Testimonials built from your customers' words

Customer testimonials: we collect and shape them

Customer testimonials for your website come from your real buyers. We ask the person a few questions, build a text from their answers, format it for the page and get their approval. We don't write testimonials from invented people: not for your website, and not for Google reviews.

Why we don't write invented ones

01 Methods

How to collect customer testimonials: three ways

The short answer: a testimonial comes from the customer who is asked at the right moment and with a specific question. There are three ways to do it, and they don't replace one another.

You can do the first two yourself: there is a letter template and a list of questions below. The third one we take on.
Method	How it works	What you get	Weak spot
Request by email or message	You send the customer a link to a form or a Google review page	Many short ratings	“Everything was great, thanks”
Survey after purchase	3 or 4 questions through an email tool or a form	Numbers (rating, likelihood to recommend)	Few words to use on a site
Interview	A 10 to 15 minute call, or five questions in a messenger	A story with details and quotes	Takes the customer's time

The best time to ask is right after the customer has received the result: the parcel arrived, the report was closed, the site went live. Two weeks later the person no longer remembers the details, and details are what make a testimonial worth reading. Ask in person, or on behalf of a named individual, not on behalf of a “quality department.”

The first two methods give you volume. Only the third gives you depth. If a service page needs three testimonials that answer a buyer's doubts, three interviews work better than thirty ratings.

02 The process

What we do: interview, write, get approval

Satisfied customers rarely write on their own, and when you ask them, they answer “all good, thanks.” We take over the conversation and the writing. One testimonial takes three to five days, and most of that is waiting until your customer finds a free minute.

01
You name the customers
We need a name, a contact and a couple of words on what the person bought from you. Warn them that we'll be writing on your behalf. We never contact anyone without that heads-up.
→ a list with contacts
02
We ask questions
A 10 to 15 minute call, or five questions in a messenger, whichever suits your customer. We ask what things were like before the purchase, what doubts they had and what changed afterwards.
→ a recording or a thread of messages
03
We build the text
We cut, remove repetition and put the strongest detail first. The words stay the author's. Anything the person didn't say won't be in the testimonial.
→ a draft testimonial
04
We get approval
The author reads the text, changes whatever they want and confirms in writing that it can be published with their name, job title or photo.
→ the testimonial and permission to publish

03 Examples

Customer testimonial examples, before and after shaping

On the left is what a customer writes in answer to “Could you leave us a review?” On the right are the same person's words after a short conversation. These are teaching examples, and the companies and people in them are invented.

Roofing crewtestimonial for a service page

Loved it, great guys. Highly recommend.

We needed a crew who could get the roof covered before the rainy season. Of three quotes, theirs was the only one that priced every line. They showed up on the day they'd named in advance, stripped the old roof and laid the metal tiles in four days. After the first downpour, the attic was dry.

what we asked: “Who else did you compare us with, and why did you choose us?” The answer brought out three quotes and the line-by-line pricing, which is exactly what the next customer will look at.

Bookkeeping for freelancerstestimonial for the home page

We've worked together for a long time, everything is clear and on time. Thanks for the cooperation.

I used to do my own books and paid a late-filing penalty twice. In the year and a half since I switched to them, I haven't had one. What I value most is the reminder three days before every payment: I open my bank app and pay, with nothing to calculate.

what we asked: “What changed after you started working with us?” People bring up penalties and reminders on their own once they're asked about before and after.

Online storetestimonial next to a product card

Good product, fast delivery, recommend this store.

I ordered a jacket without knowing my size. The chat assistant asked about my height and shoulders and told me to go up one size. It arrived in two days, fit properly, and I didn't have to return it.

what we asked: “What worried you before you ordered?” The doubt about size and the answer to it are more useful to a future buyer than the word “fast.”

04 Questions

What we ask your customer: five testimonial questions

We ask these in every conversation. You can send them to customers without us: a specific question gets a specific answer. This is also the honest answer to “how to write a customer testimonial.”

