Your existing customers can provide a firsthand account of their experience doing business with you.  If you’ve done a good job with tending to their needs, going out of your way to make sure they’re happy and helping them find the perfect solution, they are going to be happy to let people know about their experience.  Real estate case studies or testimonials are marketing gold for commercial real estate websites because people like doing business with proven performers, your client’s testimonials will let other businesses know you are exactly that.

Testimonials establish trust and encourage prospective clients to take action. They also help with search engine optimization because a testimonial page serves as one more indexed page on your website containing content and keywords you’re trying to rank for.

With all these great benefits, adding customer testimonials to your commercial real-estate website seems like a no-brainer.  True, but the reality is a lot of people are hesitant, even scared, to ask their customers for a testimonial.  The good news is that there’s a simple one step process to acquiring this kind of endorsement; just ask.  Often, other businesses are excited to provide a testimonial because it provides some exposure for them and maybe even a link back to their site.  Asking also has the residual effect of deepening the two-way relationship you have with your customer.

There are different ways of going about asking your customer for a testimonial.  You’ll probably find that using some combination of these will yield the best results for your business.

Setup an interview – This can be a formal or informal discussion with your client’s where you capture their experiences in written form or on video.   Be sure to ask them about their experience working with you, how their new space is helping their business grow and whether they would recommend you to other business.  Try to strike an emotional chord which will add to the impact.

Channel your customer – Some customers are really pressed for time or shy about being interviewed.  One technique that works well in soliciting testimonials from these individuals and others is to do your best to write-up your customer’s experience, from their perspective, about working with you.  Then, just send it to them and ask for their approval.  If you’ve got a good working relationship with your customer, they’re usually happy to help.

Be social – Using social media, you can solicit testimonials simply by encouraging visitors, followers and connections to share a review about your business.  If you’re on Facebook as a local business, your page has a reviews tab.  While LinkedIn best serves individuals in the form of recommendations, there’s nothing stopping your individual employees from receiving recommendations when they’ve left a client happy.  If you’re using Youtube to host your virtual video floor plans or show other videos of a property, encourage viewers to comment on these as well.

Testimonials can create a big positive impact for the content on your commercial real-estate website.  With a little searching, you’ll find lots of good examples of testimonials you may want to emulate.  Always remember, good testimonials should come naturally from your customer and not because you offered an incentive in exchange.  Most times, all you’ll have to do is ask.