“Satisfaction Guarantee” 8 Easy Examples for Small Businesses

By Mike OJ

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

 5mins Read 

Studies showed that selling with a money-back guarantee increases retail profits, and consumers take it as a signal for product quality. Some customers want results, some want gratification, and some want happiness, but at the end of the day it all boils down to one thing: avoiding regret.

Some people just don’t want to make a purchase that they will consider a loss, and saying no is their way of avoiding just that. However, you know they will not regret it; you simply need to prove it to them

How you frame and offer a guarantee can have a dramatic impact on your conversion rates, too. You use a convincing guarantee to silence that objection and get them to buy from you.

Let us have a look at some of the most popular examples and see if we can find out.

1. The Money-Back Guarantee

This is probably the most popular guarantee in eCommerce. It is so popular that customers no longer view as a benefit, but as a right. The origins of the money-back guarantee can be traced back to the beginning of trading goods.

The problem is that it’s so overused and average that unless your product is extremely valuable (like a car) or easy to return (commodity products, such as retail goods), then you will have a difficult time overcoming an objection to this guarantee.

That being said, it’s better than having no guarantee at all, and if you communicate this well in your sales material, you will at least mitigate some risks of the buyer.

2. The Risk-Free Guarantee

A close relative of the money-back-guaranteed because of its similarity, the only difference being the context surrounding it.

 To put it simply, Risk-free guarantees work best with high-cost products, services, recurring billings, and products with amazing, but yet to be proven claims. A risk-free guarantee, which has been used by everyone, gives your customers a chance to try something before they buy, or at least commit to buying.

3. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

This is the hallmark of the new generation and is a great take on both the risk-free and the money-back guarantee.

How does it work?

Instead of offering a customer’s money back or giving them a chance to try before they buy, you create an offer that is of great advantage to both the customer and your business.

A 100% satisfaction guarantee not only guarantees that the customer will be happy but also guarantees that you will get another chance to save the sale by offering an exchange or 2nd chance effort.

From a customer’s perspective, you are not only reducing risk, but you are reducing it almost completely. You are guaranteeing a result, which as we talked about earlier, is the most important aspect of the conversion. You are guaranteeing their satisfaction, which in turn negates the opportunity for regret.

4. The Forever Guarantee

Offering a lifetime guarantee is the ultimate level of confidence you can display, your satisfaction guarantee tells visitors many things about your online store:

• How easy it is to return a product;

• How good of customer service they should expect;

• What happens if they regret buying that product;

But most importantly, it tells visitors how confident you are about your products. And to your consumers, it points to product quality.

Offering a lifetime guarantee is the ultimate level of confidence you can display. When you frame your guarantee around a fixed number of days, you risk triggering a question in consumers’ minds. If a product has a 30-day guarantee, it automatically puts the idea of returning the item before the time runs out into their minds.

A lifetime guarantee is a bold choice, but it eliminates the customers’ urge to return products and creates a trust for your product quality.  

Experts attest that this guarantee alone increases general revenue by 10-25%.

5. Low Price Guarantee

Competition in e-commerce is real. So in preparation for the best, you should make your online store stand out among the crowd. Price is among the top three reasons Americans choose to buy a product at a certain online store.

Offering the lowest price guarantee gives site visitors a strong reason to buy from you—without even considering alternatives.

A typical example is when you pre-order an item from Amazon.com, they will guarantee that you will be charged the lowest price the item has been sold for, rather than the price at the time of purchase. They guarantee that low-price for 30 days after purchase, meaning that if it goes on sale, you will get a refund of the difference.

 Another example of this kind of guarantee is with retail outlet Best Buy, which offers price matching on any in-store item. Though it’s slightly more difficult to use this for online info-products and services offered in only one place, it’s a perfect option for online retailers.

6. Free Trial

In an age of freemium business models, the free trial has become not only the norm but a customer expectation. Presenting a free trial for a limited time before selling a product or service is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Marketers know that the free trial period is their chance to influence the consumer and get them hooked on the product.

If someone is already satisfied with the product during the trial period, chances are, they will be ready to pay the full price once it is over. One thing to note is that the most common trials are those that require no credit card to get started, but you will want to use an analytics product to track and split-test conversions of this type.

7. The First-Time Guarantee

First impressions matter. No matter what you are selling, the first purchase is your greatest chance to impress customers. You need to make sure that first-time customers have an exceptional shopping experience so you can convince them to buy from you again.

A powerful satisfaction guarantee not only turns visitors into customers. It also converts first-timers into repeat buyers. But what do you do if you can’t offer a free trial guarantee on your e-commerce site?

Offer a first-time guarantee instead.

8. The Zero Guarantee

Sometimes, you cannot offer a guarantee, so rather than omitting one from your sales page; you can take the other road and tell your customers that your products are so great that you do not offer refunds.

Let me take a quick guess, you’re thinking…” how can this help me improve conversions?”

Simple Answer: Apple does not seem to have a problem with iTunes, nor does my favorite online bookstore, the Pragmatic Bookshelf. 

Conclusion

The main motive behind writing good satisfaction guarantees is not to tempt customers to return your products. Because nobody wants that. The goal is to make your guarantee clear and interesting so you can minimize the visitors’ concerns about making a purchase.

Which means more sales and happier customers.

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