Customer testimonials for coaches and consultants
When you sell your own time and judgement, a testimonial does the work of a reference check. The best ones describe a specific change in the client's own words, and they are collected at the right milestone.
Ask at a milestone, not at the end
Clients are most articulate when something has just gone well: a project delivered, a goal reached, a hard decision made. Ask then, not months later when the detail has faded. A short message on WhatsApp usually gets a better response than a long email.
Ask about the change, not about you
- What was the situation before we started?
- What has changed since?
- What would you tell someone thinking about working with me?
Answers that describe the before and after are far more convincing than praise for you.
Keep the claims honest
Publish the client's words as they gave them. Do not edit them into promises, and do not add results the client did not claim. Where outcomes are regulated, for example in education coaching or financial advice, the rules on claims apply to what you publish, not only to what the client said.
Check your field's rules first. Some professions, for example doctors and lawyers, have professional rules that limit publishing client or patient testimonials, and claims about results are regulated in some areas such as education coaching. Check what your regulator allows before you publish, and only publish what the customer actually said.
Use them where prospects look
Embed them on your services page with one line of code. Send a link to your public testimonial page when a prospect asks for references. Video testimonials are especially useful in sales conversations on WhatsApp, because the prospect can watch one in under a minute.
How many do you need?
Fewer than you think. Three or four specific testimonials from different kinds of client beat a wall of ten vague ones. Aim for variety: a first-time client, a repeat client, someone who was sceptical at the start. A prospect looks for someone like themselves.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking at the end of the engagement. By then the best moments are months old.
- Cherry-picking one line from a long answer. Publish what they said, in context, or not at all.
- Posting without permission. A client can say something kind in a call and still not want it on your website. Ask each time.
- Writing it yourself. Fake or staff-written testimonials are prohibited by review platforms and can breach consumer-protection rules.
Common questions
Is a video testimonial better than a written one?
Video shows the real person and is harder to dismiss, but a specific written testimonial is far better than a vague video. Offer both and let the client choose.
Can I show testimonials on my own website?
Yes. Published testimonials can be embedded on your site with a single script tag, and new ones appear without editing the page.
Try it on your next customer
Send a link, they record a short video or write a few lines, and you approve what goes live. The Free plan needs no card.
Start free