If you run a business, especially one that operates online, you may be missing out on one of the best marketing tools available to you. This is customer testimonials. Customer testimonials, either on your own website or on a third-party’s, are a great tool for any company looking to bring in more business. Unfortunately, many business owners do not take advantage of it, or think that they will not provide much of a benefit.
According to AccuPOS, a creator of point-of-sale software, customer testimonials are one of the biggest sources for new business in today’s world.
There are several reasons why you should make full use of customer testimonials. First, having reviews up from real customers will help your brand to build trust. When potential customers see that other customers have gotten great service from you, they are more likely to business with you. In today’s day and age people are a little wary of marketing techniques, and feel that many of them are disingenuous.
But when you get a review from someone who has actually used your business – and not just one review, but many – it shows that you are a reputable company.
The second reason you should start using customer testimonials is that they will help your SEO efforts. By having other websites list reviews of your own, and giving a link back to it, you will increase your visibility in search engines. The higher your website goes in search engines, the more traffic you will see.
Finally, customer testimonials simply improve your business. Not only will you be bringing in more clients, and developing a level of trust with them, but knowing that people are leaving reviews about your company will force you to raise your standards. Having customer testimonials viewable on the web is like having someone constantly watch over you as you work. It will make you run your business as perfectly as you can, which in turn will give you better reviews.
So how do you start getting customer testimonials? It’s pretty simple. One option is to simply ask your customers for them. If you are putting them on your website directly, ask customers who you think you provided excellent service for to write a brief review. Then you can take it and put it on a “Customer Testimonial” section of your website. If you want your customers to leave reviews for your business on a third-party website (such as Google Places or Yelp), then you can direct them to the site with a link. Make sure you have your business registered with these websites so that your customers can easily find them.
Lastly, if you have social media pages, you can ask people to leave you feedback on there, this in turn, helps SEO as well. Many people use sites like Facebook and Twitter to get reviews of companies, so you should have a few on there.
Finally, don’t worry about getting negative feedback. In fact, some negative reviews may even help you. If every one of your reviews is perfect, it may look a little suspicious to potential customers. The best thing you can strive for is to simply have mostly positive reviews, and if anyone does leave negative feedback, note their concerns and try to address them publicly. This will show that you are a company that cares about improving and about your customer’s experience.
Hopefully we were able to convince you that customer testimonials really still do work. They are easy to set up and easy to get, but they can provide a long lasting benefit to any company. Starting setting up customer testimonials for your company today and see how much they can help you.