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Use Customer Audio Testimonials To Beat Out the Competition 

Finding prospects is only one piece of the sales puzzle. Once you’ve got interest, whether it comes from word of mouth, traditional advertising, or the Internet, time is not on your side and you must convince that prospect as quickly as possible that you are the best candidate for their job. If you are not expeditious in conveying your credibility and ability to perform, then you could lose that prospect to the awaiting competition.

With that said, competition isn’t always a bad thing. Especially if you can prove you are better.

But how do you prove it? This is where authentic customer audio testimonials come in handy. Your best customers have a compelling and personal story to tell about their experience with your business, and their positive word of mouth can corroborate your claims and convince others to do business with you, too.

With all the deceit and hype these days in advertising, an actual heartfelt testimonial, heard from an actual happy satisfied customer, can be the tie breaker needed to convince a prospect trying to decide between your business and your competition’s.

We’ve all had experiences where a second opinion could really have come in handy. Desperate for help with a particular need, perhaps our roof is leaking during rainy season or a bad tooth is in need of a good dentist, whatever the situation, a referral offers some semblance of reassurance when we don’t know where to turn for help.

But what if we don’t have a first hand referral from a family member, friend or colleague, would we settle for a second or even third hand referral? Sure we would.

The human psyche likes to be reassured when it comes to spending money on something, or especially, trusting someone with our homes or lives. Almost any referral is better than no referral at all.

Haven’t you noticed that you are more inclined to go to a movie or try a restaurant when someone else said how good it was? It didn’t really matter whether you even knew the person or not. Their first hand experience transferred to you, giving you a comfort level that propelled you to go see that movie or eat at that restaurant the next time you were in the neighborhood. I have a friend that every time he orders from a menu at a restaurant he asks the server his or her opinion about what is good on the menu. He likes the reassurance he gets from their recommendation and it affects his decision on what menu item to try.

Whether displayed on Web sites or on the office coffee table, testimonials are used by almost every business. But unless your business can tout well-known clients that impress your prospects, most written testimonials are often disregarded or glossed over. But there’s an amazing thing that happens when someone speaks from the heart and the listener can sense the honesty in that person’s voice. It takes the common customer testimonial to a whole new level of credibility. Because whether it’s heartfelt or put on, most people can tell the difference. And when it’s heartfelt, the listener is moved by what he or she hears.

Just think about radio and how many products have been sold by a mere voice coming through a speaker. With audio testimonials, your business can compete with much bigger companies by leveraging one of the only things you have that they don’t. Your satisfied customers! Recently Mercury car insurance used customer testimonials to sell their services on television. It must have worked because they featured them in all their commercials for months. And through the years, many successful businesses have used testimonials to sell their products and services. Just listen to the radio or watch television anytime to see how many companies still use testimonials to support their claims.

There are several ways to capture a live audio testimonial from your customer and several mediums to use to feature them. With the increase in Internet broadband these past few years, the Web is the perfect place to showcase your audio and/or video testimonials.

My experience is that your satisfied customer is always happy to oblige and help you with your promotional efforts by recording a testimonial about their experience with your business. But remember, their relationship with you is extremely valuable so be considerate by making the experience as painless as possible for them. Sticking a camera in front of their face and asking them questions will be challenging for both you and them, and not always result in the best testimonial, unless your clients are actors and relaxed being in front of a camera. Most likely, your customer participant will feel more comfortable giving his or her testimonial over the telephone and this will result in a more authentic and compelling end result.

There a two ways in which your business can capture audio testimonials from your satisfied customers:

1. Hire a professional review company to help facilitate and record your testimonial participants.

a. A third party interviewer will record your customers for you. This method gives you the benefit of having your testimonials authenticated and saves you the awkwardness of doing it yourself.

2. Find a company that offers an 800 number that can be set up to prompt customer participants to leave a testimonial message.

a. You are responsible to ask your customers to call the specific telephone number where they can leave the testimonial over the voice machine.

Once you’ve got a few or more audio testimonials, place them everywhere you typically advertise. For instance, you can showcase them on:

· Web site pages

o Strategically place your customer reviews on your testimonials page, home page or next to text areas on individual pages for message reinforcement.

· Emails

o Talk to your web master about including a customer testimonial link that can be accessed in your text body, header, bottom or side of your email page.

· On Hold

o Incorporate your audio testimonials into your on hold messaging so that your callers can listen to them while they are waiting to speak with you or a service representative.

· Radio Ads

o Promote your business with a radio ad that features your customer’s testimonials (If it’s good enough for Mercury Insurance and other big companies, why not you?)

Seeing is believing but hearing adds an element of emotion. When your best customers are heard in their own voices touting your products and services, your business has a selling tool that makes selling easier, because no longer is it you selling, but it’s your customer endorsers who are doing the selling for you. Audio testimonials are a priceless reward for a job well done and if you have customers that love what you do, then you deserve to let their voices ring out so that your prospects can hear them singing your praises.