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

Most small businesses have no testimonials because nobody asked. The wording below works by text, email or in person, and when you send it matters as much as what it says.

What to send

Keep it short. A long request reads like pressure. Copy these, change the names, and put your own link where it says [link].

By text

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.

A testimonial request email template

For clients who deal with you by email anyway: an accountant's clients, a landlord, anybody who booked through a form. Keep the subject line dull. A clever one reads like marketing and gets skipped.

Subject: One question about the kitchen

Hi Priya,

Thanks again for having us in last week. I hope the new counters are standing up to real life.

I'm putting a few words from clients on our website and I'd love one from you. It's a single question: what were you worried about before we started? A sentence or two is plenty, and there's nothing to sign up for.

[link]

Thanks either way, Mike

When it's been a while

The ask on the day is the one that works, but a late ask still beats none. Admit it's late, and send it once.

Hi Jordan, it's been a few months since we finished the addition and I hope it's earning its keep. I'm late asking, I know. If you'd write a sentence or two about how it went for our website, here's the link. It takes a minute and there's no account.

[link]

And if now's not a good time, no worries at all.

In person

Plenty of the best testimonials start out loud. At the end of the job, while they're still looking at the work:

"Before I head out, would you mind if I texted you a link tonight? It's one question about how this went, for our website. Takes a minute."

Then send it that evening, while "you saved us" is still how they feel. If they've already said something nice to your face, there's a better line for that at the bottom of this post.

Why asking feels weird

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.

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.

Pick one question

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, or that the price will double. 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 and painters, and anyone else who walks into a stranger's house.

Make it one tap

Every extra step loses people. Every account or app download costs you some 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.)

Testimonials, not Google reviews

Everything here is for testimonials on your own website. Asking for a Google review is a close cousin with different wording, since you're sending people to Google instead of to you, and I keep nine of those in the review request templates.

If you want to see what a good answer looks like in your line of work, there are over a hundred in the testimonial examples, sorted by kind of business.

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.