Introduction

The business climate has become more aggressive over the years, with competitors littering the place, making it harder for existing businesses to expand their customer share and for new businesses to acquire new customers.

In cases like this, trust has always been a deciding factor for customers in choosing one brand over another. Testimonials from customers in such scenarios have always been the deal breaker.

These testimonials can be in any form, from written text to recorded videos. Feedback from a satisfied customer attesting to the quality and effectiveness of a product can drive traffic to your business, whether it be online or offline.

Testimonial questions are used to generate responses attesting to a brand’s credibility. Let’s take a look at testimonial questions, some examples, and ways to ask focused questions that would lead to testimonials.

What are Testimonial Questions

Testimonial questions are targeted questions aimed at gathering responses from consumers of a particular product, brand, or service. Testimonial questions are usually asked in a bid to get feedback on their experiences with a product or simply to rate their interactions with a brand.

Testimonial questions can be crafted and shared via text messaging, emails, QR codes, online videos, or survey questionnaires. The aim of the testimonial questions is mainly to gather positive feedback about a business or product that would be shared publicly to evoke trust and attract new customers.

Testimonial questions are specific and focused and always refer to a product, service, brand, and sometimes individuals. The way the questions are framed can impact the kind of feedback generated.

How to Ask for a Testimonial

It’s a fun fact that the best salespeople of any organization are the buying customers, especially when they share positive feedback that can be published or featured on your platform.

Here are a few ways to ask for a testimonial:

• Use Existing Feedback: 

Utilizing existing feedback is a smart and seamless way to ask for testimonials. Sometimes, customers have expressed their pleasure with your brand via emails, survey feedback, or a simple compliment in-store.

In cases like this, swoop in politely, asking them to share their feedback online while giving them credit for the comment on your website or whatever channel you prefer.

• Target the Perfect Moment: 

At some time or another other, most people have heard the phrase this is not a good time”.In the same vein getting the timing right is vital when asking for a testimonial.

The perfect moment is usually after a client expresses euphoria over a shopping experience or product. In times like this getting a customer testimonial would be easy. For instance, after a client has completed the customer journey circle and offers positive feedback on the experience.

You could just chip in and comments like – We are so glad you enjoyed our service. Please oblige us by leaving a comment/rating on our page.

In scenarios like this, the client doesn’t feel pressured and assumes it is the natural response from their conversation with you.

• Asking Questions That Show You Care:

Asking open-ended questions that seek to know if the customer had a great experience is key. This is so because asking simply because you want to share their feedback can be considered sales-focused and can be a turn-off for a customer even after they are satisfied with their purchase.

So ask questions like:

How would you rate your experience with our brands/products?

Your feedback will be shared with our team to help us give you the best after-sales service and provide you with the best-personalized service in subsequent purchases.

Questions like this depict that the customer experience is the focus, not just some rating to showcase on the website. This would usually evoke genuine feedback; then, you can ask for consent to share the positives. If it is negative, ensure a satisfactory resolution before requesting consent to share feedback.

•  Have a Call to Action for a Testimonials Page on your Sales Channels, online/offline;

A simple banner asking for online or offline feedback is one way to ask for testimonials. The chances that 1 out of 10 customers would leave their feedback is a chance you would not want to overlook.

Types of Testimonial Questions

• Interview Style Testimonial Questions

This refers to testimonial questions crafted like interview questions in a call-and-response format. Including answer options alongside a slot for custom, responses is one of the characteristics of interview testimonial questions.

Interview-style questions are usually best for customers who have expressed a willingness to share a testimonial. Best of all, the responses can be shared over any medium. For example;

• How would you rate our service on a scale of 1-5?
• Describe your experience with our service. Excellent/Poor/Average
• Kindly share reasons for your choice of response in question 2.
• Would you refer people in your network to us?
• Do you have anything further you’d want to share?

• Video Testimonial Questions

The rise of mobile phones has made making videos a popular way of generating and consuming content. Wyzowl’s research depicts that 87% of marketers believe that videos provide the most return on investment. The shareability of videos in the digital space can easily make them go viral.

