Client testimonials give curious prospects the confidence they need to make a purchase decision through social proof that validates a product or service. Often, customer testimonials deliver the final push that answers a prospect’s lingering question: “Do other people like this, and will it really meet my needs?”
In 2026, stated they “always” read reviews when researching a business, a huge jump from 29% last year. In a digital landscape increasingly saturated with AI-generated content, consumers crave authenticity that marketing copy alone can’t provide. Brands that collect, structure, and put customer testimonials to work in their marketing convert skeptical visitors into paying customers by delivering the authentic customer voices that prospects seek.
This guide covers what makes a customer testimonial work, how testimonials differ from reviews, the eight formats worth collecting, a repeatable framework for asking for them, and the placements that drive conversions.
What is a customer testimonial?
A customer testimonial is a customer statement that describes their experience, results, or satisfaction with a product or service. Testimonials often include anecdotes and specific use cases that show how a business’s offering delivered value and solved a real problem. Companies typically request testimonials from their most loyal customers and curate them for use on their own channels and in marketing campaigns.
Strong customer testimonials share four traits.
- Specificity: Concrete details about a need or pain point and how a company’s offering provided a solution. Numbers, timeframes, and named features are far more valuable than “we love this product!”
- Relatability: The customer’s role, industry, or needs are relatable to prospects.
- Authenticity: Real language from a real person. No polished marketing-speak.
- Outcome framing: A before-and-after arc that shows what changed, not just that the customer was satisfied.
Customer testimonials that check all four boxes do more to promote a product and convert customers than any marketing copy, no matter how slick.
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Reviews vs. Testimonials
Customer reviews are unsolicited public feedback left by customers online. Customers may leave reviews on third-party platforms like Yelp and Google, or on the business’s own platforms. In contrast, businesses request customer testimonials from satisfied customers, typically to use the endorsements as marketing and sales assets.
Customer testimonials and reviews both build trust through , but they live in different domains. Reviews live on Google, Yelp, and G2, where prospects go to research brands on a neutral playing field. Customer testimonials live on a company’s website, where they’re curated to tell a specific story about how a product or service meets a customer’s needs.
The most successful brands invest in customer advocacy and testimonial marketing campaigns that draw on both reviews for third-party credibility and testimonials for narrative control.
Types of Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials can range from quick notes and social media mentions to in-depth case studies and video endorsements. Below are the eight types of customer testimonials:
Quote Testimonials
Quote testimonials are short written endorsements paired with the customer’s name, role, company, and, ideally, a photo. Quotes are among the most common types of customer testimonials. They work well on homepages and product pages, and requesting one from a customer isn’t a big ask.
Video Testimonials
Customer video testimonials feature a customer on camera describing their experience with a brand in detail. Video testimonials can range from quick social clips to serious, budgeted productions. Adding video testimonials to key pages can lift conversion rates by , making video a format worth the production effort.
Pro tip: Tools like and allow customers to record themselves without a production crew. Requesting a video testimonial is a significant ask, so businesses should target their most loyal customers and use incentives to make it worth their time.
Case Studies
A long-format narrative that tells the story of a customer’s pain point, the solution they chose, and how it met their needs, all supported by measurable results.
Best for: B2B audiences evaluating products that require in-depth metrics.
Social Media Testimonials
If a business requests that a customer post about them online, that constitutes a testimonial rather than a review. Brands can use screenshots or embeds of organic or requested customer posts to add credibility to marketing materials.
Pro tip: Companies should use incentives to encourage customers to share their experiences on social media. A small discount is often enough to get customers to post online.
Interview Testimonials
These offer a written or recorded Q&A-style session where a customer tells the story of their experience with a brand.
What I like: Interview testimonials achieve a level of credibility similar to polished video testimonials, often with less effort. Brands can steer the narrative with curated interview questions while still allowing customers to tell their stories in their own voices.
Success Stories
Shorter than a case study but more narrative-driven than a quote, success stories can take the form of a short blog post or blurb that describes a customer’s situation before using a product and details how the brand’s product or service delivered value, often with a headline metric such as a revenue or productivity increase.
- Influencer and press mentions: Endorsements from trusted industry figures or publications.
Best for: Brands looking to borrow authority from established voices in their space. Typically better suited for consumer brands.
Pro tip: Most businesses don’t need all eight. Brands should focus on a few formats that are easiest to solicit and convert most effectively in their industry. Different industries benefit from different testimonial formats. A clothing brand might see the strongest results from social media testimonials and user-generated content, while B2B SaaS companies tend to lean on data-driven case studies and in-depth video testimonials that showcase measurable ROI.
