Customer-Service Best Practices: If You Don’t Like It, Take Your Money Back
Posted by abdul on 23 Jul 2009 at 10:52 pm | Tagged as: Entrepreneurship
I believe that a customer would come knocking on your doors if you have an amazing product or service, but customers would kill to get their hands on your offerings if you have a money back guarantee.
It might seem to be an insane move for plenty of people to offer refunds; it could even be painful for an entrepreneur. Money back guarantees work best when you are absolutely sure that you deliver exceptional products and services backed up superior customer service. In case you do wish to implement this effective customer-service best practice, pay heed to the following:
- Take a rain-check: Go slow on the strategy; take a piece-meal approach and do it with some trusted and long-term clients. This way, you could not only see if this is an affordable option for you but also you wouldn’t burn yourself in this process. Since you are going to try it out with your trusted clients, you could even rely on their feedback about your service levels and do necessary changes (if any) until you are sure.
- Fix your terms specifically and keep it time-bound: Don’t give life-time guarantees and always ensure that you give some percentage of that money back or a full-refund within a limited time; a limited money-back guarantee – like a 3 month money-back or 6 month guarantee. Take good care of your customers and work on good volumes so that you don’t lose much in refunds.
- Keep your promise: Whether you go all-out with your money-back guarantee or whether you are doing a rain check, ensure that you fulfill our promises. Do pay-up fast and don’t haggle. Do ask for feedback but don’t ask too many questions. Don’t keep your clients waiting and just let them go. Unbelievably, your clients will still love you for it.
When you give a money back guarantee, you exude tremendous confidence; It shows guts and forward thinking. It also reflects a great customer-oriented business practice. What is your take on giving a money-back guarantee? Do you think it works? Why is it that most entrepreneurs don’t think of doing this?
