How to Get Client Testimonials to use in your Home Baker Marketing

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use in your Home Bakery! A testimonial is like bite-sized Word of Mouth.

I like to include a testimonial on every single page of my website to boost my bakery’s credibility and value from the mouths of many different people.

A testimonial enables your prospective clients to imagine themselves having just as good an experience – before even tasting your cakes yet! That’s golden!

Before I get to HOW you can get Testimonials, we need to have a quick chat about one of the most powerful mental triggers in the Sales world…

Social Proof.

The Power of Social Proof

I first learned about Social Proof in Jeff Walker’s book called “Launch”. I’ll be quoting a few passages from his book throughout this post.

“Social proof is the idea that if we see other people taking action, then we will be inclined to take action as well.”

Buying anything for the first time is a risk for all of us. This risk makes us feel uncertain about what we should do next. We’re on the fence and something needs to show us that it’s safe and awesome on the other side.

“We are social creatures and it’s hard to overemphasize just how completely we are influenced by what we see other people around us doing.”

And Jeff is right!

Who of us can watch a movie nowadays WITHOUT checking its ratings and reviews first on Rotten Tomatoes?

Who can go to a restaurant WITHOUT checking its ratings on TripAdvisor, Google or Facebook?

ALL our decisions, and purchase decisions more than any other, are influenced by social proof.

Testimonials are Absolute

Another simple reason that Testimonials are so powerful is because they are TRUE. They can function as “deal sealers” for people because they are not open-ended. They are absolute and true because a testimonial is a real person’s real experience. No one can argue with it or even challenge it.

You can write 1000 words on your website about how awesome your baked goods are, but 3 words from a client’s testimonial will accomplish more than most things you can write.

And that’s because YOU are not part of the ocean of prospective clients in this case. In sales there is always an “us” and a “them”. Your clients feel like the “us” and unfortunately, by default, you fall under the “them” because you are trying to sell them something.

So even though your product might be “the best”, it won’t matter if you can’t bridge the gap between “us” and “them”.

Testimonials bridge that gap and show people that you can be trusted to give them what they need.

How to Get Home Bakery Testimonials

As with most things in life there is the easy way (which gets adequate results a lot faster) and the hard way (which takes more effort and time, but the results are incredible)

The EASY Way to Get Testimonials:

The easiest way to get testimonials from your clients is to just FOLLOW UP with your clients.

You should ALWAYS follow up with a client 2-3 days after they got baked goods from your Home Bakery!

Send them an email and simply ask if they enjoyed their baked goods. Don’t phone them because then they won’t have the liberty to be completely honest with you. Also don’t send a text message because that’s too informal. Email is best – it’s professional.

Now I know it can be super daunting to follow up with a client, because what if they didn’t enjoy their cake?? 

Honestly, I still get these doubts every single time I need to follow up with a client. But, then I need to remind myself that this phase is too important to skip for several reasons.

Here’s WHY you Should Follow Up with Every Client:

1. It’s good policy. Caring about whether someone enjoyed your baking (which they paid good money for) is the good and decent thing to do. Following up tells a client a lot about what type of business owner and person you are. Home Bakers care.

1. If something tastes bad or went wrong, you NEED TO KNOW so that it doesn’t happen again! Getting feedback gives you the opportunity to make changes in your Home Bakery Business moving forward. It also increases your chances of a high customer satisfaction rate.
2. It provides another opportunity for interaction and relationship building. After the follow up there will be no real opportunity to connect with them again unless they order again. So the follow up provides the last window to leave a good impression with your client.
3. It gets you those testimonials you need! So many bakers feel incredibly perplexed about asking their clients for testimonials, but this way you don’t even have to ask them. Some clients are naturally more expressive than others and they end up writing the most wonderful feedback your follow up emails! And feedback is exactly the same thing as a testimonial.

If a client happens to be dissatisfied, they will already like you more for caring enough to follow up with them.

This means they’ll be less emotional about it because they won’t be thinking: “The cake was dry and she didn’t even care to follow up! What a shocker!”

RELATED: 6 Steps to Deal with Difficult Home Bakery Clients

The Hard Way to Get Testimonials:

The hard way of getting testimonials comes into play when you want clients to leave Google or Facebook Page Reviews.

These reviews are essential for ranking higher on Google and Facebook Searches.

For example; let’s say there’s a very prestigious bakery in your area with zero Google Reviews or ratings, but your Home Bakery has a 5 star review on Google.

When someone goes on Google and searches for a bakery in your area, Google will place your Home Bakery above the prestigious bakery in the search results.

Google reviews matter a lot because pretty much everyone uses Google to search for everything they need to know. AND pretty much everyone TRUSTS whatever Google says.

You’ll need to be a whole lot more delicate when you approach a client to write a review for your business on Google or Facebook.

