Writing Ethics 1: Fake Testimonials
July 23, 2007 by Lillie
Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business has an interesting discussion going on about fake testimonials and the ethics of writing .
Her original post quoted an ad she saw on a freelance site asking to have 25 testimonials written to sound like they are from “allegedly satisfied readers” of the book – for the princely pay of $20 for the lot!
The commenters agree on two things:
- Using fake testimonials is unethical for the company, and writing them is unethical for the writer.
- Professional writers should not work such low pay ($20 for about 2500+ words)
I’ve heard several marketing gurus recommend that companies contact satisfied customers and ask them for testimonials. The company will write the testimonial, and all the person giving the testimonial needs to do is put it on their letterhead and sign it. Of course, they can change it if they like, but the company is not asking them to spend much of their time to give the testimonial (a plus for the customer). Doing it this way ensures the company gets the things they want said included in the testimonial. I was attending seminars and using consulting when I was in business in the “real” world, in the ancient days before the Internet. 
In today’s virtual world, companies would load the testimonials up with keywords for search engine optimization.
I was never comfortable doing that. In my interior landscape business, we used to send out customer satisfaction surveys. If someone wrote a nice compliment, we would ask their permission to quote it. The testimonials on this blog are either quoted from acknowledgments in published documents or are something a client provided when I asked if I could quote something they said to me in conversation or in e-mail. I’ve never used a testimonial that didn’t originate with the client.
One time I terminated a contract with a marketing consultant hired to improve my company’s sales after he told me, “You’ll never succeed in business. You’re too ethical.”
But it appears some companies don’t share my “problem” of being too ethical. They are using completely fake testimonials. And some writers are willing to write them! I’ve turned down several projects because the subject matter didn’t fit my values. I can’t imagine professional writers writing what they know to be outright lies!
A couple of things were raised in the comments, though, that made me think. In my next three posts, I’ll talk about writers asking for votes in readers’ choice contests, paid and other solicitation of favorable reviews, and methods to increase Amazon rank.
[tags]writing ethics, fake testimonials[/tags]
Great to see you continuing the discussion here Lillie. It certainly was an interesting one. I look forward to following your series.
Lillie,
Great synopsis and commentary on Yvonne’s post and its comments! You’ve captured its essence well!
Jeanne
Too ethical to succeed? That guy’s bound to be losing more business as we type. As for those fake testimonials–I hope the poor souls who agree to do these unethical, low-paying projects (I can only assume they must be desperate for work) know better than to stuff them in their clip file.
[...] Posts: Writing Ethics 1: Fake Testimonials Writing Ethics 2: Voting in Readers’ Choice Contests Writing Ethics 3: [...]
[...] Writing Ethics 1: Fake Testimonials began a four-part series on writing ethics that showed the writers who read and comment on my blog [...]
Thanks Lillie. Here’s a couple of links to show what can happen to you if you post fake testimonials – this company (DVD Dropship) did and got caught out:
How NOT to Post Testimonials: DVDDropShip Example
Dropshipland.com
AS long as you do have satisfied customers, then why would you want to pay for testimonials? I just ask people if I can use things that they’ve said in emails to me. I don’t see the point in lying, although I suppose you can’t really tell the difference, and if you pay someone to say things, you can have an ideal quote. Whereas real life is very rarely ideal.
Amy,
I imagine most people who use or even consider fake testimonials are either new in business and thus don’t have customers to get real testimonials from or people who can’t get testimonials because their customers aren’t satisfied.
Nice post. A good way to start getting testimonials for a new product or website is to ask experts to do a review. It’s better to get real testimonials even though it’s not from your own customers yet. Once you get some customers emailing you and saying how great your product is, ask them if they can write a nice testimonial. Most will do.
Jean,
Good suggestion. As long as people are ethically trying and reviewing the product (rather than just writing a positive review for payment), it doesn’t matter whether the person actually purchased the item. It’s not buying the product that makes the testimonial legitimate—it’s using and evaluating the product.
