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What’s Your Small Business Guarantee?

Guest post by: Jessica Swanson

Article Overview: No matter what small business you run, you need to have an iron-clad guarantee that gives your customers or clients complete peace of mind.

What’s Your Small Business Guarantee?

Just the other day I ordered an informational training product online. When the product arrived, it wasn't what I was expecting. Let's just say that I was one of those "unsatisfied" customers.

The company did showcase a luke-warm "guarantee" on their website that indicated that if you weren't completely satisfied with the product, it could be returned within 5-days for a full refund. So, I emailed the company and politely asked for a refund.

Here was their response:

"If you are going to request a refund, here are the steps that must be taken:

1) Destroy the product immediately. Once it is destroyed, you will need to download a form and sign it giving your solemn oath that it has been destroyed. If we find that you are still using the product we will press charges without delay.

2) Next, you need to download our "Request for Refund" form. Fill out the 3-page form in its entirety and fax it back to our office.

3) We will determine if the refund request is valid. Please understand that we must receive all documentation within the 5-day refund request time-period. We will email you our decision.

Wow. For just a minute I thought that perhaps I had accidentally ordered a top-secret document from the CIA that could potentially compromise international relations.

Nope. I assure you that it was just a mediocre, unexceptional information product.

So, I begrudgingly jumped through all of their "refund hoops" and two hours later delivered the signed and dated documents. Mission accomplished.

Here's how I feel about that whole experience. I will never buy another product from that company again. Period. It's just too much work. And, in the meantime, they destroyed any shred of "good feeling" that I carried for them.

Like it or not, if you're a small business owner, you are going to receive refund requests. The question that you must ask yourself is: do you cheerfully and quickly honor your refund requests or do you make the process tedious and frustrating for your customers?

Don't forget that when you offer mediocre guarantees that you deliver on begrudgingly, you are losing a lot more than you realize including your customer's trust, dedication and loyalty.

Let's flip to the other side of the coin and talk about a little bike store named Zanes in Branford, CT.

Zanes philosophy is that their relationship with their customers is infinitely more important than a couple of "refund requests." And so instead of making their customers jump through hoops, Zanes just makes it easy. They guarantee lifetime free service, life-time parts, 90-day price protection and 30-day test drive on all of their bikes.

Their motto is: "the only difference between us and our competition is the service that we offer."

Is Zanes concerned about a few "refund requests?" Nope. Their only concern is losing a potential customer. And so they do whatever it takes to make their customers happy, including offering a rock-solid guarantee that delivers immense peace of mind.

Does it work? Well, this little bike store sells over 3-million a year from one single location.

What can you guarantee about your product or service that will give your customers peace of mind?

Make it easy. Make it simple. Refund your unsatisfied customers cheerfully and swiftly and then watch as loyal customers begin lining up at your door.

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Article Tags: current customer marketing, shoestring marketing, small business marketing



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