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Have you ever requested a testimonial from an important client? More often than not, satisfied customers are willing to record a brief but positive blurb about your business. However, if you cannot clearly visualize your aspirations for your finished customer testimonial video or fail to provide your interviewees with guiding customer testimonial questions, you may be disappointed in the final product.

Many customer testimonials review the quality of their experience with a company without giving the relatable context that can lure in new leads and curious potential customers. Online video storytelling expert, CEO of authenticWEB, and Host of The Garlic Marketing Show, Ian Garlic, warns that a customer testimonial video without a story may be a waste of your time.

Telling A Story In Your Customer Testimonial Video

Rather than squandering time and resources creating boring, review-like testimonials, Ian encourages businesses to spend some time thinking about the bigger picture. What is the purpose of your customer testimonial video?

Most businesses hope to turn customer testimonial video views into buying customers. So, how can you use your customer testimonial video to convince a warm or cold lead that you’re the brand for them?

1. Create the Connection

Most businesses present client testimonials as a referral from a happy customer to anyone with a similar situation in need of a particular service or product. Although those viewing the testimonial do not know the interviewee on a personal level, they may trust the testimonial because they identify with the individual.

That means, if you want your customer testimonial video to convince new customers to buy from your brand, viewers need to identify with the interviewee and their situation. Developing

your interviewee by including a small piece on their background can improve any customer testimonial video.

2. Explain the Conflict

Can you think of a single good story without conflict? Since authorship of the Odyssey, exciting stories that resonate with their listeners have always featured unexpected crises and problems of every variety. So, too, should your customer testimonial video explain the problem that led your client to purchase your products or services.

3. Add Some Emotion

Your customer testimonial video might not feature a life-changing story with customers choking back sobs as they praise the quality of your service, but you can still add the element of emotion to your production. You’ll want to understand how your customer felt at each stage of their story.

How To Ask Customer Testimonial Questions

According to Ian, part of planning out the story and collecting the information you need involves forming targeted customer testimonial questions.

According to Ian, your customer testimonial questions should encourage the client to tell a story rather than report on the quality of their service. Create customer testimonial questions that clarify the context of the story as well as the emotion felt at each stage.

Keeping organized in this process requires having a versatile system in place that can be used for any of your customers. Have a list of customer testimonial questions planned ahead of time that can work for clients from any industry. Your customer testimonial questions can always be updated or expanded...