Question 1

What was going on before you came to us?

It gives a starting point. Without one, the result has nothing to be compared with.

Question 2

Who else did you consider, and why did you pick us?

The customer names your advantage themselves, and it is often not the one you put in your ads.

Question 3

What worried you before you ordered?

The next buyer has the same doubts. A testimonial that names them and settles them answers that buyer in place of your sales rep.

Question 4

What changed afterwards? Numbers if you can

Days, dollars, the number of inquiries, hours saved. Any number the customer is willing to share publicly will do.

Question 5

Who would you recommend us to, and who not?

The most honest question of the five. An answer like “I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who needs it done yesterday” earns more trust than praise with no caveats.

05 Template

How to ask for a testimonial: a ready-made email template

A request works when it is short, comes from a real person and asks one specific question. Below is a template you can copy and fill in with your own details.

Request email template

Subject. Helena, could you help us with one answer?

Hi Helena, this is Maria from Company Name. We finished your order last week, and I'd like to know whether it went the way you expected.

Could you tell me what worried you most before you decided to work with us, and what changed afterwards? Two or three sentences is plenty.

If you're happy for me to, I'd like to put your answer on our website with your name and job title. I'll send you the text for approval first.

why it's built this way: one question instead of “please rate us,” permission to publish asked for directly, and approval promised before anything goes live

Example

Why this email works

It uses the person's name and comes from a real human. The question points at a specific moment: before and after. The customer doesn't have to fill in anything, just reply to the email.

A short testimonial for a website is built the same way: the situation, the doubt, the result and a tip for the next customer.

06 Principle

Why we don't write fake testimonials

We decline requests such as “write a few testimonials so the page doesn't look empty.” We also don't take orders for reviews on Google or your website from people who never bought from you. There are three reasons, and each of them concerns your money and your reputation.

Google's policies prohibit reviews that don't reflect a genuine experience, such reviews get removed, and the listing behind them can be restricted. A fabricated testimonial is false information that nudges a person toward a purchase, and consumer protection and unfair competition rules cover misleading buyers. In the US and the EU, commissioning fake reviews is specifically prohibited.

Above all, a fake testimonial shows. It has none of the details that only someone who really bought would know. Three glowing paragraphs without a single such detail make a visitor more suspicious than a page with no testimonials at all.

07 If you have none

Where to start if you don't have a single testimonial yet

Start with one. Name a customer you get along with, and we'll talk to them. One detailed testimonial next to a service is more useful than ten lines of “loved it.”

If you have no customers at all yet, it's more honest to show what the service includes, the prices and the guarantees. In other words, make the service page copy itself stronger and return to testimonials after your first orders. For a longer story with numbers, there is the case study.

Testimonials in other languages

If you sell abroad, we write testimonials in English, and for Ukrainian customers in Ukrainian. We talk to the customer in their language, and the format stays the same: name, job title, company. More about languages is on the page about copywriting in other languages. In English, the words “testimonial” and “customer review” are used almost interchangeably, though a testimonial is usually the one a company selects and publishes on its own site.

08 Formats

How to present testimonials on a website: text, video, screenshot

Under each testimonial put the name, the city or the job title with the company and, with the author's consent, a photo or a link to their profile. And place the testimonial next to what it talks about: words about delivery sit beside the delivery terms.

01Short testimonial40 to 80 wordsFor a service page, a product card or the block beside a lead form. One situation, one detail, one result.
02Extended storyup to 250 wordsFor the home page and a “What our customers say” page: what it was like before, how they chose, what changed.
03Video testimonialsquestions and textWe don't film. We prepare three or four questions so your customer speaks to the point, and from the finished recording we make a text version and a caption for the page. A staged video needs a script.
04Screenshot of a messagewith the author's permissionA message like “thanks, everything arrived intact” can be shown if the author doesn't mind. Hide their phone number and add a caption saying which order it was about. Such a screenshot also works for a social media post.
05Google reviewyour business profileA Google review is left by the customer from their own account. We prepare the questions and the request email, and the person writes the review text. That keeps it honest.

