Do People Care About Guarantees?

If the product/service is good and does what its supposed to do , then there is no need to try to obtain more sales by advertising a money back guarantee. By all means, you can still offer guarantee to your customers, but to use a guarantee as an advertising tool is not a good marketing tactic.

They work.

In my business anyway.

I've split test this... and guess which got more sales.

And on the version without a guarantee I even got emails asking if there was one.

The numbers are all over the place, but the end result is *always* the same:
guarantees increase conversions.

If you think they seem like a useless gimmick, then try altering the content of your guarantee to fit your style/context/offer, but I wouldn't leave it out altogether.

It use to be that vendors would honor their 30 day 100% money back guarantee, but no more.

Most are BSers and they will never refund you. Always, they come up with new excuses.

For example, our web master is sick and we cannot take the guarantee off our web page.

A lot of what these bozos sell is digital downloads so you cannot return the item.

Sadly, a lot of program I get are full of bugs and will crash my computer, but they do not care.

All they want is to get the money. When you call, the phone rings and rings.

I would test that,

depending on the niche...

in the other niche im in where I sell prints, they don't care it seems. I've tested both and my conversion rate didn't change.

in the IM niche however, it does matter.

Take care,
Ike Paz

If I have a choice between two products or online vendors, and one offers a money back guarantee while the other doesn't, I'll go with the one that does offer it.

I think they do matter, and definitely improve conversions. For the IM niche and the fitness niche, I will get those products that offer a guarantee over the other.

Guarantees can provide an added sense of security and comfort, and may push people over the edge to make a purchase. Sometimes though, guarantees have so much fine print and exclusions, that they really are not worth much. Still though, I think there are still some that care about guarantees.

Hi All,

Guarantees always works as long as its used with clear intention as no risk for buyer. It shouldn't be used as a medium to suck up money from buyer and create unwanted emotions which leads believes that 'guarantee' never works. So as a seller one need to be absolutely responsible and committed to use this type of highly valued words next to product or services.

Hi,
Focus on quality factor because it can help a brand and their customers to deploy splendid performance.

I think it is so Standard anymore. So to me if you do not include one I wonder why ??

- Robert Andrew

IMO gaurentees SHOULD be there.

They are they to make the potential client feel that you are 100% sure your product will be exactly what they are wanting/needing otherwise they can have all of their money back (no questions asked).

Sometimes a guarantee can sound too good to be true and 99% of the time the client won't even ask for a refund IMO.

However you should as mentioned above be focusing on QUALITY products to sell so there should never even be the need for someone to even warrant using your guarantee.

- Samuel

Particularly with online sales I think that a guarantee is vital. You need to create some level of consumer confidence and a money back guarantee helps do just that.


As an example Amazon has their A to Z guarantee. You can return anything for any reason, Customers love that.

I still think they help conversions but you obviously have to test to be sure. Every market is different.

However, if you're going to have one then be prepared to honor it. Don't say, "Money back, no questions asked" and then say, "But why didn't you like my product? I'm not refunding your money until you tell me."

I've bought many products online and only asked for a guarantee once. They gave me a hard time about it. I never purchased another one of their products even though I'd spent hundreds of dollars with them in the past.

Rose

I bought a candy bar the other day. It was stale. On the wrapper was a guarantee. I emailed the company, and they only asked one question - 'what address should we mail the replacement coupons to?"

A few days later, I got coupons for three free bars.

Did the guarantee influence the initial sale? Nope.

Did their response influence future sales? Definitely.

I think there's also a difference between using a guarantee as a simple risk reversal, and spotlighting it as a major reason to buy. The first is becoming part of the cost of entry to many markets. The second is a sign of desperation.

The exception seems to be things like books, DVDs, software, etc. where the guarantees are often limited to replacements for defective products.

So, here's my take on Money Back Guarantees...

For digital products, there's a fine line between making your buyers feel comfortable,and letting people steal your products.

What I do is I launch a product to a small group first, find and fix any issues that arise for a group of people, and then launch it, only without a money back guarantee. However, I have a "Refund Policy" page, where I list what kind of issues would prevent a money back guarantee.

For instance, if they ask for a refund within a week of buying, there will be no refund, simply to reduce digital theft. I also say that after that first week, if there are any issues, I'd be happy to resolve them. If there are still any issues after that, I will honor a refund, however, the account/access will be eliminated.

I like to use accounts and codes for access to products. That way if someone does get a refund, they don't get to keep the product.

On the other side, I offer above and beyond what they expect from me, and I hardly ever get refund requests. As long as you offer fulfilling, solid products, and show your buyers you want to help them, they will accept the help and you can keep your money. However, of course, some people just want their money back, in which case, you will never be able to avoid money back guarantees at that point.

Hope that helps clear a few things up on what I do. I know some people may disagree, but honestly, it's your business. Work it how you feel, but make sure you have a solid plan of what you want to do, and why.

Cheers!

As an affiliate marketer, I cannot guarantee that my leads will be making money, as it depend on their efforts too. So I ad an income disclaimer. However i give them the personal touch if they want to skype me. I arrange a time to and share with them what works for me.

Guarantee is important if it is possible to offer this. Good topic,give some thing to think about on what I can Guarantee with in limits

Depends on the niche really.

You can have them but just stick to them.

So if you say something like "try the course and if you don't get xyz I will refund your entire purchase"

Now when people contact asking for the refund, they are pretty much required to show proof that they did exactly what the course entails and only then will the refund be provided.

Something I've been doing recently, stopped people from buying not logging in then asking for a refund telling me its not right for them.

I would just counter with something like:

So what was the topic of video number 7 or show me what you set up and your analytics after purchasing the course and from doing what I said to do if they haven't improved no refund.

Not giving anyone a hard time, its those that take advantage of the damn guarantee or refund policy that take advantage of our time. Since we put our time into creating the course in the first place.

Wow enough of this rant lol

Isaiah

plus there is the time wasted dealing with refund-folk



and lets not forget the stress..

-Ike Paz

Guarantees = Our product might suck.

No, from the customer point of view, Guarantees = Our product might not be right for you. And if not, you can return it with no hard feelings. Ditto if it is defective.

Last week, I got a credit from Costco for a watermelon we bought that exploded when we cut into it. Of course, I was not able to bring it back to show what was wrong. They did not give me a hard time because how would that benefit them? It benefited them more to continue to have me as a customer.

Marcia Yudkin

I sell online courses. I've also done extensive split testing on various different parts of the sells process.
Here is a little bit of what i hound - Note, none of this is scientific, peer reviewed material... Just results from some of the hundreds of testing i have done within my own business. So use your own judgment and test.

No Guarantee - Lower sells at launch. Lots of customer emails inquiring about guarantees. Sells slowly pickup over time, not sure why just yet.

30 day guarantee. Seems to be the sweet spot, meaning i see the most conversions here.

60 day guarantee. Second place, conversions are still relatively high.

90 guarantee. Sells and conversions begin to drop off.

120 day guarantee. For some reason, my sells and conversions are about 27% lower than the 30 day guarantee. Not sure why - But I think it's because the scarcity factor is not present seeing as the customer has a much longer time to "test out" the product before the return period runs out.

So where does that leave me...
In almost all cases, I use what I like to call the "30 day, learn 1 thing or get your money back" guarantee.

Basically its a 30 day guarantee, where i say if you feel as if you haven't learned one thing that blew your mind - you can ask for your money back.

Of course you have to ensure that you really provide great, valuable content... But this seems to be working for me really really well in the online course business.

Guarantees do work and I believe if your going to offer one, then be honest.

Make the process quick and easy. They will probably buy again off you in future