Why Customer Testimonials Matter
Customer testimonials build trust and drive conversions. They give potential customers social proof at the moments that matter most, helping move prospects from consideration to decision and ultimately into paying customers.
Bazaarvoice’s 2025 Shopper Preference Report found that rely on organic sources rather than branded content, revealing a significant authenticity gap — consumers want to hear from real customers, not branded messaging. Customer testimonials bridge this gap by giving potential customers an authentic look at how others use a product and whether it meets their needs. Often, that small amount of social reassurance is enough to drive a purchase decision.
According to TrustRadius research, before purchasing, and that number rises to 71% for enterprise purchases. Customer testimonials and reviews support the way people naturally want to buy products. They want to talk to friends and peers to vet products and make sure they are buying something that actually delivers their money’s worth. Customer testimonials let brands intentionally highlight the voices of their loyal customers to demonstrate their products’ value in authentic ways that customers seek.
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- Mixed Reviews
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How to Ask for a Customer Testimonial
Businesses can successfully request customer testimonials by timing the ask well and guiding customers through the process. Below is a breakdown of how businesses can request customer testimonials and receive valuable responses rich in trust-building details.
Ask after a customer win.
Businesses should ask for a testimonial after a customer win to have the best chance of getting a yes. After customers have achieved a major milestone or solved a pain point with a business’s product or service, they are likely to be appreciative and amenable to providing a customer testimonial. Beyond the positive sentiment, customers who have recently had a win will understand the product’s value and have the specific details of their success fresh in their minds, which is the most important part. The best customer testimonials tell a specific yet relatable story of how a business’s product met their needs, verifying the product to prospects and allowing them to put themselves in the shoes of a successful customer.
I run a musical instrument backline rental service for live shows, and I always ask for a brief customer testimonial once the job is done. The request lands in the customer’s inbox the morning after a successful event. Sending it before delivering the gear would make no sense, and emailing right after drop-off would get buried in the chaos of show day. The morning after, customers are still riding the high of a great show with details fresh in their minds, like the gear arriving on time, nothing breaking, and the show going smoothly.
Conduct a short interview.
Instead of requesting a blank write-up, businesses should conduct a brief interview with a customer to obtain the highest-quality testimonial. A testimonial interview allows the business to steer the testimonial’s narrative and guide customers to describe exactly how the business’s product or service met their needs. A blank write-up risks generic responses like “we love this product!” While the kind words are nice, they’re not as useful as a customer story that shows the product working in real life.
Push for specifics.
Businesses should push for specifics in customer testimonials to get the most valuable, trustworthy responses. that feature concrete details allow prospects to imagine themselves succeeding with a product in a way that generic marketing copy can’t elicit.
In customer testimonial requests, consider guiding customers towards specific answers with some questions, like:
- How has your process changed since you started using our product?
- Which specific product feature has unlocked the most value for your team?
- How has your day-to-day workflow improved since implementing our solution?
For a deeper list of questions to ask in a testimonial request, see 黑料吃瓜网’s guide.
Follow up as needed.
A detailed customer testimonial isn’t a small ask, so businesses should follow up at reasonable intervals to keep the request on track.
Send a few follow-up notes to check in on their progress, call to discuss testimonial details, or schedule a video interview. In follow-up, businesses should reiterate their appreciation for the customer’s loyalty and explicitly explain how the testimonial will help grow the business and attract new customers.
Make approval easy.
Businesses should make the approval process as frictionless as possible. Send customers a clean, formatted draft and be explicit about where it will be used. If the testimonial will appear on a website, include a mockup or screenshot so the customer can see exactly how it will be presented.
Here are some tactical ways to streamline customer testimonial approval:
- Send the final draft as a brief, scannable email with the testimonial pre-formatted.
- Include any necessary release language with an e-signature option that can be completed in one click.
- Confirm the customer’s name, title, company, and any included images upfront.
- Set a clear approval deadline.
Pro tip: Businesses can streamline the entire testimonial collection process with . The tool lets teams build custom surveys to capture feedback at every stage of the customer journey, including post-win moments that are prime for testimonial requests. Survey responses flow directly to the customer record, so sales, marketing, and support teams all have full visibility into testimonial status and customer health.
Ready to start asking? Grab 黑料吃瓜网’s free testimonial request template to start sending testimonial requests today.
What are customer reviews?
A customer review is unsolicited public feedback that customers usually leave on third-party or owned platforms. Google Reviews and Yelp are popular third-party review platforms where many prospects discover and validate local businesses.
