In Scarlett Letter #109, I wrote about ways to capture testimonials from your clients within the moment.In Scarlett Letter #6, I wrote about the impact of testimonials. To round it out, today I’ll address what motivates others to proactively provide testimonials—on their own; unprompted.
We know that, in most cases, bad news travels faster than good news. Therefore, when someone is dissatisfied with a service or product, they are more likely to proactively voice their dissatisfaction as opposed to when they are —perhaps exceedingly—satisfied.
‘Difficulty’ can no longer qualify as a reason for highly satisfied people to neglect sharing their feedback. Online forums have made it easy for us to offer sincere shout-outs to other. For B-to-B professional services LinkedIn recommendations is one such opportunity**. For B-to-C services, Angie’s List, Yelp, and Trip Advisor are examples. So what does it take for people to go out of their way to post a positive testimonial?
Here’s why this recently came up for me. Over the years, I’ve received some truly touching reviews from students. Reviews where these students took extra effort to write out essays of what is going well in the class and why. Reviews that were detailed in feedback. Reviews that made me so glad that I’ve taken on the role as an adjunct professor at Columbia College. Yet, those very same students apparently did not take time to proactively post their feedback to a website called ‘Rate your professor’. {I didn’t ask them; they didn’t do it.}
Wait just a darn minute! Why am I not listed on this site? I know for certain that I’ve made a long term impression on certain students (they’ve stayed in contact, long after my class). What gives?
As well, I have received many positive testimonials from clients (for consulting gigs) and attendees (of speaking engagements). Yet, even with 550 or so Linkedin contacts, I only have one recommendation. Hmm. Something seems amiss to me.
I’ll admit a couple of things:
1. I have never asked anyone to post a recommendation to Linkedin, Rate your Professor, or any other site for that matter. Nor have I wanted to do a ‘you recommend me and I’ll recommend you’ exchange that I see other professionals doing on Linkedin. {Note, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn’t sit well with me as being fully sincere}.
2. I myself am not so outstanding about expressing the overwhelmingly positive. I do intend to do so, and most certainly I have given shout-outs on Linkedin, blog posts, Yelp, and Trip Advisor. But not nearly as much as I should. Not nearly enough to reflect the positive opinions I’ve actually had about services, products, etc.
So, while I know how to capture testimonials ‘in the moment’, and I clearly respect the value of testimonials, I do not have a solid, foolproof answer to the question of motivating others to do so (especially online) without prompting.
I would welcome any insight from readers. Please do feel free to post or send me a private email.
**As well, feedback on B-to-B professional services feedback may also be found on websites specific to the particular industry, such as architecture, or civil engineering.