Product Warranties’ And The Unscrupulous Buyers

There are many aspects to internet marketing, but one of the best is create and sell your own product such as an eBook. First you have to find a niche, second you have to research it, and third you have to write or have it written. Once written that product as to be advertised to the world using a sales page and a customer reading that page either buys or rejects it. That is a good way to start internet marking.

You must have witnessed this yourself. How many times have you read a sales page only to be disappointed by the results of the eBook; which promised so much? The sales page did not lie, but somewhere in the product the excitement died, and the reader/buyer was left high and dry wanting to ask more questions, and left feeling alone.

Is the product creator misleading the buyer, or is the buyer expecting too much. Well I think neither; the truth I feel is in the promotion of the product. An eBook is different in many ways from the hard copy book you see in a bookshop where you can take it from the shelf and examine it closely before you buy it. The eBook on the other hand has to be promoted by the sales page and by email, and basically the customer does not know what they are buying until it is delivered; which in most cases is instantly.

There is good news however for the buyer, as most eBooks do have at least a 60 day guarantee, which most product owners respect and deliver on. This is fine, but there are some unscrupulous buyers who purchase eBooks, and then demand a refund; and because the eBook is electronic and cannot be returned, the complaining customer retains that eBook for free. Fortunately this does not happen a lot, because most customers are honest, and somehow choose not to ask for a refund. I have had the odd customer requesting a refund on “photofortune” and yes it does bother me as it takes time to refund that product, which can be more annoying than losing the sale.

Now I want to address this article to the product owners, or budding eBook writers warning them that this can be a problem and that they should allow for it at the eBook conception. I also want to details some ways around these problems giving the owner a better chance of success.

First I want to say the product creator that when writing an eBook, value for money to the customer should be the driving force, in fact I can say I delivery far more than the asking price, so that when a customer asks for a refund, I can safely assume they are trying it on. There are however genuine customers who do buy your eBook and who ask for a refund on a genuine basis, but these customers are few and far between and easily spotted.

Secondly, in some ways I do not mind giving a customer their money back because what I provide in my product is years of genuine expertise, and I know that that expertise is not passed in on full to the customer wanting the product for free. I find it very difficult to explain, but can you think for yourself a situation in the past where you have gained something unjustly, used that product and never felt the benefit from it.

If this has never happened to you, let me put it another way, say you want to buy a small TV and you have a choice of buying one for $50 or $500. If the $50 breaks down just over the 1st year, then you except it, and think “well it owes me nothing”. If on the other hand the $500 TV breaks down in the same time period, you are straight back to the store demanding satisfaction, or else. Well I find that it is the same with my products, if somebody is want it for nothing, I will give them it knowing they will gain nothing from it. They have paid nothing, and some thing in their brain decides that since they have paid nothing, they deserve nothing. These customers are best left to punish themselves. I can sleep easily knowing that, but can they?

The 3rd way to keep a customer satisfied is to extend, (not decrease), the warranty period. Let me explain. If you were to buy a product but had only a 7 day warranty what would you do? You would spend those 7 days examining every aspect of that product to see if it is fit for purpose. Basically you would be looking for faults. You would be expecting problems. However say you were to extend the warranty period to 90 days or longer, the customer must change their perspective on that product. They basically would not be looking for faults and the product owner is confident within themselves that there product is good. This will be reflected on the buyer knowing that the product owner is confident enough to extend the warranty, thus concluding to the buyer that the product is more than fit for purpose. Both then have confidence that it is a good product. It also makes it difficult for somebody to return such a product, unless their reasons are sound.

The 4th way to keep a customer satisfied may seam more drastic and that is to give the customer a life time of free upgrades. The first thing you may think is that when the product is upgraded there is an opportunity to sell more to that customer. Well yes and no. That possibility dies exist as you could charge $50 for the fist product and say $60 for the second. You could also say that since you bought the first product the second will be upgraded at a 50% reduction. This strategy has to be calculated before the product launch and as every product is different this maybe the way to go. The way I look at it is that if the first product is worth $50, I like to give at least $100 value. If I were to create a second product, then I would have to deliver a product worth say $60 and give at least $120 worth of value. Now we are talking about upgrades, not new products and there is a massive difference. The second upgrade of $60 must them be $60 above the value of the $50 to give a product of $110. It is not a new product of $60 because much of the original material will be retained, and an upgrade is what it says, an upgrade of an existing product and not a new product. Do you see the subtle difference? Many people say to me that I am brave offering such a dealt, but I am not, it is just good business. I will give you an example; say you were selling an eBook of fishing for trout for $30 in the first year. In the second year, you will have to upgrade that cater for changes within that year. What would change? The equipment would change, maybe the fishing laws would change, maybe some new fishing techniques would emerge; but nothing drastic would have to be written to the existing eBook. So you could sell the same eBook with the upgrades for $40, but you would loose a lot of existing customers, and their support as they will know that the new book is a rehash of the old. Now as the years go on, this eBook is growing and developing into a fantastic product, with a fantastic reputation.

Do you see what I am driving at, keep your existing customers loyal and many doors will open up for you; no least the recommendations from existing customers. You can almost here them saying “hey there is this great eBook on the market that gives free upgrades for life, and if you do not like it, it has an extended guarantee, you cannot loose”. This way if somebody wants their money back, they lose out on the free upgrades.

Now this also opens doors for creating a community within the original product. This then would lead to further ventures. You could start your own forum and let matters run themselves, like some product creators have done, which in itself has helped to prosper the buyers further from their initial $50 outlay.

You maybe thinking the upgrading the initial eBook takes time and money; yes it does but for every upgrade you are increasing the initial cost. The original buyer pays nothing, but the new buyers to your systems will be charged a higher initial rate.

Why would they pay the extra, simple, because your reputation as a the creator will increase as your credibility increases with increasing value for money for the buyer. The sales of you business will increase with your increasing credibility. Where did all this stem from? From you initial integrity as the product creator and seller. So what is the most important lesson in this? Your integrity from the very beginning!