How to ask a business client for a testimonial

A testimonial, a review and a reference do different jobs

Owners tend to say "testimonial" for all three, but each is used in a different place and needs something different from the client, so work out which one you need before you ask.

A facilities manager weighing up three quotes is more likely to ring a referee than read your reviews, while a café owner looking for a cleaner may only ever see your Google rating. Most businesses that sell to other businesses end up needing all three.

When to ask

The best moment is when the client has just said something good. If an office manager emails to say the carpets look new, reply that day to thank her and ask whether you can quote her. Other good moments are the end of a project that finished on time with the invoice paid without a query, and the review at about three months into regular work that our guide to the first 90 days with a business client describes.

Don't ask while there's an open complaint, a disputed invoice or a price rise about to land, because you'll get either a no or a lukewarm line you can't use. And ask the person who actually saw the work. A site manager who watched your crew every week can say something specific, while their regional manager can only say you were fine.

Make it specific and easy

"Could you write us a testimonial?" lands as homework and sits in an inbox for weeks. A few short questions they can answer in a reply are far easier, and the answers come out in their own voice with the kind of detail another business finds convincing.

Hi Priya,

Thanks again for your note about the warehouse floors after the shutdown clean. Would you mind if I used a few lines from you on our website and in quotes to other businesses?

If it's easier than writing something from scratch, a line or two on each of these is plenty. What was the problem before we started? What did you notice about how the job was done? Would you use us again for this kind of work?

I'll send you the final wording before it goes anywhere, along with exactly how your name and business will appear.

Thanks,

Sam

You can trim their answers for length, but don't add words or change what they meant, and send the final version back for them to approve. Keep the original email as well. The Australian Consumer Law makes it unlawful to make a false or misleading representation that purports to be a testimonial, and in a court case that kind of representation is taken to be misleading unless there's evidence to the contrary. Their email is your evidence.

Don't write it for them either. The ACCC says a review can mislead if someone else edits or changes it after it was written, and the Federal Court ordered an online jobs platform to pay $600,000 in penalties after it let businesses draft their own reviews and published them when the customer didn't respond within three days.

Permission to use their name and business

A testimonial with a name, a role and a business attached carries far more weight than "Sarah, Brisbane", but the client has to agree to each part of it. Ask in writing and be specific about the exact words, how their name and role will appear, whether you can name the business or show its logo, whether you can use photos of their site, and where it will go (your website, quotes, tenders or social media). A reply saying yes to that list is enough.

Some businesses don't let staff endorse suppliers in public. When that happens, ask whether you can attribute it to "facilities manager, commercial property group, Brisbane" instead, or whether they'd still act as a referee. Don't put a client's logo under "trusted by" or call them a partner until they've agreed, because a false impression that a business approves of you is misleading under the same law, as our guide to approaching a referral partner explains. If a client later asks you to take their words down, do it promptly and stop using them in new quotes.

Asking for a Google review

Google's help pages for Business Profiles say you can ask customers to leave a review through a Google link or a QR code, so put the link in the email you send when a job is done. Then follow Google's rules, which are stricter than many owners expect.

• No incentives at all. Google's policy for Maps content bans offering payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review, and the same goes for getting a review changed or a negative one removed.
• Ask everyone, not just the happy ones. Businesses must not discourage negative reviews or selectively ask for positive ones. Ask every client at the same point in the job, and if something has gone wrong, fix it first.
• No conflicts of interest. Google doesn't allow reviews based on a conflict of interest, which can include current or former employment, so your staff shouldn't review you. Swapping reviews with a referral partner who has never used you isn't a genuine experience either.
• No quotas for staff. The policy also rules out asking your team to collect a set number of reviews.

Australian law is a little looser than Google here. The ACCC says an incentive for a review has to be given whether the review is positive or negative, and has to be clearly disclosed, but on Google the answer is simply none. Reply to the reviews you get, good and bad. If you think one is fake, ask Google to remove it or reply to correct the record.

Cherry-picking and editing

Choosing your three best testimonials for a capability statement is normal, as long as each one is genuine, current and in the client's words. A reviews page or star rating on your own website is a different matter. The ACCC says a business may mislead if it suppresses or edits negative reviews or removes genuine ones, and that a star rating should show how many reviews it's based on. Reviews from family, employees or anyone paid by the business can also mislead unless the connection is stated. In 2011 the ACCC issued an infringement notice to a removalist that had copied testimonials from an unrelated review site, changed them and published them as its own, and the business paid a $6,600 penalty. If you only want to show favourites, label them honestly as a selection and don't present them as the full picture.

Being a referee for tenders

Tenders, council quotes and panel applications often ask for referees from similar work, and a referee is only useful if they're ready for the call. Ask before every submission that lists them, not once for good, and tell them what the work is, who the buyer is and roughly when someone might ring. Send a short reminder of what you did for them, covering the dates, the scope, the size of the site and anything that went wrong and how you fixed it, so they aren't caught out if they're asked about problems.

Pick referees whose work matches the tender (a school for a school cleaning contract) and who saw your work first-hand. Have more than the form asks for, so you can choose the closest match without wearing out one generous client with four calls a month. Check their phone number and role before each submission, since a referee who has left the business is worse than none, and afterwards tell them how it went and thank them. Our guide to writing a tender response covers the rest of the submission, and the capability statement template has room for your best testimonials. Asking a client to recommend you to someone else is a different conversation, which how to ask a client for a referral goes through.