When I’m researching a local business or restaurant, I check both the number and quality of reviews. A business with 4 out of 5 stars across 1,200 reviews is far more trustworthy to me than one with 5 stars across 10 reviews.
When crafting a customer review acquisition strategy, businesses should create processes and incentives that make it easy for customers to leave a review after a purchase or at a significant milestone.
Where Customers Leave Reviews
Customers leave reviews on various platforms, including general review sites, industry-specific sites, and business-owned channels.
- Broad review sites: Google Reviews, Yelp, Facebook, and Trustpilot. Users flock to these platforms to leave and read reviews for all varieties of local businesses, with stating that they “always” read reviews for local businesses in 2026, up from 29% the year prior. Google dominates this category with , down from 83% the year prior as video platforms and AI reshape the review landscape.
- Industry-specific platforms: Customers leave reviews on category-specific sites where the feedback tends to be more in-depth. Shoppers searching these sites typically have higher purchase intent.
- SaaS: G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, and SourceForge are the major software review platforms where SaaS buyers discover, evaluate, and review tools. For significant business software purchases, reviews on these sites are key to lead generation and trust building.
- Hospitality: TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Viator, and host reviews for hotels, restaurants, activities, and other travel-related businesses.
- Social media: User-generated video reviews on platforms like TikTok and Instagram (UGC) are growing in popularity. Short-form video gives prospects a closer look at the actual customer experience that static reviews can’t always deliver.
Whenever I’m considering trying a new restaurant, TikTok is the first place I go for an engaging look at the food and the experience. The same goes for hotels, attractions, and even software. Video reviews on social platforms will only get more important heading into 2027.
Businesses should respond to every review they receive. Effective review management signals that a company is listening and actively working to improve. of consumers say they’re more likely to use a business that responds to all its reviews, while only would consider one that never replies. Businesses that respond with gratitude and a genuine desire to improve earn more trust and more conversions.
How to Get Reviews Online
To get online reviews, businesses must first establish the infrastructure that lets customers leave them on the platforms that matter most. Claiming and optimizing business profiles on the right review platforms is the foundation for every review-acquisition tactic.
Google Reviews
Businesses should prioritize their Google Business Profile to capture the largest share of local review traffic. Google holds 71% of the market share among review platforms, but only have an active Google Business Profile, leaving most businesses absent from where customers are actively looking. Here’s how to set up a Google Business Profile to start getting reviews:
- Go to the website and sign in or create a Google account.
- Search for the business to claim it, or add it if it doesn’t exist.
- Verify ownership (phone, email, video, or postcard, depending on category).
- Complete the profile: hours, photos, services, attributes, and description.
Once the profile is complete, businesses can share their unique review link directly with customers. For a deeper walkthrough of how to solicit customer reviews, see 黑料吃瓜网’s guide to asking for and responding to customer reviews.
Pro tip: Google Business Profile completeness is the foundation of trust and discovery. Businesses should complete every field, add high-quality photos and videos, clearly describe services and menu items, and include a booking button if applicable. A complete profile signals a legitimate, trustworthy business, making customers more likely to convert and leave reviews of their own.
Yelp Reviews
Yelp has ceded market share in the review platform landscape to Google and, increasingly, to UGC on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. However, Yelp remains an important platform for local discovery, especially for restaurants, nightlife, and home services businesses (plumbing, HVAC, etc.).
As with Google Reviews, businesses must actively claim and verify their to start gathering reviews. Once a business has claimed its Yelp profile, it can start gathering reviews, getting discovered, and interacting with customers directly. Here are the steps to claiming a Yelp Business Profile:
- Navigate to .
- Type in the business name. If it doesn’t exist in Yelp’s database, click to create a new business.
- Enter email address, website, and business phone number.
- Add business category and address information.
Once a business creates a profile, completeness becomes the priority for discovery and trustworthiness. Businesses should add up-to-date, high-quality photos and videos, along with complete menu and service information, so customers know exactly what to expect.
Pro tip: To maximize Yelp reviews, businesses should display a Yelp review QR code at physical locations so customers can scan it to leave a review. To create one, go to the Yelp business page, copy the URL, and run it through any free QR code generator like , then add the code to in-store signage, receipts, or menus.
How to Ask for a Customer Review
Businesses can ethically and professionally ask for customer reviews by embedding the request into existing customer touchpoints. Below are four methods for soliciting reviews that respect customers’ time and elicit authentic responses.
