Quick Links: Home > Articles > ...
8 Real-Life Ways
to Reduce
Refunds And Chargebacks
by:
Richard Adams,
MerchantAccountForum.com
Chargebacks are potentially disastrous to your business. You’ll
get charged a large fee for every chargeback, and if you get too
many, your processing account will likely be closed altogether.
Either way, the result isn’t great and so the intelligent
business owner constantly looks for ways to reduce refunds and
chargebacks.
Here then are eight very real ways in which you can reduce
chargebacks in your own business.
1) Offer Post-Sale Bonuses
Rather than providing everything straight after purchase, some
smart marketers have recently been setting up a whole host of
additional free bonuses, which their customers get one at a time
over a period of several weeks.
This is an ideal technique as it means that your customers have
a very good reason not to ask for a refund - after all they’ve
got plenty more to gain over the coming weeks haven’t they?
This is easy to set up in terms of an autoresponder to which
customers are automatically subscribed to, which sends out
messages at regular intervals providing a link to the next
bonus.
2) Be Open If You Use A Third Party Account
If you use a third party processing account such as Clickbank,
2CheckOut or CCNow then make it crystal clear that you do.
After all, one of the drawbacks of using a third party account
is that your company name never appears on the customer’s credit
card statement. So let them know that they’ll see a charge for
$x from your processor.
That way it won’t be a surprise when their bill turns up, which
leads to them initiating a chargeback because they’ve never
heard of the company that’s charged them.
3) Be Available
Whenever anyone buys anything from you, provide your email
address incase of any problems.
Better that a customer emails requesting a refund than initiates
a chargeback because they can’t work out how to get hold of you.
4) Over Deliver On Your Promises
If your sales letter extols all sorts of lofty promises that
simply aren’t matched by your product not only will you receive
lots of refund requests, but you’re also actually breaking the
law and could be taken to court for it.
So whilst I appreciate that your sales letter needs to create a
feeling of "want" in your customers, you also need to be fair
and honest.
In fact, providing additional, unannounced bonuses is a great
way to over deliver. It’s happened to me a few times, and I
still go "Wow!" when I actually end up getting more than I was
expecting. And a customer that feels like this very rarely asks
for a refund.
5) Offer A Lifetime Bonus
Imagine if there is some part of your product that customers
will use for months or even years to come. One perfect example
would be an online tool inside a membership site or a
members-only discussion forum.
By requesting a refund they know they won’t *just* lose your
ebook, they’ll also lose access to your special discussion
forum, or online software, or article database etc. That way
it’s a lot more painful to request a refund.
6) Keep Records
Keep records of customers and when they bought, the card they
used etc. Then, if you *do* get any chargebacks at least you
have some evidence.
7) Use Advanced Authorisation Processes
Some card processors just ask for a name, credit card number and
expiry date.
However, some will ask for additional information such as the
security numbers off the back of the signature strip, your
address, the name printed on the card etc.
All this additional information, which is checked against the
registered user of the card, will reduce fraudulent sales and so
lessen your chances of chargebacks.
8) Be Likeable
It sounds simple, but if you’re likeable and helpful you’ll save
yourself a lot of hassle. I bought a product not so long ago and
it didn’t live up to the sales letter.
I emailed to request a refund and got a blunt reply telling me
that there was nothing wrong with their sales letter or product
and therefore there was no legitimate reason for me to have a
refund.
Well, as there was, and I didn’t like being treated like a
criminal, I just initiated a chargeback. I wonder if that
company ever wondered why?
Be nice, be approachable. Be willing to help out if your
customers have questions after purchase. And be willing to
happily give a refund to any customer not 100% satisfied.
Because it’s lots less trouble than dealing with chargebacks.
========================================
Richard Adams is the founder of Merchant Account Forum, one of
the net's most popular merchant account advice sites. Click Here
Now =>
www.MerchantAccountForum.com
========================================
** SPECIAL NOTE **: If you have lost your
merchant account from excessive chargebacks and
are now on the MasterCard MATCH list because of
it there is help! Bank Card Law helps businesses get
their name off the MATCH list, help you obtain
another merchant account and educate you on how
to eliminate future chargeback episodes. Visit
Bank Card Law at http://www.bankcardlaw.com
Related
Articles
|
