(ARTICLE) 4 Ways To Deal With Refund Requests In Business

This can be VERY frustrating.

In today’s article, I really want to talk about how to deal with refund requests

As you scale your business, you should realise that you are bound to get refund requests and face unhappy customers from time to time.

No matter what type of products or service you are providing, t’s impossible to satisfy all of your customers.

That’s why in this article, I will be giving you some of the tips you can use when it comes to handling refund requests.⁣⁣

Firstly,

For everyone here who is new in business, I Know the thought of having refund requests can scare you…… but trust me, you are not alone.

Refund requests are a completely normal part of business.

I have spoken to 6 to 7 figures entrepreneurs and I’ve Never met any of them who have never received a refund request.

Even big companies like Amazon and Apple get refund requests on a daily basis.

Not every customer you deal with will always be satisfied.

Refund requests and unhappy customers are bound to happen with growth.

So just know when you start noticing refund requests, it can actually be a good sign of your growth in your business.

What I tend to see in a lot of business owners is that they tend to take refund requests very personally.

Sometimes a refund request may not necessarily mean your product or service was trash. Maybe it wasn’t the right fit for that person at that time.

This is very common with a service based business, a client may want a refund or not be able to continue sometimes due to unexpected financial difficulties.

1. Have A SOLID terms and conditions contract/policy on your website, page or app

Having a solid terms and conditions policy people sign and agree to, can prevent them from requesting a refund in the first place.

This is something many new people in business tend to not care about as sometimes they’re still in the beginning stages experimenting if their products or services is profitable in the first place.

When you notice your business or service is consistently profitable, I’d recommend purchasing a solid legal contract (which states no refunds) that you can physically and digitally have for people to sign or agree to before they jump aboard with you.

This legal contract is also known as the ‘Terms & Conditions’ which you can put on your page/app/website. Within that Terms & Conditions, it should have your preferred refund policy.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of purchasing legal contracts, then what you can do, is to individually vet your potential clients & customers yourself to see if they will be a right fit for you to begin with. You can do this by giving them an application form to fill in.

Avoid copying and pasting someone else’s Terms & Conditions as that is copyright infringement and you can get sued for that (Rookie mistake).

Be aware of how you set your refund policies.

If you have a service or product with a 6 week refund policy, then most people will buy the product/service use and consume it before the 6 weeks is up and then ask for a refund. This happens a lot more than you think so you have to strategically set your refund policies (If you are open to refunds) in a way where people can’t cheat your product/service.

Usually people will purposely cancel their payments and disputing charges with their banks. It’s ridiculous the limits some people will go.

Theres people that will consume your entire product and service then do you dirty like that.

So if you do have payment plan business model, be strategic with that too, or you’ll have people who will try to find a way around that too.

A good thing to accepting refund requests is that it makes potential customers to feel safe and secure with having a gateway to leave if they really aren’t happy with the product or services. Bringing this level of comfort and trust between you and your customers will in fact drive up your sales.

However, regardless of if you want to issue refunds or not, its very important you make it CLEAR to the customers and clients to where they acknowledge it before they click ‘buy’

2. Outsource Refund Requests

It’s a lot more peaceful when you’re not the one who is personally dealing with refunds requests and enquiries when you outsource it to a team member.

Theres a lot of benefits to interacting with your customers and clients through your customer support services, but your role as the CEO, is to be the visionary of your business.

To move your business forward

To create content

To create the products

To be the coach

To be working with your client

And this will be very difficult to do if you’re always dealing with customer support and enquiry emails.

So have someone (or people) who can take care of customer support, refund request, payment failures etc….and you can outsource the task of assessing if a person is the right fit for your product or service to some you can trust.

Of course, when you are new in business, you will be the solopreneur having to do ALL tasks by yourself. From vetting to customer support and to even having to be the one dealing with refund requests and unhappy customers/clients.

But as your business starts getting consistently profitable, the moment you start scaling and looking to grow, it is time to outsource certain tasks which are eating up into your time making it harder for you to focus on much more important tasks.

