Sharing Satisfaction with My Testimonials for Joomla!

There is nothing better than a satisfied client. They leave you with a better reputation, good standing and a warm, fuzzy feeling. What do you do with that emotion, however?
To this end, JoomUnited is proudly presenting a new Joomla! extension. My Testimonials is a tool that allows you to wear customer contentment with pride and share existing clients’ satisfaction with prospective ones on your website.

The brand new Joomla! extension doesn’t only allow you to share testimonials, but also to accept new ones, further facilitating interaction with your clients. Moreover, all testimonials are fully-integrated with Google Rich Snippets. Sounds intriguing? Let’s dive in!

Configuring Joomla!’s My Testimonials

One of My Testimonials’ best features is its ability to blend in seamlessly with just about any environment. The Joomla! extension comes with two different base themes - a landscape and a portrait mode. Moreover, these two orientations can be customized in various ways, helping you make the extension truly yours.

All the layout settings are available in the first tab of the Joomla! extension’s configuration page. For starters, you can choose the orientation of new testimonials. Just beneath, you can personalize the look and feel of customer feedback.

A variety of thematic options can be modified directly from this page. Among others, you can update the background image, colors and the text of testimonials. In addition, you can customize avatars’ display settings. Once you’re finished, hit the save button to confirm the changes.

Two themes are readily-available for displaying testimonials - the masonry and slider themes. Setting them up is possible directly when adding a page. Displaying the masonry theme can be achieved by increasing the number of columns. Apart from configuring testimonials, you can also allow rich snippets - one example of third-party integrations with My Testimonials.

Third-Party Integrations

My Testimonials is integrated with various third-party applications, ensuring that testimonials are as rich as they get. In fact, the very first version of My Testimonials uses Google Maps to show your clients’ locations, accepts YouTube video recommendations, and can automatically add endorsements and ratings to Google Rich Snippets.

The first facility can be enabled from the the main layout settings, and requires an API key to work. Once enabled, testimonials that have a location are displayed on a map, displaying your brand’s diversity.

On top of that, Joomla!’s My Testimonials automatically ships with Google Rich Snippet support. Rich Snippets are the information cards that come up alongside search results for your company. Normally they include ratings and testimonials submitted to your website, among other information related to your business.

Setting up the integration is a simple task that may be achieved from the Company Rich Snippet tab in the extension’s configuration. The necessary information can be inputted in the relevant fields, and would accompany the snippets in search results.

There’s only so much you can say with words. On the other hand, pictures and videos bring emotions to life like no other medium. To this end, My Testimonials comes with YouTube support, allowing satisfied clients to contribute their thoughts on your brand with videos.

Unlike Google Rich Snippets, YouTube videos have to be enabled before appearing on your website. The settings are available in the YouTube tab, and allow you to modify the dimensions of video testimonials.

Managing Testimonials

There are various ways how testimonials can be collected. For example, some references may be received while talking with clients, or via email. My Testimonials makes it easier for customers to express their thoughts about your business practice directly from your Joomla! website. At the same time, you retain full control over which testimonials make it to your website.

In the frontend and security tab, you can allow your Joomla! users to add their own testimonials. In addition, you can also enforce that testimonials from the same IP address, and logged-in users can only submit one recommendation on your website.

Testimonials do not have to be published right away, however. In fact, My Testimonials gives you the ability to hide comments until they are approved. This begs the question - how do you give testimonials the green light?

The backend of My Testimonials is your gateway to managing recommendations. From here, testimonials can be created, approved and published to categories. Organizing feedback in categories is useful when you control a host of services or products, and want to receive feedback on each individual comment.

The category menu is accessible from the sidebar, and classifications can include a title and a description. Similarly, the left sidebar allows you to access all testimonials in order to edit or remove existing commendations, or publish new ones.

Endorsements that you create yourself look just like any user-submitted testimonials, and can be added directly into their corresponding categories. Testimonials can be created by clicking on the new button, and can be assigned ratings, information about the user and a detailed description. This facility comes in particularly handy when you receive feedback by email, for example.

A job done well inevitably leaves happy clients. And where there are joyful customers is a thriving business. Now, with My Testimonials, you can help attract new clients, and let existing ones express their contentment on your Joomla! website.