Testimonial collection software - The 6 best

Testimonial collection software like Senja makes it easy for you to collect text and video testimonials from your happy customers and clients.

Forget confusing forms, slow uploads, and complex code, and instead use a testimonial collection tool.

But before you decide which tool to use, here's everything you need to know about the various options that are available:

What is testimonial collection software?

Testimonial tools allow you to gather customer feedback, online reviews, and text and video testimonials.

You can also use them to win potential customers by sharing your testimonials on your website, social media, and more.

They're used by all types of businesses - particularly marketing and sales teams - to automate testimonial collection. They also help you understand and improve customer satisfaction, build trust and credibility, and increase conversions.

Testimonial collection software can help you collect, manage and share text and video testimonials with ease. Here are the three core areas most software contains:

Collect testimonials

Testimonial collection tools allow you to collect video and text feedback and testimonials with interactive forms as well.

You can easily share these forms on social media, in emails, on your website, or in in-person interviews.

They're especially handy for collecting testimonial videos because they streamline the entire testimonial collection process, and make it easy to collect professional videos.

You can even send bulk review requests to your customers and track your feedback requests from a single place.

• Here's a beginner's guide on how to collect testimonials.

Manage testimonials

When you have dozens of text and video responses from your customers, finding the perfect ones to add to your landing page or use to handle objections can be really difficult.

That's why it's especially important to use a dedicated testimonial tool with features for managing, organizing, and analyzing collected testimonials. Like search, tagging, sentiment, source, or word clouds. These can also include video transcriptions and export.

Tools like Senja also allow you to manage all your reviews from a single place.

So if you have text or video reviews from your happy customers on review sites like Google My Business, Facebook, and Capterra, you can easily find and manage them from a single location.

• Best practices you can use to manage your testimonials.

Share testimonials

You'll also need features for displaying your testimonials on a website, social channel as images or animations, or other marketing and sales materials.

Most commonly these tools let you create embeddable widgets, Walls of Love, and testimonial images and animations.

• Where to share your testimonials as a Wall of Love.

• Where to share testimonials on your website.

What is the best testimonial collection software?

Senja is a free video and text testimonial collection software that allows you to collect, manage and share unlimited testimonials.

Of course we would say this, but Senja is highly regarded for its exceptional user experience (UX) and top-notch customer support.

It is also known for its unique ways of sharing customer testimonials, through 1000s of customizable widgets that can be embedded on any website. As well as with Walls of Love, images and animations.

These features make it easy for you to showcase customer testimonials in a way that is engaging and effective at driving conversions.

Overall, Senja is a top choice for testimonial collection software due to its focus on user experience, excellent customer support, and innovative ways to share testimonials. Here's an example testimonial widget from Senja, showcasing a few of our happy customers:

• Collect video and text testimonials from your happy customers

• Unlimited video and text responses on any paid plan

• Thousands of ways to share with images, widgets, testimonial videos and walls of love.

• Add testimonials to your website without coding

• Import your testimonials from any third-party review platform

• Export your video testimonials in HD on any paid plan

Alternatives to Senja

Here are a few leading alternatives to Senja's free testimonial collection software that you might consider:

Vocal Video

Vocal Video is an all-in-one testimonial software that makes it easy to collect authentic video testimonials from satisfied customers. The best thing about Vocal Video is the ability to create unlimited publishable videos from the testimonial videos you collect.

Pros:

• Dedicated video capture testimonial forms

• Starter Plan allows you to store up to 3 hours or 180 minutes of video

• Has a 7-day free trial. No credit card required

• Unlimited video downloads. So you can export any video recordings you collect.

• Collect audio responses as well as video feedback.

• Has a lot of editing tools. Create beautiful testimonial videos without professional editing skills.

• High-quality video exports. Share your finished videos on your website and social media.

Cons:

• Expensive

• No way to collect text responses only

• Doesn't integrate well with external review sites

• Analytics capabilities are limited to the most expensive plans, so no easy way to identify your best-performing videos.

• Limited widgets or website embeds - video carousel player, video wall

Famewall

Famewall allows businesses to showcase customer testimonials and reviews on their website.

It includes features for gathering feedback through a simple form and social media, and for displaying the testimonials in a visually appealing way.

Pros:

• Cheap pricing plans and no credit card required

• Relatively simple

• Share testimonials as images

• Options for testimonial video capture

• Add video messages to your forms to make them look more personal

Cons:

• Widgets are very basic

• No advanced features for search, tagging etc

• No video editing tools

• No option to create multiple testimonial request forms

• No agency options

Boast Video

Boast is an all-in-one video testimonial software that allows businesses to gather and display customer feedback in the form of video testimonials.

It includes tools for managing and organizing the video testimonials, and for integrating them into marketing materials.

