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Is Making a Profit the Ultimate Business Success?

Guest post by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: Have you been “scrooge” or “scrooged” this year? Does a “money-back-guarantee” mean lost profits, or, does it mean that satisfied customers return and/or refer your business because of a pleasant experience? You decide!!

Is Making a Profit the Ultimate Business Success?

If this is the season to be jolly, what does it take to feel good? I mean really feel good about the work you have done this year and the benefits you have given and gotten? Think about the way you have treated the people who have come into your life. Have you been a Scrooge or have you "been scrooged" in your business dealings? I would like to offer two scenarios that happened this year to clients of mine, and would love feedback about which way is the best business way to handle a money-back-guarantee.

First, a client enrolled in a coaching program near his home that would be, so he thought, the boost he needed to start a new career. He had limited resources, yet felt the program was stellar and attended the first four day off-site portion of the program. He said he learned a lot and continued with the accompanying teleconferences for several months. He then received a great job offer, giving him that change in career direction.

Keep in mind that when he enrolled in the coaching program, he pre-paid, to take advantage of the discount amount. When he called to ask for a refund, minus the time he had put into the program, he initially spoke to an assistant who read from a "no money back" script. It took several calls, and finally the owner of the company set a time to talk.

After the "bean counting" assistant had responded in a manikin fashion, this man was ready for a difficult and unpleasant conversation. It turned out to be a positive and responsive call where the owner, after hearing the story of how this man who was not looking for a job, had dropped into the lucky lottery of amazing synchronicities of life and voila, a great job!

When the business owner learned how the man had taken the last of his savings to participate in his coaching program, he offered to refund the entire amount. Now mind you, this entrepreneur business owner was not a wealthy man. Yet, he did not hold back by deducting the first session, saying he only hoped that if others interested in coaching asked for a referral, this program would be at the top of the list.

Would you have held back? Would you have given a full refund? Remember there was no agreement for future referrals, only "the ask" and a willingness to give help to a fellow worker on the planet.

Compare this to the woman who went to hear a high profile guru with answer after answer on how to make a million by signing up for his guaranteed program. If you prepaid, you got some free books and a seat at the front of the class.

This business tycoon talked about how much money he had made and how he could live anywhere on the planet with homes in different countries, and he even had his own island. His fail-safe plan was, well, fail-safe. The woman was excited and studied the "free" books sent to her before the seminar.

Then personal disaster struck. She was downsized from her job at the same time the roof on her house could no longer keep out the wintery rain. A new roof took precedent over the seminar that was not to take place for several months.

Like the man in the first scenario, she called to get a refund. Again, as in the first scenario, her entry was an assistant who simply repeated what she had been told to say, "No refunds." No time was yet spent in the seminar. However, she had pre-paid and, as she told me the story she had truly been "scrooged".

She asked to talk with the owner of the company. He however, was too busy going from home to home to island to bother taking her call. Finally after multiple calls and emails, she was able to get a response from his "first-mate" assistant. They would refund a small portion, since after all, she had gotten the free books and had been able to access his blog site (along with the rest of the world) and therefore had benefitted from his work.

Eventually she retained a lawyer to help her. The lawyer said that while the business owner was in his rights, the guy was obviously only out for himself.

She has since started her own blog to warn people about the guru effect and those who talk a great game and live by Scrooge rules.

Take some time and think about how you treat people and how you hope to be treated when you need a refund. This is a good time of year to do some deep thinking about the real meaning of profit and success.

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Article Tags: business success, profits, satisfied customers, scrooged



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