Your guarantee matters! People notice them and make purchasing choices based on whether or not the guarantee in question eliminates the risk associated in doing business with a particular company.
Your guarantee matters the most when you are courting new clients. Once they know your work, the guarantee seems less important to them. Which makes sense.
So the issue is to create a guarantee so strong and convincing that potential clients see no real risk in choosing your company.
Most people do the exact opposite.
They create some lame copy and attach so much fine print that it seems like a team of high priced lawyers wrote it. When a lawyer sees a guarantee like that they may say “good work” on such a fine guarantee. “The customers could never meet all the conditions of the fine print” they would proudly proclaim.
Guarantees like that will generally never be cashed in. The downside though is that these types of guarantees will never convince a consumer to choose you either.
Create a compelling no holds barred guarantee that has no fine print.
You would also be wise to use convincing terminology in the guarantee. Don’t promise customers that they will be “completely satisfied” with your service. That sounds somewhat watered down not to mention over-used.
Tell them they will be “thrilled” with your service.
Make a bold statement of your companies abilities. You need to stand out and your guarantee will do that for you.
Do not be scared by this. A strong guarantee is nothing more than a promise you make to the customer to do everything you can to make them happy they hired you.
Keep the guarantee simple and free of fine print and you will be on your way to overcoming one of the objections that customers have of doing business with a new company.
Here is an example of a solid guarantee:
If you are not completely thrilled with our work and how we treat our customers the work is free. Guaranteed!
That will certainly take away fears the potential customer may have in choosing a new unproven company. I doubt any competitors in the marketplace will be as bold. Just remember to hold up your end of the bargain and deliver a “knock your socks off” customer experience.
Hey
Tom
Is it still good to use this guarantee in today climate? I ask this because I see this was written in 2010.
Hi Eric! A guarantee will never go out of style. It takes away the mental obstacles that buyers have. One mental obstacle a buyer has is WHAT IF I’m NOT HAPPY. The guarantee addresses that so it improves the chances for a sale!
On a side note… GUARANTEES are hardly ever “cashed in” by the buyer in a service setting (even retail has a low rate of return). I offer a satisfaction guarantee (if you are not happy you don’t pay) for my carpet cleaning and it has NEVER been used against me.