Easiest way to deal with refunds request

Today we’re talking about a very important, and sometimes upsetting subject: how to deal with refund requests and unhappy customers.And yes, this comes up for all of us no matter who we are or where we’re at in our business. No matter how great your products are, some people won’t dig your stuff.

Whether you’re just getting started, or you’ve been in business for a while, it’s vital to get this right – especially in our hyper connected, social media based world. In this video, learn six strategies every business owner should put in place to ensure you’re handling refund requests and unhappy customers in the best way.

Okay, so the first thing to know is that justby giving a refund, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad entrepreneur, quite the opposite. It’s actually a rite of passage. Now most businesses will get some refund requests at some point in time. I do get them occasionally too and it is just part of being in business.

It’s no big deal.

So, you’re either in two places.

Either you’re worried about your first refund request and maybe it’s blocking you from putting things out in the world.
Or you’ve just received a request and you’ve just being frantically googling for somebody to tell you what to do.

So, here I am yehey!

Do not panic.

So, the first thing to do is do not panic. It’s totally okay.

Just sit on the email or the request for just a little while, while you work out what to do.

Now in the future you’re going to have a bit of a process put together on this so you’re not going to freak out every time it happens.

But for the first time, don’t just sit and respond to them straightaway. You’ve got to sit on it.

Sometimes people make really unreasonable requests so they might not just be asking for their money back. They might be asking for some sort of compensation or whatever.

Now case in point, we accidentally charge somebody twice on their credit card one time and you know we spotted it, we actually respond straightaway and said, “Hey, look. We’ve refunded the extra one straightaway. We’re really, really sorry.” And the lady came back and said, “Okay. Well, in compensation, I want to have a private coaching session with Denise.” We gracefully declined her request. So, you don’t have to just jump and say yes to anything that people are asking for.

Put a process in place

But it’s also okay just have a money back guarantee so that is the process I want you to put in place. If you don’t have it already, sit down determine in what circumstance that you’re okay to give a refund and what time frames you’re okay to give a refund for.

It’s totally up to you and your business.

Just check and see if there are any legalities in your country about when you actually have to give a refund for.

Once you’ve got that process in place, you can also save the email that you’re sending to this person and keep it for next time so you can tweak it.

Now it could be that you request for them to fill out a form to get their refund and let them know what’s going to happen after that. How soon after they have their form are you going to refund their money?

Now, I made a big mistake right at the beginning. I put on the form something like, “How much did you pay in your local currency?” Because I was charging in Australian dollars at the time and I thought, “Oh, well, I’ll let them just tell me how much they paid.”

Then I refunded them that amount. Now the mistake I made is that currency had shifted and it was actually costing me money to refund this person.

So, learn from that kind of mistake and just be very clear, maybe on your terms and conditions that you have no responsibility for any currency changes and they just get refunded for what they pay.