How to Re-engage Dormant Customers With a Testimonial Request
Dormant customers are people who already know your business, have experienced your product or service, and once had enough interest to make a purchase. That history makes them valuable prospects for renewed engagement. A thoughtful testimonial request can remind them of the outcome they achieved while giving your marketing team authentic customer feedback.
The timing and wording matter. A sudden message asking for praise can feel transactional, especially if the customer has not heard from you in months. A better approach connects the request to their past experience, keeps the response simple, and gives them a useful reason to reconnect with your brand.
Customer testimonials also create a bridge between retention and marketing. The right message can recover a quiet relationship, reveal what customers value, and produce text or video social proof that helps future buyers make a decision.
Why former customers are worth revisiting
Dormant customers are not necessarily unhappy customers. They may have completed a project, paused their subscription, changed priorities, or simply stopped opening routine emails. Their silence does not erase the positive experience they had with your company.
A testimonial request gives you a natural reason to contact them without pretending that the relationship is still active. It acknowledges their past experience and invites them to share what worked. That is more relevant than sending a generic promotional email to everyone in your database.
Their feedback can also be more useful than comments from brand-new customers. A customer who has had time to apply your product may be able to describe lasting results, operational improvements, or a specific problem your business helped solve. These details make testimonials persuasive because they show the customer journey rather than just initial enthusiasm.
Re-engagement can produce several business benefits at once:
- A former customer may return for another purchase or service.
- Their story can provide credible evidence for prospective buyers.
- Their comments can reveal product strengths and gaps in customer experience.
- Their response can help clean up outdated contact records and preferences.
Find the right moment and audience
Start by defining what “dormant” means for your business. For a monthly software subscription, it might mean a customer who canceled six months ago. For an agency, it could mean a client whose project ended a year ago. For a retailer, the period may depend on normal purchase frequency and product lifespan.
Segment customers before sending a request. Consider their purchase history, satisfaction signals, support interactions, industry, account value, and the time since their last meaningful engagement. Customers who recently received a positive support resolution or completed a successful project may be stronger candidates than contacts who reported unresolved problems.
Avoid requesting a testimonial from someone who has just experienced a poor interaction. Instead, route those customers toward service recovery. A genuine testimonial should reflect an authentic experience, and asking for praise before addressing an issue can damage trust.
The best timing often follows a meaningful milestone. A former customer may be receptive after reaching a result, completing implementation, receiving a useful update, or interacting with a helpful member of your team. If no obvious milestone exists, frame the outreach around learning from their past experience rather than trying to manufacture urgency.
Build a request that feels personal
Personalization should go beyond adding a first name. Mention the product, service, project, or result connected to the customer’s experience. For example, “Your team used our reporting service during the spring campaign” feels more credible than “Tell us what you think about our company.”
Explain why you are contacting them and how their words may be used. A simple message might say that you are collecting customer stories to help people understand the practical results of working with your business. Clear context makes the request feel like an invitation rather than a hidden sales tactic.
Give customers prompts that make reflection easier. Broad questions such as “Would you leave a review?” require the recipient to decide what to say and where to begin. More specific prompts can produce richer responses:
- What problem were you trying to solve?
- What changed after using our product or service?
- Which feature, process, or team interaction was most useful?
- What would you tell a company considering us?
- Can you describe a result or moment that stood out?
Keep the initial request short, with one primary action. If you want a video testimonial, explain that a concise phone recording is acceptable and provide simple guidance. If you want written feedback, offer a small text box or a few prompts. The easier the process feels, the more likely dormant customers are to respond.
Match the format to the customer
Different customers have different levels of comfort and available time. Some will happily record a one-minute video from their phone, while others would rather type two sentences. Offering a suitable format respects those preferences and improves completion rates.
Video testimonials can communicate tone, personality, and emotion in ways that written reviews cannot. They work especially well for businesses with visible customer outcomes, consultative services, or products that benefit from a personal explanation. However, video requests require more confidence from the customer, so they should include clear instructions and reassurance that professional production is not expected.
