MBA1285 Q&A Wednesday: How do I get reviews and testimonials for my product?

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Today's question is from Arjun and Arjun asks. I've been running my online business for about a year now. I'd love to get some testimonials for my homepage. How do I get reviews and testimonials for my product? Thanks. Good question Arjun. I got your back. In today's lesson, I'll answer your question. I'll show you and everybody who is listening how to get great reviews and testimonials not only for your website, but even for review sites or review systems on platforms like Amazon or Airbnb or Yelp. Not only am I going to show you how to get reviews, but I want you to get the right reviews. Reviews that really display the value of your product. Or service. I'm going to show you how you could steer your customer who's writing this review, who's writing this testimonial in the right direction. So they're providing the right information, the information that you want other customers to know about. Because as we know, social proof is so powerful. We want to hear from other people other than the business owner that this product or service is worth buying. Whether you're putting these testimonies on your site or otherwise, if they are provided and worded properly, they can be incredibly effective at closing sales. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So in today's Q and A Wednesday, Arjun asked how he can get reviews and testimonials for his product. So Arjun's been in business for about a year, so this is good news. That means he has customers and he has some people that would be willing, people that have enjoyed his product or service and would be happy to give a testimonial or review. So for today's lesson, we're going to just assume that we're catering this answer to Arjun where he's looking to get testimonials for his website. But this applies if you're looking to get a review on a review site or, or Yelp or Google Reviews or whatever it is. I'll also mention what you could do if you don't have customers yet later in the episode. So, Arjun, you have customers. You've been in business for a year. That means you have happy people. You have people that have enjoyed your product or service. Now, there are two opportunities where you can reach out to these customers and say, hey, thank you so much for being a loyal customer. You've been a customer of ours for a year, or I see you've ordered from our site three times or whatever it is, and we would love a testimonial. So when you're requesting this testimony, you want to go to your power users, people that have really served you and really enjoyed your product or service. These are going to be the most willing to take the time to do this. Now we're going to talk about how to craft this message and how to make sure that we're making it as easy as possible for them as well as making sure that you get a good testimonial, one that serves you. But right now, make sure you focus on your power users so you can just flat out reach out to them and be honest and say, hey, I'm redesigning my homepage and I would love to display some great Testimonials, and I want one of them to be yours. You can even say, hey, I would give you a shout out and maybe even link up to their website or their business or at the very least mention their business as a descriptor, like Henry Jones, marketing specialistarketing.com, whatever it is. So that's one thing. Look at your revenue, see who's buying from you the most. See who's been your customer for the longest, reach out to your power users. The other opportunity is when you are in customer service. Whether you're answering tickets or your customer service agents are taking care of tickets, there are going to be moments every day where they're going to deliver great service and they're going to appreciate and be like, wow, that was great service. Love this. Fantastic. And they're really on a high. They really are appreciative of the service they got. They got the answer they're looking for. That's a beautiful opportunity for you to ask for a testimonial when it's fresh in their head how good that experience was. Now, some software actually do this automatically, like Intercom. When you close a ticket, when you close a customer service conversation, they automatically send a customer feedback email and they can answer that if they had a great, you know, experience. They're going to give you five stars and a great comment. But you don't need to have Intercom to make this work. You can do this manually. Even if you're answering customer emails via Gmail. Just capitalize in the moment. When they get back to you, say, great service. You solved my problem. Thank you so much. At that moment, you capitalize and say, no problem. Happy to help. Would you mind giving us a testimonial? It would make a world of a difference for us. We'd love to include you on our website. Now, I highly encourage that you do this as a regular practice. Why? Because it's good to have a fresh bank of testimonials. Even if you have, you know, 30, 40, 50 testimonials just saved in a Word document, it's great to have because you may want to add it to your website on different pages, on different marketing materials. You want to continue to get testimony because your product or service is going to evolve and people are going to be talking about specific features or products that you have just launched. So make this a habit. Capitalize when you are delivering great service to them anyway and when they're really happy and have a lot of