Suppose a customer is not happy with a purchase they made from you.
What do you do? Do you make them keep the item? Do you give them their money back? Do you an “in-store credit?” How should it be handled? How do you handle it?
All the major stores offer money-back guarantees. And there’s good reason.
If you fail to give someone their money back, you haven’t just lost one customer; you’ve lost a bunch of them.
People don’t hesitate to talk about the bad service they received or the “rip-off” they got from a business. In fact, they’ll talk more about the one bad experience to more people than they will about all the good service and good deals they got from the business.
In many cases, if you cheerfully and unhesitatingly offer to give money back to a customer who is dissatisfied, they’ll end up spending that same amount of money, often more, with you again. And, they’ll tell others about what a good attitude you had and what a pleasure it is to do business with you.
Any time a selling situation exists, someone is being asked to take a risk. Either the buyer is taking the risk, or the seller is.
If you, as a business owner are willing to shoulder the entire amount of the risk, that is, offer a complete 100 percent money-back guarantee, you’ll make a significantly greater amount of sales.
Look at it this way:
If a potential buyer knows that if they purchase a certain item and they are unsatisfied with it in any way, that they can return it, more of those potential buyers will be willing to take a chance. On the other hand, if they knew they would be “stuck” with whatever it is that they purchased, there would be more hesitation, more resistance and more reluctance.
“But,” you say, “If I give a money-back guarantee, people will take advantage of me, and I’ll lose money.”
Yes, it’s true. Some people will take advantage of you, and you will lose some money… on those people. (Maybe!).
As far as the “(Maybe)” part, remember that how you give the money back has a lot to do with your attitude.
And remember, that some, in fact the majority of those people will turn around and spend that money with you again… and will tell their friends.
But, most people are honest. And most won’t try to rip you off. In fact, more people will be inclined to buy from you because of the guarantee than would buy from you if there were no guarantee.
Sure, you’ll get a few returns. But the additional purchases you make will more than offset any dollars you lose because of the returns.
