Testimonial questions to ask clients, by type of business

Why does “How was your experience?” get nothing back?

Because it asks for a verdict, and a verdict is one word. “Great.” “Very happy.” “10/10.” The customer meant it, but you can't put it on your homepage, and a stranger reading it learns nothing about what you actually did.

A testimonial that persuades is a short story. Something was wrong or uncertain, you did something, and now it's better. If your questions ask for those three parts, most people will give you them without being told what a good testimonial looks like.

Which testimonial questions should you ask?

Three, plus a line for their name.

The first is about before. What was going on when they found you, or what nearly stopped them from booking? This gives the reader someone like themselves to recognise, and it is the part customers leave out when nobody asks.

The second is about the moment. What happened that they remember? A good answer has a detail in it: a day of the week, a staff member's name, the time it took. Details are what make a quote sound like a person.

The third is about now. What is different, and can they put a number on it? Not everyone can, and that is fine. “I haven't had to call anyone since” is as good as a percentage for a plumber.

Then ask how they want their name to appear. “Dana K., Cedar Bluff” or “Daniel Price, CTO, Atlas Rail” tells the reader who is talking, and asking up front saves you an email later. In Formgong, set Show reviewers' names as to Full name if you do this. New sites start with a first name and the initial of the last word, so “Dana K., Cedar Bluff” would appear as “Dana B.”.

Leave out “Would you recommend us?” and “Anything else?”. The first gets a yes, the second gets nothing, and both make the form longer.

Skip questions that tell people what to feel, too. “What did you love most about working with us?” gets a polite answer that reads like your own brochure. “What happened on the day?” lets them tell it, and if it went well, their words will show it.

Testimonial questions by type of business

The same three questions, worded for eight kinds of business. The before question changes most, because each kind of customer arrives with a different worry.

If you are a US clinic or dentist covered by HIPAA, be careful with the middle column. The privacy rule, 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3), read on eCFR on 6 November 2026, says a covered entity must get the patient's authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information for marketing. A testimonial on your site shows that the person is your patient, so get that authorization in writing before you publish it, and never ask about diagnoses or treatment details in the form.

What other testimonial questions work?

The three won't suit every customer. A client who compared four builders' quotes has a different story from a first-time patient. When one fits better, swap it in:

• “What were you using before, and why did you pick us over the others?” Someone who shopped around tells the next shopper what they compared.
• “What nearly stopped you from booking, and what changed your mind?” Whatever held them back is probably holding back the next person too.
• “Which part do you use, or notice, most?” Handy when you need a quote for one service page.
• “What would you tell a friend who's thinking about it?” People drop the formal tone here and talk the way they would at a barbecue.
• “What did we do that you didn't expect?” That's where you hear about the receptionist who called back, or the second visit you didn't charge for.

Still three at most. Every box you add makes the answers in the others shorter.

When should you send the questions?

While they still remember the small stuff. A day or two after a repair. A few days after the parcel came, once they've used the thing. For coaching, a course or a long project, right after a milestone they can feel, rather than on the last day, when everyone is busy saying goodbye. Ask a month later and you get “great, thanks” with none of the story.

Should each question get its own box?

On most review forms, no. Formgong's hosted review page, which we checked on our demo shop Glyna on 6 November 2026, has seven fields: stars, name, email, an opt-in for questions from shoppers, “Your review”, photos and a video. Only the stars are required. There is one text box, and it takes up to 2,000 characters.

If you build your own form instead, Formgong reads the review text from the first filled field named testimonial, review, comment, feedback or message, in that order. Three boxes called “before”, “moment” and “now” would all reach your inbox, but none of them would become the published review. Two boxes named testimonial and comment would publish only the first one that has text.

So put the three questions in the label of one box. People answer them in order, in their own words, and what they write is the testimonial. This form does that for a home services business. Change the label to the row in the table that fits you.

<form action="https://formgong.com/submit" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="fk_your_access_key">
  <fieldset>
    <legend>How would you rate us?</legend>
    <label><input type="radio" name="rating" value="5" required> 5</label>
    <label><input type="radio" name="rating" value="4"> 4</label>
    <label><input type="radio" name="rating" value="3"> 3</label>
    <label><input type="radio" name="rating" value="2"> 2</label>
    <label><input type="radio" name="rating" value="1"> 1</label>
  </fieldset>
  <label>Your name, as you'd like it shown (for example "Dana K., Cedar Bluff")
    <input name="name" maxlength="80" required></label>
  <label>What was going wrong when you called us, what happened when we came,
    and how has it held up since?
    <textarea name="testimonial" maxlength="2000" rows="6" required></textarea></label>
  <label><input type="checkbox" name="may_publish" value="yes">
    You may show my name and these words on your website</label>
  <input type="text" name="botcheck" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off" style="position:absolute;left:-9999px" aria-hidden="true">
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

Which fields should be required?

On a testimonial form, the rating, the name and the text. A rating with no words is a review score, not a testimonial, and a quote with no name looks invented. The form above makes all three required.

The hosted review page asks for less: only the stars are required there, so a customer can leave a rating without writing anything. If you mainly want quotes for your website, send people to your own form; if you want a fair picture of how customers rate you, the hosted page is the better fit.

Do not make the permission checkbox required. A required checkbox is not a free choice, and you want to know who said no. Formgong does not act on that checkbox: it arrives with the submission in your inbox, and you check it before you approve the review.

How do you get the second line without another question?

The line under a name, such as the service someone had or the product they bought, helps a stranger place the quote. You can ask for it in the name field, as the form above does. You can also add up to five customer questions with set answers, for example “Service” with options Emergency, Repair and Installation. Each answer is optional for the customer and shows on their card in the widget. Our article on custom review form questions goes through choices and scales in more detail.

What should you ask in a video or on a call?

The same three questions, asked one at a time. Start with an easy one so the person relaxes: “Tell us your name and what you do.” Then before, the moment and now, with a pause after each. Send the questions a day ahead so nobody is caught out, and tell them a minute or two is plenty.

The advantage of a call over a form is the follow-up. When someone says “it was great”, ask “can you give me an example?” or “what did that mean for you on the day?”. That second answer is usually the one you quote. If you write the quote up from the call, send it back and ask them to approve the wording before it goes anywhere. Our guide to collecting video testimonials for free covers the recording side.

What if the answer is too long?

Pick the sentence with the specific detail in it and show that on the card, with the full answer one click away. You can cut, but you can't change the meaning. The FTC's Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR 255.1(b), read on eCFR on 7 November 2026, say that words shown in quotation marks must be the customer's exact words and may not be taken out of context or reworded so as to distort what they meant. If the long answer mentions a problem and then praises how you fixed it, a short version that keeps only the praise changes the story. When in doubt, send the short version to the customer and ask.

How Formgong sends the questions

You can send people to a form on your own site, to the hosted review page by link or QR code, or let Formgong email buyers a few days after an order. You can put the three questions in that first message too, so people have them in mind before the form opens. Our guide to asking a client for a testimonial by email has templates for consultants, trades and clinics, and the review request email templates cover shops.

When the answers come in, they wait for your approval, and the approved ones appear in the testimonial widget. For what good answers look like once they are on a page, see our testimonial examples.

Which question gets you the best answers?

If one question in your form keeps producing quotes you actually use, or one never gets a real answer, tell us at support@formgong.com. We will add the good ones to this page.