1. I recommend that you only ask clients who have ordered from you AT LEAST 3 TIMES and LOVED your bakes all 3 of those times.
2. Send them a polite email. First ask how they are before you get down to business.
3. Express your gratitude over how much they’ve enjoyed your baked goods so far and how much you enjoy baking for them.
4. Explain how you are trying to rank higher on Google’s Search Engine results and that a Google review from them would help you out a lot. Explaining your intentions to people really helps them to understand WHY you need this.
5. ASK them if they are keen to write you a review. Don’t just assume that they will be. Tell them that IF they are keen to write a review, you will send them a link to where they need to go. But if they would prefer not to, you will totally understand – no pressure at all. Now wait for their response.
6. If they respond positively, thank them and send along the link to your business’s “Google My Business” Page and explain to them briefly to click the “write a review” button.
7. If they respond negatively, reaffirm that you totally understand and thank them all the same.

And that’s how you get reviews and testimonials for your Home Bakery to use in your marketing!

I hope you feel a lot more confident now that you know how to reach out to clients for their valuable testimonials.

Chat soon

Aurelia

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)

6 Easy Steps to Deal with Difficult/Dissatisfied Home Bakery Clients

Difficult or Dissatisfied clients are an absolute guarantee in your Home Bakery Business journey – sorry to burst that sugar bubble for you!

No matter how thorough, talented, or organized you are, you or your baking will upset a client at some point.

It’s so important for every Home Bakery Owner to have a plan of action and “script” to follow when a client is being difficult or they are dissatisfied. Let’s get into it!

Distinguish between “Difficult” or “Dissatisfied”

Although both of these types of clients are upset, it’s so important to place them in 2 separate categories – emotionally and mentally.

Difficult clients are, in a nutshell, people who often try to take advantage of you and manipulate you into doing MORE for LESS money.

Dissatisfied clients are people you baked for, but for some reason, they didn’t have a great experience. This is usually because of the quality of your baked goods, the quality of your services (delivery, prompt email responses, etc.), or the quality of your engagement (following up and caring).

Let’s discuss “Dissatisfied Clients” first because they are much simpler to deal with and make happy again 🙂

“Dissatisfied Client” Step #1: Preparation

First of all, you should ALWAYS follow up with a client 2-3 days after they got baked goods from your Home Bakery!

I know it can be super daunting to follow up with a client, because what if they didn’t enjoy their cake?? 😨

Honestly, I still get these doubts every single time I need to follow up with a client. But, then I need to remind myself that this phase is too important to skip for several reasons.

Here’s WHY you Should Follow Up with Every Client:

1. It’s good policy. Caring about whether someone enjoyed your baking (which they paid good money for) is the good and decent thing to do. Following up tells a client a lot about what type of business owner and person you are. Home Bakers care.
2. If something tastes bad or went wrong, you NEED TO KNOW so that it doesn’t happen again! Getting feedback gives you the opportunity to make changes in your Home Bakery Business moving forward. It also increases your chances of a high customer satisfaction rate.
3. It provides another opportunity for interaction and relationship building. After the follow up there will be no real opportunity to connect with them again unless they order again. So the follow-up provides the last window to leave a good impression on your client.

If a client happens to be dissatisfied, they’ll already like you more for caring enough to follow up with them.

This means they’ll be less emotional about it because they won’t be thinking: “The cake was awful and she didn’t even care to follow up! What a shocker!”

Following up sets you up for the win – even if it turns out the client is dissatisfied.

“Dissatisfied Client” Step #2: Listen & Empathize

If you follow up and it turns out that the client did not enjoy their baked goods, the most important first step is to LISTEN to them.

DO NOT go on defense mode here!! This is about THEM, not about you. Listen to them with TOTAL EMPATHY. Imagine how you would feel if you saved up to buy a cake for your birthday only to be disappointed by it and feeling embarrassed to serve it to your friends & family.

Empathize with them verbally saying things like:

“I am so sorry to hear that you’ve had such a bad experience. This should not have happened. I sincerely apologize.”

Acknowledging their feelings is the best way to distinguish any anger they might have (I learned this at a marriage conference actually! Lol!). This is an important step because you will need to dig a bit deeper into the problem and it helps if the client feels HEARD & UNDERSTOOD.

“Dissatisfied Client” Step #3: Find a Solution

Now it’s time to dig a bit deeper and find out from the client EXACTLY WHY they didn’t enjoy your baked goods.

Ask questions about the flavour, the texture, the freshness, how they stored the baked goods. Be a detective and find out from them what the problems were in as much detail as possible.

Explain to them what you think happened and why it happened. THANK them for their honesty and that you appreciate their willingness to talk to you about their experience.

For this next phase you will need to be as objective as possible.

