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Do you cringe, wince or squirm when asking for customer or client feedback? We all know we need it, but the process of asking for feedback or testimonials is awkward for many of us women in business. Perhaps you already ask for kind words to be thrown your way only to hear the sounds of agonising silence, which feels even worse than never asking in the first place. How do you get great feedback without begging? Here’s a simple approach you can automate to get glowing words of praise from your most loved customers and clients.
Listen to the episode here
Key takeaways
What to do next
We’re putting this process into action in Members Club over the next couple of months; it’s part of the confidence building around pricing strategy, a huge contributor to our Brand Building exercises and an integral part of the Attraction and Conversion strategy.
If you want to build your expertise, charge more, increase your sales page conversion, and build a loyal following then feedback, reviews and testimonials are not an after-thought they’re a fixed part of your customer journey map. Don’t have one of those either? Every business should have a customer journey map, we do that in Members Club, too.
Get on the waitlist for Round #2 opening early September so you can have all these building blocks of a scalable and profitable business in place before 2023.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode
Transcript
Melanie 0:15
Do you cringe wince or squirm when asking for customer or client feedback? We all know we need it. But the process of asking for it is awkward for many of us women in business. Perhaps you already asked for kind words to be thrown your way, only to hear the sounds of agonising silence, which, let's be honest, feels even worse than never asking in the first place. So how do you get great feedback, amazing feedback, and testimonials, without begging for them. Here's a simple approach that you can automate to get good loving words of praise from your most loved customers and clients. A big personal admission here, I absolutely hate asking for any kind of feedback or testimonial in my business, it feels like I am begging somebody to give me some praise, like a little puppy just wanting to be patted on the top of the head, just waiting for the adoring words to flood my way. And I have never ever been someone who's comfortable with recognition from anyone. I just want to run and hide it makes me really, really uncomfortable. So if you're like me, if you will avoid asking for endorsements or reviews, from your very, very happy, satisfied buyers. Like you avoid catching the latest communicable disease. Or
you do ask but you rarely, if ever get a response, then keep listening. I have an automated solution for you that will ease your nerves and have you collecting amazing glowing buyer reviews in no time. Now have you noticed that every time you purchase from those big companies like Amazon, or when you download an app to use on your phone, you're consistently asked to rate and review. You might even be someone who loves to add their own ratings and reviews for products or services that you love or don't love. The reason that these companies do this is obvious, right? It creates huge social proof. And often the reviews will answer by questions from a user perspective. Think about the products or services the offers that you've invested in lately. Did you check out the reviews to see what others were saying? I know I do. I bought a new Dyson Stick Vacuum recently. And I pored through the reviews. Because I wanted to see if people were commenting on anything negative that I'd really hated about my previous Dyson. I bought a Logitech webcam. After the reviews that I looked at raved about this specific one, about the quality of video the ease of use, I went and I bought it. Big companies and smart marketers know that reviews contribute to sales conversion, because buyers often perceive user reviews to be more honest and trustworthy than what the company has written in their sales copy. As someone who knows the huge value in gathering reviews and testimonials and feedback, but hates, hates with the passion asking for it. I have spent a lot of time and effort to create a process that gets the best information possible. And it's automated. So it's not reliant on me. Because if it is reliant on me, I simply won't do it because I hate it. So today, I'm going to give you that process and the tools that I use to automate the process. And you can do the same in your business. So we want to make the process as simple as we can for your buyers. If you already have a review process, but you rarely get engagement, there is a high likelihood that you have made it too cumbersome for your buyers. A perfect example would be sending out a Can you please provide a review feedback or testimonial for your recent purchase? I have received a few of these where business owners put the onus onto me on what I have to write or say. And honestly unless I really, really, really, really like you. I'm probably