Video Testimonials: Ask Questions, Do Not Hand Out Scripts

Never ask a customer to write their own testimonial. They will freeze, produce something generic, and take three weeks doing it. Send four or five pointed questions and record the answers, then cut the sentences worth keeping.

The setup matters less than the questions, and both matter less than getting a specific number or outcome out of them. "They were great to work with" is worthless. "It cut our turnaround from two weeks to three days" is the whole video.

Send questions, not a request

From a business owner asking how to request one, in r/smallbusiness: "Provide them pointed questions for them to answer. Most people SUUUCK at writing a testimonial, because they are awkward. So, what you want"

That is the whole method. A blank request asks a customer to do a writing task they are bad at and were not paid for. A list of questions asks them to talk about their own work, which most people find easy.

• What was the situation before you started working with us?
• What made you hesitate, and what changed your mind?
• What specifically changed afterwards? A number if you have one.
• What would you say to someone weighing it up?
• Anything you expected that turned out differently?

The second question is the one most people leave out and the one that produces the usable footage. A testimonial that acknowledges a doubt is credible in a way that unbroken praise is not.

A room setup that works anywhere

From a videographer shooting testimonials on location, in r/videography: "Get rid of the furniture except 1 chair. Put the camera in the corner and the interviewee a few feet in front of you."

Shooting into a corner gives you depth behind the subject instead of a flat wall, and clearing the furniture removes both the clutter and the reflections. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a room that looks intentional and one that looks like an office nobody tidied.

• Subject a few feet in front of the background, never against it.
• Window light to one side, not behind them.
• Microphone close, and record it separately if you can.
• Ask them to answer in full sentences that include the question, so a clip stands alone.

That last one is the single most useful instruction to give. Without it every answer starts with "yeah, basically" and cannot be used on its own.

People who cannot do it on camera

Adapt to the person rather than the format. From r/videography: "Either scripted, verbal prompts or teleprompter depending on the person and their abilities. Sometimes I can just stand behind the camera level" with them and talk normally.

Memorising is the wrong ask for anyone. Creators report the same problem with their own scripted content, as in r/NewTubers: "I keep fumbling my lines or forgetting important points. Memorizing takes hours".

So do not make a customer memorise anything. Have a conversation, let them repeat themselves, and take the third attempt at each answer. That is normal and it is what the edit is for.

Remote, when you cannot be in the room

• Record locally at their end rather than capturing the call. Call footage is compressed and drops frames.
• Send a two-line setup note: window to one side, phone at eye level, quiet room, landscape.
• Get them to record thirty seconds of silence before starting.
• Do the interview live on a call anyway, so the conversation is real, and use their local recording as the picture.

Client-shot footage has known problems and they are manageable if you set expectations first, which editors discuss in r/editors. A modern phone is fine. A phone held at chest height in a room with a window behind the subject is not.

Cutting it

• Under ninety seconds for anything on a landing page.
• Lead with the result, not the introduction. Nobody needs the job title first.
• Keep one moment of hesitation or qualification. It buys credibility for everything else.
• Captions always, because most of these are watched without sound.
• Cut every sentence that would fit any supplier in any industry.

Editing at volume, the recurring failure in testimonial footage is that the good sentence exists and is buried at minute six, after the interviewee has relaxed. It is almost never missing. It is just late.

The short version

• Send pointed questions. Never ask someone to write a testimonial.
• Ask what made them hesitate. That answer is what makes it believable.
• One chair, camera in the corner, subject away from the wall.
• Ask for full-sentence answers so clips stand alone.
• Keep it under ninety seconds and lead with the result.

Read next

• Webinars: Only 10 to 25% of Registrants Turn Up, for another recording most companies under-use.
• Audio: Mic Distance Beats Mic Price, for getting usable sound in someone else's office.

If you have interview footage sitting unedited because the good parts are buried, our first video is free up to four editing hours.