Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I was working on a complete website revamp for a B2B SaaS client. The original brief was straightforward: update the abandoned checkout emails to match the new brand guidelines. New colors, new fonts, done.
But as I opened their review collection template—with its product grid, discount codes, and "LEAVE US A REVIEW NOW" buttons—something felt off. This was exactly what every other SaaS was sending.
You know that feeling when you realize you're swimming in the red ocean with everyone else? That's exactly what hit me. While my SaaS client was celebrating their "solid testimonial system," they were actually drowning in a sea of generic review requests that looked identical to their competitors.
Instead of just updating colors, I completely reimagined their approach. The result? We doubled email reply rates and turned review collection from a transactional afterthought into actual conversations with customers.
Here's what you'll learn from this experiment:
Why automated review collection tools often fail for B2B SaaS
The counterintuitive strategy that transformed review requests into customer conversations
How to address the real friction points customers face when leaving reviews
The exact framework I use to make review collection feel human
When to break conventional wisdom and when to follow it
Let's dive into why most SaaS review strategies miss the mark and what actually works.
Industry Knowledge
What every SaaS founder keeps hearing about reviews
Walk into any SaaS marketing conference, and you'll hear the same advice about review collection repeated like gospel. The industry has convinced itself that the solution to getting more testimonials is simple: automate everything.
Here's what every "growth expert" will tell you:
Set up automated email sequences - Send review requests 7 days after signup, 30 days after onboarding, and every quarter thereafter
Use review collection platforms - Tools like Testimonial.to, Senja, or Trustpilot that streamline the process with forms and widgets
Incentivize with rewards - Offer account credits, extended trials, or swag in exchange for reviews
Make it frictionless - One-click submissions, pre-populated forms, and social media integration
Scale with templates - Create polished email templates that look professional and on-brand
This conventional wisdom exists because it works... kind of. These approaches do generate reviews. The numbers look good in reports. You can point to metrics showing X% response rates and Y number of testimonials collected.
But here's where it falls short: automated review collection optimizes for quantity, not quality. You end up with generic testimonials that sound like they were written by the same person, customers who feel like they're just checking a box, and zero real insights into what's actually working (or not working) in your product.
The biggest problem? When everyone follows the same playbook, you're not building genuine relationships with customers—you're just adding more noise to their already cluttered inbox. Your review request becomes indistinguishable from every other SaaS asking for the same thing.
Most founders accept this trade-off because they think the alternative is manual outreach that doesn't scale. That's exactly what I thought too, until I discovered a different approach.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started working with this B2B SaaS client, they had the classic setup. Solid product, happy customers in calls, but getting them to write testimonials? That was another story entirely.
The client ran a project management tool for creative agencies—think a specialized version of Monday.com but built specifically for design teams. Their customers loved the product during demos and renewals were strong, but their testimonials page looked more empty than a ghost town.
They'd been using a standard automated review collection system for months. The setup looked textbook perfect:
Automated emails sent 14 days after trial conversion
Professional template with their branding
One-click testimonial submission form
Follow-up sequences for non-responders
The results? Maybe one testimonial every two weeks, and most were generic two-sentence responses like "Great tool, easy to use." Nothing that would actually convince a prospect to sign up.
During our initial strategy session, the founder mentioned something interesting: customers were constantly sharing specific problems the tool solved during their weekly check-in calls, but none of that detail was making it into the testimonials.
That's when I realized the issue wasn't the tool or the timing—it was the approach. We were treating testimonial collection like a transaction instead of a conversation. Customers had real stories to tell, but our automated system was asking them to compress those stories into a generic review format.
The breakthrough came when I looked at their customer support tickets. Buried in the threads were detailed explanations of how the tool solved specific workflow problems, saved time on client projects, and even helped agencies win new business. The insights were already there—we just weren't capturing them in the right format.
That's when I decided to completely flip the script on their review collection strategy.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of fixing their automated review system, I convinced the client to try something completely different: make the review request feel like a personal check-in from the founder.
Here's exactly what we implemented:
The Personal Touch Strategy
First, I rewrote their entire email approach. Instead of a corporate template asking for a review, we created a message that felt like a personal note:
Subject line changed from: "We'd love your feedback!"
To: "Quick question about your [specific workflow they'd mentioned]"
The email itself was written in first person from the founder, referencing specific details from their onboarding call or support interactions. Instead of asking for a testimonial, we asked about their experience with a particular feature or workflow.
