I love a good success story, especially when the main character has worked hard to overcome a specific problem. In the SaaS world, a testimonial that communicates that win is gold. The best way to share that story is by asking happy customers a few testimonial questions.
In today’s buying market, it’s no secret that customer acquisition costs continue to rise and consumers require more information than ever to make a buying decision. Advocacy efforts like customer testimonials unlock a more cost-effective way to generate leads and drive new business.
Whether they’re written, visualized, or recorded as a video, customer testimonials can be a powerful deciding factor in the sales process as they increase the level of trust that consumers have in a business. The foundation of any great testimonial is the story, and these testimonial questions will help you craft a compelling story that helps pitch your offering in an authentic way.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Testimonial Questions to Ask Your Customers
I’ve grouped these client testimonial questions into sections based on their overall theme, and I’d recommend choosing one to two questions from each section. By choosing questions from different sections that compliment each other, you’re able to easily thread the story of your customer’s success.
Setting the Stage: Questions About the Buying Journey
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the responsibilities of your role and your team.
When I ask this question, I want my customer to describe their role and the responsibilities of their team. With that information, I can better understand the daily tasks that my product impacts. The answer I get helps the reader see what processes my product might simplify.
If I’m talking to a few different people from the same organization, I can show that the impact of my offering can be felt across multiple people in an organization.
2. What problem(s) were you facing before you purchased our product?
This question prompts your customers to share the challenges and struggles they had before buying your product or service. You can use their response to demonstrate how your business can solve other customers’ needs.
I like this question because your customer probably isn‘t alone in the problem your product helped them to solve. If you’re segmenting your customer base into buyer personas, then it’s likely that other customers will be experiencing the same problem. By including their story in your testimonial, leads will see a proven track record of customer success.
3. What challenges did this problem pose for your team or your organization?
I always ask this question to show how my customer’s business problem goes beyond just their daily role and affects the broader team or organization. With that information, my reader can envision how important it is to curb the impacts of this shared problem. This insight is a great way to make potential buyers realize what purchasing your product could do to mitigate the problem’s spread.
4. What hesitations or concerns did you have when shopping for a solution to your problem?
It‘s hard for any person to pull the trigger and make a big purchase. And, it’s likely that your customers will share similar concerns when undergoing difficult buying decisions. Detailing their objections — and how they overcame them — will empower other prospective customers to do the same.
Additionally, I’ve seen marketing and customer service teams use this feedback to improve the customer’s journey. By understanding the biggest roadblocks affecting your leads, you can remove these distractions and increase lead conversion.
Differentiators: Questions About How Your Company Stands Out
5. How did you hear about our company/product?
By explaining how they started searching for a solution and where, the customer can subconsciously guide someone to do what they did. This gives customers a clear path to purchasing your product, making buying decisions much easier.
I’ve noticed that if leads can relate to your customer‘s starting point, they’ll see my business as a shortcut to long-term success.
6. What selection criteria did you prioritize when looking at solutions?
Customers may have different buying criteria when shopping for solutions. Having your customer narrow down what was important to them is like a bat signal for folks in the same predicament. The answer to this question can encourage others in your customer persona to consider a similar prioritization strategy.
The response to this question can also reinforce that there are often more important factors to consider than just the final cost of a product. That lightbulb can help customers who may be on the fence to consider more than just the price tag in their final decision.
7. What made you choose our offering over other offerings in the market?
Leads often compare products between competitors. This question will make it extremely clear to prospects what your product’s X factor is.
What was the bottom line that contributed to your customer’s decision to buy? Was it a product feature? Your customer service team? The price? In my experience, these answers help prospective customers reading or listening to the testimonial evaluate their priorities. This will also let your marketing team know which aspects of your business are most desirable to customers.
Leads will be more likely to trust testimonials than traditional advertising. It‘s one thing if your business says it’s better than your competitors. However, I’ve seen greater impact when a real-life customer says it. Customer advocacy plays a major role in lead acquisition and customer retention.
8. How has your experience been with our product so far?
I ask this question when I’m looking for a high-level answer about my product or looking for something I can easily use as a quote in promotional materials. When answering, customers can hone in on whichever area of the product experience stands out the most to them.
If you’re looking to get more granular, I’ve included more experience-specific questions later in this post.
Impact: Questions About the Benefits of Your Product
9. What specific problem does our product help you solve?
I’ve personally discovered that by asking this question customers tell us exactly how our product helped them solve their problem or challenge. This answer helps connect the dots in the story if you’ve already asked question two. You’ve already mentioned the problem, and now you can highlight the solution (your product!).