gratitude. So, number one, reach out to your power users. And number two, make it a habit to, to reach out to them immediately after you've given great service as a normal thing, as part of your procedure. Now, what if you don't have customers, you're brand new, or you're maybe a month old, and you still don't have enough, you know, trust or credibility in the market to ask for a testimonial. This is when you can exchange for a testimonial where you can say, hey, you can trial my product and let me know what you think. Or if you have a physical product that requires delivery, you could say, hey, I'll give you free shipping if you take the time to review your experience with us. And you can clearly say, if your review is positive, totally cool, great. If it's negative, no problem. If it's somewhere in between also, okay, we just want to get feedback. You want to make sure this is not a bribe, but it's just an incentive for giving you a testimonial, giving you some sort of feedback. If you're launching a new business, a new product, but you had a previous business or product, or even if you were consulting or provided a different service, you. You can reach out to your old clients and customers so they can give you testimonials just based on your delivery of quality, even if it's not for the same product or service. They can give you a testimonial personally. Hey, Omar knows what he's talking about, even if they're not talking about the product, but they're giving you a testimonial. So, like, Arjun is a professional. He's an expert at what he's talking about. He goes above and beyond. And these are comments or pieces of feedback or testimonials that are universal. Now, I'm a big believer in not all testimonials are created equal. You want to make sure that when people give you a testimonial, they are specific as possible. Specifics really make a powerful testimonial. An actual example really is powerful. So if a customer actually tells a story like, hey, I email customer support because I had an issue with xyz. They walked me through, they helped me out, and at the end I had a successful experience. I can't thank them enough. That's very specific. Or this product is incredibly easy to use. Get specific. I was able to be up and running in less than 10 minutes after I purchased this product. Instead of wasting time on learning how to do something because of poor ui, I was already getting a return on investment from the product. Ten minutes in. That's very specific. So what you want to do is when you ask for the testimonial, when you ask for the review is to steer your customer in the right direction. Give them some questions they can answer in a testimonial format. So you can say, hey, I would love a testimonial from you. Here are some helpful hints or some helpful guidelines to help you form a great testimonial. Was there a specific situation or interaction that you were impressed by when you interacted with my company, with our business? Tell us about it. Walk me through the experience of you using our product for the first time or how has my product given you a return on investment? These are specific questions where it forces somebody to think about the answers and deliver to Simonial. That's specific. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a'@usaa.com bundle restrictions apply at Capella University.

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And A Wednesday's question from Arjun how to get reviews and testimonials for my product. Number one, ask your power users, the people that are your best customers. Number two, make it a part of your system to ask for a testimonial or review and after you've given great service. Just in time. Reviews. This is perfect timing when they are happy. Number three, when you're asking for reviews, ask specific questions for them to answer in a testimonial format. Get as specific as possible. Examples are the best. What you're trying to do here is give a mini case study in testimonial format. It's hard to deny that this is a good product. When somebody says, hey, I tried it. This is what I did. This is the result. That's social proof at its best. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show Arjun. Thank you so much for asking this question on Q and A Wednesday. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at omar100.mba.net. i'll answer right here on the show. Don't forget to hit subscribe right now so you have access to all our archive episodes to get access to over 1200 episodes of the 100 RMBA Show. 1200 Lessons. Just hit subscribe on whatever you use to listen to podcasts. That's how you'll get access to our feed and access to our back catalog of episodes. It's also the best way to make sure you never miss a beat and that the next episode is ready for you on your device when you're ready to listen. We're on pretty much every platform out there. Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Apple Podcasts, Himalaya, Tunein, Overcast, you name it, we're there. Hit subscribe right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. When your testimonial is live on your website, follow up and email the customer and tell them, hey, you're featured. You're on my site. I give a shout out to your business. Why? Because they're going to share with other people. Hey, I'm on this website. I'm mentioned here. Check me out. And they're going to help you spread the word about your business. Thank you so much for listening to the 100 MBA show. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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