1. Analyse everything the client has told you – objectively.

Grade their feedback on a scale from 1-10. 1 being a “petty complaint” with no real consequences and 10 being severe, legitimate complaints to the point of a bake not being edible (burnt, too much salt, had a hair in it).

Create 3 levels of reimbursement.

* Level 1: Any complaint ranking from 1-2. This level is for complaints like “the cake was a tad dryer than last time I ordered from you, but it was still delicious.”
In such cases you can just apologize that the cake did not entirely live up to their expectations. You’ll take extra care to ensure moist cakes next time by doing X,Y and Z.

* Level 2: Any complaints ranking from 3-6. This level is for complaints like “the cake was not as delicious as I usually get from you. We ate it and it was okay, but everyone agreed that we expect more from you.” In such cases I recommend a 20% discount on their next purchase.

* Level 3: Any complaints raking from 7-10. This level is for severe complaints like burned cake, a hair in the cake – anything that makes a cake inedible. In such cases I recommend giving the client a FREE cake. Yes, a totally 100% free cake. Remember that people talk. If you make such a grand gesture as this when your Home Bakery client is dissatisfied, they probably won’t ever say anything bad about your business.

Super Important: Do not give them a financial refund. You want to create another opportunity to change their mind about you and your baking business! Rather give them a free cake.

“Difficult Client” Step #1: Identification

First you will need to accurately identify a “Difficult Client”. It’s someone who:

* Keeps asking for price reductions

* Always sends you super elaborate images from Pinterest to recreate – for next to nothing

* Cancels their order last minute

* Manipulates you into adding extra things for free

* Manipulates you into baking things that you don’t want to bake

* Does not respect your time or privacy and spams you with 5 texts at 9 pm

* Delays their payment past the payment deadline

* Gets you to make exceptions for them “just this once” – regarding delivery, lead time, prices, designs, etc.

Okay my friend, now listen up. This is the most important thing I can teach you about “difficult clients”…

They exist in EVERY SINGLE INDUSTRY. You can’t control them and their audacity. BUT, you can (and SHOULD) position your Home Bakery to REPEL them.

“Difficult Client” Step #2: Repellent

Yes, REPELLING those difficult clients is the best way to deal with them, because then you DON’T have to deal with them! Does that make sense?

So, HOW do you repel difficult clients?

1. Remember that Cheap Prices Attract Cheap Clients

If you’ve been charging too little for your baked goods, you’ve probably run into some pretty darn demanding, unrealistic, bartering sort of clients. Am I right?

Chances are that’s what drove you to start looking for solutions to dealing with your “difficult clients”! The type of clients you currently have are just becoming unbearable and you’re constantly second guessing yourself as a baker and business owner.

So here’s the deal. Cheap prices will attract clients that have a “cheap” type of character. These are the type of clients who take advantage of you. They’ll get you baking things you hate, on short notice for less money.

The way you get ideal, committed clients with better character (and repel the difficult clients) is by CHARGING MORE. This separates the cheapskates from the true cake appreciators.

YES, my friend, your dream clients are out there and there are MANY of them. But YOU need to make the decision to start pricing your bakes according to their VALUE and not according to what your difficult clients want.

RELATED: 6 Steps to Pricing your Cakes with Confidence

2. Clearly State on your Website What you DON’T Do

Here’s an example of this section on my website:

Being upfront about what you do and don’t do will easily veer off all the clients you’d prefer not to bake for. People appreciate honesty and at the end of the day you’re also saving them, and yourself, time.

“Difficult Client” Step #3: Listen & Refer

You might not like these difficult clients, but fact is that they still need a cake for a very special event in their lives. Don’t disregard that.

Whenever a difficult type of client emails me about baking them an elaborate fondant cake and speak to me like they “own me”, I just politely refer them to a bakery that can help them.

Whether the client is difficult or not, you should still at least point them in a direction that can meet their needs. Provide them with a link to the Bakery that can help them and ALWAYS speak kindly – especially when they were rude in their first email.

Bonus Tip!

ALWAYS believe the best about Clients and don’t assume the worst.

We all have very dynamic lives full of challenges. Sometimes a client will just be having a difficult day and feel frustrated. This might influence their writing style when they email you with an inquiry and they’ll appear blunt and rude.

No matter how any potential client speaks to you (via phone or email), NEVER say anything bad about ANY CLIENTS beyond your most trusted friend or spouse.

Difficult clients are NOT a conversation topic for you to bring up at a party or even at a family event. People talk, news travels fast and speaking poorly of anyone will always reflect badly on your character – no matter how wrong they were and how right you are.

Apply this 1 rule to ALL current & potential clients: 

See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

That’s it my friend! The 6 Easy Steps to Deal with Dissatisfied and/or Difficult Home Bakery Clients 🙂

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)