by Scott Ronalds

If you’ve visited our home page recently, you may have noticed a series of client testimonials two-thirds of the way down the page.

The pictures and related quotes may look fairly standard, but there’s a story behind them. It’s a bit of a Steadyhand feel-good story, so if that’s not your thing (totally understandable), you may want to stop reading here. But if you’re interested in our inner workings, read on.

We had a lot of discussion internally on whether we should even use testimonials on our site. The key benefit of social proof is that it shows what real clients experience (as opposed to just what a company claims about itself). The main downside that we identified was that testimonials can seem fake, or even cheesy. As well, we take client confidentiality very seriously and don’t want to give the wrong message (we agreed upfront that we wouldn’t use last names in the testimonials, and clients would have to agree, of course, to have their picture on the site).

We came to the decision that the pros outweighed the cons, and worked with a small consulting firm, Vigilantes, on the project. The goal was to identify up to 10 clients that would potentially be interested in providing a testimonial along with their picture on our website, with the hope that half of them would take us up on it.

We were pleasantly surprised that the first five clients we reached out to all happily agreed to participate, knowing that it would take some time and effort on their part. We explained that we would hire a photographer for a day, and they would be required to come to our office and go through an interview process with one of the consultants, Vanessa, from which a testimonial would be used. “No problem, happy to help,” was the typical response.

What came next was the feel good part. Vanessa was blown away by the quality of the interviews, noting that our clients spoke passionately about issues such as our statements, fees, simplicity, transparency, people and long-term returns. The tough part, she said, was choosing just one short quote from each client. Here are a few that were left on the cutting room floor:

When I describe Steadyhand to someone, I say they’re value-based. They’re trying to make money for us. And they’re coming from a place of wanting to do the right thing.

Their reporting is fantastic. Maybe in other places, they’re happy to keep it complicated, so you don’t actually know how you’re doing.

Steadyhand says, “these are our fees.” No one else in this industry really talks about them. But you want to know what you’re paying, and you want it to be a fair dollar.

Inertia is a big issue when it comes to spreading the word about a business or service, particularly in our industry, but our small group of clients was more than willing to go to bat for Steadyhand. I should note, too, that the interviews took place in mid-February, when the markets were sinking and investor sentiment was negative. Not to sound sappy, but the session was a nice reinforcement that the things we really care about (e.g. simplicity, long-term returns, service, reporting, fees) are the same things our clients value.

Vanessa encouraged us to think hard about going a step further with the testimonials. We agreed it was worth thinking about. But given our subtle approach to marketing and the fact that we were a little uneasy with the idea in the first place, this is the step further. We’re sharing the story with our tribe. Hope it resonates with you.