Addressing Real Friction Points
Through conversations with customers, I discovered the real barriers to testimonials weren't technical—they were psychological. People felt pressure to write something "perfect" and worried about saying the wrong thing.
So we added a simple troubleshooting section to our emails:
"Struggling with time? Just reply with bullet points"
"Not sure what to say? I'll ask you 2-3 specific questions"
"Want to chat instead? Here's my calendar link"
This single addition transformed everything. Customers started replying because we acknowledged their hesitations upfront and offered easy alternatives.
The Conversation Starter Framework
Instead of asking "Can you leave us a review?" we started conversations with specific questions:
"What's changed in your client workflow since using [specific feature]?"
"That project you mentioned last month—did [tool feature] help with the tight deadline?"
"How are your team members adapting to the new [specific process]?"
These weren't generic questions. Each email referenced specific details from their account usage, onboarding notes, or previous conversations.
The Follow-Up That Changed Everything
Here's where it gets interesting: when customers replied with detailed responses (which they started doing), we didn't immediately ask to use their words as a testimonial. Instead, we continued the conversation, asked follow-up questions, and showed genuine interest in their business challenges.
Only after building that rapport did we ask: "This is exactly what other agency owners need to hear—mind if I share your experience on our website?"
The conversion rate from conversation to published testimonial was dramatically higher because customers felt heard, not harvested.
Specific Questions
Each email referenced specific details from their account usage or previous conversations rather than generic testimonial requests
Personal Tone
Emails were written in first person from the founder, feeling like genuine check-ins rather than automated marketing
Friction Solutions
We acknowledged common hesitations upfront and offered alternatives like bullet points or phone calls
Conversation First
We built rapport and showed genuine interest before asking to use their words as testimonials
The transformation was immediate and dramatic. Within the first month of implementing this approach:
Email reply rates jumped from roughly 8% to 19%—customers started responding because the emails felt like genuine outreach, not automated requests.
More importantly, the quality of responses completely changed. Instead of generic two-sentence testimonials, we started getting detailed explanations of specific problems solved, workflow improvements, and business impact.
But here's the unexpected outcome that made this whole experiment worthwhile: customers started asking questions and sharing feedback we'd never heard before. Some replied with feature requests, others shared how they were using the tool in ways we hadn't anticipated, and several mentioned integration needs that turned into product roadmap items.
The testimonial collection became a customer development goldmine. We weren't just gathering social proof—we were gathering product insights, understanding use cases, and strengthening customer relationships.
By month three, not only did we have a robust collection of specific, compelling testimonials, but the client had identified two new feature opportunities and improved their onboarding process based on customer feedback.
The approach required more manual effort upfront, but the compound effects on customer relationships and product development made it far more valuable than any automated system could deliver.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After running this experiment across multiple SaaS clients, here are the key lessons that emerged:
Automation isn't the enemy—generic automation is. You can still use email sequences, but they need to feel personal and reference specific customer details.
Address hesitations explicitly. Most people want to help but feel intimidated by the prospect of writing a "perfect" testimonial. Acknowledge this and offer alternatives.
Start conversations, not transactions. When you show genuine interest in customer success, testimonials become a natural byproduct rather than the primary goal.
Quality beats quantity every time. Five specific, detailed testimonials will convert better than fifty generic ones.
This approach works best for B2B SaaS with longer sales cycles. If you're selling a $5/month consumer app, stick with automated systems.
The real value isn't just testimonials—it's the customer insights and relationship strengthening that come from genuine conversations.
Manual effort scales differently than automation. You can't send 1000 personal emails, but you don't need to. Focus on your best customers and highest-value segments.
The biggest mistake I see SaaS companies make is optimizing for metrics (response rates, number of testimonials) instead of outcomes (relationship quality, testimonial impact, customer insights).
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Start with your 20 most engaged customers rather than automating for everyone
Reference specific onboarding conversations or support interactions in emails
Focus on customers who've achieved measurable outcomes with your product
Use this as customer development, not just testimonial collection
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores adapting this strategy:
Reference specific products purchased and use cases mentioned during purchase
Ask about specific problems solved rather than generic satisfaction
Focus on repeat customers who've tried multiple products
Combine with post-purchase surveys to gather conversation starters