How do you work with testimonials?

[CS-Cart]

Hello,

You all may probably be interested in reading one of the latest Nielsen reports where real-world friends and online testimonials are described as the most trusted sources of opinion for online customers.

Would anyone be willing to share any insight: how do you treat your customers' feedback and do you use it somehow for your online publicity?

 

[cjd]

We publish people emails and comments on a testimonial page here:

http://www.voipfone.co.uk/Testimonials.php

We ask for permission from emails etc but if someone has posted on a forum we generally regard that as public info

I have no idea how valuable it is but it feels the correct thing to do. I'm dubious of sites that push testimonials in your face though.

 

[cycloneuk]

I don't trust these testimonial pages on websites, too easy to make up and a lot of them are.

 

[cjd]

I don't trust these testimonial pages on websites, too easy to make up and a lot of them are.

That's why we print name, address and website details if the customer will allow it - most do.

 

[shopintegrator]

That's why we print name, address and website details if the customer will allow it - most do.

We are looking to put up a customer testimonials page on our site with this sort of customer information to back up the testimonial.

I'll be really interested to hear if people feel that having the ability to go to the sites of the people whose testimonial it is, and therefore follow up with them directly if you wanted to, gives the testimonial credibility? Or do people still think “they are made up, they know I won’t contact them”?

 

[CS-Cart]

Thank you for an interesting discussion! And how about some external sites, not only your own?

 

[MH-Nick]

In web hosting, I don't take testimonials seriously as I've seen far too many that are obviously fake, and it seems people just write them to fill up their website space. On other sites (non web hosting) I'm less suspicious about them but its not something that makes my mind up about the company/product.

One testimonial/comment system I've seen work well is at ebuyer. As a company like that doesn't need to advertise a few people saying how quickly their product arrived, but instead all products can be rated/commented which I feel works much better. I also think customers are more likely to leave feedback like this.

 

[Peter Bowen]

Our site displays 3 random testimonials in the sidebar. If the customer has a website we also display a link to it. I don't think that you can do more to allay suspicions than that.

 

[Soul_Survivor]

At the moment I work for a company selling slimming pills and customer testamonials are key to getting good conversion rates. Most of our landing pages are built with the main focus on testamonials.

True they can be seen as fake but we always use a before and after picture, their name and location.

 

[MH-Nick]

At the moment I work for a company selling slimming pills and customer testamonials are key to getting good conversion rates. Most of our landing pages are built with the main focus on testamonials.

True they can be seen as fake but we always use a before and after picture, their name and location.

Sorry to be negative again, but this is a good example of a testimonial I don't trust. I obviously can't speak for your site so please don't take offence, but on how many dieting adverts have you seen that you either a) don't see the persons head in either photos or b) notice they've had a very expensive makeover and now look like super-models.

The only way I could believe a dieting advert is if they ran a journal with it, photographing that person every so often (with the correct pill in hand). But that can still be mocked up.

- I'm also the sort of person that believes if you want to get fit, do it the hard way - so I don't think I'll every see myself being taking in by pill adverts.

 

[Soul_Survivor]

No offense taken, it's not my company

Check it out though; http://www.purehoodia.co.uk

They are normal people with no "make overs" and the words are all their own. The ASA are very hot on fake testamonials, especially in this area and we are regularly required to prove they are all real. A couple of the people on here have even been featured in woman's mags.

Perhaps the slimming market is a bad example as there's lots of cowboys out there (anyone else getting spammed by Acai Burn emails!!! We sell Acai and it's not a dieting product!).

I would also go as far as saying that most of the people on here aren't the right target auidence, this this sight won't appeal), we're generally the sort of people that get up and do something rather than relying on a pill. But to our target auidence, these testamonials work a treat and our convsersions are well up, which is what it's all about

 

[Display Wizard]

We have a testamonials page on our site and also a rolling advert with testamonials showing.

Have a look: http://www.displaywizard.co.uk/banner_stands.html

A testamonial is shown on the left side of the page above the navigation and changes everytime the page is refreashed or the customer visits a new page.

Helps give your site and company more credibility!

 

[Top Hat]

We ask for feedback in our 'shipped email' and on every product page.

We post them on the page for the item that was purchased and also a full list here
http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/about-you/testimonial.php

I hope they dont look made up

 

[Deleted member 3454]

When I receive great service I tell the supplier and one asked my permission to use my comments on their testimonials page. Some time later one of that supplier's prospective clients rang me to ask for my real life feedback as they were suspicious of the testimonials they had read - the supplier had included a link to my website which provided the necessary contact details. I was pleased to be able to confirm my delight with the supplier's service and hopefully helped the prospective customer make the decision to buy.

 

[webhostuk]

Hello,

We use Ratepoint.com its pretty good ..try it.

 

[Mike Cowell]

It is better to post some case studies rather than just post testimonials. What you think?
Does case studies are good trust signal, or they also fall in fake category???

 

[TechnokratsSujata]

Some online buyers actually do not consider text testimonials. They think those are made up. So if possible gather video testimonial. Video testimonial can be used very effectively on a website.

 

[Ian J]

Some online buyers actually do not consider text testimonials. They think those are made up. So if possible gather video testimonial. Video testimonial can be used very effectively on a website.

And of course no-one can fake a video testimonial

 

[Ian J]

It is better to post some case studies rather than just post testimonials. What you think?
Does case studies are good trust signal, or they also fall in fake category???

I think it depends on your line of business.

In the factoring world many of my competitors have supposed case histories on their website that are completely anonymous and therefore useless for any purpose other than indicating what is possible. Some factoring companies and brokers will include the full name of the company in the case history and have to put up with them being pestered by all of their competitors trying to poach them.

I have four testimonials from factoring companies extolling the virtues of dealing with myself on my website which I hope carry a bit more weight as they are from named senior individuals within the factoring companies that I deal with.

 

[TechnokratsSujata]

And of course no-one can fake a video testimonial

At least it will be a lot hard

 

[mick&sarah]

A couple of times I was asked contacts/references of my customers despite having testimonials on the webpage, which I thought weird, still that shows testimonials on a webpage are not always trusted.

 

[antropy]

We always point customers to our Google Business page where they can write a review and the 5 stars then get shown in search results. It may also boost your ranking.