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Nitin P

How can businesses, especially consumer businesses get more testimonials?

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Customers are convinced by strong testimonials that your business is reliable and successful. In fact, more than 90% of purchasers claim to study online reviews before making a purchase decision. Testimonials boost conversion rates and build client trust in your business. But like me do you also feel it is hard to get customers to leave reviews and testimonials? Some point to a study by Jakob Nielsen about online user behavior, who named this phenomenon “the 90-9-1 rule.” What it states is that: - 90% of online users are lurkers (they read or observe, but don’t contribute) - 9% of users contribute intermittently - 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions So do only 1% - 9% of customers actually leave a testimonial? The need to register for an account, concerns about privacy, and a reluctance to link reviews to a personal profile, too could be the impediments to leaving a positive review How can businesses, especially consumer businesses get more testimonials? pssst..I am building tinysitetools.com

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Philip Dam
That's a great stat and I find that the reason you have 90% lurkers is because our community platforms aren't geared to incentivize interactions. To get testimonials, one easy way is to reward users for take that extra step. Building arcanist.xyz to enable just that. Participate to earn.
Nitin P
@phdam3 Sure. It is indeed a problem to solve. How do you reward customers in a way so they do not get an impression they are being bribed for reviews?
Software Guy (Aarvy)
@phdam3 yes, rewarding users for the extra step can really help, you gave me the idea to increase my testimonial rate, thank you .👍
Philip Dam
@nitin_p Yeah that's a a great question! It's interesting because this is similar to submitting yelp reviews for a free item. I guess you just have to offer incentives regardless of whether you receive a 1 star or 5 star review!
Michael Flux
"So do only 1% - 9% of customers actually leave a testimonial?" It's probably even less than that. Short of paying people to leave reviews, most people can't be bothered. Even if you pay people you'll find that most people don't care to waste their time. But your best bet, is just reaching out to customers directly, talking to them, asking about their experiences, genuinely being interested. Addressing any complaints - then nicely asking for a review.
Nitin P
@michaelflux Great points Michael. I feel that timing matters too. The moment you notice a happy customer or you resolved a problem, ask for a testimonial, the chances of getting a feedback is more. The challenge is that with online touchpoints how do you discover that moment.
Swapnil D Puranik
In my experience, incentive as a motivation has been the most reliable way so far. Having said that, buyers prefer few-steps and no-friction experience while they are leaving a review (because, let's be honest - leaving a positive review doesn't come naturally to most of us!). Few ways you can deliver a delightful and friction-less CX to buyers could be - - A fill-in-the-blank review template - Ability to leave review without them leaving the platform they are on (website, app, etc.) - Instant gratification - Consistent and real-time communication
Adithyan Selvaraj
With this much stat, you can easily understand who's your loyal customer. Target them with a special discount to get the testimonial, that testimonial is more important than the few bucks that you're spending. What we are doing is we offer 15-20% for existing loyal customers to get those testimonials. Eg: If you're running a restaurant, offer them a dessert to get the testimonial.
Nitin P
@adithyan Yes I see that in other comments as well. Have you measured how effective is this? What is the conversion rate with incentive and without incentive?
Adithyan Selvaraj
@nitin_p The conversion rate was actually good when we're doing with incentive. But we haven't test it out like you said.
Software Guy (Aarvy)
It's a useful piece of information, thank you for sharing,.
Cedric
From our experience (ymmv) - If you're looking for testimonials, you absolutely, 100% have to plan some kind of reward for the time. Here's an example from our platform, stashally.com (we help brands and businesses build interactive mobile landing pages with no-code), Without reward - 0.5% conversion rate (sometimes less) With a $5 off your next purchase reward - 3 to 5% conversion rate Its a huge difference. Not to mention the increased sales when they repurchase with the reward or share with their friends. Or the boost in sales when you use the UGC for social proof. If they don't need it cause they just super love your product, that's also great. But most of the time people aren't like that, plus its just good business to give a small thank you when people take their time to support the business.