Using Customer Quotes and Anonymized Data on Our Website

Kelsey Dannels · 2025-08-01 23:41:24.115413+00

Hey everyone! We’re considering adding customer quotes and stats throughout our website. How do you all feel about using anonymized data from our sales team or quotes from customer calls that haven’t been explicitly approved by the customer?

Using Customer Quotes and Anonymized Data on Our Website | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

6 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Charlotte Weiss
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So I'm pretty against using anonymous quotes, purely because I feel like any organisation could just make up a quote and slap "title, industry" after it. From a credibility perspective, it just doesn't sit well with me. I might be alone in this thinking though!
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Alexie Glover
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I think this really depends on your industry! Security tech for example is much more familiar with anonymous data over named social proof. Ultimately, anonymous proof is better than no proof. If you have to start anonymous, at least get the proof on your site. I would create a workflow/plan that helps you replace anonymous data with approved data eventually though. Buyers do want to see real names, but progress over perfection!
👍3
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David Shephard
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Unless verified by a third party: GartnerPI, PeerSpot, G2, TrustRadius, I avoid anonymity. But Alexie Glover is correct 'progress over perfection', although content captured without consent should never be utilized IMO.
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Sunny Manivannan
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Kelsey Dannels personally, I would seek approval from customers before putting quotes on your website. The challenge with anonymous quotes (unless it is in highly regulated or privacy-minded markets) is that it creates more questions in the buyer's head (are they just making these up? why won't customers put their names behind this product?) than it answers. Happy to share more insights from the customer marketers we serve, if that's of interest.
Alexie Glover
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Just to clarify my response above re: anonymous social proof—this is always with permission. If you are stuck without permission and without named proof, I would look to aggregate use data across a few customers for something like "Our top 5 users unlock XX" - keeping the data accurate but completely unidentifiable to a single user. But again, this is the absolute bare minimum, bar on the floor, option. As for not currently having approval—this is a golden opportunity to start the conversation and build the relationship. "Hey I'm Kelsey from Company. I heard you say 'XXX' on a recent call and we'd love to feature your unreal results with our technology. Want to chat about the various ways we could collaborate to spotlight your success?"
💯1
Becky Scott
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Anon is okay in certain situations—we occasionally had case studies where the company wanted to be unnamed but we had a really good story to tell. I think you could garner from the full study that it wasn’t made up. Quotes from G2 that were anon would be linked back to the actual review so you could see the full quote to confirm that we didn’t just make it up. But always with permission. I really don’t like quoting someone and then they see it and realize it’s them, because that can really damage trust. Security folks and government are the most common that would want to be anon, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. And my former co was an identity provider, so it made sense that not everyone wanted to expose their tech stack.

Charlotte Weiss
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So I'm pretty against using anonymous quotes, purely because I feel like any organisation could just make up a quote and slap "title, industry" after it. From a credibility perspective, it just doesn't sit well with me. I might be alone in this thinking though!
1
Alexie Glover
·
·
I think this really depends on your industry! Security tech for example is much more familiar with anonymous data over named social proof. Ultimately, anonymous proof is better than no proof. If you have to start anonymous, at least get the proof on your site. I would create a workflow/plan that helps you replace anonymous data with approved data eventually though. Buyers do want to see real names, but progress over perfection!
👍3
1
David Shephard
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Unless verified by a third party: GartnerPI, PeerSpot, G2, TrustRadius, I avoid anonymity. But Alexie Glover is correct 'progress over perfection', although content captured without consent should never be utilized IMO.
👍1
Sunny Manivannan
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Kelsey Dannels personally, I would seek approval from customers before putting quotes on your website. The challenge with anonymous quotes (unless it is in highly regulated or privacy-minded markets) is that it creates more questions in the buyer's head (are they just making these up? why won't customers put their names behind this product?) than it answers. Happy to share more insights from the customer marketers we serve, if that's of interest.
Alexie Glover
·
·
Just to clarify my response above re: anonymous social proof—this is always with permission. If you are stuck without permission and without named proof, I would look to aggregate use data across a few customers for something like "Our top 5 users unlock XX" - keeping the data accurate but completely unidentifiable to a single user. But again, this is the absolute bare minimum, bar on the floor, option. As for not currently having approval—this is a golden opportunity to start the conversation and build the relationship. "Hey I'm Kelsey from Company. I heard you say 'XXX' on a recent call and we'd love to feature your unreal results with our technology. Want to chat about the various ways we could collaborate to spotlight your success?"
💯1
Becky Scott
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·
Anon is okay in certain situations—we occasionally had case studies where the company wanted to be unnamed but we had a really good story to tell. I think you could garner from the full study that it wasn’t made up. Quotes from G2 that were anon would be linked back to the actual review so you could see the full quote to confirm that we didn’t just make it up. But always with permission. I really don’t like quoting someone and then they see it and realize it’s them, because that can really damage trust. Security folks and government are the most common that would want to be anon, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. And my former co was an identity provider, so it made sense that not everyone wanted to expose their tech stack.