Making charity donations to gain customer testimonials and referrals?

[a987]

Hi

I work with small businesses (mainly B2B companies in IT, accounting, and office services) and they all struggle to gain customer testimonials and referrals, mainly because they don't really like to push for them.

I'm therefore considering setting up an online platform for my customers so they can commit to make a charity donation for each testimonial or referral they receive. The end-customer can then specify the receiving charity when they leave their testimonial or give a referral. Before I go ahead though, I'd be interested to see if you think this might be of interest to other businesses (or is it that the small group of businesses I work with just happen to be not very good at getting testimonials and referrals)!

Your thoughts are much appreciated...

Andy

[huggytree]

its a nice idea, but im not sure if giving to a charity is enough of a driving force to push people for testimonials

yes it will work for a segment of the population, but i doubt most people are driven by this...

do it and find out? who knows

[billbenson]

While I agree with Huggy, I kind of find that unethical. It's no longer a charity when you are paying money to get a product in return.

[KristineS]

Bad idea. Testimonials can be solicited, but they shouldn't be treated as an in kind gift. Asking someone to say nice things about your product or service is one thing. Offering to pay for it somehow, even if payment is in the form of donation to a charity is something else. Lots of companies have gotten burned when it was discovered that positive reviews were actually paid for in some form. The best way to get testimonials is to provide good products and good service and then ask your customers to give you good word of mouth. Anything that even remotely seems like payment should be avoided.

[a987]

Guys - thanks for your thoughts.

My initial thinking was that this would be more of a reward/'thank you' for the testimonial author who will have taken the time out to write some words. But I see your point, it could be viewed simply as a bribe.

If anyone else has a view on this, I'd appreciate as much feedback as possible.

[MyITGuy]

I work with small businesses (mainly B2B companies in IT, accounting, and office services) and they all struggle to gain customer testimonials and referrals, mainly because they don't really like to push for them.

This is the big holdup. If they cannot find the time to solicit these testimonials, then how can they expect their clients to take their time to write this testimonial?

These businesses need to implement a process to follow up with their clients and solicit their feedback verbally, take notes and etc...then before the calls over ask them if they can use (And have the freedom to edit/compose) their statements as a testimonial. Some clients will say sure thing and leave it at that, others will volunteer to write a formal testimonial, while a few may say no (I haven't had a client say this yet).

[huggytree]

i dont see why you need all these testimonials

i have enough of them for my website and i could care less if i get another new one

once in a while i do anyways....and that makes it really special.....to get one w/o asking

[MyITGuy]

i dont see why you need all these testimonials

i have enough of them for my website and i could care less if i get another new one

once in a while i do anyways....and that makes it really special.....to get one w/o asking

In a B2B environment, the more the merrier. If I'm soliciting a new accounting firm, I'd like to have 3-4 testimonials from clients in the same industry.

I'd also like them to be recent in the event the clients I'm calling on attempt to verify the information.