Yesterday’s post talked about what to do if you don’t have anyone to give you a testimonial.  Part two will talk about what to do if you do.

For a freelancer, the process of asking for a testimonial (or at least, feedback) should be as ubiquitous as sending the invoice. You may be surprised what the client thought of your work but didn’t think, or didn’t have the opening, to tell you. This does not mean pestering the client, of course, and a rare few busy clients may not even bother with answering your feedback request.

The trick to get feedback in a constructive way is to ask the right questions.  I’m not saying create one of those notorious political polling pieces where questions read something like: “Do you think everyone’s phone should be wiretapped or do you think the terrorists should win?” But you should ask constructive questions designed to give you feedback that you can use to improve your business while simultaneously bragging to the world about it. That’s marketing – every interaction with the customer should serve at least two, helpful, purposes.

(Okay, okay, so if we could ask questions like the one above, here’s how mine would look: “Is Jennifer Escalona the most kickass freelancer writer you’ve ever had the pleasure of working with or are you just not doing it right?”)

Now we arrive at the applied portion of this blog post. I don’t know how you guys work, but my freelance agreements gives clients 7 days to either approve or request changes for a job before I invoice. So let’s say I just got an approval and I’m sending in my invoice. I’ll just slip a short and sweet little Q&A in the email along with it. I’ll say something nice about how I enjoyed working with them and would like feedback about my work in order to make their experience even better next time. I’ll also be up front and say that I would like to use positive feedback as a testimonial on my website. I’ve never had anybody decline. In fact, I’ve had people ask me for testimonial right back. (This is usually on their efficacy as a project manager.  They have bosses to impress, too.)

So what should the questions say? Here are some examples:

·         Why did you decide to contract Writer X?

·         How was she able to help your freelance writing project?

·         What made her stand out from the crowd?

·         What was the process of working with Writer X like?

·         Were you initially skeptical about hiring a freelance writer and if so, how did she convince you to put those fears to rest?

·         What specific results did you attain after using Writer X’s professional writing service?

That last one is the key question and likely the one that you will be using for your testimonial. The others are for you. They can help you with anything to figuring out which query letter style worked best for you, discovering which samples are most effective, or finding out what elements clients look at when they look at your website.

This type of questionnaire can also work for you if, like I was at one point, you have been remiss about asking for testimonials. It can remind previous clients you exist while still offering up useful reason to contact them. (There are other great ways to keep in touch with clients you haven’t heard from in a while, and we will talk about that in another post.)

So how about you guys? Do any of you have another way to ask for testimonials? Has the testimonial thing worked for you?