The Do's and Don'ts of Using Client Testimonials

The rule was implemented in May. Why did you jump into doing this very early — in August?

[Broadly], people are looking at reviews and seeing if [clients and customers] are happy with the services from [specific providers]. 

People very frequently use Google reviews to support their decision on whether or not to contact a certain service provider.

This is important today, and it’s only going to become more and more relevant as time goes on. If people have a good experience, they’re accustomed to leaving a Google review. It’s becoming more commonplace.

Most prospects probably have already conducted research about your firm before they contact you. Why do they need to read a testimonial too?

If we can have one more area where they can see us in a very positive light [through current clients], it adds one more touch point for that potential client to feel comfortable to give us a call.

What level of satisfaction have you derived from client testimonials thus far?

We just started to do this, so I don’t know that we’ve seen any direct results. But I imagine that in time, they’ll assist us in working with new [client] families. 

If someone is referred, [my] hope is that they read some of the reviews and are prompted to call us a little sooner — because they’ll see other people’s positive experiences in working with us.

Can you make additional use of the testimonials anywhere other than where they were posted?

We’re submitting some of the reviews to our compliance team and will then repurpose them by using them on our website. 

What’s an example of a review that you’ve received? 

Here’s [part of] one we got a few days ago: “I’ve been working with Larry Sprung for several years, and I couldn’t be happier. … He and his staff of professionals are responsive and are just great to work with. 

“When there are fluctuations in the market, Larry is quick to put out a calming email explaining what happened and to offer his time to discuss any concerns …” 

Let’s talk about some of the do’s and don’ts. First, what are you permitted to do?

We can ask clients to give us testimonials. We can show them where and how they can submit their review. But our involvement has to end at that point.

The testimonials should be service-focused, not performance-driven. You have to be careful if there’s inappropriate stuff in them, like foul language. But you can edit it.

Every time someone leaves a testimonial, we get a notification. We review them to make sure they’re in line and [to spot] profanity, offensive statements or untruthful content. Maybe some testimonial wasn’t even left by a client, or maybe there’s a factual error. We had one situation where a client wrote a review that wasn’t well-written or even coherent. So we asked them to edit it, or re-review us or take it down.  

If a poor review comes from a bona fide client, it would have to stay up there. But should there be a bad review and we can prove it’s not from a client, I think my compliance folks wouldn’t have an issue with it being removed.

If it wasn’t from a client, just someone giving you a bad review, like a competitor, we would be able to work to get it removed, making a clear case that it didn’t belong there. 

Now, what are some of the don’ts?

We can’t coach or guide the client or any individual on what they should or should not be writing in the review. And the length is up to them.

You can ask a client to give you a review, but you can’t ask them to, say, give you a five-star review on Google, because that’s entanglement.

[Instead], you can say to them, “Hey, you like our service. You enjoy what we’re doing for you. We would really appreciate it if you went to Google and gave us a review.”

We don’t want clients talking about returns or a specific return because it may be misleading, and it’s inappropriate. We want them to talk about our abilities and service.

You also don’t want to be selective in the review process, where you’re putting more favorable reviews at the top.

So you can’t rearrange them. You have to leave them in [the order] they came in.

If you get a bad review, as long as it’s a legitimate review from a person that you’ve done business with, the review has to stay and cannot be removed. [That is], you can’t discriminate.

What’s another big plus to getting client testimonials?

From time to time, clients have said: “Thank you so much. Is there a way that we can help you?” 

Now we can say, “If you’re so inclined, we’d love for you to leave us a review on Google.”