09 Replies

How to respond to a negative review: example replies

Everyone who looks you up on Google reads your reply to criticism, so we write it for the next buyer and not for the author.

Negative reviewdelivery was late

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. This is unacceptable and we will learn from it. Best regards, the team.

Daniel, I'm sorry your order arrived a day late. The delay was ours: a warehouse system failure on Monday. We've refunded your delivery fee to your card, and Anna has sent the receipt to your email. Please write to us if anything is still unresolved.

why: the reply names the cause, the action and a person. A generic apology without an action changes nothing and reads like a brush-off.

Reply within a day, not after a week.
Don't argue and don't try to prove the customer wrong. Even if they are, other people are reading.
Don't put personal order details in a public reply.
End with a way forward: where to write and what has been done.

We can write reply templates in your voice. If you need replies to specific reviews, we discuss it separately and quote the price once we see the volume.

10 Prices

How much testimonial collection and writing costs

One testimonial costs from $150, with the interview and approval included. Five testimonials for your service pages come to $750. If a conversation turns up a story with numbers, we can expand it into a case study.

Prices are “from.” We name the amount and the turnaround before work starts.
Service	What's included	Turnaround	Price
Customer testimonials	Interview, copy, approval by the customer	3–5 days	from $150 / testimonial
Case studies	Interview, structure, copy, client sign-off	5–7 days	from $700 / case study
About page copy	Founder interview, structure, copy	4 days	from $600 / page
Social media copy	Post copy, hook, call to action, hashtags if needed	from 3 posts a day	from $60 / post

What the client pays for

A testimonial costs less for the writing than for the work with people: agreeing a time with your customer, holding the conversation, picking out the main point and getting their consent. An author and an editor work on the text, and the editor checks it against what was said in the conversation. Freelance marketplaces charge less for a testimonial, but they sell something else: a text with no author behind it that nobody has confirmed.

11 Questions

Questions about customer testimonials

How do I collect customer testimonials?

There are three ways: a request email, a survey after purchase and an interview. The first two bring many ratings. The interview gives stories with details, which is what convinces new buyers. We take on the third way and show you how to run the first two.

What should I ask a customer?

What it was like before, why they chose you, what worried them before ordering, what changed and who they'd recommend you to. The five questions are broken down earlier on this page.

How do I ask a customer for a testimonial?

With a short email from a real person, sent right after the result, with one question and a direct request for permission to publish. There's a ready-made template on this page.

How should testimonials be presented on a website?

With a name, a job title or a city and, with consent, a photo. Put each one next to the thing it is about, not on a separate page in the footer. For long stories, keep a quote on top and the full text below.

Can you edit the customer's words?

Yes, but only with their consent. We shorten, remove repetition and put the sentences in order, and the meaning stays. The author reads the finished text and confirms it before publication.

How much does a testimonial cost?

The price is from $150 / testimonial. That covers the interview, the text and the approval. If there are several testimonials, each is priced separately.

How many days does it take to collect a testimonial?

Three to five days. Most of that is waiting for your customer to reply, so it helps to warn them in advance.

Do you make video testimonials?

We don't film them, but we prepare the questions for your customer, and from the finished recording we make a text version and a caption. A staged video needs a separate script.

Do you write testimonials without a customer?

No. A testimonial without a real author is a forgery, and we don't make it for a website or for Google. Everything we write rests on the words of a real person who has approved the text.

How do I reply to a negative review?

Quickly, without arguing, naming the cause and a specific action. There's a before-and-after reply example above. If you need them, we can write templates in your tone.

12 Related

What else builds trust in a page

Roholeva is a copywriting, promotion and web development studio. The testimonials, the page copy and the website itself can come from one team, so each testimonial sits where it does its job.