Making charity donations to gain customer testimonials?

[Andyh987]

Hi

I work with small businesses (mainly B2B companies in IT, accounting, and office services) and they all struggle to gain customer testimonials, mainly because they don't really like to push for them.

I'm therefore considering setting up an online platform for my customers so they can commit to make a charity donation for each testimonial they receive. The end-customer can then specify the receiving charity when they leave their testimonial. Before I go ahead though, I'd be interested to see if you think this might be of interest to other businesses (or is it that the small group of businesses I work with just happen to be not very good at getting testimonials)!

Your thoughts are much appreciated...

Andy

 

[cheaper accountant]

Sounds like a good idea to me ..... although I fall into the category already mentioned!!!!! I'm obviously far too nice

 

[Andyh987]

Thanks for the reply

I'd be interested an any more thoughts from anyone...

 

[sarahjohs]

Hi Andy,

Definitely a smart idea. Most people just politely ask. If the business owner were to ask after you include the charity donation feature, you can expect the amount of testimonials to be more.

 

[Vectis]

I'm not sure how much a testimonial that a business has to 'push' a client to provide is actually worth? I think it sounds a bit desperate if you are offering to pay - even to a charity - just to get someone to say something good about you.

Don't these companies you deal with get any natural feedback from their clients? If there's any sort of relationship between the businesses and their clients I would expect to get some sort of feedback from at least a few of them. If not then I'd say there is probably something amiss with the customer/client relationship.

Perhaps they should be contacting the clients after the work/product has been received to make sure everything went ok and that the customer is happy. This wouldn't be with the sole intention of soliciting testimonials but to find out if there were any problems. It would, or should if the customer is happy, get some positive comments.

 

[Deleted member 138423]

I'm not sure how much a testimonial that a business has to 'push' a client to provide is actually worth? I think it sounds a bit desperate if you are offering to pay - even to a charity - just to get someone to say something good about you.

Don't these companies you deal with get any natural feedback from their clients? If there's any sort of relationship between the businesses and their clients I would expect to get some sort of feedback from at least a few of them. If not then I'd say there is probably something amiss with the customer/client relationship.

Perhaps they should be contacting the clients after the work/product has been received to make sure everything went ok and that the customer is happy. This wouldn't be with the sole intention of soliciting testimonials but to find out if there were any problems. It would, or should if the customer is happy, get some positive comments.

Very good points!

My last business had dozens and dozens of testimonials only because I spoke directly to the client and asked them to give me a testimonial. I mentioned that it was very important for my business and they were happy to do that for me. So I would suggest that your clients review perhaps the way they ask for them as I would consider that they would see a big improvement if they did!

 

[Andyh987]

Great points, thanks, and I'd love to hear more thoughts...

I wonder if it comes down to the nature of the business as well. E.g businesses that work for a client ongoing might not have a logical project end point at which to ask for a testimonial. My thought was also that offering a donation made it easier to ask for those who don't like to 'push' for feedback.

In the case of the businesses I work with, they mainly have employees who own the client relationships and I think the business owners find it hard to encourage their staff to push for testimonials (or at least the staff never seem to get around to it).

 

[Andyh987]

...plus here's another question... What might you be willing to donate for a testimonial??

For my business, I think I'd happily give £50 for a good constructive testimonial (maybe more actually).

 

[Jet Virtual]

hmm like the idea of donating to charity ..but don't like to use it as a 'bribe'

If someone wants to give you a testimonial they should without any other reason other than that they think your product or service is great.

 

[Deleted member 61074]

It wouldnt attract me to leave a testimonial as i would interpret is as a gimmick/bribe.

Maybe consider having a feedback form to send to customers with tick boxes or questions with 1-5 stars as a reply. Personally i will fill in this type of form as it takes little time, I would not fill in something that makes me think ie write sentences!

 

[Greg_Thomson]

Hi Andy

Obviously this will differ business to business but about 18 months ago I decided I wanted testomonials for my website - I run a mortgage brokerage. For my busienss there is a defined end to the transaction (ie when a customer has purchased and moved into the property).

Once they had moved in I sent them a card "congratulations on buying your new home". I also sent a letter confirming my payment was due and telling them that I am looking to put a testomonials page on my website and asked them if they would complete my feedback form. it asked them to rate the service 1-5 on a number of aspects. At the end it then has a box for comments.

I have had a feedback form from every customer I have arranged a mortgage for since bar 3 customers. I think this is partly down to the fact that the form is very simple for them to complete (just circle the number). I also include a pre addressed and pre paid envelope which means it is very easy to return it to me.

I would say 50% come back with just the questions answered. 25% with a short comment (Thanks for all your help or similar). the remaining 25% come back with a nice detailed testomonial which are great.

So my advice would be rather than bribing for a testomonial just ask for one and make it easy for them to give you one.

On a seperate note I run a cleaning business with my partner. We have started getting feedback from customers via surveymonkey and an online survey. Great for ease of use as it takes a customer literally 2 minutes to provide feedback. It all depends on the value of your customers. I dont do a huge amount of mortgages and each customer is worth quite a lot so Im happy to post out. For cleaning the margins are small so we email.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.
Greg

 

[ILilja]

I agree with the comment above. The main incentive for giving a testimonial should be to share a good experience (secondarily to get online publicity, which could very well lead to more traffic) and not to make a donation.

In the ideal world, we would have customers submitting forms or sending emails with their unsolicited recommendations, but in the real world, this is something we have to do a little work for.

Here at E-conomic, we approach this in different ways. Some customers do actually want to share their experiences publicly on their own initiative, whereas others will only participate if we make it really easy for them.

First, we need to identify the candidates that we think could be eligible for this - customers who have specifically shared their opinions on our products or services in a medium (mail, phone, chat, forum, blog comment or similar) - you probably also have some sort of idea on who of your customers would have something interesting to say. We then ask them, if we can use their statements as a testimonial or if they want to participate in a short phone interview (followed by their approval, of course). We find that doing short interviews over the phone can be really easy for the customer - especially for those who are not too keen on writing themselves.

We also make sure to give them a good 'what's in it for me?' incentive - we offer them their own page on our websites (which rank quite high in search engines) and share examples of other customers' testimonials for inspiration - preferably from someone within their own line of business, if available.

Also sometimes, if we answer support calls or chat sessions from customers who express a positive reaction, we ask them on the spot, if we quote them.

I know that this differs a lot between businesses as well as between customer segments - and working in a multi-cultural environment, we also see differences between nationalities in their willingness to get their testimonial out there.

Hope this helps in one way or the other. I agree with the importance of getting good testimonials/case stories for your business.

Good luck!