Moroso, a video testimonial is one of the great ways to improve your brand perception and credibility. Hence the best way to get a video testimonial is to ask for one.

While video testimonial questions can be quite challenging to put together, here are a few questions samples that can help you start making your video testimonial questions.

• Ask Them to Introduce Themselves:

For example, kindly introduce yourself in a few words telling us who you are and what you do. 

This gives context, and having some background information on the customers in a video testimonial enhances credibility and clears any suspicions that they might just be actors.

• How long have you been using our products/services?

In this case, the length of use provides context to new users, who might be wondering how long it would take to get results.

• How did you find our brand or product?

 This will give marketers insight into where to focus their marketing efforts and share this testimonial video to attract more customers.

• What challenges were you looking to resolve that led you to our product?

Answers to questions like these would help other individuals or organizations with the same challenges seek out your product or service.

• Would you recommend our business/product/service to anyone with a similar problem? 

If yes, why? If not, why not? Questions like this would provide raw feedback on your strengths or weakness as a business and help you uncover anything else left out in the previous questions.

• Email Testimonial Questions

Emails are a great way to reach your customers easily. This is ideal if you possess a robust email list of your customers. Before using the email testimonial format, you must have engaged with them constantly via newsletters, updates, discount programs, and the like.

Best of all, with the email testimonial questions, you decide to send a link to your client via this free client form testimonial template from Formplus, an online data collection solution software. With its intuitive form builder feature, the client from testimonial template can be customized to include more questions like these.

• How and when did you first hear about us?
• How would you rate your experience using our product or service?
• What is your favorite thing about the product or service?
• Are you willing to recommend our product or service to someone else?
• Is there anything else you would like to share?

Whatever kind of testimonial question you choose, from interviews style to emails or videos, here are some sample questions that would help:

1. Tell us about any difficulties you faced that made you seek out (product/service).

With this question, your business can be presented as a solution provider.

2. How did this problem or challenge affect your business/lifestyle?

3. How did you first find our (product/service/business)?

This would create a background story on how the customer found your business and give insight into where your customers find you.

4. What features attracted you to our brand?

This would let you know if the customer switched from a different brand to find you out.

5. How long have you used our (product/service/business)?

The longer a customer has been with your brand, the more credible the testimonial becomes.

6. How has your problem or challenge been solved?

When customers share real stories about how your product helped them, it enlightens other prospects on how you can help them.

7. What impact did you see on your business/lifestyle?

This is a perfect question to highlight the benefits and advantages your business provides.

Fast and Easy Testimonial Questions

Fast and easy testimonial questions are Ideal when time is a luxury. For questions like this, chats and conversations with your clients can be easily used to get testimonials. In such an instance, you can use any of the testimonial questions samples below.

•  What does our (product/service/business) do for you?

This is a great way to quickly get a viable testimonial, as it explains why your business is preferred.

• What is the best thing about (product/service/business)?

This testimonial question is ideal for drawing attention to a particular aspect of your business and how this aspect helps provide solutions to your customers.

• How would you describe (product/service/business)?

This question would help the customers quickly summarise their experience with your business.

• Why did you choose our (product/service/business) amongst several competitors?

Any response to this question would specify your competitive edge over your competition.

• How long have you used our (product/service/business), and why do we enjoy your continuous patronage?

Testimonials from loyal customers who have grown with the brand would carry a note of genuineness that would make your brand perceived as credible and build trust in the minds of your prospects.

• What made you want to choose our (product/service/business)?

This single question can illuminate different useful aspects of your business with a few words.

• Can you describe your experience with our business in one word?

This one-word response would give you insight into what your business means to your customers.

• On a scale of one to ten, how likely would you be to recommend (product/service/business) to others?

This question would shed more light on your customer experience journey and can help get feedback from your customers on their truest feelings about your business,

Conclusion 

Customer hesitation when closing a sale can be easily eliminated with testimonial questions. Intending customers need assurance that their purchase decision is valid, and testimonials from real customers who have experienced the product first-hand are always a deal breaker.