One thing that’s sure to have the icy fingers of doubt running its cold fingers down your spine is the issue of the money-back customer guarantee.
No matter what your small business is all about, you simply have to offer a guarantee to your customers. After all, why on earth should they buy from you if you don’t believe in your product enough to guarantee it?
However, the thought of actually having to give money back to customers is a scary one. But something that you really have to accept in business. After all, you can please some people some of the time…. as those famous lyrics go.
But what should you actually guarantee? And how do you go about being fair to your customer, but also to put in place legitimate and fair damage limitation so that should something beyond your control go wrong that you don’t end up completely out of pocket?
That’s where the expression ‘keep it simple, stupid’ comes into play.
Let’s face it, we’ve all seen those reams of terms and conditions – small print that, to be honest, who on earth has the time, inclination or even the interest to plough through when you’re purchasing a product. And we’re all guilty of it – only worrying about all those get-out clauses when something actually goes wrong.
The thing is, far too many businesses hide behind that small print. And if there’s one thing that’s going to make your customers (or potential customers) think you’ve got something to hide, then it’s page after page of terms and conditions.
After all – how refreshing is it so see a company that says something along the lines of;
“We guarantee that our product is suitable to do XXX. If it doesn’t, we’ll refund (100% / 80% or whatever) of the purchase price – no questions asked.”
It’s a bold statement – but it’s crystal clear! And how many extra sales do you think a guarantee like that would bring you? Because we’d bet our last dollar that it would certainly see them racking up!
In today’s world of mad litigation, multi-page contracts and people and businesses doing whatever they can to squirm out of anything they can, a guarantee like that will stand out like a shining beacon in the darkness.
Sure – it’ll take some courage to do it, but rather than thinking of it as a guarantee, think of it as yet another marketing strategy. And anything that gets your customers sitting up and taking notice of you is exactly what you’re aiming for.
Be different, be professional, be bold. It’s exactly these attributes that’ll have your business standing out from the crowd.
Do you offer a guarantee? Share it in the Comments section.
** This is just one of the many observations we made in an interview we did with John, the Founder of Wicked Campers. You can listen to the whole Wicked Campers marketing interview here. **
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