Testimonials and trust

Thursday, July 5, 2018

In the past I have been fortunate enough to acquire most of my work via ‘word of mouth’. This is lovely way to meet new clients as you start the relationship with a certain degree of trust on both sides.

When considering employing an unfamiliar person found via an internet search that initial trust is not there.

Testimonials by existing clients seem like a good way of demonstrating what you are like. Perhaps rather naively I started my testimonials page page, by emailing clients and asking if they would be willing to email a review back to me. If they did I published their review.

What if a reviewer wanted to update their review to let everyone know that I am now a complete rogue?

After adding a few reviews, it occurred to me that this method was a little flawed. What if a reviewer wanted to update their review to let everyone know that I am now a complete rogue?

In an attempt to overcome this issue, I am embarking on an experiment using a company called Trustpilot.

People can visit the Trustpilot website to leave star ratings and reviews for companies they have purchased products or services from. They can go back and edit these reviews if they wish. I can reply, publicly, to reviews that I recieve on Trustpilot. What I can’t do is remove or edit those reviews.

What if someone leaves a bad review?

What if someone leaves a bad review? It will make me feel pretty bad. Perhaps if I was a famous actor I could refuse to read my reviews. But I am not and I need to know if someone is unhappy about the way I have treated them. If I am aware of an issue I can try to fix it. If I can’t fix it I can at least make sure I don't make the same mistake again.

I do have some protection from bad reviews being placed by people who have not had any dealings with me. In this situation Trustpilot could ask a reviewer to provide evidence of their purchase. If the evidence is not forthcoming, then it is likely that the review will be removed.

For the time being I will leave some ‘hand written’ reviews on my home and testimonial pages. Above these will be a Trustpilot Trust Box. The Trustbox will display some stars, the number of reviews I have received, and a link to my reviews on the Trustpilot website.

If I have worked for you before I would be very grateful if you would leave a review. You can use the ‘Trustpilot Review Collector’ below.