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The Two-Edged Sword of the Testimonial
Published on June 9, 2009
Holly Buchanan opens a post at the FutureNow blog with a pair of seemingly contradictory ideas: that testimonials work very well and that they don't work at all. Both are true, she argues, because customer praise can be a two-edged sword: If it appears inauthentic or doesn't offer true insight, it can actually have a negative impact.
According to Buchanan, effective testimonials:
- Are specific in their commendation. A generic testimonial like "I enjoyed my time at your hotel" won't grab the attention of a business traveler in the same way as, "I was impressed by the 24-hour concierge service, especially when they found an all-night printer at 3 am."
- Address possible objections. You gain credibility when a happy customer explains how her initial skepticism was unfounded. "[B]y addressing and voicing what many perspective [sic] customers may be feeling," says Buchanan, "these testimonials are powerful persuaders."
- Are shown in a proper context. The testimonials on your website's landing page, for instance, will be different from those on product pages or order forms; each should be appropriate for where a customer might be in the sales process.
The Po!nt: Not all testimonials are created equal. "Testimonials hurt you when people don't think they're real," says Buchanan. "Anything that sounds vague or cliché can smack of insincerity."
Source: FutureNow. Click here for the full post.
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Comments
I completely agree. Testimonials have to be authentic otherwise they turn against you. I switched from putting hollow phrases on my company website to a tool which keeps my testimonials automatically up-to-date and where my clients have the opportunity to change or remove their own testimonial themselves. You can find it on www.our-clients.com. It's not for free but it helped me a lot.