Great testimonials from your customers can really make your business stand out so are you making the most of them?
Telling the world that you offer great customer service is one thing; having your customers say it is something else.
Testimonials and recommendations have always been important to help the marketing of your wet leisure business but never more so than now, in our world of digital and social media.
Of course, there are two important things about testimonials that you should bear in mind right at the beginning of each job; you have to deserve them and, probably, you will have to ask for them.
Assuming your business does a great job and you do provide good customer service, what is the problem about asking a client for a testimonial?
Perhaps some business owners think that it’s a bit ‘cheeky’ to ask, but most satisfied customers would be happy to write a few words in praise of your work and people are probably much more comfortable in doing that these days in the light of so many referral websites on the Internet.
And you don’t have to ask, face to face. You could just send a short email when the job is completed asking for their comments and feedback. The thing is to make it a standard part of closing up a job. Something you do as a matter of course when you send the final invoice.
If the job in question is a pool, spa or sauna installation that you are particularly pleased with, you should ask the client if you can take, and use, photographs as well; maybe even a short video.
And if you are going to video the project, you could ask the client if they would say a few kind words on camera. You really never know what people will happily do unless you ask.
How do you use these testimonials?
Having great testimonials is no use to you unless prospective customers and clients get to see them.
You might have a section on your website where you can post testimonials. Showing them on your home page is probably better value than having a page specifically dedicated to them.
In either event, it’s important to keep the testimonials updated. You want to be showing praise from a few weeks or months ago rather than from years ago.
Most websites have content management these days and so that should be an easy thing for you to do. You just have to remember to do it.
Twitter and Facebook are particularly good platforms for sharing testimonials and they are also places that perspective customers are likely to look these days when they are considering using your business. They will be looking for comments and recommendations and a stream of positive testimonials couldn’t be a better thing for them to find.
Obviously with Twitter, the testimonial is going to be fairly brief, but keeping the quotes short and snappy in any medium is a good rule of thumb. A general sense of a lot of satisfied customers is more important than an in-depth analysis of any particular job.
Testimonials from people who reflect your target market are going to be the most powerful, so if you sell a lot of hot tubs or saunas to older people looking for relief from aches and pains, then testimonials from other people like that will have the most affect.
You could use testimonials in any email marketing that you might be doing or you could even incorporate them in pay-per-click advertising.
Testimonials work brilliantly in sales letters, they look great on brochures and you could even include them in any sales pack that goes along with your quote for a job.
In fact, great testimonials are probably one of the most powerful things that you can include anywhere in your marketing so it really is worth getting over that first hurdle and asking your customers and clients for a few, kind words.
We hope that you found this article useful.
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