This is also good for your customers and clients because as a business owner, you will have a level of emotion towards your products or service, so if you receive negative feedback, payment failure or a refund request, you will take it personally sometimes and can probably respond to the customer/client in a way where you may end up regretting later on.

Thats why its wise to outsource that task because you don’t want your own negative energy to affect the transaction.

You don’t want your negative perception to affect the relationship you have between you and your client/customer.

As the business grows, outsource all customer related tasks so you can have the time to focus on your genius.

Understand that 95% of people will love you, but there’s gonna be a 5% who disagree, critique you and will try to bring you down.

The truth is, even though we are grateful for the the 95% of people who show us love, It’s usually the 5% of people who end up ruining your mood or even your day which can affect the way you end up running your business.

Protect your energy.

3. Being Fair vs Being Right

Sometimes it’s more important to be fair than to be right. 

This means it can be easy to let your ego overtake when you’re discussing refund requests with customer due to your need of wanting to be right.

Often times, you may need to take a step back and to understand what is actually fair.

It’s important to realise that you don’t always have to be right when dealing with refund requests, but what’s more important is that you’re fair.

You’re fair to your client/customer, you’re fair to yourself and you’re fair to your business.

If someone has valid reason which aligns with your terms and conditions as to why it is they are asking for a refund request, be fair and give it to them.

But there will be people who:

Skip your terms & conditions

Skip past 80% of your content

Not do their due diligence

Didn’t read through things properly

And all of a sudden they all of a sudden want a refund. To me, that isn’t fair to YOU as a business owner.

There will even be some people who will ask for a refund request because they can’t pay what they owe even though they’ve consumed all of your services. That also isn’t fair.

You need to make sure you’re protecting your business and are doing what is fair and holding your clients and customers to the commitments they have chosen to make.

These are grown people with perfectly working minds, they are completely aware of what they’re doing.

Don’t accept any ridiculous refund requests some people will try to throw at you. It should be fair for both parties, you and your client/customer

What Is Worth Letting Go Of vs What Is Worth Fighting For?

How much energy are you willing to spend go back and forth with some people over a refund request?

If you’re at a place where you’re averaging £$10k - £$20K a month, and once a month you get refund request for £$200.

Would it be worth spending majority of your energy trying to save £$200 when in the bigger picture, your’e making 10k-20K p/m?

Maybe, maybe not

Only you can decide the answer to that question.

4. Offering alternatives to protect customer experience

If you believe the refund request is invalid, ask yourself if there’s any other alternatives where you can turn the situation around.

So even though you may be rejecting a refund request, you can still find a way to offer your client/customer a ‘happy medium’

Happy medium = ‘a good choice or condition that avoids any extremes’

Closing Thoughts

As your business grows, you’ll start to notice the common reasons as to why someone may want a refund or why someone may have certain type of feedback for you.

As your business grows, take that data and feedback you receive to improve your products/ services.

Maybe you’ll improve your shipping times/packaging

Maybe you’ll improve the quality of your service

Maybe you’ll offer a diverse range of product or even niche down and only specialise at one specific thing

Maybe you’ll niche down and make sure your courses are for the RIGHT people instead of trying to tailor it for everyone

Maybe you’ll improve /update your refund terms & conditions to avoid people trying to take advantage and find loopholes

Dealing with refund requests can be scary and frustrating in the beginning but as you grow you’ll understand that it just comes with the territory of being a business owner which you just have to deal with when it does happen.

“The game is the game”

Most of the time when you receive refund requests, it’s got nothing to do with the quality of your product or services, its usually because of other reasons which you some sometimes cannot control.

Don’t take it personal.

I’m sure 98% of your customers and clients LOVE what you are doing, don’t let the 2% of people who are not a good fit or don’t do their due diligence and want to be spoon-fed, make you think what you are doing isn’t great.

If Amazon and Apple are receiving complaints then you will also receive refund requests and complaints sooner or later.

Till next time.