“What others say about you matters most” rings true in physician recruitment. While you use references to check up on candidates, professional testimonials can be just as advantageous for you. In fact, the physicians who work with you and your organization are your biggest assets, and using stories and testimonials from them is one of the best ways to connect with new candidates.

Occasionally, a powerful endorsement or testimonial will conveniently fall into your lap; you might have a physician who’s excited about a new opportunity and voluntarily offers praise. But for most that’s the exception, not the rule. So how do you get people to say nice things about you? It’s all in the asking.

Ask for feedback, not a testimonial.

The best sales pitches are about listening and the same goes for a request for feedback. Ask for feedback – not a testimonial – and you’ll make people more comfortable. Listen and you’re likely to get genuine answers.

Testimonials get other testimonials.

People are likely to offer feedback when they see that others are endorsing you. Once you’ve asked for feedback, write the testimonial for them and start putting it to work. Add testimonials to your Doximity recruiter profile, on your DocMails, within the text of a job post, or on your organization’s Career Page. Testimonials have the power to reinforce what physician candidates have already learned about your organization, dispel misconceptions about your organization, help physician candidates overcome hesitations about applying for opportunities with your organization, and much more.

To put the power of testimonials to work for you, try these tips:

1. Never fabricate a testimonial. It’s pretty easy to spot a fake testimonial and it will discredit you and your organization.
2. Always ask for permission. Just because a candidate said something nice about you doesn’t mean you have the right to reproduce it. Always ask for approval of a final draft and allow them to make any small edits for clarity.
3. Always include a full name and location. It makes your testimonials more reliable.
4. Use real language that’s conversational. Formal testimonials don’t sound genuine.
5. Don’t edit out the speaker’s voice. Make edits for clarity and brevity, but don’t turn their words into your own! 
6. Include a photo whenever you can. Testimonials work best when the audience can relate to the person giving them as closely as possible.
7. Use testimonials in the right place at the right time. The location of your testimonials can have a direct result on their effectiveness.
8. Don’t load every communication with testimonials. A good endorsement should add context and details to help you prove a point or deliver a message.
9. Make testimonials easy to see and scan. Don’t bury testimonials in other text. Separate them with block quotes or quotation marks and make them stand out with bold and italics to highlight them – or highlight the important points if it’s a lengthy endorsement.  
   

Consider this: a good testimonial is simply a good story. When you worked with a physician in a recruiting scenario, what obstacle(s) were you trying to overcome? Was the candidate looking for a better work/life balance? It’s the little details that will make for a great story and a powerful testimonial. And because physician recruitment is about building relationships, you already have a list of loyal physicians who’d be more than willing to offer praise for the work you do.

Are you using Doximity Talent Finder to find the right candidates for your opportunities? Get started today. We also invite you to download our tips sheet for using testimonials now.