not going to provide a review. Because sitting down at a blank page staring at me or a blank email and trying to figure out what to say. It's not always that easy. Particularly if you're asking people who aren't natural writers. I don't know exactly what it is that you want me to say. I'm not sure how long you want it to be. I don't really know where to start to make sure that you're getting what you want. for what you need. Alternatively, if your process requires me to answer more than just a few questions, or I've got to go and gather a tonne of info, I'm just not going to get to it, you have added a big task onto my to do list and it's just not going to be a priority for me. I was recently sent a long form, and it was really deceiving. There were only about two or three questions. When I first clicked the link and opened up the site, there was like two or three questions listed. Easy, easy. But once you submitted your feedback, then there were more pages and more pages and more pages. And I after clicking through four or five pages had no idea when it was going to end. So we just closed out the website. If you want someone to take the time out of their day, to give you feedback, you better make the process as easy for them as possible. Which takes us into point number two. How do you figure out what to ask people? Well, we need you to understand what builds buyer confidence. Your buyer has a set of questions that they're looking to answer when they buy. And no I'm not talking about price here. They want to know if what you offer fills their needs and their expectations. You should be covering a lot of this obviously in your product or your offers description, your sales copy on your website, flyers, sales conversations, if you know what the questions are that help a buyer make an informed decision. Not only can you turn that into really effective sales, copy, or add it into your sales conversations,
you can also turn those points into questions for your buyers. Let me give you a couple of examples. If you're selling health coaching to busy moms, they may have a fear or a concern around how much time it takes to complete the coaching each day or each week. A great question to have your buyers answer is tell us a little bit about how you found this programme fit into your schedule. If people start saying, No, it didn't fit into my schedule at all, or I never got to it, then you've got a problem to solve. But if they say which is hopefully a whole lot more likely, the programme was just enough time for me to see really great results. without it becoming a burden, then you've got a gem of a testimonial. It answers a specific buyer question that will help build confidence that you are the right choice for them. Another great example if you're a photographer could be were we able to make you comfortable and at ease while posing for shots. Edit here ash
might be telling us how comfortable and at ease you were while posing for your shots. A huge concern for people who may never have been in front of a camera before. Could be am I going to feel awkward? Are they going to direct me? Is it going to be weird? If your buyer replies with Kate made me feel so at ease in the shots she had me laughing so much that I barely even notice the camera. Then no matter how comfortable I am in front of the lens, I'm going to want you to be my photographer. Through great buyer confidence building questions you'll have put my mind at ease. Think about the barriers to buying your product your service or your offers. What are they? What would stop someone from making a buying decision? Is it packaging? Is it the delivery time or service? What might make someone nervous or cautious about entering their card details or signing your proposal the biggest. The bigger the investment, the more your buyer will need to know about your offers. If you're selling a $30 candle then if I know the scent is gorgeous, the delivery was fast and the item was packaged really well and the candle burned for X number of hours. Well, that's about all I likely need to know about your candle. If you're selling interior design packages for 5k Plus, then your buyer will likely want to know a lot more about you and your process. Like how responsive you were to questions if you took the buyers needs and wants into consideration what kind of timeline your design was delivered in and if you were worth the investment when you know what builds a buyers confidence you can frame those confidence builders as Short, open ended questions for your buyers to answer. So instead of asking, Are you happy with your purchase? Or did you enjoy your experience, you can dive deeper into the specifics. This is going to help you frame up what kind of feedback you're looking for from your buyers. And it's also going to make the process that much easier for the buyer, because it's so much easier for a buyer to write a response to a very specific question than it is to just a very broad Did you enjoy your experience type question, to get the best feedback and testimonials and reviews, the responses and hopes?
