15 Important Questions to Ask For a Testimonial

15 Important Questions to Ask For a Testimonial

Customer testimonials are essential for your business. They’re a great marketing resource that will hardly disappoint you.

A survey by BrightLocal found that 88% of consumers trust online testimonials and consider them as equally impactful as personal recommendations that they trust.

A great customer review can bring in hundreds of new customers. The difference between a testimonial and review is simple:

Testimonials are a statement of endorsement of recommendation, while a review is a critique or account of a person’s experience.

In order to get compelling testimonials from your clients, you should know what testimonial questions to ask for and how to craft a persuasive yet natural testimonial to drive sales.

Asking right and appropriate testimonial questions will help you design customer testimonials that are really effective.

The customer feedback questions you ask shape the review and that’s what matters the most when it comes to driving conversions via customer testimonials.

Our professionals have a lot of experience in asking questions for testimonials.

Also, it is good to remember that questions that should be asked for employee testimonials or patient testimonials differ greatly.

Similarly, employee satisfaction questions differ from customer satisfaction questions.

But to the point, here are some questions you can ask when doing a testimonial, or use as ideas for creating the right testimonial questions for you. Keep in mind that text testimonials and video testimonials are not the same things but they achieve the same goal of creating social proof for your business and establish better feedback from clients. They achieve the same thing but require you to create different spaces on your website and tell your story very differently.

Tip: Before asking for a testimonial, ask for feedback and see what your customers think in the first place!

Two Ways to Get Great Testimonials

Now that we’ve about to go over what to ask to get the perfect testimonials, it’s also good to bear in mind that testimonial forms should only include a few questions and a (video) testimonial interview should go a little deeper.

The core similarity between collecting testimonials effectively online and using more traditional methods is to make the process as effortless as possible for the participant.

After all, they’re your customers and you want to keep them happy instead of burdening them.

General Guidelines for Testimonial Forms

1. Set a clear goal
2. Create a stellar survey subject line for your email request
3. Only ask a maximum of handful of questions
4. Avoid question bias
5. Offer a scale question, multiple choice, open feedback and video and photo option
6. Don’t make unnecessary fields mandatory
7. Ask if they’d like to be contacted for a further interview
8. Thank for their time

Best Practices for Face to Face Interviews

1. Don’t rush!
2. Create a relaxed atmosphere
3. Find a calm and quiet space
4. Let the interviewee speak freely
5. Create interview questions beforehand
6. Move logically from one topic to another
7. Ask for ideas for improvement
8. Thank the interviewee for their time
9. Show them the materials and ask for marketing permission before publishing!

15 Crucial Testimonial Questions to Ask

Here is a list of 15 questions that you can ask when you’re aiming to get a testimonial or a review. in order to increase conversions.

These questions work both as a part of a testimonial form as well as while doing an interview. One crucial thing to keep in mind is that testimonial forms are designed to be light and not to burden the customer.

Only ask a maximum of handful of questions to keep the process light and to increase the chances of getting testimonials in the first place. Here’s an example or how effectively you could collect testimonials by using a testimonial tool:

Let’s jump into the questions.

The first question has two variations, depending on whether you’re doing a face to face interview or sending an online testimonial form.

1.1 Face to face: What’s your name, title and where do you work?

First of all, in case you’re conducting an interview, you need to start out by warming the person up. They’re probably nervous, so it’s important to get them to relax. The easiest way to get them to relax is to ask them questions they can with 100% certainty answer without having to think “Am I wording this correctly”.

Furthermore, this is crucial in creating relatability to whomever will be seeing the testimonial! If you’re sending an online testimonial request, only ask the demographic information at the end. This will help reduce survey bias.

1.2 Testimonial form: How did you find our product?

By sharing how a customer finds your product and how they ended up purchasing it will guide prospective customers. Furthermore, it’ll help your marketing team in identifying the conversion channel.

This questions also helps set the tone for answering further questions, as this was chronologically the first step they took in becoming your customers.

