Why testimonials are important in your wellness business & how to get them
In your wellness business, you help clients achieve powerful transformations…but how do you share these positive stories that can help new potential clients take action to work with you?
Testimonials can be the biggest game changer in your business.
People love social proof and like working with those they know, like and trust. Testimonials are the trust factor.
Quick question: When booking a vacation to a resort, are you gonna book the resort with no reviews or the resort with lots of 5 star reviews?
Think of it like this: A potential client knows who you are and has found your website. They think you might be a good fit for solving their biggest pain points but they might need some reassurance that you’re the best person to help them get results. The next step for them is to see what results other clients have achieved with you...a.k.a testimonials. When they see others’ success stories they can see these as their own transformations and see themselves as your next success story.
This is the power of testimonials and there’s a better way to get them then awkwardly emailing past clients “asking for a testimonial”. It’s more in depth and you can streamline the entire process (air high-five to saving time and keeping things organized in your biz!)
Let’s make sure we’re asking for testimonials the correct way, at the correct time and with the correct questions.
Let’s start with why testimonials are a game changer in your business:
1. Establish trust and build authority.
We live in a world where we trust others to be honest in their review of a product or service. With impactful testimonials, you set yourself apart from the rest as a leader in your field that can be trusted to get clients to their desired results.
People don’t buy a workout plan/ nutrition plan/ coaching etc. They buy RESULTS. With strong testimonials, you demonstrate that you’ve helped people achieve amazing results and justify why you’re worth the investment.
2. Clients hype you up!
With impactful testimonials, you don’t need to brag about yourself – past clients do this for you! If you’re like me, you don’t like bragging about yourself and let’s be honest, no one really likes people that go on and on about how great they are either.
Help your clients help you!
It’s very possible that this is your clients first time ever writing a testimonial or has ever worked with someone in this way. You’ve guided them to their amazing results...why leave them hanging now?!
Here’s the easy breakdown for getting stellar testimonials:
Make it easy with a ready-to-go form to fill out.
You’re busy, your clients are busy...so why not make it as easy as possible? If you have a client management system use it! Send out a form before finishing your services with them or send it after X amount of days after working together. A client management system (CMS) makes streamlining processes like these easy for you and your clients.
With a good system in place you can have your ready to go template, email message with clear directions and everything can be done in one place. If you don’t have a CMS, create a form in another software platform, like Typeform, and save it as a template for future use. Another option is to create a testimonial form on a hidden web page on your site. Then when you are sending an email testimonial request you can link to this page.
Whether you choose to use a CMS or simply create one elsewhere, it’s best to make a template and email message ahead of time that you can have ready to go!
Ask many open-ended questions.
By asking specific, open-ended questions you’re giving yourself more information to pull from to use throughout your website.
It’s also great to ask clients to write in full complete sentences and talk about it as if they were talking to a good friend.
Here are some great questions to ask:
What fears or hesitations did you have before working with (your name or business name).
What gave you the final push to take action?
Did we successfully accomplish your goals? What was your favourite part about working together?
How has your views on _________(nutrition, exercise) changed since working together?
Ask them to copy and paste their general testimonial on Google/ Facebook business page etc.
After asking for a general review about your positive experience together, ask them to copy and paste it on a relevant website. This could be your Facebook business page or Google. Take this a step further by providing the exact link they need right in the form...so easy right?
Ask for private constructive criticism for things you could improve on.
This is a great opportunity to learn and grow in your business. Give past clients the opportunity to give honest, constructive feedback on their experience working with you. Let them know it will not be public and is only used to help you get better moving forward.
This can be something like, “Do you have any suggestions for how I can improve for the future? Any feedback is extremely helpful and I am very grateful for anything you’re willing to share. (Please know this answer is for my eyes only and will not be shared publicly.)”
Ask for permission before using testimonial and to make small changes.
This is an important step, especially if you’re planning on using photos or a person's full name. It may seem a tad overboard, but when dealing with private information it’s always better to ask.
This can be something simple like, “Am I able to use your full name and a photo to accompany your testimonial on my website?”
Or you could set up a multiple answer question like, “Which of the following options do I have your permission to use alongside your testimonial? Please choose one.” Then have answers (full name/ full name and photo/ first name, last initial/ first name and photo/ only first name) with a selection box so the client can choose their preference.
It’s also a great idea to ask permission to make minor changes to the testimonial. These may include minor spelling or grammar errors, removing sentences to make a testimonial shorter or changing “she” to your name.
And that is that!
Set yourself up to get the BEST testimonials for your business and you will see the difference it makes in your business!
Dont’ forget to grab the free list of all the questions you should be asking to get impactful testimonials for your business!
Please excuse any typos or grammar errors in this post. I’m excited to share my knowledge with you and am trying to live by the ‘done is better than perfect’ motto :)
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