How do you get testimonials from customers?
Ask every customer at one fixed moment, right after a result they can name, and make replying take two minutes. Then offer to draft the quote from their own words and publish only the version they approve. Four steps cover it for a small B2B team:
Pick a trigger that follows a win
Choose one event the customer can see: the first report that shows a result, a go-live date, a renewal. If you are still setting up that first win, start with a plan for a new customer's first 30 days. A fixed trigger also means you ask everyone who reaches it, which matters for the rules further down.
Ask for a reply in the email itself
Three short questions they can answer in the email thread are less work for them than a long form. Before, after, and what they would tell a peer is enough.
Offer to draft it from their words
Plenty of customers stall at a blank page. Pull their own sentences from emails, call notes or support threads, shape them into two or three lines, and ask for a yes or an edit.
Get an explicit yes and keep it
Save the approval email with the final wording, where it will appear and the date. If the product changes a lot, ask again. The FTC's Endorsement Guides set that duty for expert and celebrity endorsers; it is a sensible habit for customer quotes too.
What should you say when asking for a testimonial?
Say which result you are asking about, give them three questions, and offer to write the draft yourself. These three emails are written for a small B2B team; swap in your own details. Priya at Acme is a sample name.
A useful testimonial names the job you did and the before state. One Siela uses, from Shradha Mathur, Head of Growth at Opensphere, lists what the tool does from Shradha's own account and ends: "I used to spend my evenings doing this by hand." If you have no customers to quote yet, make proof a prospect can check for themselves instead.
Where should a B2B testimonial or review go?
Put quotes on your own site and send review requests to the platform your buyers read: Google for a business with a local profile, G2 for software. The three sets of rules differ (checked 4 Nov 2026):
| Where | Incentives | Asking only happy customers | Editing the words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your website or case study | Disclose any reward you give, per the Endorsement Guides; for reviews on your site, the FTC rule bans rewards tied to a sentiment | The rule's suppression ban doesn't cover picking your best quotes, but the FTC says non-representative reviews can still be deceptive | Allowed if it doesn't distort their opinion; quotation marks mean their exact words |
| Google Business Profile | Not allowed in any form: payment, discounts, free goods or services | Not allowed: Google bans selectively soliciting positive reviews | The customer writes it; Google says merchants should not request specific content |
| G2 | Allowed up to $100, never conditioned on a positive review, and disclosed to G2; the review is labelled Incentivized | Not allowed: G2 bans methods that segment out potentially negative reviews | The customer writes it: G2 bars reviews written on behalf of someone else and says it never edits review content |
Google's Maps content policy says merchants may not selectively solicit positive reviews from customers, and its tips page for getting reviews says a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy. G2’s community guidelines add that employees of the vendor or a direct competitor may not review, and that the experience must be within the past two years. G2 reviews are also where buyers read complaints, so it helps to know how to mine competitors' one-star reviews.
Getting your Google review link, per Google's help page on review links (checked 4 Nov 2026): go to your Business Profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and select Copy. To save the QR code, right-click it and choose Save image as. The page says review QR codes can only be generated in a computer browser, not on mobile devices.
What does the FTC's fake review rule ban?
It bans fake reviews and testimonials, buying reviews with a required sentiment, and undisclosed insider reviews. The FTC announced the final rule on 14 August 2024 after a 5-0 vote, and its question-and-answer page says the rule went into effect on 21 October 2024. The text, 16 CFR Part 465, makes these unfair or deceptive:
- Writing, creating or selling a review or testimonial that misrepresents that the reviewer exists, used the product, or had the experience described. The FTC's announcement names AI-generated fake reviews as an example.
- Giving compensation or other incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative.
- Reviews or testimonials by officers or managers, and testimonials by employees that the business spreads, without a clear and conspicuous disclosure of the relationship (for testimonials, unless it is otherwise clear).
- Presenting a website you control as independent reviews of your category.
- Using groundless legal threats, physical threats or intimidation to stop or remove a review, or hiding negative reviews on your own review section while implying it shows most or all of them.
- Buying or selling fake followers, views or likes for a commercial purpose.
There are carve-outs. Several provisions, including those on spreading employee testimonials and on managers asking staff or relatives for reviews, don't apply to generalized solicitations to purchasers, such as one email to every recent customer. An officer's or manager's own review still needs the disclosure. The Q&A also says a business that puts testimonials on its own website is disseminating them, not merely hosting them, so it can be liable if they are fake or false.
The FTC has started warning companies. On 22 December 2025 the FTC sent warning letters to 10 companies, saying the letters are not formal determinations of a violation and that violations can bring civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation. This is a summary of public FTC material, not legal advice.
Can you offer an incentive for a testimonial or review?
Under the FTC rule, yes, as long as the reward doesn't depend on what the review says and you disclose it. On Google, no. On G2, yes, up to $100 and disclosed. The FTC's Q&A says the rule does not prohibit incentives without an express or implied sentiment requirement, but that failing to disclose incentives could violate the FTC Act. The Endorsement Guides give a sharp example: paying genuine buyers $20 each to write positive reviews is deceptive even if the payment is disclosed, because the positive tone is required by the payment.
