How to ask a client for a testimonial without feeling weird about it

Most small businesses have no testimonials for the dullest possible reason: nobody asked.

Asking feels weird. Feels like fishing for compliments, or like admitting business is slow. So you don't bring it up, the job wraps, and three weeks later there's no way to raise it without it being strange. I've done this myself more times than I want to count.

The fix is mostly timing and wording.

Ask while the work is still visible

The biggest thing that decides whether somebody writes you a testimonial is how recently you finished. Nothing else is close.

The day you wrap up, your client is standing in the result. The relief is fresh. For about a day, they think you're the greatest thing going.

Two weeks later? The new bathroom is just their bathroom. They still like it. But writing three sentences about it now sits somewhere below renewing the car insurance, and it is never climbing back up that list.

So ask on the day. Before the truck leaves the alley.

Ask for something specific

The request almost everybody sends looks like this:

Thanks again! If you have a moment, we'd really appreciate a review.

And what it gets back:

Great service, very professional. Would recommend.

That sentence is worth nothing, and it's not the client's fault. A question with no shape to it gets an answer with no shape to it. Every business from here to Rockford has fifty of them. A stranger reads it and learns zip.

Now try this instead:

Thanks again. Would you mind answering one question for the website: what was going wrong when you first called us?

That gets you this:

Our water heater went at 6am in January and he was here before nine. Explained what had corroded, showed me the old part, and charged exactly what he quoted on the phone.

Same client. Same goodwill. Thirty seconds of their time either way. The whole difference is in the question.

Three questions that work

Pick one question, not three. A form with three boxes gets abandoned. One question gets answered.

1. What was going wrong when you called? Gets you the problem, in the exact words your future customers are typing into Google.
2. What were you worried about before we started? Gets you the objection, answered by somebody who isn't you.
3. What would you tell someone who was on the fence? Gets you the close.

The second one is the sleeper. Every prospective customer has a fear: that you won't show up, that the price will double, that their front room will look like a demo site for a month. When a previous client names that fear out loud and then says it never happened, you've handled the objection without saying a word in your own defense. Works for plumbers, works for painters, works for anybody who sets foot in somebody's house for a living.

Make it one tap

Every extra step loses people. Making them create an account loses about half. Making them download an app loses darn near all of them.

The request should be a link. They tap it, they type, they're done. If your client has to remember a password to say something nice about you, forget it. (This is why I built Exalted around a link with no account behind it. I got tired of watching the good ones get away.)

What to send

Keep it short. A long request reads like pressure.

Hi Dana, glad that's all squared away. One quick favor: could you answer one question for our website? Takes about a minute, no sign-up needed.

[link]

Thanks either way.

Look at those last three words. "Thanks either way" does more work than anything else in that message. It takes the obligation off the table, which is what makes people comfortable saying yes.

What to do when they say no

Nothing. Say thanks and move on.

A client who doesn't want to write one usually has a reason that's got nothing to do with you. They're private, they're busy, they hate writing. Chasing them turns a warm client into an annoyed one, and whatever testimonial you squeezed out would read like it got squeezed out.

The one that got away

The miss that should bug you: you finish a job, the client says something nice right there on the front steps, and you smile, shake hands, and drive off.

That sentence was the testimonial, said out loud, and it's gone by the time you reach the end of the driveway.

When a client says something nice to your face, that's your cue. "That's kind of you. Mind if I put that on the website? I'll send you a link." Nobody's ever said no to that, because they already said the thing. All you're asking is that they say it twice.