Testimonial questions to ask your customers

The question decides the answer. "Would you write us a testimonial?" gets "Great service, would recommend." A question about one moment of the customer's experience gets a sentence you can use.

Here are fifteen questions, sorted by the kind of answer each brings.

Ask three or four, not fifteen

Each extra question lowers the number of customers who finish. Pick one question from each of the first three groups below, add the permission question, and stop.

Questions about before they bought

These bring the doubt that your next visitor also has.

1. What was going on that made you look for something like this?
2. What nearly stopped you from buying?
3. What had you tried before, and what was wrong with it?
4. Why did you choose us over the alternatives?

Questions about the experience

These bring detail that only a real customer would know.

5. What was the first thing you noticed after you started?
6. Was there a moment that stood out?
7. What surprised you?
8. How was it when something went wrong, or when you needed help?

Questions about the result

These bring a number or a change the visitor can picture.

9. What is different now compared with before?
10. Can you put a number on it: time saved, money saved, or more sales?
11. What can you do now that you could not do before?
12. What would you miss most if you had to go without it?

Questions that bring a recommendation

13. What would you tell a friend who was considering us?
14. Who do you think this is a good fit for?

The permission question

15. May we show your answers on our website, with your name?

Ask it every time, and keep the answer.

Questions to avoid

• Questions with yes or no for an answer. "Were you happy with our service?" gets "Yes."
• Questions that put words in the customer's mouth. "How much did you love our fast delivery?" tells them what to say. The answer is yours, not theirs.
• Questions for a score. "How would you rate us out of ten?" gives a number, not a sentence. Ask it if you want to, then ask why they chose that number.

Questions for a video testimonial

On camera, people give shorter answers and need a way in. Ask in the order the story happened:

1. Who are you, and what do you do?
2. What was the problem you needed to solve?
3. What made you choose us?
4. What has changed since?
5. What would you say to someone who is still deciding?

Ask the customer to repeat the question in their answer ("The problem we had was ..."), so each answer makes sense with your question cut out.

Put the questions in a form

Three questions, the permission question and a name make a form that takes a customer about three minutes. A testimonial form you can copy has those fields ready to paste into an email or a form tool, and as HTML for a page of your own.

After the answers come in

Pick the sentence or two that answer a visitor's doubt, and leave the words as the customer wrote them. The testimonial examples show what to look for. If a customer would find a fill-in format easier than questions, send a testimonial template. How to ask a customer for a testimonial covers when to ask.

When you have a few, build a widget to show them on your site.