I'm curious as to the rationale about "not letting people walk all over you." Is that an ego thing? Because, businesswise, it is just as easy to say "We ALWAYS give refunds when asked" as it is to say "We NEVER give refunds when asked", and it costs vanishingly little more money to say the first than the second. Your pathological customers know a variety of ways to get their money back anyhow (cough mention "chargeback" in a thirty second call to their bank cough). You might as well take the opportunity to give your good customers a feeling that you're not risky to do business with. Heck, make it a sales point: we don't want your money if you're not ridiculously happy with the service. (A/B test this if you don't believe me, but I think it is probably a clear win.)
I've done this for almost five years with BCC, offering a published policy of no-questions-asked refunds for 30 days (and the actual practice is that I will literally send you a check 4 years later -- I did it once). My refunds over the interim run under 3% of sales. In the last year, off the top of my head, it is closer to 1.2% (switching to the online version prevents all sorts of problems).
Otherwise I rather like the advice, although if you're not marketing to techy people like web designers I would suggest getting a great deal more comfortable with SEO than this would suggest because Google is the Internet.
I think a well-articulated and unconfusing policy on refunds goes a LONG way. As does ease of customer service process. If you nail these two things, in my experience, then questions about where to draw the line with refunds become almost academic.
Customers don't like headaches. The goal of customer service isn't to bow down to the customer at all costs, but rather, to minimize or alleviate headaches.
I had similar experience as you while doing sales on ebay, the moment I switched from "return not accepted" to "returns accepted, full refund including the shipping cost" sales went up 3 folds and covered any negligible cost associated with returns. Customers will trust you more when there is a full refund policy in place and will not think twice when buying from you.
I'm okay with conceding the refund point in my article. That being said, we don't stamp our marketing site with a big "NO REFUND POLICY". We just don't advertise a refund policy of any sort. I think the bigger takeaway from that section is that you should be liberal in offering refunds on whatever policy you have.
"we have a strict no refund policy — and you should too"
I disagree. Stating that you have a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee will convince some people to sign up, because they known that if it doesn't work out for them the can always for their money back.
I've had this policy in place since day 1, and my refunds rate is less than 1%. That's in 3 years and over a heck a lot of sales.
Oh, and if people ask after day 30, or day 40, or even day 50 for their money back, I'll do it.
I'm surprised blogging wasn't mentioned. Regularly writing about the topic(s) your users are interested in has some great benefits:
- Lends credibility to you and your site
- Outbound links to your product's site can help SEO
- Makes it possible to grab some of the long tail searches
- Blog readers can be an instant marketing target when launching new features
It's especially great for bootstrapped or small startups. The large competitors simply won't dedicate time or resources to the task. It's typically difficult for them to draw a direct connection to profits. For small startups it's a genuine way to connect with your customers without making them jump through hoops.
I specifically wanted to write about "non obvious" things.
Note this sentence from the introduction: "They're outdated and uninformative — full of obvious suggestions such as: 'you should blog' and 'use Twitter to get the word out.'"
I am a firm believer that customer service is the best marketing function that a startup can invest in. With good customer service, customers who have problems turn into the best beta testers, your strongest word of mouth marketers, and really good friends.
I'd even go so far as to say that the key to success is to treat your customers like gold, and treat your employees like customers.
A very simple guideline I use is what type of customer service would I like to receive myself?
So, I
* try to respond to email quickly.
* don't write email like it's a press release.
* don't write too formally.
* issue "refunds" (for iPhone apps, I have to pay for Apple's cut). It's troublesome. I have to pay instead of refund. Some people have PayPal, some don't, Some have Amazon accounts, some don't.
* treat the party at the other side as a human, like I want to be treated.
* build a good product, and keep it good
it's surprisingly easy.
So next time you are at the receiving end of good or bad customer service, note it down.
Thanks, I'll definitely take some of the ideas on.