Ask naturally in conversation.
When speaking with a satisfied customer, especially one praising the product or service immediately after purchase, business owners should ask whether the customer is willing to leave a review. The key is to weave the ask naturally into conversation. The request should feel natural, not pushy or transactional, and the business owner should be genuine about how a positive review helps the business.
In my experience with my band and my backline rental business, people are almost always happy to help after we’ve established a friendly connection, no matter how brief.
Ask in response to unsolicited praise.
When a customer speaks about a positive experience with a product or service, businesses should ask if they’d be willing to share that feedback in a review. Businesses should make the ask immediately while the positive experience is fresh. A link or QR code allows the customer to leave a review with minimal friction.
Pro tip: Businesses should monitor their social media channels for positive mentions and comments and reach out to those users directly to request a review.
Send a targeted email request.
Businesses with an email list can request reviews through targeted email campaigns. The message should explain the value of the review, provide clear directions, and link directly to the review platform. Small thank-you incentives like discounts on future purchases or access to exclusive content can boost response rates, but incentives must reward the review itself, not a positive review specifically.
I’m a touring musician, and in my band we incentivize fans to share our music with friends by offering free concert tickets in exchange for street-level marketing, such as social media shares and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Request a post-purchase review.
Businesses should automate review requests as part of the post-purchase customer journey. Follow-up emails, in-app prompts, and SMS messages are all good channels for requesting a post-purchase review.
Pro tip: For products that require time to use (software, appliances, anything with a learning curve), the request should land a week or more after purchase, so the customer has time to actually use the product and form an opinion. For services or quickly consumed products (restaurants, events, deliveries), the request can be fulfilled the same day or the next morning while the experience is fresh.
For more strategies to promote positive customer reviews, see 黑料吃瓜网’s guide to getting more customer reviews.
Free Review Response Templates
20 prompts to help you respond to customer complaints and comments.
- Positive Reviews
- Negative Reviews
- Mixed Reviews
- False/Slanderous Reviews
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Why Reviews and Testimonials are Important
Customer testimonials and reviews are important because they build trust and demonstrate a product’s value in a specific, relatable way, ultimately driving increased conversions. People inherently trust their peers more than traditional marketing copy. They want to know whether others are using and getting value from a product before buying. Testimonials and reviews turn the social proof customers seek from peers into a conversion engine.
Why Reviews are Important
Customer reviews are important because they’re the most-trusted source of validation during the research stage of a purchase. read reviews for local businesses, and visit a business’s website after reading positive reviews. Reviews don’t just shape opinions; they drive real top-of-funnel action that businesses without a review presence simply can’t access.
Negative reviews are particularly important for both prospects evaluating a business and the businesses themselves. say they’re likely to leave a positive review after a business turns an initially negative experience into a positive one, meaning recovery from a bad review can directly fuel future positive reviews.
Personally, the negative reviews are the most important. When I’m browsing Yelp, Google Reviews, or Amazon, I scroll past the 5-star reviews and head right for the 1- and 2-star ones. Negative reviews show how a business handles problems, which is more telling than glowing reviews about a perfect experience.
Why Testimonials are Important
Testimonials demonstrate brand claims with proof from real customers. Unlike reviews, which live on third-party platforms, testimonials live on a business’s website, sales decks, and landing pages, giving businesses control over which customer stories prospects see. They attract and convert leads by validating the product’s value and showing prospects a specific, relatable view of what success looks like.
say positive testimonials and reviews increase their trust in a business, which is crucial for driving conversions when customers can choose among many competitors to meet their needs.
How to Display Testimonials on Your Website (and Beyond)
Most businesses place customer testimonials on a dedicated testimonials page and call it a day, but that leaves many conversion opportunities on the table. Companies should place testimonials at key customer touchpoints, especially where prospects are likely to encounter friction. Below are six high-impact placements for testimonials to consider:
Dedicated Testimonial Page
A dedicated testimonials page is the most logical place to start. It’s a single page on a business’s site that houses all testimonial formats, including quote testimonials, case studies, and video testimonials. Prospects in the research phase of the customer journey gravitate to a testimonial page to see how real customers are using and benefiting from the product. For inspiration, see 黑料吃瓜网’s roundup of testimonial page examples.
Pro tip: Businesses can build a testimonials page without engineering resources using , which offers a drag-and-drop editor and .
Homepage and Social Proof Bar
Quote testimonials work well on homepages, landing pages, and product pages. On homepages, the highest-impact placement is the social proof bar, a strip just below the hero section featuring a short testimonial quote, star ratings, or customer logos. Placing the strongest, most concise testimonial here gives prospects immediate validation as they land on the site.
