At the end of your survey, you can simply ask the question: “Would you be willing to let us use any of your information today as a testimonial?” If the answer is yes, then you can consider using it. If the answer is no, then you do not. You have the advantage of receiving hundreds of potential testimonials, and you can pick and choose which ones you keep on your site.

Before you decide to go that route, however, there are some notes: Ask the question last, always. If the customer knows that they could be used as a testimonial, they may change their answers. Try to avoid publishing the person’s full name.

Few people like their full name online, Instead, using a first name plus abbreviation, such as “Sarah B.” This will prevent the testimonial from becoming an issue. Choose the best of the best as well. There is going to be a lot of temptation to use every positive review you find, but few potential customers will spend much time reading them.

Getting testimonials by calling your former customers is annoying, but faking testimonials is illegal, and because testimonials do appear to make a difference in attracting clients, this methodology is a great way to get quick testimonials that could easily meet your needs.