A VA is one of those types of business that makes other businesses look good. They, along with the likes of ghost writers, IT support, marketing services and other ‘background’ service providers, work to help other businesses grow. But often, they’re not publicly recognised for their hard work, as their sole aim IS to make that other person look great and stay out of the spotlight themselves! Not all business owners want to admit that they have a team of people working behind the scenes for them either – and this can make it difficult to use the experiences to grow your own VA business. Therefore, it’s so important to collect testimonials whether you can.

Most successful VAs get their clients from referrals and recommendations. Word of mouth is an essential part of this process. However, before a recommendation becomes your client, they may well want to see either examples of your work or some testimonials, to alleviate their fears over taking the next step and hiring you – this is where testimonials are worth their weight in gold.

Without a testimonial from your clients, there’s no other way of acknowledging how much effort and skill you’ve been putting into each assignment and/or client you take on. Most business owners don’t want to share details of specific projects you’ve worked on, but are more than happy to say they have used the services of a VA and share their thoughts on the general experience, in the form of a testimonials.

So, how do ask for a kick ass testimonial from your clients? Here’s some tips to help make the process of testimonial collecting easy and effective for you.

Tip #1: Conduct a survey

You can send a survey at any time, so why not send one out to your previous clients? You can explain that testimonials help potential new clients feel reassured about working with you, and then explain you have a quick survey, that will only take a couple of minutes to complete.

The questions you ask could include asking them to share the positive experiences they had, their biggest fears prior to working with you, and the successes they had as a result of your help.

This can also be something you set up to automatically happen, at the successful completion of one-off projects and end of contracts etc.

Tip #2: Listen and watch for those praiseworthy comments

Many people will casually throw in a compliment during a conversation, whilst sharing something on social media or when replying to one of your emails. These natural quotes are great to use as testimonials – so why not just ask if you have permission to use them?

Tip #3: Simply ask for a testimonial!

Finally, don’t be afraid to just ask for a testimonial. You don’t have to wait until one is given to you! There can be any number of reasons why someone hasn’t offered to give you a testimonial in the past – varying from not thinking about it, right through to not knowing what to say. Make it super easy, by letting them know you’re looking for clients to provide a testimonial, and then ask if they’d like to write one for you. You can make even easier, by offering them a simple layout to follow – by answering the questions mentioned earlier!

Testimonials are essential for your VA business, so what strategies can you put into place, to make collecting them super easy for you and your clients? Why not make a start by following the tips above and, if you have any other great testimonial collecting tips – please feel free to leave them in the comments box below!

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