How long can somebody survive on fake testimonials?
I have often seen quite a few people using this on their website, probably to attract more customers, but eventually, every customer who uses a product will have a viewpoint about it. It is immaterial if the company publishes their negative experience or, not, because their feedback will travel through everything – forums, blogs, newspapers etc. and the faked positive testimonial will be of no use.
.-= Kumar@Creative Writing Jobs´s last blog ..Creative Writing Jobs – How to Get one? =-.
Kumar,
You are right. Negative feedback travels far and wide, and fake positive “feedback” can’t compete with that.
It’s amazing how widespread the issue of fake testimonials has become. Luckily, there are many individuals on the Internet who have allocated themselves the role of “Internet cops”. So eventually these companies get busted after complaints from clients; and the word spreads like bush fire. In my experience, it is best to offer free samples and then request the client for honest feedback on their experience. This way you can build genuine testimonials from people who have actually used the product/service.
.-= kimkay´s last blog ..How to Write Faster =-.
kimkay,
I agree—free samples and soliciting honest feedback is the way to go.
Honesty is maybe the best policy. succeeding through lies is quit hard to swallow. maybe if you did the right thing and succeed on it then you can sleep comfortable at night thinking i succeed because i did the right thing. nice right?
Francis,
As you can tell from my post, I agree totally.
I had an experience with this type of website and some are even paying for someone to post comments for them. I think, it is okay as long as the comments that they want to post are true.
Rob,
I address paid comments elsewhere in this series.
Very good blog post that covers an important part of the freelance writing career. I appreciate your take on this particular writing topic and want to thank you for sharing your thoughts. The fake testimonials are common practice, which is a shame because if a product isn’t good enough to get a real testimonial, then it shouldn’t be released, IMO.
Master Dayton@Freelance Writing Blog recently posted..The Truth About Freelance Writing
Master Drayton,
I’m glad you agree. To make up something and give a phony name is just wrong.
Testimonials are very important because they help your potential customer build trust in you. They can help to establish credibility especially if you are a new company. They can also have a positive effect on the potential customers purchasing decision by improving conversions. So, if you do decide to use testimonials on your website just remember to use honest comments from real customers. Using anything else in the long run risks permanently damaging your reputation.
dif,
Honesty is still the best policy!
Anese I agree that you can not always, but in most cases you can tell if they are fake. This is because most often the writer has not even used the product. And the testimonial will show, because it really does not give you any good or useful information.
Mike,
Good point. You can often tell fake testimonials in the same way you can tell spam comments: “This blog is wonderful. You are a genius. I will keep coming back to read your great blog.” Lots of fluff, but nothing that really says anything.
Actually, you will not be able to determine if the testimonials are real or not unless you really interviewed the person.
Anese,
I’m not suggesting consumers try to find out if testimonials are real or not. I am advocating that writers and businesses not use them.
Actually, you will not be able to determine if the testimonials are real or not unless you really interviewed the person.
lion,
Whether or not customers can tell the testimonial is fake has nothing to do with the morality of it. I’m talking about right and wrong here. There’s a saying that integrity is measured by what we do when no one is looking.
I believe in many cases you can tell fake testimonials with a quick glance. If not a little bit of research on the net uncovers them. I think anyone using them has a bigger chance of being found out to be cheating – so missing out of the business or even sued.
Chris,
Somehow people that do things like that think they will never get caught, I guess.
Thanks for starting the conversation, Yvonne.
It was really an interesting discussion and (obviously) stimulated my thoughts.
Actually that happened many years ago when I was in the interior landscape business. I sold my business to a national corporation several years after this happened … and the consultant had gone out of business a good while before that.
As for those “writers” who write fake testimonials for almost-no pay – I suspect they will never get much beyond that because once you have a reputation like that, that’s about all the work you can get.
Wow! I knew companies made up testimonials, but I didn’t know they would use a fake testimonial with the photo of a real person!