Use Your Satisfaction Program to Generate Better Customer Testimonials
The post-truth world we live in has been hard on brands. According to a recent study by Trinity Mirror and Ipsos Connect, almost half of consumers (42%) distrust brands, while 69% distrust advertising.
And, things aren’t getting any better. Distrust of both brands and advertising have fallen by 37% and 43%, respectively.
Brand Trust Improves with Social Proof
In an effort to restore trust in their brands, many companies have sought to connect with consumers on a more genuine, honest level. In my world of video marketing, that usually means two things: live social video, and customer testimonial videos.
Customer testimonials — video or otherwise — are a classic example of social proof. By featuring consumers who have had a good experience with your brand, you create in the minds of other consumers the idea that they will have the same, amazing experience.
On a B2C level, customer testimonials often take the form of self-generated reviews and comments. And, they can be very effective. (I can’t think of the last time I bought something from Amazon where I didn’t first read reviews from other customers. )
In the B2B world, customer testimonials tend to be more involved, and often take the form of mini-case studies.
This was our problem. This is how we solved it. And, this is what we think of the help we received from Company X.
As anyone responsible for recruiting customers for this purpose can tell you, there can be a lot of negotiation required to get customer to play ball. Customers are often either too busy, not as satisfied as you may think, or want some sort of compensation for their troubles.
Even under the most cooperative circumstances, developing a good customer testimonial requires time and attention. Someone must interview the customer, and write the testimonial, or in the case of a testimonial video, shoot and edit the video.
Don’t Treat Testimonials as Bluebird Opportunities
All this augers for a programmatic approach to developing customer testimonials. And, that approach should be grounded in a formal satisfaction or reference program.
Too often, testimonial opportunities spring up out of nowhere, as the result of random conversations with customers. A much better approach is to trigger a call for testimonials every time a customer reaches a certain satisfaction level.
There are a variety of methods for gauging customer satisfaction, both individually and collectively. But, no matter which methodology you choose for this purpose, it should be tied to requests for different social proof activities that reflect each customer’s satisfaction with, and commitment to your brand. The happier they are, the more likely they are to participate in public-facing social proof offerings.
Using a Net Promoter Score (NPS), which ranks customers based on their willingness to promote your company/products to a friend or colleague, a typical program might look something like this:
Additional granularity is afforded by more traditional satisfaction programs, and you may have additional social proof activities that you favor. What’s important is that only customers who reach a certain level of satisfaction are asked to participate in the corresponding activities, and that they are invited to do so, every time.
Testimonials Rank High on the Value Spectrum
When thinking of the many different activities your customers can participate in to help you win and keep customers, testimonials are typically found at the high end of the value scale.
In fact, short of speaking directly with one of your prospects, providing a testimonial — and sitting for a video testimonial, especially — is one the most helpful thing an existing customer can do to support your sales efforts.
That’s because prospective customers appreciate the deeper understanding afforded by a good customer testimonial, and value the endorsement, direct or implied, provided by your existing customers.
Get Serious About Customer Testimonials
Evidence suggests that the trust issue isn’t going away anytime soon. A new Forrester report predicts that 2018 will be a “year of reckoning” for many brands, when it comes to trust.
Social proof is one of the best ways to restore trust to your brand, and there’s no better type of social proof than the customer testimonial.
But, you’re going to need more than one, and you shouldn’t waste your time trying to coax testimonials out of customer who haven’t demonstrated sufficient satisfaction with your brand.
Align your satisfaction program with a series of social proof activities, with testimonials at the top of the list. Execute on each and every opportunity.
In no time, you should be able to assemble an arsenal of customer testimonials that will help protect you against the growing lack of trust we’re likely to see, in this post-truth era.
Paul Gannon is the CEO of Thoughtcast Media, a digital agency that specializes in video marketing, and the allied marketing practices that make video work in the real world.
(Check out our guide to video testimonials, for everything you need to know about using them to support your business.)
