Home – New › Forums › Marketing mastery › Do you offer a guarantee? … If not, why not?
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April 6, 2013 at 8:48 am #982591Up::0
Hello Everyone
A strong guarantee is suggested regularly to reduce a buyer’s fear so let’s hear some gems please…
What’s your particular guarantee?
If you don’t want to offer one to your customers… why is that?
When you are buying something… what guarantee works for you to give you comfort?
And… do you think a guarantee really is important?
Other thoughts?
April 6, 2013 at 10:33 am #1137620Up::0A guarantee is not enough. It’s a double edge sword which can make or kill a business.
However, many businesses offer useless platitudes like great / best service, quality, reliable, dependable, satisfaction guaranteed, etc and then pass 100% of the risk on to the customer.
They wonder why business is bad incorrectly blaming the “economy”, “regulation” or “competition” when prospects refuse to accept the unjustified risk.
I offer a number of guarantees. One of them is:
“increase your business by at least 20% without increasing your advertising budget or your money back”.
April 7, 2013 at 3:13 am #1137621Up::0Yes – I guarantee to meet the agreed deadline or the typing is free.
In 10 years of business I haven’t missed a deadline yet. 😮
The point of the guarantee is to reassure new clients of my reliability, particularly if they are “brand new” in that they don’t know me through social media etc.
April 7, 2013 at 4:20 am #1137622Up::0Khalid Adam, post: 156940 wrote:A guarantee is not enough. It’s a double edge sword which can make or kill a business.However, many businesses offer useless platitudes like great / best service, quality, reliable, dependable, satisfaction guaranteed, etc and then pass 100% of the risk on to the customer.
They wonder why business is bad incorrectly blaming the “economy”, “regulation” or “competition” when prospects refuse to accept the unjustified risk.
I offer a number of guarantees. One of them is:
“increase your business by at least 20% without increasing your advertising budget or your money back”.You mention a guarantee is not e ought, but the go on to offer a guarantee. What extra do you offer as well as your guarantee?
April 7, 2013 at 8:20 am #1137623Up::0What i mean is it is critical but the wrong application can destroy your business. think about taking the wrong medicine or incorrect dosage.
Here’s one point (out of many).
Both Target and Aldi used to have a “return anytime, no questions asked guarantee” and it got abused. So they changed to a conditional guarantee.
Why? Because it’s not a good idea to offer unconditional guarantee to a target market that is predominantly price driven.
When they implemented a 60 day conditional guarantee (still a guarantee), the returns dropped significantly. btw, I don’t know what their current guarantee is now.
The target market makes a difference. My guarantees (Depending on the service) adjusts according to the niches i target. I also have a double guarantee (not to be confused with double the money back which i’m thinking of testing)
MatthewKeath, post: 156969 wrote:You mention a guarantee is not e ought, but the go on to offer a guarantee. What extra do you offer as well as your guarantee?April 7, 2013 at 9:32 pm #1137624Up::0I read this post previously on FS: http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/forums/sales-marketing/22861-money-back-guarantees.html specifically this little snippet by Shout Out Digital:
I have read many threads about this subject over the last year and obviously the tactic depends on your service or product that you offer.
The one tactic that stood out for me was one guy who said he received more sales when he offers a lifetime money back guarantee rather than just 60 days which of course is obvious right BUT what stood out was the fact that he said over the past 2 years, he never got an increase in customers asking for their money back which meant he greatly increased his profits. He said that as long as the customer was happy, then they are never going to try and cheat you because this is a hassle for the customer to email/phone you, then maybe argue with you and wait for the money back.
I think this could refer also to yourself and your business. If your customers are wealthy, do you think they will try taking advantage of this money back if you are providing a good service or product.
I hope my blurb was helpful and good luck with your future developments, Neil
And it changed my opinion of guarantees. I now offer a lifetime redesign guarantee. In my industry authors can often feel hesitant to contact a designer because so much interpretation and trust is involved. By giving this guarantee the author starts on, what they feel is, much more solid ground.
April 8, 2013 at 12:15 am #1137625Up::0I guarantee to work with my clients until they’re completely happy with their copy, and provide ample opportunities for them to provide feedback.
Unfortunately I can’t guarantee results, because there are too may other variables which can affect the outcomes.
On a different note, I remarked to my husband just last night how bogus I thought guarantees of “we’ll beat any price or your product/service is free” are. For instance, Flight Centre make this claim, but if you do find a cheaper flight, they reserve the right to offer the same flight for $1 less, thereby being able to offer a cheaper product so they don’t have to give it away for free. If they can offer it “for free”, then of course they can beat the price – even if it is by a dollar.
It’s a BS claim that makes them look very generous, when in fact, they’re not that generous after all.
So long as companies are up front about what they do or don’t offer, then I’m happy to go with “buyer be ware”. If a company is clear that they don’t/can’t offer a guarantee, then I’ll weigh the options. However, if they imply they offer a guarantee, but don’t, then they want to make damn sure they’re not breaching ACCC regs for misleading conduct.
April 8, 2013 at 1:26 am #1137626Up::0Let’s not forget that there are statutory guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law, which include the following guarantees:
Goods:
- Guarantee as to title
- Guarantee as to undisturbed possession
- Guarantee as to undisclosed securities etc.
- Guarantee as to acceptable quality
- Guarantee as to fitness for any disclosed purpose etc.
- Guarantee relating to the supply of goods by description
- Guarantees relating to the supply of goods by sample or demonstration model
- Guarantee as to repairs and spare parts
- Guarantee as to express warranties
Services:
- Guarantee as to due care and skill
- Guarantees as to fitness for a particular purpose etc.
- Guarantee as to reasonable time for supply
April 8, 2013 at 2:06 am #1137627Up::0I offer unlimited revisions on website designs until the client is happy – I don’t really communicate it as a “guarantee” at the moment but maybe I should?! So far nobody has abused it, but it can be a bit more difficult to limit scope creep.
April 8, 2013 at 2:30 am #1137628Up::0Lots to agree with here.
I think it comes back to the level of fear or underlying anxiety that a customer might be feeling. The greater the cost of the item or service, the greater the anxiety, the more substantial the guarantee needs to be to put the customer at ease enough to buy from you.
If you’re not competing on price and are offering products and/or services of exceptional quality then wouldn’t a 100% guarantee in one form or another be just a natural part of the marketing process?
All best,
Lindsay
April 8, 2013 at 4:41 am #1137629Up::0Warren Cottis, post: 156935 wrote:Hello EveryoneA strong guarantee is suggested regularly to reduce a buyer’s fear so let’s hear some gems please…
What’s your particular guarantee?
If you don’t want to offer one to your customers… why is that?
When you are buying something… what guarantee works for you to give you comfort?
And… do you think a guarantee really is important?
Other thoughts?
I tell e-commerce store owners that they have to have a guarantee for their customers that actually mean something.
We talked to a lot of customers that were ‘worried’ about purchasing online and one of the major concerns they had was “what if I just don’t like it, it is not the size I thought it was or it looks different to the photo, it is just not what I was expecting”. We created our guarantees around these concerns.
We offer a “Free Exchange” and a “Gotta Love It” on our e-commerce sites. Customers have the option to return it within 60 days for a refund if they don’t like it.
As long as your guarantees are truly designed to help the customer and are not ‘flaky’ then they will have the desired effect of creating consumer confidence and give you the edge over you competition.
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