Now you want to keep the questions short, and as I said, easy to answer so that you're not placing any unnecessary burden on anyone to get the best feedback and testimonials or reviews the responses. Oh my god to get the best feedback. Okay. And we want to take this one step further to get ultimately the best feedback and testimonials or reviews is by reviewing them yourself, and reframing them if you're not quite getting the answers, or the content that you were looking for. Now, we're not trying to trick people into saying untrue things. We're just encouraging them to give a clear and concise response that answers a specific question that will allow you to build that buyer confidence. So don't be afraid to change things up if you're not getting what you need from those testimonials or feedback. As importantly, as asking the right questions is asking the right questions at the right time, you'll need to test out the right timeframe for your offers. But don't leave it too long. And don't ask too quickly. I was asked to review a product recently that hadn't even been delivered yet. And all it did was annoy me because instead of a notification that my order had been shipped, I was getting a review request and I hit Delete really quickly. If you're a service based business, the best time to ask for review is often before the end of the engagement of your services. We've been testing this out in a few clients businesses, and we found that they are more likely to get really great testimonials or reviews just in that week before they deliver their final session or final asset that the customer or client is waiting on. Rather than waiting until everything is complete. During that engagement period, there is still a personal connection that exists between you and your customer or your client. And you really want to take advantage of that right. Once you fulfil that service or the offer is complete, your customer or client is moving on to their next priority. automate the process to make this entire exercise easy for everyone involved. If you've got the capacity within your shopping cart software, then turn it on. And if you do have it turned on, then customise it to suit by asking those buyer confidence building questions and test out what the right timeframe is. Your platform might have a preset timeframe. And it might have preset questions that just don't get the best quality responses for your offers. So go in and change them up. If you don't have a platform that automatically sends out requests, then let's talk about what I use. My platform does not so I've had to do a little bit of a workaround. And Amelia Lee from the undercover architect told me about this awesome tool many years ago and it's called Video ask. It's so simple to use, and it makes the process very easy for my clients. Once again, a reminder that you want to match the ease of the process and the number of the questions with the value of the offer, the value of whatever they're investing. I'm offering coaching at a minimum three and a half grand right. It is an investment for clients, and they spend a lot of time working directly with me. So the questions are more detailed than what I would ask for say, feedback or testimonials for the profit lovers plan and track ultimate. To further automate the process. I have the copy written already and it's all in the profit lovers tone of voice. It is set up as a template within my email system with all of the links and once we hit a certain point in the coaching progress
and once we hit a certain point in the coaching process, a trigger Oh sends that bad boy out. That email is triggered and it goes out. And I don't have anything to do with it having a customised. So it sounds like it's come from the profit lovers, then it's set up as a template. And then there is a trigger and that email is sent takes me out of the equation, meaning it actually gets done. With video, ask I have a series of five videos of me asking very specific questions of my clients, things like tell me a little bit about where you found me and why you decided I was the right coach for you. Because I know that what stands me aside or sets me aside is that I'm very direct. I'm very honest. And I'm very strategy driven. And so the responses I get are a chose Melanie, because she's so focused on profit, because she's so good with the numbers. And that is the confidence builders that I want, so that our potential client knows that I'm the right coach for them. If you're
if you're wanting a quick and easy option for low price point offers where you don't need the detail that you can get from a tool like video ask. Another great tool that you'll hear me talk about you may have even received one from me is called bungee rope. They also have a great testimonial gathering process within the bungee platform, then go for something like rate dot inc, or trust pilot. There are tools that will both gather Google or Yelp reviews, they'll add them directly to your website, and depending on the platform that you use, they'll put them straight into Google. Now I don't personally bother with Google reviews. Because my clients and my members rarely find me through Google, they're much more likely to enter my sales funnel via an ad or my podcast, or social media or a referral. But if your customer or client heads to Google, to do the research on finding you, or some other platform to search, then that is where you want to start your testimonial gathering feedback.