Pros:

• Great focus on collecting authentic video testimonials

• Has well-recorded video tutorials to help you get set up

• Collect and export HD Videos from your happiest customers

• Many form types - dedicated video testimonial forms, surveys, in-app messages, et cetera.

• Share video responses on your website.

Cons:

• Really expensive

• No unlimited video collection. You can only collect a fixed amount of videos per month

• Dated dashboard design

• No easy way to import and showcase testimonials from third-party review sites

Shoutout

Shoutoutis a customer feedback and review management platform that allows businesses to gather and display customer testimonials and reviews on their website. It includes features for collecting feedback through various channels, such as email and social media, and for analyzing and managing the feedback.

Pros:

• Simple to set up

• Minimalist design

• Faster than most tools in the space

• Has testimonial collection forms

Cons:

• Very limited support for third-party imports

• No support for collecting video testimonials

• No options for tagging

• Limited widget embeds and wall of love designs

• No testimonial image export or sharing option

Endorsal

Endorsal is a customer feedback and review platform that allows businesses to gather and display customer testimonials and reviews on their website.

It includes features for collecting and managing feedback, and for integrating the testimonials into marketing materials.

Pros:

• Great integrations

• Some unique widget embedding options

Cons:

• Complex pricing - including views-based aka metered pricing

• Expensive HD exports

Alternatives to testimonial collection software

If you don't want to use an all-in-one testimonial collection software, there are other ways that you might consider gathering feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers.

Here's what you can try:

Ask with a customer feedback form

Many businesses link to simple online forms on their website or over email to collect customer feedback, reviews, and testimonials.

This can be a quick and easy way to gather testimonials from customers, but won't include features for your customers to record videos, or for you to manage, or share your testimonials

Ask your customers on social media

You can also use social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, to solicit customer feedback, reviews, and testimonials. You can link to a form to collect on these platforms too.

This can be a good way to gather quick feedback and engage with customers, but it's not as structured or organized as using a dedicated testimonial collection software tool. You'll still need to find ways to manage and share the testimonials.

Ask your customers in-person

You can also collect customer feedback, reviews, and testimonials in person, through methods such as in-store surveys, phone calls, or feedback forms.

This can be a good way to get more detailed and personalized feedback, but it can also be time-consuming and expensive.

List on independent review websites

You can also encourage your customers to leave reviews and ratings on websites such as Yelp, Trustpilot, Capterra or TripAdvisor.

Different types of testimonial software

There are lots of similar types of testimonial tools, but each has slight differences. This article is focused on testimonial collection software, but you may also be interested in other types of testimonial and review software.

These can be classified into 5 key categories based on the specific features and policies they offer:

Public review and rating platforms

Used for: independent platforms where your customers can leave reviews

Review and rating platforms allow businesses to collect and manage customer reviews and ratings.

They often include features for analyzing customer sentiment and identifying areas for improvement. You can consider positive reviews on these platforms as testimonials.

Examples include TrustPilot, Yelp, and Google Reviews.

Survey and questionnaire tools

Used for running surveys to help you understand the customers' experience.

These are tools that allow businesses to collect customer feedback through online surveys or questionnaires.

They typically include features for creating and distributing surveys, analyzing results, and visualizing data. When you receive positive feedback you can then request a video or text testimonial.

Examples include Jotform, Google Forms, and Tally.

Reputation management platforms

These are tools that provide a holistic view of the customer experience, including tools for collecting and analyzing customer feedback and testimonials. They often include features for managing customer journeys and identifying areas for improvement

Examples include Qualtrics, UserTesting, and CustomerSure.

Testimonial and review management platforms

Used for: collecting, managing and sharing testimonials.

The subject of this article, these are tools that allow businesses to collect, manage, and display customer testimonials and reviews on their website. They often include features for collecting feedback through various channels, such as email and social media, and for integrating testimonials into marketing materials.

Examples include Senja, Shoutout, Endorsal, and FameWall.

Dedicated Video testimonial platforms

These are tools that allow businesses to gather and display customer feedback in the form of video testimonials. They typically include features for managing and organizing the video testimonials, and for integrating them into marketing materials.

Examples include Boast Video and Vidyard.

How to choose the right testimonial collection software - things to consider

There are now 100s of options for testimonial collection software, all with different features, policies, and price points. To help you choose the right software for you, review the important factors in the following checklist:

The ease of use for you

Is this software easy for me and my team to use?

The ease of use for your customers

As importantly, the software should be simple and delightful for your customers to use too.

Reviews and reputation of the provider

Can I trust this company? Do they have positive reviews? Do they use their own tool to collect and share customer testimonials?