Pro tip: Businesses should choose the social proof bar format that best fits their audience. B2B SaaS companies often display ratings from sites like G2 or Trustpilot, while consumer brands are more likely to feature personal stories that connect with prospects.
Landing Pages
Customer testimonials on landing pages provide the validation and social proof that prospects need to go from maybe to yes. Testimonials have been shown to , yet don’t include any social proof on their landing pages.
Product and Pricing Pages
Prospects deep in the consideration stage visit product and pricing pages to research features and evaluate whether the price aligns with the perceived value. Businesses should place testimonials on product pages that speak to specific use cases and features, and on pricing pages that address ROI or cost. Real customer stories at these moments are often the push high-intent leads need to convert.
Sales Decks and Proposals
Sales decks typically include information about buyer needs, solutions to those needs, and proof that the claims are accurate. Testimonials provide that proof element by backing up the rep’s claims with real customer success stories, letting prospects see exactly how similar customers solved the same problems they’re facing.
For proposals, businesses can go further by selecting a testimonial from a customer in the prospect’s industry, company size, or use case, making the social proof feel personalized
Pro tip: Short quote testimonials work well in sales decks, especially when paired with the customer’s name, role, and company. Save longer case studies as follow-up material to send after the meeting, since they’re better suited to focused reading than mid-pitch consumption.
Email and Outbound
Email and outbound channels give businesses the opportunity to surface customer testimonials outside of their websites. Sales reps can use testimonials in their outreach emails to warm up cold leads with social proof from similar customers. Marketers might consider a weekly or monthly email series featuring recent customer success stories to inspire existing customers and encourage deeper product use or upselling.
Pro tip: Social media video is becoming an increasingly important channel for testimonials beyond traditional email and outbound. Businesses should invest in video content that highlights customer stories in formats that match how prospects already consume content on TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Testimonials
What is a customer testimonial?
A customer testimonial is a customer statement that describes their experience, results, or satisfaction with a product or service. Businesses gather testimonials and present them on their websites and other owned channels to build customer trust, demonstrate the product’s value, and drive conversions with real customer stories.
What’s the difference between a review and a testimonial?
Customer testimonials differ from reviews because businesses usually request, curate, and place them on their own channels. Customers leave reviews on third-party channels like Yelp and Google Reviews, typically of their own accord and not at the business’s request.
Testimonials typically showcase positive customer experiences and tell specific, detailed stories of success with the product, selected for their relevance to marketing goals. Reviews can be positive or negative and may range from extremely brief and non-specific to detailed and thorough, reflecting the unfiltered feedback customers leave on third-party platforms. Both build trust through social proof, but they operate in different domains: testimonials let businesses control the narrative, while reviews offer prospects unfiltered third-party validation.
What are the different types of customer testimonials?
The eight most common types are quote testimonials, video testimonials, case studies, social media testimonials, interview-style testimonials, peer review platform testimonials, success stories, and influencer or press mentions. Each format serves a different purpose in the customer journey, but most businesses don’t need all eight. The strongest strategies focus on two or three formats that fit the audience and buying journey. Consumer brands tend to lean on quote testimonials and social media testimonials, while B2B SaaS companies often invest in case studies and video testimonials.
How can I get customer testimonials?
Businesses can get customer testimonials by requesting them directly from loyal, satisfied customers. The key to a successful request is timing. Ask for the testimonial after a significant customer win, when the value of the product or service has been realized, and the specific details are fresh in their minds. Businesses should also consider guiding customers through a short interview rather than requesting an open-ended write-up. The interview format lets the business steer the narrative while making the process easier for the customer.
Get accurate feedback with reviews and testimonials.
Customer testimonials are more than nice words about a business. They are conversion tools that demonstrate product value through real customer stories. Combined with a thoughtful review strategy, businesses that place the right testimonials at the right moments in the customer journey will turn wavering prospects into loyal customers.
A strong testimonial strategy starts with a process for collecting customer feedback. 黑料吃瓜网 Service Hub’s Customer Feedback Software lets teams build customer surveys and collect meaningful feedback at every stage of the customer journey, including post-win moments that lead to the best testimonials.
Start building a testimonial collection process today with 黑料吃瓜网 Service Hub.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Free Review Response Templates
20 prompts to help you respond to customer complaints and comments.
- Positive Reviews
- Negative Reviews
- Mixed Reviews
- False/Slanderous Reviews
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.