“Great service. Highly recommend.”

Lovely feedback to receive. But if you’re a potential customer trying to decide whether a business can help you, it leaves a few gaps.

What service did they provide? What was good about it? And what happened as a result?

A useful testimonial gives readers enough detail to recognise a situation like their own and understand why the customer was happy.

Getting that detail starts with the questions you ask.

How to Get Your Clients to Write Testimonials
You Can Actually Use

Start With Their Situation

Before asking customers how wonderful you are, ask what was happening before they contacted you.

That context helps a website visitor understand whether the experience is relevant to them.

Try asking:

• What was happening in your business when you decided you needed help?
• What problem were you trying to solve?
• Why had it become important to address it?

“We needed a new website” tells you the task.

“Our services had expanded, but our website still made us look like the small operation we were five years ago” explains the business problem behind it.

That’s a much stronger starting point.

Find Out Why They Chose You

Prospective customers are often weighing up several options. Understanding why an existing client selected your business can help address the same questions they’re considering.

Ask:

• What made you choose us?
• Was there anything you were unsure about before getting started?
• What gave you confidence to go ahead?

Their answer might involve your relevant experience, the clarity of your proposal or the way you listened during the first meeting.

Let them tell you. You may discover that something you barely mention in your marketing mattered enormously to the client.

Avoid feeding them the answer with a question like, “Was our outstanding customer service the reason you chose us?”

That’s less of a question and more of a request for applause.

Ask What the Experience Was Actually Like

“Easy to work with” is encouraging. Explaining what made it easy is more useful.

Ask customers to recall specific moments:

• What stood out about working with our team?
• Was there something we did that made the process easier?
• How did we handle questions, changes or challenges?

These questions can uncover details about communication, responsiveness and problem-solving.

For a PNG organisation coordinating a project across several locations, a client’s account of clear updates and reliable coordination may be particularly relevant to another buyer facing similar circumstances.

The detail helps readers picture what working with you could feel like.

Get to the Outcome

What changed? What can the customer do now? What improved for their team or organisation?

Ask:

• What has changed since the work was completed?
• What has the result helped you achieve?
• Is there a specific example or measurable improvement you can share?

Use figures when the client can verify them and is comfortable making them public. Otherwise, a clear description of the outcome is valuable.

A client might explain that their team can now update the website internally, their salespeople have a company profile they’re confident presenting, or visitors can find reception without calling for directions.

Those are concrete benefits. You don’t need to turn every testimonial into a claim about doubled revenue.

The strongest result is the one the customer can honestly support.

Finish With Their Recommendation

Once you’ve explored the experience, ask the customer who they think would benefit from working with you.

Useful questions include:

• What would you say to someone considering our services?
• What type of organisation would you recommend us to?
• Is there anything else a prospective customer should know?

This often produces a more natural recommendation than “Would you recommend us?”

It also gives the client space to describe your strengths in their own language. That wording may be more convincing than anything your marketing team would have written.

A Copy-and-Paste Email to Get You Started

You don’t need to send every question above. Five thoughtful prompts are usually enough to get a useful response.

Copy the template below, replace the details in brackets and send it to a client whose experience you’d like to feature.

Subject: Could you share a few words about working with us?

Hi [First Name],

We’d love to feature your experience with [Your Company] on our website. Would you mind answering a few quick questions about [project/service]?

Short answers are perfectly fine:

1. What did you need help with before contacting us?
2. What made you choose our team?
3. What stood out about working with us?
4. What difference has the finished work made to your business or team?
5. What would you say to someone considering our services?

We can turn your answers into a short testimonial and send it back for your approval before publishing.

Please also let us know whether you’re comfortable having your name, role and company included, and if anyone else needs to approve it.

Thanks for your time. We really appreciate it.

Kind regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Company]

If email feels like too much work for a particular client, offer a short phone conversation or a voice note instead. The goal is to capture their experience without making the request another assignment in their inbox.

Edit for Clarity, Then Get Approval

Customers may send several paragraphs, rough notes or a spoken response. You can help shape that material into a concise testimonial.

Keep their meaning and voice intact. Remove repetition, tidy the grammar and select the details most relevant to the service being discussed.

Then send the proposed wording back for approval, along with how you plan to identify them.

Confirm permission for their name, role, organisation and any photograph or company logo you want to include. Some organisations will also need communications or management sign-off.

A testimonial should remain the customer’s account, even when you’ve helped make it easier to read.

Put the Testimonial Where It Answers a Question

Once approved, place it where it will be useful.

Feedback about a website project belongs naturally on your website design page. A client’s experience with a large uniform order can support your apparel offering. A detailed project story may deserve its own case study.

That way, the testimonial sits beside the service or claim it supports, helping readers assess your business as they explore.

Good testimonials come from asking thoughtful questions, listening carefully and letting customers explain what mattered.

Want a website that puts your client stories to work? Brand Hero can help you bring clear content, credible evidence and thoughtful design together.