It’s a double edged sword, this thing we call refund. By offering the same, we could actually strengthen relationships with our clients. They would trust us easier if they would be assured that they could always return a product that would not meet their expectations. On the other hand, refunds have been abused by some quarters. Since we’re dealing with digital products, they could easily make a copy of the items they’ll buy, and then, request for a refund. In effect, these people would be able to get our products for free, which would mean a diminution of our profits.
So should you or shouldn’t you offer refunds?
Well, you should know this much. Offering refunds is the professional way of doing business. It’s your way of telling your customers that their patronage is valued and that their trust would never be compromised.
The trick is not in refusing to offer refunds. It’s in finding ways on how to reduce refund requests. For this purpose, let us enumerate six amazing ways that would help you limit the incidence of refund requests.
Provide quality products. This, of course, is very elementary. Refunds are borne out of customer dissatisfaction. If the customer is satisfied, there would be no reason for them to request for a refund. Providing excellent products truly worth their time and hard-earned money would remove from their minds any possibility of considering a chargeback.
Provide for an excellent customer support system. Many online businessmen believe that customer support is unnecessary for an online enterprise. This is a false notion. On the contrary, a customer support system would increase the value of your product and drastically reduce your refund rate. Knowing that their grievances can be coursed through a given channel would dissuade your customers from resorting to refunds.
Provide lifetime updates. You may have noticed the preponderance of offers with lifetime updates as of late. There is more psychology to this strategy than what is readily apparent. By providing lifetime updates, you will be giving your customers something to look forward to. In the event that your products would fail to meet their expectations, they would be hesitant to return the same because of the coming updates you have promised. Updates can enhance the value of existing products, and offering such, for a virtual eternity at that, would be too good an offer to pass up.
Provide bonuses. Bonuses have long been used as come-ons to sweeten the deal and make them easier to sell. Bonuses, however, would also serve as an anti-agent against possible refunds. By packaging your products with a bevy of other items, your customers would feel that they will get more than what they will pa for. The sheer variety offered by bonuses would make them think twice about requesting for a refund.
Give the best guarantee that you could muster. Guarantees are different from refunds, of course. The former is more concerned about customer satisfaction. The latter is focused on security of investment. Guarantees can range from the good word of respected people, or actual reparation of the products in the event that they are susceptible to breakdowns. A guarantee is promise to your customers that you have done your best to deliver to them a product that you truly believe is the best, and that you would be by their side whenever that very product fails them.
Offer loyalty rewards. Acknowledging loyal customers would go a long, long way in curtailing the rise of refund rates. Rewarding them would build lasting relationships that would make the need for refunds almost obsolete.
No businessman would want to receive a refund request. It’s both disappointing and downright demoralizing. But keep your spirits up. Refunds are a part of the game. They are something we have to live with. And fortunately, they are something we could actually control.
