These are the top 4 reasons why your business should offer a guarantee on all of its products:
Reduces Purchase Anxiety
Online shoppers have a higher degree of purchase anxiety than traditional shoppers because they cannot hold and touch the products they are buying. However, a guarantee goes a long way in reducing this anxiety. By letting shoppers know that they can return anything that they don’t like, that doesn’t fit their needs or that fails to live up to the performance that they were expecting, you can reduce the barrier of uncertainty that keeps people from purchasing.
Increases Value
Guaranteeing your products gives them value, which can then set them apart from the competition. The reason for this is that a guarantee implies a level of support. For instance, let’s say you’re buying a fancy new wall clock and it’s guaranteed to keep proper time for life. If you own the clock for a couple of years and then it starts running slow, you will call the company to report the problem. At that point, they’re not just going to say “Oh, that’s unfortunate – have a nice day!” because it’s guaranteed to work, but they’re also not just going to say “Okay, we’ll ship out a new clock to you today” because they don’t want to incur a needless cost. Instead, they’ll work with you to trouble shoot the issue and give you tips on how to keep it working properly in the future. This type of support is inherently built into the concept of a guarantee.
Establishes a Relationship
Along the same lines as that last point, a guarantee serves to establish a relationship between the company and the customer. People, being social by nature with a proclivity toward interconnectedness, want to feel like the company they are buying from is going to be there when they need them. Buying a product that is not guaranteed sets up a relationship where the company selling the product does not have any future obligation other than delivering the product to the customer intact and on time. However, buying a product that is guaranteed interweaves the company selling it and the consumer buying it together into the future.
Reflects Positively on the Brand
Brands that offer guarantees are perceived as more caring toward consumers and more socially conscious overall. By being one of the brands in your industry to offer a guarantee, you can take your business to the next level. From a brand persona standpoint, this is why many higher end products have established or implied guarantees.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!