The Return Policy - Friend or Foe?
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Heart of Glass
As my newsletter readers will already know, I had the first return of my Real Blog Videos last week.
I guess ClickBank requires or requests people making returns to give a reason, so I did get an explanation for the dissatisfaction.
To summarize they said that they could find the same information for free elsewhere on the web. Fair enough I guess, but there is the large amounts of my own personal experience and tips that are also present that are not available elsewhere.
Since ClickBank issues the refund I didn’t, luckily, get a chance to argue. A no hassle guarantee is supposed to be easy for the consumer [I'll grow up soon I hope].
Today, as my wife was leaving the house I asked her where she was going, “just doing a few returns,” was her reply.
Mmmmmmm.
You see my wife is virtually a professional shopper…luckily for me it is for her work 
and the return policy often is a deciding factor in where she shops. Due to the nature of her business it is much more efficient for her clients if she buys a big selection and then returns the leftovers.
Hassle her about returns and you’ll lose a big hunk of business.
All this to say, I guess, that I’m glad I had ClickBank handling the return. It amazed me how much my confidence in my product was shaken by the one simple return!
Here’s the punchline to the story…
While obsessing over my stats today…I noticed the person who requested a refund [they were from a rather obscure country...with a bit of a reputation for not exactly being totally legit when it comes to copyright issues and they were my only sale to that country so it was easy to tell who they were] and they have been watching the videos every day since the return!
Now I didn’t know whether to be happy or angry. I guess they couldn’t really find the info anywhere else! I ended up feeling both anger and relief.
Lots of business reality lessons in this one:
- A no hassle return policy is essential in the sales process.
- Returns hurt when you’re personally involved in the quality of the product, but the reasons are really worth listening to.
- Theft is a reality of doing business.
I sent this person a polite email asking for them to please pay for the videos but needless to say they have not. I don’t think it is the best use of my energy to do anything other than just let it go at this point.
Just felt like sharing some of the ups downs and downs and lessons learned of the Info Product Business…thanks for reading along.
Jon
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Comments ( 6 )
[...] The Return Policy - Friend of Foe? The ups and downs of offering a no hassle money back guarantee. [...]
FollowSteph.com » Weekly 7 added these pithy words on Aug 26 06 at 12:05 pmmarkinjapan added these pithy words on Aug 09 06 at 1:01 amHi Jon,
Ah, loved that Blondie song - you’re doing well coz mine shatters when I even read my mentor’s critique of a sales page masterpiece wot i wrote…er, badly;-)
Regarding your ex-customer…well, in the spirit in which you wrote some posts back about “be,do,have”, I imagine this person will likely “be,do,have” along his/her dominant thoughts and character…
To finish with - Don’t know what the CB % return rate is for your product’s theme but assume it’s 5%. Then imagine 20 of those pesky ex-customers (some of who might come round as your reputation builds) and you have 380 others who did not request a refund.
Onward, ever onward to product #2, 3 etc:-)!
regards
Tyler McKinna added these pithy words on Aug 09 06 at 8:47 amJon,
Without knowing how many actual sales you have, one return isn’t all that bad. The fact of the matter is that most information is available somewhere for free or for cheaper than you offer it. However, you should be compensated for packaging it and transforming it into a useable format that will allow the novice blogger to succeed without the learning curve.
Keep on trucking fella! Great job.
James Brausch added these pithy words on Aug 10 06 at 11:35 amHey Jon,
Get your customer service outsourced as soon as possible. It’s important to not see the negative responses or returns.
It is important to feed the negative responses and return data back to the product development team once you outsource that, but you don’t want to personally see it.
-James D. Brausch
Stas added these pithy words on Aug 11 06 at 3:21 pmHi Jon.
Wonder if this was someone from my country (Israel), as this approach of “use but don’t pay” quite fits some of the opportunistic customers here :).
I can’t understand thought, how can you see that this ex-customer uses your content, but you can’t block his access in the same time?
Regardless, “this is the business”, so don’t take it too hard. On every such dishonest customer 10 good will come.
Stas.
David Teare added these pithy words on Aug 13 06 at 10:49 amI find returns hurt much less when you have a new sale a few minutes later
Sadly, this doesn’t always happen - especially during the summer doldrums.