Worked example (sample numbers). Northwind Ltd, a sample software company with 40 customers, runs a G2 campaign offering a $25 gift card for every approved review, whatever the rating, to all 40. If 10 people review, it costs 10 × $25 = $250; if all 40 do, $1,000. At $25 a review, both campaigns stay under G2's $100 cap per review.
Now say Northwind also shows reviews on its own site: 8 unpaid reviews averaging 3.5 stars, then 10 incentivized ones averaging 4.8. The new average is (8 × 3.5 + 10 × 4.8) ÷ 18 = 76 ÷ 18 = 4.2 stars. The Endorsement Guides give a close example: when incentivized reviews materially raise a product's average star rating, the marketer likely needs a clear disclosure for people who see the average, even if each review carries its own disclosure.
One practical rule follows: send the Google request in its own email, with no reward anywhere near it, so it can't read as paid.
Can you write the testimonial for your customer?
You can draft it, as long as the customer approves the final words and they reflect the customer's honest view. The Endorsement Guides say an endorsement need not use the endorser's exact words unless you present it as exact, for example with quotation marks, and that it may not be reworded or taken out of context to distort the endorser's opinion. They also say endorsements must reflect the honest opinions or experience of the endorser.
Drafting is for quotes on your own site. On review platforms the customer writes: G2's community guidelines don't allow reviews written on behalf of someone else, and Google's Maps policy says merchants should not ask for specific content to be included.
Two of three r/smallbusiness threads from 2026 recommend the drafting step, and one commenter in the second called writing your own testimonial weird. In an April 2026 thread, the poster said the best quotes were already sitting in support threads and emails, and one commenter's advice was: "Send them the exact quote you want to use, say where it'll appear, and ask for a quick yes or small edit." In another April 2026 thread, a commenter suggested offering to write the review for approval and telling the customer that no reply means it's fine. In a June 2026 thread, the poster said asking on the day a project wraps up and using a two-minute, one-link page took their collection rate from roughly 5% to roughly 60%; a commenter reported going from about 5% to 40% by texting within two hours of delivery. These are self-reported, and two commenters in the June thread said they built testimonial tools, while the first April poster offered to automate the process.
We'd skip the no-reply-means-yes step. Silence doesn't show the words are theirs or that they still hold the view, and quotation marks claim both. Get a written yes.
Watch results claims too. If a quote says a customer halved their quoting time, the Guides say buyers will likely read that as what customers generally achieve. Unless you can back that up, show what customers can generally expect next to it.
What to do this week
Pick your trigger and list every customer who has passed it in the last 90 days, then ask them all in one go. A five-step week:
- Monday: write down your trigger and pull the list from your CRM or sheet. A CRM with contacts, companies and a visual pipeline makes the list a filter instead of a hunt.
- Tuesday: send Email 1 to everyone on the list, unhappy accounts included.
- Wednesday and Thursday: turn replies into drafts and send Email 2. Save each approval with the wording and date.
- Friday: copy your Google review link or set up a G2 campaign, and send Email 3 to the same list.
- Next week: publish the approved quotes near the place a buyer decides, such as the pricing or booking page.
The same trigger is a good time for a second ask; our guide to asking clients for referrals, with scripts covers that one.
Frequently asked questions
How do you ask a client for a testimonial?
Wait for a result the client can name, then email three short questions: what they did before, what changed, and what they would tell a peer. Offer to turn their answers or earlier emails into a short draft they can approve or change. Ask every client who reaches the same point, and keep their written approval with the final wording.
Is it legal to pay customers for reviews in the US?
The FTC rule does not ban every incentive. It bans compensation conditioned on a review being positive or negative, and FTC staff say an incentive you don't disclose could still break the FTC Act. Platforms can be stricter than the law: Google bans review incentives of any kind, while G2 allows disclosed ones up to $100. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can my employees or family leave reviews for my business?
Under the FTC rule, an officer's or manager's own review needs a clear disclosure of the relationship, and a manager who asks employees or immediate relatives for reviews should tell them to disclose it. FTC staff say a small business owner may ask relatives for reviews if they disclose the link. Platforms go further: G2 doesn't accept reviews from the vendor's employees, and Google treats current or former employment as a conflict of interest.
Can I hide negative reviews on my website?
You can withhold reviews for reasons applied to every review regardless of rating, such as abusive content, someone else's personal information, or a review you reasonably believe is fake. Hiding reviews because they are negative, while implying the page shows most or all of them, is review suppression under the FTC rule.
How do I get a Google review link for my business?
Google's help page says to open your Business Profile, choose Read reviews and then Get more reviews, and copy the link. You can also save the QR code from there, but the page says review QR codes can only be made in a computer browser. Customers need to be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review.
Sources
- eCFR: 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- eCFR: 16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- FTC: The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers (November 2024, checked 4 Nov 2026)
- FTC: Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials (14 Aug 2024)
- FTC: FTC Warns 10 Companies About Possible Violations of the Agency's New Consumer Review Rule (22 Dec 2025)
- Google: Maps User Generated Content Policy, Prohibited and restricted content (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to get more reviews (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- G2: Community Guidelines (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/smallbusiness: How are you actually collecting testimonials without being annoying? (28 Jun 2026, checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/smallbusiness: How do you handle testimonials from happy clients? (22 Apr 2026, checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/smallbusiness: I spent 3 months manually chasing testimonials. Here's what I learned (2 Apr 2026, checked 4 Nov 2026)