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Tips for Writing Guarantees
By Alan Sharpe
The best guarantee to offer your buyer is one that
hurts. You, that is. Like you, your potential buyer
lives in a rip-off society where merchants sell
shoddy products and vendors do not honor their
promises.
In this kind of selling and buying climate, the best
way to increase response rates and encourage repeat
business is to offer a guarantee that hurts you but
helps your customer. The more you have to lose, and
the less your customer has to lose, the better off
you both will be.
1. Make your guarantee unconditional. Let customers
know you will honor your guarantee for any reason.
2. Offer a 100 percent money-back refund. Don’t
charge a “re-stocking fee.” Don’t withhold the
taxes. Give every penny back.
3. Set the length of the guarantee at infinity.
Offer a lifetime guarantee. Agree to take back the
merchandise at any time.
Offering this kind of guarantee will hurt. You’ll be
afraid of people taking advantage. And some will.
You’ll be afraid of the pain to your bottom line,
and rightly so.
But the beauty of offering an unconditional,
lifetime, 100 percent money-back guarantee is that
it helps you lose a few battles here and there but
win the war. You’ll have to give some customers
their money back once in a while and take back used
merchandise that you cannot re-sell. You’ll lose
some money. Maybe lose face a little. But you’ll
keep your customer.
Remember, dissatisfied customers tell others. And
satisfied customers tell others. A dissatisfied
customer who returns your product and receives a 100
percent refund quickly turns into a satisfied
customer of sorts.
So offer a guarantee that hurts you a lot. You'll
feel better for it.
--- Alan Sharpe is president of Sharpe Copy, Inc. (www.sharpecopy.com)
a B2B direct mail copywriting agency.
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