Testimonials are important in helping to provide ‘social proof’ for any product or service that a business offers. It is human nature to steer clear of things we do not understand. Until someone has ‘been there and done it’, we are generally inclined to avoid it. Testimonials help to prove to potential customers what can be achieved through a particular service, or product, and are essential resources for the growth of any business.

The question is – where do you get these testimonials from? Well, in the main, your current customer pool will be where you should turn to. Get in touch with your existing database and ask them to provide you with a testimonial for your service or product. In return, offer them a freebie, like a discount on their next purchase, or a product for free. To help them, be as specific as possible with what you need. Ask them about certain aspects of your service, or product, and they’ll be more likely to respond.

There are four major types of testimonials – customer, celebrities, experts, and expert organisations. In the main, customer testimonials will prove to be your most valuable, and easiest to obtain, and will generally be the most credible for new potential customers.

But what if you are launching a new product? What if you have no database of customers to get testimonials from? Well, in these situations, running a test is always a great option. Offer your product for free, or at least part of it, in return for a testimonial. People will be more than happy to get something for free, if they only need to offer some good feedback on it as a result.

Once you have gathered testimonials, the next step is spreading the word, including how to use them for marketing purposes in the best way. Well, utilising them throughout your website, and throughout your marketing is important. Not only should you have a custom testimonials page, but you should tailor specific testimonials to certain parts of your service. For example, if you have a page or section on customer service, include a testimonial within it that relates directly to this in a positive way.

People need to know what they are getting themselves into, before they take the plunge. The more social proof you can provide about your products and services, the easier the buying decision will become for your potential customers.

Thomas Jones is a business consultant that enjoys helping various companies to grow. The current economic situation is particularly difficult to navigate and we all need as much help as possible including best practice recruitment guides. For more information and advice, visit BestPracticeHub.com.

Who do you blame if things go wrong with your client relations? I put my money that it’s the client. It’s always that files have been sent too late, the client didn’t sign off on time or they simply started the project too late. It just couldn’t be that you simply didn’t make the extra effort to get things done on time regardless the circumstances. Or maybe there is something else?

Clients are our natural scapegoats, there is no denying. They are stupid, mean, don’t know what we are talking about and always think that our job takes only a minute or those “few clicks of a mouse”. And that is regardless of what profession you are in. They are so evil in fact that everywhere you go you hear stories how clients are the biggest nightmare of any business. Yet still, you rely on them, their business, testimonials, referrals, new prospect introductions, regular projects and so on to survive in business.

Quite often though, clients relationships are stained and no matter what you say, in many cases, the real problem is not the client and what they do. It’s what you tell them actually.

I hinted about small promises you make before in one of the previous articles on this site, however, I decided that this topic deserves its own post to explain fully.

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Pay half now and the rest when you have it. Sure, we can wait for the payment. Of course, we don’t mind that the scope of work has changed three times already.

Innocent statements, aren’t they? In fact, I bet that in your eyes, if you have ever said anything like that to a client, they sound as if you were the best vendor that walked on this earth.

You are being helpful. Understanding. Patient. Great, there’s no doubt about that, right? The trouble is, you are also a person that has just let someone else run his show.

…

The idea for this post came to me during a sales call I witnessed a couple of days ago. It wasn’t intentional, I simply overheard it in a hotel lobby. At first I thought that it is going quite well to be honest. Only after a while it struck me, no matter what the client said, the young sales guys answer was always the same, “yes”. And the client, naturally, was making more and more demands.

- We want you to work twice as fast. - Sure.

- We want you to charge us only half of your daily rate though. - No problem.

- We want the project to be delivered to our offices in a medieval cart with 25 virgins throwing rose petals right in front of it all the way. - Of course, great idea!

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Those of you who follow my blog closely have probably noticed two themes alternating in my posts recently, sales and customer service.

The reason for the first one is that sales is very close to my heart. I consider myself a sales guy and also selling is something I enjoy doing. I am also publishing a book on sales in February (you can pre order it 30% cheaper here by the way) and generally enjoy writing about it. The second one because I see a major decline in customer service, the area of business that I find to be the most crucial to its success.

Let’s face it, without happy customers your business can’t survive. You can be selling like mad but if you do not retain your new customers, you will never build a profitable company.

However, as simple as it sounds, making your customers happy seems to be a problem for many startups.

Today I want to shed some light on what you should and should not be doing to provide excellent customer service.

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