Question: Any advice on acquiring Facebook fans?
We just started 6 weeks ago, now got 1,000 users (200 regular), but only 50 FB fans. We have no money, so instead of doing "like us on FB to win XXX", I've resorted to "I'll eat one clove of garlic for every 10 new FB fans". Anyway, given that you've got 7,000 FB fans, I'm sure you can teach us a thing or two. Our site is: www.findfish.at (it has a link to our FB page there).
I wish this post was about how to 'truly' get customers...then again, I might have read this as 'how to get your first customers' which is different than getting marginal customers once you get going.
Sure, blogging and establishing your founder's profile is nice and all. But when you are just starting out, have zero customers and your customers are NOT interested in your 'founder profile'...that doesn't help much.
Now that I want all those blog posts about getting from 0 - 100 paid customers, I can't find any.
Does any have any references that are similar to picking up a phone book and calling ?
20 comments
[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadI've done this for almost five years with BCC, offering a published policy of no-questions-asked refunds for 30 days (and the actual practice is that I will literally send you a check 4 years later -- I did it once). My refunds over the interim run under 3% of sales. In the last year, off the top of my head, it is closer to 1.2% (switching to the online version prevents all sorts of problems).
Otherwise I rather like the advice, although if you're not marketing to techy people like web designers I would suggest getting a great deal more comfortable with SEO than this would suggest because Google is the Internet.
Customers don't like headaches. The goal of customer service isn't to bow down to the customer at all costs, but rather, to minimize or alleviate headaches.
Got an example?
I realize that it's no less complicated than "We ALWAYS give refunds when asked" but perhaps this particular wording works better for you.
I disagree. Stating that you have a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee will convince some people to sign up, because they known that if it doesn't work out for them the can always for their money back.
I've had this policy in place since day 1, and my refunds rate is less than 1%. That's in 3 years and over a heck a lot of sales.
Oh, and if people ask after day 30, or day 40, or even day 50 for their money back, I'll do it.
- Lends credibility to you and your site
- Outbound links to your product's site can help SEO
- Makes it possible to grab some of the long tail searches
- Blog readers can be an instant marketing target when launching new features
It's especially great for bootstrapped or small startups. The large competitors simply won't dedicate time or resources to the task. It's typically difficult for them to draw a direct connection to profits. For small startups it's a genuine way to connect with your customers without making them jump through hoops.
Note this sentence from the introduction: "They're outdated and uninformative — full of obvious suggestions such as: 'you should blog' and 'use Twitter to get the word out.'"
I'd even go so far as to say that the key to success is to treat your customers like gold, and treat your employees like customers.
How can I learn ideas about doing better customer service?
So, I
* try to respond to email quickly.
* don't write email like it's a press release.
* don't write too formally.
* issue "refunds" (for iPhone apps, I have to pay for Apple's cut). It's troublesome. I have to pay instead of refund. Some people have PayPal, some don't, Some have Amazon accounts, some don't.
* treat the party at the other side as a human, like I want to be treated.
* build a good product, and keep it good
it's surprisingly easy.
So next time you are at the receiving end of good or bad customer service, note it down.
PS: We really need Markdown or something similar.
Question: Any advice on acquiring Facebook fans?
We just started 6 weeks ago, now got 1,000 users (200 regular), but only 50 FB fans. We have no money, so instead of doing "like us on FB to win XXX", I've resorted to "I'll eat one clove of garlic for every 10 new FB fans". Anyway, given that you've got 7,000 FB fans, I'm sure you can teach us a thing or two. Our site is: www.findfish.at (it has a link to our FB page there).
Sure, blogging and establishing your founder's profile is nice and all. But when you are just starting out, have zero customers and your customers are NOT interested in your 'founder profile'...that doesn't help much.
Now that I want all those blog posts about getting from 0 - 100 paid customers, I can't find any.
Does any have any references that are similar to picking up a phone book and calling ?