There’s no doubt word of mouth works for any business offline and online. When you have an online business, you may even need it much more, because you have to prove to your audience on the web that your services are as great as you claim them to be. How are you going to do that? Simply by providing “Verifiable Testimonials”!

What’s Verifiable Testimonial?

All tourism-related businesses approve that the testimony or recommendation of previous clients can make a big difference in the decision of the future clients. However, this is only true when people can trust it, believe it and rely on it.

In other words, there are tons of websites that have a list of so-called testimonials where you see Jack has said so and Elizabeth has said so about us. Will this be enough? Of course not! Who knows they’re real people if they cannot be verified?

To help your audience believe your testimonials or recommendations of previous travelers, you must convince your audience the people saying them are really previous clients and what they say about you is true. If you make it possible for everyone else to get in touch with those people who have approved you, you’ll convince the potential customers that what you say and what these people say are all true about you.

How to Create Verifiable Testimonials

There are several ways of achieving this goal. Here are some of the most reliable methods:

#1: Ask for Recommendations on LinkedIn

The very powerful point about LinkedIn recommendations is the fact that only members can write about your services and endorses you. Therefore, when people view your profile, they will be able to follow the links and find out about the people who have endorsed you, contact them and ask more. Above all, they can trust such testimonial is genuine and those people have really liked your services.

Now, you can have a link from your site to your testimonials at LinkedIn and send your website readers to your profile at LinkedIn. This provides more proof that you have real people talking about you.

#2: Ask for Recommendation on YouTube

Another great way of having real people approving the high quality of your tourism-related services is to make a video of them talking about their amazing experience traveling with you, staying in your hotel, etc. If these people have a YouTube channel themselves and upload such clips under their names, it’s even better as your site viewers will easily know who they are and how to get in touch with them. If not, they’re still real people appearing in front of the camera.

If you prefer to use another video sharing site like Vimeo, etc, that will be fine. YouTube is just another such website to create verifiable testimonial in it.

#3: Ask for Testimonials at Your Service/Product Page

Every travel-related website has got a page for its services/products. If you activate comments or feedback functionality at these pages, you can then ask your former clients to go to those pages and write their ideas about your services/products and tick the comment follow-up box below them. It’s very useful to mention their site/blog if they have one too. This provides the possibility of being available for further verification or questions.

To be able to arrange for such verifiable testimonials, you need to have a clients email address. So, it’s always a good idea to have such information as phone numbers, email address, website, etc of your customers so that you can contact them later for such purposes.

#4: Ask for Testimonial at Your Social Website Pages/Profiles

Today a great majority of online businesses are present at social sites and have their own business pages/profiles. You must have yours by now too. For example, your former customers can be invited to leave comments on your posts at facebook. This will be a powerful social proof for those who follow your posts, read your content and watch the photos/videos you share.

On facebook, you can create photo album of your destination, service amenities, etc and share it with your audience including the former clients. Then, their comments, likes, etc will be all there at that particular reachable album for everyone who visits your photo albums later.

Important Note:

Without providing great services, you cannot expect your former customers to endorse you as explained above. That’s the first and foremost priority you should have at your business. The real customers who are fair and honest will never provide positive feedback if there’s none provided by you in the first place.

How Do YOU Get Verifiable Testimonials for Your Business?

I’d like to invite you to share how you get such endorsement, approval or testimonial for your tourism-related services/product. Please help this post get richer so that it’s more valuable to those who want to use it.