10. How has the reception been for your [END USERS] since implementing our product?
If your product has different personas, like buyers and end users, I highly recommend asking this question. This question highlights how your product or offering makes an impact across teams within the organization. I’ve found that including this question ensures you’re highlighting the experience of the individuals who will be using your tool on a daily basis.
For example, when I worked in martech, I routinely asked my customers (who were marketing leaders) what they were hearing from their sales development representatives (our end users). More often than not, their SDRs were seeing an increase in lead conversion from using our product. Naturally, their feedback about the tool was positive!
11. What has changed or improved for your team or company since using our offering?
This goes back to highlighting the broader impact of your offering. We all know that budgets are tight, specifically in SaaS. In my experience, most commercial conversations now happen with a CFO or even procurement teams. This creates even more pressure to prove value realization.
If you can highlight that your product is making a difference across multiple areas of the company, you’re giving your potential buyer an even better proof point to use in their internal budget conversations. If you can get specific numbers to show your impact, even better.
12. How has your business been impacted since starting to use our product or service?
Results can be exceedingly persuasive. With this question, I can prompt my customers to think about their experience with my product in terms of the impact it created. Maybe their revenue increased by $30,000, or they won 15% more customers than they did last year. These quantifiable, tangible wins sell your product for you.
13. What was one unexpected benefit you experienced from using our product or service?
The great thing about this question is that it’s completely up for interpretation. Your customer can share a financial, personal, or team-related benefit.
For instance, your customer might be averse to carrying out report meetings, because they don’t like public speaking. Your marketing software made it much easier to compile performance data for stakeholders, negating a need for a meeting. These sorts of anecdotes communicate the strength of your product in small but impactful ways.
Questions to Highlight Specific Selling Points
14. What was your buying experience like with us?
I don’t think anyone likes the process of buying a new product or piece of software. It’s typically a lengthy and time-consuming process that requires multiple steps. But, if your sales team built trust and left the customer with a positive experience, then that’s worth highlighting.
A company’s reputation has been noted as the most influential factor in choosing a vendor. Highlighting a positive buying experience with your brand can help build trust and credibility for new prospects who are considering entering the sales process.
15. How smooth was the implementation stage?
The implementation stage is where your company has to start delivering on what you promised. When prospects are shopping, they want to know if your company will help them get onboarded in a way that sets them up for success.
In fact, nearly two-thirds of customers said that they take the onboarding period into consideration when deciding whether or not to make a purchase. I’ve noticed that highlighting your customer’s positive experience with onboarding can help reassure a prospect that you’ll deliver a great implementation experience.
16. How has your support experience been with us?
I have seen the post-sale support experience make or break the relationship between a brand and its customers. Prospects are weighing customer support as part of their buying criteria. Over 50% of customers are willing to make a purchase solely on the support they expect to receive.
Of organizations, 81% already cite customer experience as a leading differentiator, so I highly recommend highlighting a positive post-sale experience when you can.
17. Was our product worth the initial investment? If so, why?
In my experience, every contract signer or executive sponsor wants to know one thing: Was this purchase worth the investment? This question allows the customer to answer in their own words. Plus, you’ll have a powerful sound bite to use in your testimonial.
18. How has this product helped you do/solve [SPECIFIC VALUE PROPOSITION]?
If your product has specific and defined value propositions, your marketing team likely already knows which one(s) are the top value drivers for customers. If you know your personas, you can draw out common pain points and clearly explain how your product helps.
By putting a specific value proposition into this question, your customers can tell prospects that your product solved a very specific pain point for them. This helps prospects envision your product solving that same point for themselves.
19. What has exceeded your expectations since working with us?
Sometimes, business is cut and dry. However, it’s always a smart idea to surprise and delight your customers so they’ll keep talking about it in their recommendations. Customers will remember the times that your business provided above-and-beyond customer service, and leads will want to hear about these stories, too. It’s a lot easier to show how great your service is when highlighting individual moments of excellence.
Advocacy Questions
20. What would you tell someone who is considering purchasing our product?
When leads are considering your business, customer testimonials are perfect for convincing them to buy your product. In fact, 81% of leads look at customer reviews before making a purchase.
Having your customers give advice to leads during their buying decisions will help your sales and marketing teams capitalize on timely opportunities to convert leads. They‘ll know when leads are likely to hit roadblocks and what they’ll need to say to overcome them.
21. Would you recommend our product to someone else facing a similar problem, and if so, why?
Consider this question the cliff notes version of a testimonial. In just a few sentences, your customer tells the reader exactly what made them so satisfied with your brand, proving that they’re happy enough with the product to give a public recommendation.
