As a buyer, I treat written ( website) testimonials with a grain of salt and rarely read them. To me thay are like references in CV's no-one is going to write a bad reference or testimonial
If I am looking to buy a big ticket item. I generally go with brands I have either bought before or with one's that close friends and family have.
Case Study: Friend needed to buy a new washing machine..she asked around and had pretty well decided on Brand A (that many of us have had for years with no problems)..In the course of her decision she asked a repair man what he thought. "hey mr repair man who MAKES A LIVING out of fixing broken manchines, what is the best one to buy...which one's DON't you have to work on??...all my friends are recomending A. answer "Oh noooo don't buy brand A..they are just a rebranded X and have not good parts etc etc etc...buy Brand B (eurpean) they are great, hardly ever see one, parts readily available here in this town etc etc."
So she goes with the "expert" and guess what months later MAJOR problems (out of warranty of course)
Gee says mr repair man grinning from ear to ear at the juicy bill you have been unlucky.
On his website he has glowing testamonials about how great his service is, quick, easily available parts etc etc etc. hmmmm wonder why? (but hey I am the queen of cynics
)
So, word of mouth is still the best form of testimonial. Try to create word of mouth by havng a refferral programme in place.
At Abacus Screens I send a thank you card out to every client about a week after completion(and payment) of the job. The card itself is NOT branded in anyway apart from being green which matches our brand. It simply says Thank you and has 6 "referral cards" to pass on to friends. When a referral card comes back to us and we get a job out of it, the original customer gets sent another card and a scratchie ticket.
here is the card
http://www.abacusscreens.com.au/mark...hank%20you.pdf