Collection limits

Are there limits on the number of video or text testimonials I can collect? Is there a free tier? If so, how many testimonials are included in the free tier?

View limits

Some testimonial collection software comes with view limits.

You pay based on the number of views your widgets get.

• Is there a limit on video testimonials or widget views?

• How much will that cost you?

• Can you afford to pay if your widget views increase?

The price of the software

How much does the software cost? Do I have the budget for this?

Most common testimonial collection software features

Ability to import testimonials

Can you import your testimonials and reviews from other platforms like G2, Trustpilot?

How can I share my testimonials?

How many sharing options are there? Can I share widgets? Can I share as a Wall of Love, and is there a link? Can I turn my testimonials into images? How many template designs are there to choose from?

Can I incentivise collection?

You might struggle to get a high response rate from customers when collecting testimonials. This can be due to a variety of factors, such as a lack of incentives for customers to provide feedback. Make sure your tool has options to incentivise.

Can I hide testimonials?

Another issue is that the collected testimonials might not be representative of the overall customer experience, or might be biased in some way. For example, customers who have had a particularly negative or positive experience might be more likely to leave a review or provide feedback, leading to an inaccurate portrayal of the customer experience. Make sure you can hide these.

Can I manage and organize feedback?

It can also be challenging to manage and organize large volumes of customer feedback, especially if the testimonial collection software does not have robust testimonial management features.

This can make it difficult for you to identify patterns or trends in the feedback, or to prioritize actions based on the collected data.

Look for tools that include testimonial management features including searching, filtering, tagging and word clouds.

Can I add testimonials to my website?

You might also encounter issues when integrating the collected testimonials into your marketing materials or website, or when displaying them in a way that is visually appealing and effective at driving conversions.

Look out for tools that offer lots of ways to share your testimonials. For example Senja, includes sharing as testimonial widgets, images and Walls of Love, and you can embed on over 20 different platforms including Gumroad and Shopify.

Can I customize the collection forms and widgets?

Some testimonial collection software tools might not offer a high level of customization, which can make it difficult for you to ensure it matches your branding. Look out for tools that offer custom domains and branding.

Common how tos: testimonial collection software

How do I collect testimonials?

Create and distribute a customer survey or questionnaire. Testimonial collection software tools often include features for creating and distributing surveys or questionnaires to collect customer feedback. To do this, you will typically need to create the survey or questionnaire using the tool's design and customization features, and then use the tool to distribute the survey or questionnaire to your target audience.

This might involve sending a testimonial request email or other notification to invite customers to participate or embedding the survey or questionnaire on a website or social media platform.

You want to make sure your testimonials are authentic, whether your responses are text testimonials or video testimonials.

Read more on collecting testimonials.

How do I manage and organize the collected testimonials?

Testimonial collection software tools often include features for managing and organizing the collected testimonials. This might involve creating folders or tags to categorize the testimonials, or using search and filtering tools to find specific testimonials. It can also involve using analysis tools to identify patterns or trends in the collected data.

Read more on managing testimonials.

How do I display the collected testimonials on my website?

Testimonial collection software tools often include features for integrating the collected testimonials into a business's website or marketing materials. This might involve using widgets or other embeddable elements that can be placed on a website or social media platform. It might also involve using the tool's design and customization features to create visually appealing displays of the testimonials.

Read more on how to share testimonials.

How do I display the collected testimonials on my marketing materials?

Testimonial collection software tools often include features for integrating the collected testimonials into a business's website or marketing materials. This might involve using widgets or other embeddable elements that can be placed on a website or social media platform. It might also involve using the tool's design and customization features to create visually appealing displays of the testimonials.

Read more on how to share testimonials.

How do I display the collected testimonials on my social channels?

Testimonial collection software tools often include features for integrating the collected testimonials into a business's website or marketing materials. This might involve using widgets or other embeddable elements that can be placed on a website or social media platform. It might also involve using the tool's design and customization features to create visually appealing displays of the testimonials.

Read more on how to share testimonials.

How do I analyze and act on the collected testimonials?

Testimonial collection software tools often include features for analyzing the collected testimonials and identifying areas for improvement. This might involve using data visualization tools to identify patterns or trends in the collected data or using sentiment analysis tools to gauge the overall tone of the collected testimonials. Based on the collected data, businesses can then take action to address any issues or areas for improvement identified in the testimonials.

How do I manage customer reviews on review websites?

Some testimonial collection software tools include features for soliciting and managing customer reviews on review websites such as Yelp or Google. To do this, you will typically need to use the tool to send a request to customers to leave a review, and then use the tool to manage and respond to any reviews that are left.

This can be a good way to be discovered, gather feedback and build credibility, but it can also be difficult to manage and control the content of these reviews. Senja's testimonial collection software will let you import these reviews as testimonials.