I was recently contacted by a bride about her wedding and she wants to see testimonials from previous clients. Sounds like a reasonable request, but I've never pursued gathering testimonials, and I really don't want other people to bug past clients. As a consumer, I certainly wouldn't like it.
Long story short, she only wanted an hour of coverage on a Saturday and a CD, and the only reason I was considering doing it was because the location was at a state park with a waterfall. I sent her the contract and she brought up the testimonials again. I've showed her numerous full weddings, explained that nearly all our business is from referrals, but I've yet to hear back from her.
I'm inclined to let this one go because it'll free up the date for a more lucrative wedding, but I'm wondering about the next time someone asks about testimonials. Just got me thinking, and I wanted to hear about how others do this.
That would work great, except we don't receive a lot of unsolicited emails gushing with praise. We DO however get a lot of "we saw <previous client's> wedding album and we loved it.." or "<previous client> referred us to you and say you do great work". Not really anything you'd put on a testimonials page on your website, though...
hmmm... if you don't get a lot of nice emails from former clients you can just ask them to write a quick note that you can put on the website if you think they were really happy with your work.
If a bride was happy with your work I think most them wouldn't mind writing a few sentences up for you if you ask them (we've done this a few times too, I just tell them to write 2 or 3 sentences so they don't feel like they need to write an essay for us...)
If someone was happy enough to refer you I'm sure they would write you a quick note...
I save my Thank-You cards from happy couples and they travel around with me on appointments. No-ones asked to see them but they're there just in case! I also post some of the more gushing ones on my website.
