Why You Should Film Customer Testimonial Videos

Picture this, if you will: It’s Friday. You’ve had a long week, and you’re craving a good steak. You do a quick search online of best places for steak in your area, and come up with two options:

Restaurant 1’s website claims that their steak is the tastiest around (according to content written by the restaurant itself).

Restaurant 2 is purported to have the best steak in the area, as well. However, the difference is that you learn this via reviews of the restaurant on Facebook, written by customers who have dined there over the last few months.

Which candidate is going to win your dinner business?

You realize that any restaurant could claim to be the best at a certain dish or cuisine, but when a positive assessment comes from someone who has no ‘steak’ (see what we did there?) in the business, it carries a lot more weight. An unbiased opinion is always more persuasive.

‍Restaurant 2 it is!

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We have no doubt that your company does stellar work and that your customers are in great hands with you. But, regardless of how well you sell your services, you still can’t change the source: you.

‍Testimonials’ strength lies in the fact that they come from a source outside your business, who has seen proof of your work and was happy with the outcome. This impartial opinion fosters positivity and confidence in your prospects.

‍What is a testimonial video?

‍Before we get any deeper, let’s go over what a testimonial video is. A video testimonial is simply an on-camera endorsement of your services from a customer. The best ones are straight-forward, short, and upbeat. Though videos require more work than simply pasting a quote or two on to your website, they provide an organic way for prospects to learn about how great you are, straight from the horses (er… your customer’s) mouth.

‍Are videos more persuasive than text?

‍Without a doubt, yes. Because viewers can see your testimonial-offering customer in the video, there is an automatic feeling of authenticity from the beginning that’s inherently lacking when it comes to text testimonials.

Seeing a homeowner or business owner talk about how satisfied they are with your services can be a key factor in your home-owning and business-owning prospects (who personally identify with the customers in the video) choosing to use your company.

‍What do I need to consider before I make a testimonial video?

‍Even though videos do naturally come across as more authentic than text testimonials, that doesn’t give you free reign to hand your customer a script and tell them to read it to the camera. We recommend brainstorming a short list of questions before filming, and passing them along to your interviewee a day before filming. This will give them time to review the questions and consider how they’d like to answer them, so they won’t be blindsided when the camera is rolling.

Some questions to consider asking:

 
• If someone called you and asked why they should use our services, what would you tell them?
 
• What would have prevented you from using us?
 
• Where did you hear about us?
 
• Overall, what was the experience like?

What do I need to think about during filming?

‍Don’t get hung up on purchasing an expensive camera, especially if you’re just starting out with video testimonials. You can even use your phone! Just be sure to shoot it using widescreen (turn the phone horizontally), and steady it against something.

Be mindful, too, of the location you choose to film – it can make a difference in how watchable the video is. Try filming in front of or inside of the customer’s home or business.

Another important consideration is audio quality. You’ll want to avoid locations that produce an echo, and busy places with lots of people talking or traffic noise. While you certainly can edit the audio post-production (after you’ve filmed), ideally you wouldn’t have to do too much to it. We recommend considering a wireless lavalier that you can run into your camera.

Also, make sure there’s enough room on your recording device for the whole interview (plus some extra in case the discussion runs longer than anticipated).

‍What do I need to do after filming?

‍After you’ve thanked your customer for their time and thoughts, it’s time to start editing. This can be as long or as short of a process as you’d like, depending on how filming went and what you’d like your finished product to look like.

Try to edit the content down to focus on the most glowing praise, and keep it short – we recommend no more than a couple minutes. Remember, people tend to have very short attention spans!

‍Once I have a finished video… what do I do with it?

‍First, send it to the featured customer and get their approval. Then… share it!

Create an email drip campaign in ServiceMonster 6 for people you haven’t serviced in a while, and include the video to convey the voice of your customers.

Create a ‘case study’ section on your website and include the video.

Share on your social media channels, like Facebook and Twitter, and create a ‘testimonials’ playlist on YouTube and place the video in there.

Also, if you have a salesman, be sure to share the video with them. They can use it as a tool when chatting with new prospects.

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Customer testimonial videos are unique because they’re persuasive and very effectively able to establish credibility for your company. Though they can be a bit labor intensive, we strongly believe that they’re worth doing because of the tremendous boost they can offer your business. Give them a try… and let us know how it goes!