Most digital marketers agree that the rates of refund requests for digital products have now reached epidemic proportions. For most Marketers, there are few things as deflating as refund requests just a few days after you have celebrated a sale.

With the policies of major payment systems such as PayPal mostly favoring the Customer, the refund epidemic for digital products is now in full swing and showing no signs of abating anytime soon.

You can choose to whine About it, or throw your hands in the air, give up and go look for paid employment or you can look for solutions to protect YOUR OWN business in this toxic situation.

Here are 7 simple and inexpensive strategies you can deploy to reduce excessive refund for your digital product. Many of them even apply to traditional product sales.

1. PROVIDE QUALITY PRODUCTS THAT DELIVERS ON ITS PROMISE. This may sound obvious but most vendors do not understand that the quality of their products is the first and best line of defense against customer refunds. At its core, with a few exceptions, most refunds are borne out of customer dissatisfaction. If the customer is satisfied, there would be no reason for them to request for a refund. Providing excellent products truly worth their time and hard-earned money would remove from their minds any possibility of considering a charge back.

2. PROVIDE FOR AN EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT SYSTEM. Many online businessmen believe that customer support is unnecessary for an online enterprise. This is a false notion. On the contrary, a customer support system would increase the value of your product and drastically reduce your refund rate. Knowing that their problems with your product and your company can be addressed through an easily accessible channel would dissuade most genuine customers from resorting to refunds.

3. HAVE A QUICK START GUIDE –. Information products can be overwhelming and overwhelmed people often choose the refund option. You open up the product and you have all these videos, audios and transcripts and you don’t know where to start. A Quick Start guide (either audio or written) can give people a place to begin and it can help them consume the material more easily. Once they have a quick start guide that can help them make sense of the chaos of your overwhelming product, most will calm down and forget about asking for refunds.

4. HAVE A WELCOME LETTER SENT TO THEM RIGHT AFTER PURCHASE- The Sale should not be the end of selling the product to the customer. Many customers go through a period of buyer’s remorse. You should send a Welcome letter or extra gift (or both) to reassure them that they have made a great decision. A Welcome letter should reassure the buyer he has made a good decision by purchasing your product AND Get them excited about digging in and using the product.

Welcome letters can also give them additional information and resources, or it can double as your ‘Quick Start guide’ and give them instructions on how they should get started.

Your welcome letter can also include a little gift, or just a little extra bonus or maybe an additional unadvertised report. Whatever it is, just adds to the value of the product and helps make your clients overcome their initial buyers’ remorse.

5. SET UP A WELCOME AUTO-RESPONDER SERIES. Just like most vendors have a series of auto-responder emails to convert the prospect into a buyer, it is equally important to also create an auto-responder series to help your customers get started with your product. These emails can:

• Reassure them they made a good decision by purchasing your product

• Give them some additional tips for using the product

• Get them excited about diving in and getting started (remember, honest people who go through your product successfully are far less likely to return it)

• Ask them for a testimonial or encourage them to refer a friend

• Upsell them to the next level

6. GIVE A SURPRISE BONUS A FEW DAYS AFTER PURCHASE -Send them an extra, unadvertised bonus later, maybe about 3-5 days after the purchase. This accomplishes a couple of things — your ideal clients feel taken care of plus it gives you another opportunity to reach out and connect with them again. This is a good way to further build the relationship with your ideal clients. People hardly walk out of a Seller with whom they have relationship without a good reason.

7. USE VIDEO TO DEMONSTRATE PRODUCTS – To reduce the frustration that often leads to refunds, it’s a great idea to have DEMO VIDEOS to explain how your product works and visually demonstrate how to use the different features of your product. These demo videos can be used to demonstrate features, ease of use, and can convey products in a way that makes it stupidly easy to use your product.

No businessman would want to receive a refund request. It’s both disappointing and downright demoralizing. But keep your spirits up. Refunds are a part of the game. They are something we must live with. And fortunately, they are something we could control.

Source by Dr. Ope Banwo