Give each question a separate job
Start with what the person was trying to do, what happened during the experience and what they would tell someone facing a similar choice. These are original prompt themes, not a merchant questionnaire copied verbatim. A question should elicit new information rather than three versions of how much the customer loved the product.
Avoid claims the contributor cannot support
Do not ask a person to invent a percentage improvement or repeat a result they did not measure. If they mention a number, preserve the context and ask what it describes before publishing it as a broad benefit. One customer’s account is not evidence that every buyer will achieve the same outcome. A specific limitation can make a story more useful, not less.
Keep the response burden visible
A short request with optional detail may work better for a busy customer than an extensive interview. That is a design hypothesis to evaluate, not a guaranteed response-rate claim. Tell the contributor which questions are optional, what format they can use and where the result may appear. Do not hide a long recording task behind a vague invitation to leave feedback.
Review the prompt before sending
Ask a colleague to answer as a neutral customer. Remove leading adjectives, repeated questions and requests for unrelated personal information. Check that a critical or mixed experience could be expressed honestly. Then choose whether one response or several smaller answers will make editing and attribution clearer. Keep the original answer so any later excerpt can be checked against its full meaning.
An original decision example
An original neutral prompt sequence is: “What were you trying to accomplish?”, “What part of the experience mattered most?” and “What should someone with similar needs understand before choosing?” These questions permit limitations and disagreement. Remove any question whose only purpose is to elicit a stronger superlative for a sales page.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- Boast submission instructions guidance — Merchant documentation · support.boast.io · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-24
- VideoAsk testimonial collection and downloads — Merchant documentation · videoask.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-24