Then that is where you want to gather as much feedback as you can and present it there. Right? Let me give you an example. To make this a bit clearer. My best friend's own a renovation business. So people commonly Google renovations plus their local area to find service providers. Now what comes up is a list of businesses with many showing Google reviews. So that's where we focus the processed. So that is where we focus the process first, just before the renovation is complete, they then ask for feedback based around very specific questions. And then when the project is done, or on that final day, they'll take some lovely photos, as opposed to the process that existed before, which is the project was done, they would then try and go back and get some great photos and a testimonial. The timing of this process has been trial and error. And only the client who is the absolute best fit for their marketing is asked these more in depth questions. So everybody has sent the link to do a Google review. And then those who perfectly fit what we're looking for in terms of marketing. Those are the ones that we dive into with a little bit more in depth questioning. Now, that's not to say that everyone's feedback isn't welcomed. It is it's that some clients are just a benefit because of their project. A quick back deck Reno on a rental property is not where they want to see growth in their business. It's the home buyer who has multiple areas that they want to renovate over a period of time, they're going to start with one area, say the kitchen or the bathroom. So it's a big investment renovation that requires help throughout the design process with a bigger budget. That is where they're positioning their offer. So testimonials from the type of client that fits that is exactly the type of social proof that will attract and convert more of that type of client. So it's important that when someone does take the time to provide feedback that also you recognise them, especially if you're asking for reviews or feedback or testimonials that are more detailed or video based. I know that my clients need to spend a little bit of time providing testimonials. I mean, it's, you know, like probably a 10 minute exercise. So always pop A handwritten card in the mail to say thank you, once again, Match your action to the value of the investment, I'm not going to be able to pop a card in the mail for a $30 product, but for a three and a half $1,000 coaching investment, absolutely. And sometimes there's a gift in there as well. Now finally, if you're putting in the effort to gather feedback, reviews or testimonials, then you're going to also need to put it out down. Unlike Yours truly, I had to hand this over to.
Finally, if you're putting in the effort to gathering feedback, reviews, or testimonials, you should probably actually use it. Unlike Yours truly, I had to hand this over to my team, because being praised makes me want to hurl my cookies. Gathering the info is the first part of the EQ and then sharing it is the second part. So make sure you use the information that you have been gathering on your website, your print materials, your signage, or social posts, paid ad emails, use it in all the places that people are eyeballing and use it often. Now we're putting this process into action in members club over the next couple of months. And we're doing that because it's part of the confidence building around pricing strategy, right? If you want to charge more, then show people why you're worth it. It's a huge contributor to our brand building exercises. We want to know while we're building our brand, what are those little pieces of confidence builders that we need to be aware of to help our customers or clients make a great decision? And how do we build that into our brand messaging, an integral part of attraction and conversion strategy is having those really strategic testimonials. Now if you want to build your expertise and charge more and increase your sales, page conversion and build a really loyal following, then those feedback then feedback reviews and testimonials are not an afterthought. They're a fixed part of your customer journey map. Don't have a customer journey map, will you need one. Every business should have a customer journey map. We do it and member's club too. If you're listening to all of this and saying to yourself, well, I don't really thought about my pricing lately, and I don't really know what my brand messaging should be. And I don't really have an attraction and conversion strategy. And I also need a customer journey map. Get on to the wait list for members club round to opening early September. So you can have all of these lovely building blocks of a scalable and profitable business in place. Before 2023 rolls around your takeaways from today's episode your actionable goals. Think about the process that you have today. Does it exist? And if it does exist? Is it easy for your buyers? Do you have a list of buyer confidence builders so that you know what to ask? Are you asking not just the right questions but the right questions at the right time? Or do you need to test out some new approaches? Is your process automated? So it happens without you having to touch it? And do you acknowledge buyers who have taken the time to provide nice words about you and your offers? And are you using the kind lovely words that people take time and effort to provide for you in multiple places in your marketing efforts. There is a list in the show notes or on the podcast page on the profit lovers website to the tools that I've mentioned Manjaro and right to ink and Trustpilot and video ask and the members club waitlist and of course the link to join the members club waitlist for our next and of course the link to join the members club waitlist for our next intake. Last intake sold out before I even managed to do a full launch. You know who didn't miss out people on the waitlist. Happy profit loving everyone. I hope that information is I hope that information gives you a great jumpstart to creating the perfect automated process and system for gathering amazing testimonials for your business.
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