How Do I Ask For Testimonials Or Reviews?

Jun 9

Kaely Harrod 00:04
Welcome to doula Tips and Tits. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaely Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born 12 nearly 13 years ago. I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League Leader, and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business, it is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Today, we're talking about a little bit of a more practical question, which is how do I ask for testimonials or reviews? Now, this is a doula podcast. So we're talking about doula clients primarily. And I'm going to talk about a couple of different ways for you to get reviews and why they matter. So if you're looking up a restaurant, or a store, or a doctor's office, a dentist and eye doctor, whatever, you're probably looking at the ratings that they have online, how many stars do they have? How many people recommend them? What do people say about it? And sometimes it's things like when I'm looking at something on Amazon, I'm looking at like, Okay, does this thing run big or small? Is this it? You know, is it good quality or low quality? I'm looking at those kinds of keywords in a review. But when I'm looking at a business, I'm looking like, how was people? How were people's experiences here? Right? Like, what did? What did they experience with the provider here? Or the staff people here? What was the ease of booking appointments and things like that, right? And so what you want in your business is over time to have a reputation and, and kind of a solid review online, that you're able to use that as social proof, right? Because that is proof. It's proof that you're amazing as a doula and really most people hiring you unless their repeat clients haven't worked with you as a doula yet, right? So they're hiring you to do a service that they haven't seen you in action doing. And so that those online reviews speak volumes about who you are as a person, and also how you come to this work and how you treat your clients. So first, I want to talk about a couple different places that you can have reviews. So one is on Google. So if you have a business, and you have not yet listed on Google, I do recommend doing that. I would honestly just Google. I don't mean that to be ridiculous. I would search online. How to list my business on Google, because that's how you're going to get really clear step by step instructions on that. The second thing is if you have a social media account, on Facebook, people are able to recommend you and then leave like actual commentary about it. The third place that doulas can do this specifically is with doula match, where people can write reviews on doula match about you and they have to kind of verify who they are so that they're so that doula matches, not worried that you are writing reviews on behalf of other people. So the way that I give these links to clients is at the end of a time together at the end of our services, I leave, I send an email to them. It's like follow up email. And I say here are some ways that you can leave a review. And I usually say I would love for you to leave a review in all three places if you're able to, but if you're not able to even just one would be great. I also have started asking folks if I can then use that review on my website. And on social media because places like Instagram or Tik Tok you can include a testimonial and like a video, make it into a graphic if you want to. If you want an example of that you're welcome to go to my Instagram at Herat doula h a r o d DDOU. La and that I have a highlight there that is testimonials. And you'll be able to see kind of the format of what I put them in. I just make a thing in Canva. And then I put it on there and people are able to go and kind of look through my testimonials. And the same as aren't true. On my website. I have a whole I have kind of testimonials sprinkled in throughout the different pages. And then I also have a whole page about testimonials as well. So that's really my recommendation in terms of getting people to give you testimonials. The other thing to think about is when someone tells you something amazing. Ask them if you can use it as a testimony. We'll give you an example of this. I ran my first free doula class in March of 2023. And at the end of it, I offered a bunch of strategy calls, I got a bunch of people signed up for them. It was very exciting. And then I had a conversation with a couple different doulas, and probably within like a week to two weeks, a couple of them emailed me back, saying like, Oh, my gosh, what you shared with me, what you coached me on already has helped in this amazing way. And this was so incredibly helpful for me, and I emailed them back. Oh, my goodness, thank you so much for sharing this with me. I'm so excited for you that this is the case. Are you okay with me sharing this online? And, and I'll say sometimes, like, I'll take your name out of it, or whatever. And they're like, Oh, yes, absolutely. 100% I'm like, amazing, wonderful. So then I'm able to take their words and share them as more social proof that my my folks that are working with me in the client in like a doula coaching capacity, are really growing and expanding their business, and they're loving what they're getting in terms of quality, right? And so that's another way to think about asking, like, if if someone emails you or text you, like, I don't know what I would have done without you. You're an amazing doula. Then you can also just ask them, Hey, would you mind if I shared that as a testimonial online, right? And oftentimes, people are gonna say, Sure, go for it, because they love you. And they want to share how much they love you. Right? And so you're probably going to hear that from folks that people are gonna say, yes, absolutely. I would love for you to share that online. So I hope that is helpful in terms of getting you started. I would love for you, if you jump over to Instagram, if you're not already following me. Please do that. And then you'll hear about new episodes, you'll hear when I'm having free master classes, which I try to do really regularly. So you'll see that frequently. You can kind of get some free education that way. And then you also can send me a message and let me know what has been most helpful to you about this podcast. As a reminder, to all of you beautiful, beautiful listeners. I love it when you send me a question. And I would absolutely love to include your question in the 2023 episodes, because it really is awesome to be able to do that. The other huge benefit to you is I will give you a shout out. So when I'm posting about this episode on social media, I'll tag you and say this is the person who asked this question, and then you're also getting some exposure. So please do send me a question that you have for the podcast, one that you would like for me to answer or send me a question that you just would like for me to answer anyway, without the podcast. I would love to connect with you and get to know a little bit about your business and get to support and encourage you online. Okay, until the next episode, I wish you well informed consent filled experiences. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula Tips and Tips podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at Herat doula, so we can celebrate alongside you. If you found this podcast helpful. We would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment it is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around

Business reviews are a big part of social proof! Doulas need reviews and recommendations from current and past clients in order to get traction with future clients. The reality is that it can be tricky to get reviews either because you’re nervous to ask or because your clients just had a baby! Keep listening to hear what my favorite way to ask is!

Before we dive into HOW I want to hammer down the WHY! Imagine looking something up online. Anything. From restaurants to shoes to makeup, you probably look at reviews! I know I do. I read all the reviews. Does this shirt run small? How’s the quality of this backpack? Does this water bottle leak? I am looking for all kinds of information for various businesses and products.

The tricky thing about doula work is that you’re not going to have a trial run with folks. You’re their doula only when they are in labor and before that they don’t know exactly what the experience with you will be like. This is where reviews come in. Personal referrals and written and video reviews allow clients to know what to expect before hiring you and hearing what other people have experienced with you as their support person!

Another way to get reviews is to ask people if you can use their kind words on your website or social media. If you head over to instagram.com/harroddoula look at my highlight of testimonials and you’ll see how I use these online and save them for others to read!

Key Takeaways:

I ask in a follow-up email after our final postpartum visit
I send links for Google Business, Doula Match and Facebook
I ask clients to leave a review at each place if possible and ALSO ask if I can share their review online
Just like everything, this is a muscle you have to learn to flex!

CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram

https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach

https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula

Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services

It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class

Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay