Gather Testimonials For Social Proof

Testimonials Are Everywhere — Even Coming From Mongolia

If you’ve been ‘tagging-along’ with me over the years, you’ve heard me say one of my famous lines:
“You aren’t in the CONVINCING business!”

Too often therapists feel they need to convince the prospective client to book an appointment, or convince the client to pay their new rate, or convince the doctor to refer her patients.

It’s exhausting to continually run around chasing clients,
plus, it’s not attractive!

Testimonials are Social Proof- showing clients they WANT to see you, and assuring referring docs so they WANT to send their patients to you!

One of the easiest ways to have this happen is to set up your marketing to use a concept called “Social Proof”.

Social proof is when we use testimonials and other happy clients to reflect our value and demonstrate to others that We Are Worthy! It is so much easier and has a much higher value, when someone else ‘sells’ you than you trying to ‘sell yourself’.

Getting testimonials are actually pretty easy to do, you can (and should) start gathering testimonials from happy clients and referring partners right away.

Screen Shot Off Social Media:
Here is a sample from FaceBook one of my coaching clients posted on her page. She said it much better than I ever could, and coming from her it carries a lot more weight of truth.

(You might want to ask their permission – but it is public, so you have the right to use anything that comes off a public page)

Here is a quick example of how I turned an opportunity into gathering a great client testimonial.

My Wellness Center was having a party and we sent out an email to our list of past and present clients to invite them to come.

One of our clients emailed us and this is what he said in his email as his RSVP.

“Congratulations on your business’s success!
You’ve done it with excellent service and thoughtfulness.
I’m very appreciative and have easily recommended you to others.

Sorry I won’t be able to make the party . . .
I’m ‘stuck’ in Thailand. 🙂
I did a 12,000-mile ride from Frankfurt to Ulaan Bator, Mongolia.
I should be in San Francisco in late-spring/early-summer and will come by for a sports massage.
Kurt”

I responded via email back to him with:
“Hi Kurt,
Sorry we’ll miss you, but glad you’re still having fun in Thailand! You wrote such a nice note, can we use this as a testimonial or would you like to enhance it? And if so, what would you like your ‘title’ to be…aside from world traveler?
~Irene”

So, not only did Kurt and I reconnect, but we get a killer testimonial that we can use in our marketing from a ‘cool’ athletic client.

I encourage you to start seeing where you can grab ‘pre-made’ testimonials from your clients and the other people who are tied in with your business… Testimonials are everywhere, just keep your eyes open.

I understand in some states and countries you are not ‘allowed’ to use testimonials in your marketing, so you do need to look into how best to incorporate them when you can.

Guess What?
You can also gather video testimonials! Yup!
When your clients finish their session and tell you how great they feel — all you do is ask them if you can make a quick video of them sharing their experience of working with you.

Here are some of the vid testimonials from our website to show you how simple it is.
(Just point and shoot, or make it all fancy with titles and music…)

Keys To Great Testimonials:
The best testimonials have real people attached with real names and titles.
Have them talk about the solid results they were able to achieve with you, so rather than letting them use vague words like “I feel better…” encourage them to speak specifically to some detail of your service, the result you provided, or what they like about you personally.

Once you start gathering these testimonials from your clients, you will feel great (because everyone likes to hear good stuff about themselves and their work!) And, your potential clients will be inspired by what is possible for them too by starting to build a relationship with you as their therapist.

I encourage you to start today!

And now I ask you to post one of your recently-gathered Testimonials either written or video linked below so we can all see your wonderfulness!