Powerful testimonials give you credibility and sell your services for you!  They boost your credibility so potential clients become eager to work with you.  

But you don’t want to just accumulate a bunch of boring, run-of-the-mill, snooze-inducing testimonials.  You know what I’m talking about:

• “XYZ landscaping services were great”

• “Quality work”

• “Two thumbs up”

*Bor-ing*

These aren’t going to help your services.  And it’s not your customer’s fault, I’m sure no one ever told them how to write a great testimonial. 

 Lucky for you, I’ve got three tips you can use to help guide your customers to give you the best testimonials possible.

Testimonial Tip #1 Create a guide for them to follow 

We want this process to be as simple and quick as possible. 

This can be done in a few different ways. You can either create an email that has a guide that is pre-written then they can modify it to fit their needs.   Make sure you include words that the client has used when speaking to you in the email.  

You can get a form set up on your website that they can easily fill-out a testimonial.  On this page, you can have some past testimonials.

When giving them examples make sure you use the following questions

Question #1: Demonstrate a benefit

How does your service improve your customer’s life?

A testimonial that focuses on how your services benefit the customer shows potential customers why they should care about hiring you too.

Examples:

• “By entrusting XYZ company with all my lawn care needs I’ve freed up two hours a week to do what matters most to me, spending time with my family and friends.”

• “I used to be embarrassed by my backyard, but now thanks to XYZ my patio and outdoor kitchen are the talks of the neighborhood.”

• “Nothing makes me happier than coming home to my coming home from a long day at work and relaxing by my koi pond.  Thanks, XYZ company!”

Question #2: Overcome objections

To get jobs, you need to overcome objections.  There’s always going to something the customer is struggling within their mind that is putting up resistance to hiring you.  

If you have testimonials that specifically address their objections, then it puts the customers at ease and makes the decision to hire you to seem less risky.

“What was your main concern about this project?

Potential customers might think you’re too expensive…

Or they don’t trust you...

Or they think they could just do the work themselves.

If you do any work where you are coming in and mixing the mistakes of a previous contractor, these testimonials are gold! 

Examples:

• “Save your time and money by hiring the right company the first time around!  So thankful that XYZ company was able to fix my pond that wasn’t installed properly by the first landscaper I hired.”

• “There are plenty of landscapers out there that will happily do cheap work for a cheap price.  Scott at XYZ landscaping explained to me everything that goes into a properly installed paver patio and I’m confident that my patio is going to look great for years to come!”

• “I considered installing my own water feature, but after talking to Scott at XYZ company I soon realized that I'd be in way over my head.  They got it installed quicker than I ever could have and it looks fantastic!”

Tip #2 Timing

You need to ask for this testimonial at the appropriate time.  This is usually when the project is completed.  ALL the mulch and rock looks great, the property is clean and perfect.  The customer is now super excited about the project.  This is the perfect time to ask.  When you ask, state “Could you do me a favor?  Since you are happy with our services, we would love to get a testimonial from you.”   Ask for a favor!  

Tip #3 Deadlines

Ask them to send it to you by a specific date. This helps create a sense of urgency and they are more than likely to complete them.  If they don’t get it completed in the time frame you asked about you can use this as a time to follow up with the customer to see if they are still happy with your work.  Usually, they are just busy and have forgotten about it.  So you can use this example: “Hello Mr or Mrs. XXX, we noticed you haven’t submitted a testimonial for the XXXX work we completed.  We understand you are a busy person, so we just wanted to ensure you are happy with everything we did for you”  You are not being pushy and it makes it sound like you are following up.  If there is something wrong at this point as well, they will tell you and now you can take care of the issue before they give you a bad review.