I like this question because it’s focused on the problem that the customer shares with the reader, which lends more credibility to the recommendation.
Prospects now lean on credible recommendations to inform their decision making, with roughly 92% of business buyers reading reviews and testimonials before making a purchase.
22. What has surprised you the most about working with us or using our product?
This question provides insight into the customer’s perception of your brand or product. When they first purchased your product, they had a goal they were hoping to accomplish.
However, some customers will find that your business offers other benefits — like rewards and loyalty programs — that help them achieve more than they initially thought. By collecting these stories, you can show leads that your company is focused on the entire customer experience, not just on selling a product.
23. How has your overall experience been with our brand?
In earlier questions, we asked the customer about their experience with your company’s product, implementation process, sales process, and support.
This question differs slightly in that it can highlight the customer’s overall experience with your brand. (Or if you’re a small business that doesn’t have separate teams and functions, this question is open-ended enough for the customer to pick what they’d like to highlight about their experience.)
A positive statement from a customer about their experience with your brand helps with your brand perception. We know that brand perception is closely tied to trust and credibility (and 81% of consumers say that trust is a deciding factor in their purchasing decision), so your customer’s response to this question can positively influence the credibility of your brand.
24. Is there anything we could have done differently?
This question is geared toward your marketing and customer service teams. Unless the customer doesn’t have anything to add, these responses should be saved as useful pieces of customer feedback and are not typically included in the actual testimonial. Keep in mind, customers providing testimonials should be your happiest customers.
Getting their feedback is a crucial part of maintaining customer satisfaction and improving the customer experience. This question also makes the testimonial seem less staged and more realistic.
25. Is there anything else that you would like to comment on or say about our product or business?
This last question opens the floor and lets the customer say what‘s on their mind. This is important because your questions may not have addressed every experience they’ve had with your brand. By letting the customer speak freely, you’ll obtain some unique feedback that you may not have considered about your products or services.
Need more inspiration for questions? I recommend looking at review sites like G2.com to see which selling points buyers care about. Look up your offering (or competitors) on a review site, identify the key criteria that customers are reviewing, and then tailor a few of your testimonial questions to reflect that criteria.
Tips & Tricks for Testimonials by Format
Testimonials can be delivered in a variety of formats, including video, written quotes, case studies, and more. While all of the questions I listed above can apply to any format, here are a few tips and tricks to enhance the responses to your video, written, and short-form testimonial responses.
Video
Video testimonials, whether done virtually or recorded in person, are a great way to make the testimonial feel more authentic. You can highlight a customer’s genuine emotions and reactions.
In my experience, video testimonials typically include more questions than written testimonials. This format also relies on open ended questions to allow the customer to share their story. Once a customer has agreed to a video testimonial, I try to give them ample time to prepare for it by sending over the questions you’ll be asking in advance.
Written
Written testimonials can be the easiest to acquire since customers can submit them on their own time. If you’ve built out a testimonial form or questionnaire, try to make this as frictionless as possible for your customers by only asking a handful of questions (or consider making a few questions mandatory but include a few more that are optional).
Implement a few creative experiences for customers to submit their written testimonials, like building a testimonial chatbot to make the submission process feel more conversational and less tedious.
Short-Form Quotes
Consider creating quick and easy ways for customers to answer a single testimonial question on their own time. I recommend building open-ended testimonial questions into different points of the customer journey, such as after a specific product outcome is achieved or once a customer officially moves into onboarding after signing the deal.
Be careful to check where NPS surveys sit in the customer journey so as to not overwhelm customers with requests for feedback.
The Right Questions Help You Tell the Right Story
In writing this piece, I realized that customer testimonial questions have changed over the last few years. Today’s testimonial questions place more emphasis on the overall customer experience (which I love) versus just the product’s capabilities. I imagine this is a result of consumers weighing the customer experience as one of the top factors in their buying decisions.
I also see the questions beginning to adapt to show “value realization.” In Saas, we’re no longer able to obtain a renewal with one single ROI factor. We now have to prove that our product solves multiple problems or impacts multiple areas of the business.
Testimonials remain a key part of the buying process, and I don’t see that going away any time soon. Since consumers often trust each other more than they do a business, testimonials can persuade potential customers to make a purchase by offering a relatable and authentic perspective on a brand or product.
Using the above questions is a great way to ensure you get answers to build a compelling story that highlights the effectiveness of your product, in turn helping you acquire new customers and grow your business.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in May 2018 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.