2. Why did you choose our product specifically amongst others?

It will make your product stand out from the crowd and help your target audience learn what to expect from their first customer experience.

The customer will compare your product with its competitors and will specify one or more features that were more impressive than other similar products.

The client usually knows why your service beats the service of other companies. In fact, they know it better than you do, as you can only guess. Seeing what you got over your competitors is always a way to create better service and move your business forward.

Not only will you be able to create a testimonial that praises your business, but asking this questions will also mean you find ways to improve your services as a whole.

3. Did you have any hesitations about buying our product or service?

This question will solve two issues for your business.

1. Identify pain points in awareness and consideration stage
2. Identify issues that restrict potential customers from buying from your business

As business owners, we can sometimes focus too much on the wrong things and miss the obvious flaws in our business service. The answer to this question will help your business find the problematic points on your website or processes in general and find a solution for them.

If someone tells you they chose you over others, because you had social proof on your website and your competitors didn’t, you’ll probably keep further improving that area.

4. What is the best thing about our product that you love the most?

When an existing customer shares the best thing about your product, listen carefully. The best thing can even come as a surprise to you.

These are some of the most common aspects most people name as their “favorite feature” or “best thing”:

• Packaging
• Customer support
• Ease of use
• Being valued as as customer
• Great quality
• Environmentally friendly
• Uniqueness

When real people tell why they love a product, it’ll persuade other prospective customers. This helps you highlight one big feature that your product is best at.

Remember to include these reviews near the product itself on your website! You can use testimonial and review widgets to do this.

5. What is the single feature that exceeded your expectations?

This question is an extension of the previous question where you specifically talk about a feature that the target audience loved the most.

In the previous question, the best thing isn’t necessarily a feature of your product so you have to ask this question to highlight your product’s best feature. This is also a great question to include in a video testimonial for your business.

6. Explain the benefits that you get from using our product?

This question will cover the benefits that customers derive from your product, it’s not just about features. It’s essential that customers share the benefits that they received after using your product.

If possible, direct your customer to tell the gained benefit in numbers. That’s because that’s a concrete factor viewers understand and you can highlight this in the title of the video.

For example:

• “We save 5 hours on a weekly basis” or
• “Thanks to this solution, we’re seeing a significant increase in our sales. Since implementing it, we’ve closed up to 60% more deals each month.”

7. What was your biggest problem that our product solved?

This is one of the most important questions that you should always ask.

People use your products to solve a problem they’re facing. This is also one of the best video testimonial questions as it can help stress the advantages of using your product or service. Powerful testimonials are created from unique feedback that can help build your company name and impact buying decisions of potential new customers.

In response to this question, customers will share the biggest problem that your product has the potential to solve.

This will encourage other customers who are facing a similar problem to opt for your product or service. In other words, it creates more relatability between the potential and the existing customer.

8. What was it like before you purchased/used our product?

This question is related to the previous question and is focused on the customer’s life prior to using your product.

When a customer will share their life experience that they used to have, a lot of potential customers will be able to relate to it.

This question is extremely useful in terms of establishing an emotional connection with the viewers of the video, reviews, or business testimonials.

9. What results did you expect to get with our product or service?

This is an extension of the previous question where the customer will specifically talk about how they expected your product or service to perform.

You need to ensure that the customers share their before and after experiences here. The problems faces prior to using your product and how the results have changed their day to day life is exactly what we’re looking for here.

10. Were your expectations met? Why/why not? How?

Again, this is in continuation of the previous question where the customer needs to share their views on the results received after using your product or service.

If you were able to exceed their expectations, it’ll be a great selling point to any potential customers!

The idea is to make potential customers realize that your product delivers long-term results. Another great question for video reviews of your business.

11. How did our product change your life?

This question is related to the general testimonial interview questions regarding changes in the customer’s life that he experienced after using your product. When you face a problem, it disturbs your life in several ways.

When existing customers will explain how your product indirectly improved life, it will help new customers in making a decision when browsing your product or service.

