Capturing the great things that customers say about your service

In my earlier days I worked for some pretty good training consultancies and I learned a lot. I designed and delivered many leadership and team working training programmes. One of the things I made sure of doing on a course was to hang around the coffee machine at break time to hear about what people were saying about the course so far. I obviously noted and acted on any concerns, which were few but I was more interested in what they liked. More often than not those with a positive experience talked enthusiastically about recommending the course to others. I then came upon a few lines from a Nielsen report about referrals which went...The recommendation of someone else remains the most trusted source of information when people decide whether or not to buy a product or service.

That was the spark of change for me. If only I could capture these great things that people say about the service they receive from a business. So I went about setting up a company that does just that and now it is up and running and my team and I are getting our client's customers to give testimonials on video. The client can load them up on to websites or insert in PowerPoint presentations for sales teams.

A few things really struck me as the business has grown. Usually customers relish the idea of a bit of filming and saying good things about the client, it is a bit of fun. The atmosphere is light hearted so that the person giving the testimonial is relaxed. Now the important thing is to get them to talk from the heart. Yes they will talk from the 'head' in terms of the logic of the service and they my use 'hand' to show how the product or service may work but what I always always look for are the words they say from the 'heart'. These are the words that really make a testimonial powerful. The other thing to bear in mind is that it is one thing to film well, it is another to edit well and editing is where the action is. Good editing will make the testimonial engaging and informative.

So if you are about to embark on a video testimonial for your website think about; the video purpose, who it is aimed at, the content, how long it should be, how to get people relaxed enough to do a testimonial, return on investment, measuring success and so on. Lots to consider but the message I am trying to give is to take care over making a customer testimonial plan it and get it right. Testimonials engage new customers and help to resolve resistance to buy.

Link to my website