Text testimonials are faster to collect and easier to review, edit for length, and place across landing pages, product screens, email campaigns, and sales documents. A written response can also be a starting point for a later video invitation. Once a customer has expressed a positive experience in text, a follow-up request for a short recording may feel more comfortable.
| Customer situation | Useful format | Request approach | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited time or low engagement | Short written response | Three concise prompts and a quick form | Website quotes and email campaigns |
| Strong relationship with an account manager | Video or written story | Personal outreach from a familiar contact | Case studies and sales presentations |
| Clear result from a completed project | Video testimonial | Ask for a one- to two-minute explanation | Landing pages and social content |
| Customer prefers privacy | Anonymous or attributed text | Explain display options before submission | Product pages and internal marketing |
| Mixed or uncertain experience | Feedback request first | Invite honest input without leading language | Service improvement and recovery |
Use a testimonial platform such as VidScout to manage these options in one workflow. The platform helps businesses request and capture customer testimonials in text and video, then edit, organize, and share approved content. That reduces the need to coordinate responses across separate email threads, file folders, and video tools.
Create a respectful follow-up sequence
A single request is easy to miss, especially when it arrives in a dormant customer’s crowded inbox. A short follow-up sequence can improve response rates without becoming intrusive. Space messages several days apart and vary the wording rather than repeating the original email.
The first message should provide context and a direct link to the response experience. The second can remind the customer that a short answer is useful and that they may choose text or video. A final message can close the loop politely, making clear that no response is required.
Use different channels when the relationship supports it. An account manager may send a personal email after an automated request. A customer success representative might mention the invitation during a scheduled call. Social or messaging outreach can work for businesses that already have permission to communicate through those channels.
Respect contact preferences, consent, and privacy throughout the process. Tell customers where their testimonial may appear and whether their name, company, image, or job title will be displayed. Provide an approval step when appropriate, particularly if the testimonial will be edited, shortened, or used in paid advertising.
Do not pressure customers to provide positive feedback or offer an incentive that requires a favorable review. If you use a reward, tie it to completing honest feedback and make the terms transparent. The goal is dependable customer evidence, not artificially enthusiastic language.
Turn responses into a return visit
A testimonial request should open a relationship rather than end the interaction. When a customer responds, thank them specifically for the detail they provided. Refer to the result or observation they shared so the exchange feels human and connected to their experience.
If the testimonial reveals a current need, use it as a reason for a relevant follow-up. A former customer who mentions expanding their team may benefit from an updated service package. Someone who describes an old limitation may appreciate information about a new feature. Keep the recommendation connected to the customer’s situation instead of attaching an unrelated discount.
Repurpose each approved testimonial carefully. A longer response can become a website story, a sales enablement asset, a social post, or a short email feature. A video recording may provide several clips, while a strong sentence can support a product page. Preserve the customer’s meaning, obtain the necessary approval, and avoid editing that makes the statement sound unnatural.
Track re-engagement and testimonial performance separately. Useful metrics include request delivery, open rate, response rate, completion by format, approval rate, renewed purchases, returning website visits, and assisted conversions. These measurements show whether the campaign is producing marketing content, recovering customer relationships, or both.
Practical ways to increase response rates
A successful campaign usually depends on small details that remove uncertainty. Customers should understand why they were contacted, what they need to do, how long it will take, and where their response may appear.
Use the following practices when planning outreach to dormant customers:
- Lead with a specific memory, result, or interaction from the customer’s history.
- Keep the response process under a few minutes and make it mobile-friendly.
- Offer text and video options instead of assuming every customer prefers the same format.
- Use prompts that encourage concrete outcomes, examples, and before-and-after details.
- Send a limited number of respectful reminders, then stop contacting nonresponders.
Review the responses for recurring themes. If several customers describe the same benefit, that language can guide your positioning and future testimonial prompts. If customers repeatedly mention confusion, missing support, or an outdated feature, treat the feedback as a product and retention signal rather than selecting only flattering comments.
A clear internal workflow helps maintain quality. Assign someone to review submissions, request permissions, make light edits, tag each testimonial by audience or use case, and publish approved content. VidScout can support this process by giving teams a place to collect, manage, edit, and share customer stories in text and video formats.
Make the next interaction genuinely useful
Re-engaging dormant customers by asking for a testimonial works best when the request reflects a real interest in their experience. The strongest messages do not treat past customers as a list of forgotten contacts or as a source of promotional quotes. They recognize the relationship, invite honest feedback, and make participation simple.
Build a small segment first, test the wording, and compare written and video response rates. Use the lessons from that group to improve timing, prompts, permissions, and follow-up. Over time, testimonial collection can become a reliable part of customer communication rather than an occasional campaign.
VidScout gives your team a practical way to begin collecting customer stories, organizing approved responses, and turning feedback into embeddable social proof. Create a free account to send your first testimonial request and reconnect with customers whose experiences can strengthen your brand.