12. How smooth was the implementation stage/Did the delivery meet your expectations?

In response to this question, the customer will share whether there were any unexpected curveballs and if you were able to solve them. It provides insights into the actual procedure they had when your solution was implemented or when it was delivered.

It will be used by others as a guideline. It will also help you find and fix issues in the after sales process.

13. How was your overall experience with our brand?

This question is focused on the user experience that your brand offers.

When a respondent shares their good experience with your brand, it won’t just highlight your product or service but will improve your brand image as a whole and attract potential customers.

This also gives them an opportunity to describe other benefits they had from using your service and maybe go beyond the basic testimonial form that most conversations boil down to save time.

Your customers might give you one-word answers which are not good for your search as you want to identify more crucial information from the conversation.

One-word answers are not what you want to hear as they don’t tell a story and your challenge is to draw out a story for your business.

14. How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend, relative, or a colleague on a scale of 1-10?

By using the Net Promoter Score question, you can gauge how loyal your customers are. Furthermore, you can get great quotes, such as:

“On a scale of 1-10? To me, they are a 12!”

or

“This truly is a 10/10 product. I wouldn’t consider changing it to anything else”

This is one of the testimonial questions directed towards the people who are watching or reading the testimonial.

If the customers are willing to recommend your product or service to their social circle, it definitely means it is worth trying. Potential customers will know to appreciate that those old customers are willing to share their experience with your company with their family—it is the only story they need to hear about your business.

15. How would you recommend our product to others in a similar situation?

This final question emphasizes the main reason that makes your product stand out from the crowd. It provides viewers with a final opportunity to proceed with the purchase. The answer to this question acts as a powerful CTA attracting the best customers.

Additional Questions Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic:

As most businesses were hit in some way due to the covid-19 situation, many are hesitant to invest money in new solutions or products. That being said, it might be that your solution would bring customers what they need. Convince potential customers to invest in you by asking current customers how you’ve improved an area in their life during covid.

Here are four questions you can ask regarding how you’re business has helped your customer in overcoming the hurdles caused by the pandemic.

1. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business?
2. Do you think our solution has helped you in overcoming the hurdles caused by the pandemic?
3. If so, how?
4. How do you think you would have managed through these tough times without our solution?

Testimonial Collection as a Process (3 steps!)

By using a testimonial tool, you can automate the process of collecting testimonials and testimonial videos.

Here’s what you need to do after signing up to Trustmary:

1. Create a survey from ready-made templates
2. Add customer emails (or connect with your CRM)
3. Send with a click of a button to all customers

Here’s how it looks like to the receiver.

• They answer how likely they are to recommend you
• What is the reason for the score they gave.
• Then they can decide, if they want to give the feedback with their own name
• and whether you can publish their online review

Voilá!

More importantly, you can embed testimonials directly to your website with a few clicks by adding a line of code. After that, you can publish testimonials directly to your website with a click of a button. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes.

Conclusion: Customer Testimonials Help the Sales and Marketing Teams

There is a lot of different questions you can ask, to be completely honest. The questions themselves are not the most important thing.

The way the questions are being asked and who is the person asking the questions can be even more important.

One thing we noticed while producing video testimonials for over 1500 different companies worldwide, is that there is a huge difference if someone completely outside the company asks about a customer’s experience with the brand’s product or service, in comparison to someone from the company asking them.

If someone from the company in question is asking the questions, a lot of the times, it already creates some subconscious limitations and the best answers don’t even necessarily come out.

So, on top of the questions, remember to focus on creating the right environment. Great testimonials are created through great interviews or through great testimonial forms.

Further Reading

Here are some other free resources to dive deeper into this topic

• How to Get Testimonials From Customers (With 7 Examples)
• Video Testimonial Tips on Getting Them from B2B Customers
• How to Add Testimonials to Squarespace? – 5 Step Guide
• How To Use Testimonials in Marketing
• How to Make a Testimonial Video? Top 5 Things to Consider
• 3 Best Examples of Testimonial Request Letters That You Can Copy
• Creating a Good Customer Feedback Form: 5 Useful Samples
• How to Create Effective Survey Questions