Credible customer testimonials can be an effective part of your print shop promotion efforts. When your customers provide oral or written statements about their experiences with your company, their words help alleviate any doubts prospective clients might have about hiring your print shop for the first time. Word-of-mouth marketing studies show that people tend to believe recommendations from peers and colleagues more than they believe paid advertising.
Favorable comments help counteract negative reviews elsewhere on the Internet. You can’t control what is said about your print shop on social media or online review sites. And people tend to be quicker to post complaints about a bad experience than compliments about good service. Including testimonials throughout your website, on your blog, and in social media channels creates the impression your shop has a community of loyal supporters.
Customers can help you identify new selling points for marketing copy or sales presentations. The best customer testimonials are very specific about what impressed them the most about doing business with you. Some of their comments may surprise (and delight!) you and your staff.
They can substantiate your claims that your shop serves clients in a variety of fields. For example, Ordant’s testimonial page lets you see that print shop owners are successfully using our print shop estimating and order management software for applications as diverse as dye-sublimation fabric printing and vehicle wraps.
Testimonials help you develop a rapport with your client. When you ask clients for permission to publish a testimonial, you are asking them to put their own reputation and credibility on the line. So when they agree to provide a testimonial, it means they trust you to continue to deliver great service.
Deliver superior value, products, and services. The best word-of-mouth marketing originates with your customers. When you routinely help companies solve specific challenges related to costs, color, or delivery, you won’t have to ask them for a testimonial. They will recommend your shop to their colleagues on their own.
Send an email to each customer shortly after a print job was delivered. First, ask a few simple questions about their overall satisfaction with service and quality. Follow up with two open-ended questions: What could we have done better? Name one or two things you liked best about the services we provided? When customers write specific, favorable comments, request permission to publish that comment as a testimonial.
Ask new customers how they heard about your company. If they were referred by an existing customer, thank that customer for the referral and ask them to provide a testimonial.
Scan social media and online review sites for positive comments about your company and its products. Reach out and thank customers for posting their comments and ask for permission to publish their kind words as a testimonial.
Develop and post case studies that link to the customers’ website or blog. In the process of interviewing customers for a case study, ask questions that would generate positive comments: “What did you like most about working with our company? Were there any elements of the process that surprised you? How much money did your print solution save you compared to previous jobs?”.
Ask your salespeople and customer service staff to keep notes on customers who made favorable comments about your products or service. If your company receives any emails that thank your shop for service that exceeded their expectations, the flag that customer as a potential source of testimonials. Everyone in your print shop can keep track of positive customer comments in the customer relationship management module of Ordant’s print-shop management software.
Never post phony testimonials from friends, family members, or fictitious customers. Even if your customers prefer not to use their full names and company affiliations in the testimonials, don’t be tempted to add a few fake testimonials from anonymous sources. Your credibility matters.
Maintain the voice of the customer. It’s fine to edit a customer’s testimonial for clarity of grammar, as long as you allow them to approve your changes before you publish it. But don’t change the customer’s overall tone and vocabulary. A collection of testimonials is more powerful when they clearly come from a variety of real people instead of the primary writer on your PR team.
Add new testimonials every year. If web visitors see the same testimonials year after year, they may question whether your company still provides great service.
Share the praise with your employees. Your employees will feel just as good as you do when you read positive comments from customers. At Ordant, our team works hard to provide excellent service and technical support. So we are grateful to all customers who share their comments online and grant us permission to publish them.
Visit www.ordant.com to schedule a demonstration of Ordant’s easy-to-use print-shop estimating, order-management, and web-to-print system. We would happy to tell you more about what we have learned in our efforts to gather the testimonials on our website.