Does anybody think student testimonials actually work? It seems to me that prospective students would look at them as glorified marketing. I mean, when is the last time a teacher displayed a bad testimonial about themselves?

I know some teachers work hard to ask students for these, but I'm not sure these work. A third party site like Yelp might be more credible however.

Student testimonials will be biased in favor of the teacher. Any "site" will be biased against. End of story.

If the testimonials convey the real flavor of two people working together at a piano, I'd say they could be effective. I could use a testimonial from Roger, age 14: "Peter is very easygoing and fun, compared to our rabbi. Or to my dad (the dweeb!). It might seem like we're just goofing around in lessons, but I know I am learning stuff."

Or I could use a testimonial from another Roger, age 14: "Mr. Mose is pretty strict and old-fashioned, but I learned more from him in a month than I did in 10 years of lessons with my annoying tiger mom. I wish I didn't have to wear a tie, though."

Each version gives a vivid sense of a piano studio.

Yes, I agree. You can learn a lot about the teaching style and the studio through these comments. Stuff like, "Mr. Mose is the greatest teacher ever!" gives very little info, however. So really I think testimonials can be effective if they are specific.

Sites like Yelp or Ratemyteacher often have complaints from students who perhaps just did not get along with their teacher, maybe even stiffed them on payment, etc. and can be very biased against. After all, who goes on these sites to say something positive? Not many unless it is at the request of said teacher once a former student who flunked their piano course posts something negative to counteract the bad review.

I agree. Each testimony will give prospective students a "picture" of how this studio run and a sense of if he can fit into it or not. Testimony needs to be authentic and specific so that audience won't feel that it is fake.

I would think teacher testimonials are generally useful to prospective students. Okay, they can be biased of course, but when was the last time you bought anything off amazon which didn't have a review?