You finish a job well. The customer's happy. You ask if they'd mind leaving a review. They say yes. A few days later, you get: "Great service. Would recommend."
It's not nothing. But it's not doing much work for you either.
Understanding what makes a testimonial actually useful — and how to collect, display, and position them — is one of the higher-leverage things you can do for your website. Here's how to do it properly.
Why Testimonials Matter
Before you contact a tradesperson you've never used before, you want some evidence that they're reliable. Not just claims they make about themselves — actual accounts from real customers who had the experience you're about to have.
This is social proof. It's the reason people check restaurant reviews before booking and look at star ratings before downloading an app. The psychology is simple: if other people have had a good experience, your risk of having a bad one is lower.
For tradespeople, where you're inviting someone into your home and often paying upfront or in stages, the trust requirement is higher than average. Testimonials are the fastest way to build that trust with someone who doesn't know you yet.
They also help with conversion — the point at which a visitor decides to get in touch rather than look elsewhere. Someone on the edge of contacting you who reads three detailed, credible testimonials is far more likely to pick up the phone than someone who sees a generic five-star badge.
What Makes a Good Testimonial
The difference between a useful testimonial and a useless one comes down to specificity.
Useless:
"Brilliant job, very professional. Highly recommend."
Useful:
"Had a water leak coming through the kitchen ceiling on a Saturday morning. Called and got a response within 20 minutes. Job was done by lunchtime, leak sorted, no mess left behind. Reasonable price considering it was a weekend call-out. Will absolutely use again."
The second one tells a prospective customer: this company responds quickly, works at weekends, is tidy, and charges fairly for emergency work. That's five pieces of useful information wrapped in a story a new customer can relate to.
What to aim for in a good testimonial:
- What the problem or job was
- What the experience of working with you was like
- A specific detail or two (speed, tidiness, communication, price)
- An indication of whether they'd use you again
A first name and town adds credibility. A full name is even better if the customer is happy to share it. "Sarah M., Brighton" reads as real. "Anonymous" does not.
How to Ask for Testimonials
The simplest approach is also the most effective: just ask. Most people will say yes if you ask them directly at the end of a job, when you know they're happy.
"Would you mind leaving a quick review? It really helps the business — even just a sentence or two about the job makes a difference."
Then send a follow-up text or email with a direct link to your Google Business Profile review page. Make it as easy as possible. If they have to search for where to leave a review, most people won't bother.
For customers who don't use Google or would prefer not to, ask them to send you a message instead that you can use as a website testimonial with their permission. Most will be fine with that.
Don't ask everyone at once. Build it into your end-of-job routine. One or two genuine testimonials a month adds up quickly.
Where to Put Them
Testimonials don't belong only on a dedicated testimonials page — they should appear throughout your website at the moments when visitors need reassurance most.
Homepage. Two or three of your strongest testimonials, positioned after your service overview and before your contact section. This is where first-time visitors land and decide whether to stay.
Service pages. A testimonial from a customer who had that specific service done. Someone reading your boiler installation page will find it far more convincing to read about a real boiler installation than a generic review about you being a good plumber.
Contact page. This is where visitors are on the edge of committing. A couple of short, credible testimonials here can tip people who are almost there but still a bit uncertain.
A dedicated testimonials page is worth having for visitors who want to do more due diligence before calling. But don't let it be the only place reviews appear. Spread them around wherever doubt is most likely to creep in.
Using Google Reviews on Your Website
If you have Google reviews, they're worth surfacing on your website as well. The Google logo carries trust — people know those reviews can't be faked as easily as reviews you've typed up yourself.
You can embed a Google Reviews widget, or simply screenshot a handful of your best reviews and display them as images with a caption. Either way, showing visitors that your Google rating is high — and letting them read the actual reviews — reinforces everything else on your site.
If you don't have many Google reviews yet, building that up should be a priority alongside collecting website testimonials. The two reinforce each other.
Video Testimonials
If you can get a customer to film a 30-second clip on their phone saying something positive about your work, use it. Video testimonials convert better than text because they're much harder to fake and carry more emotional weight.
You don't need it to be polished. A slightly shaky, genuine clip of a real customer standing in front of the work you did is more convincing than anything scripted or professionally produced. Ask satisfied customers directly — some will say yes, and the ones who do will give you some of your most valuable marketing content.
Testimonials don't require a big investment of time or money. They just require asking, collecting, and placing them where they'll do the most good. Start with the last three customers you know were happy, ask them directly, and go from there.
At DCS, I build testimonials sections into every trades website I create — positioned where they'll actually convert visitors. Get in touch if you'd like to talk through how your business can make the most of its reviews.