What’s Your Guarantee To Your Customers?

Aren’t we all tired of the small print guarantee, the unintelligible wavers, conditions and exclusions that are written in print to tiny to read even if the average person could understand them. The exclusions are typically broader than the inclusions, and in the end, we all take for granted that in today’s world, the guarantee is usually worthless.

It’s a concept of the past, at a time when people proudly stood behind their work and the goods they delivered, giving the consumer a guarantee that actually meant something. They assured the consumer quality and dependability, unconditionally replacing anything that failed to perform as promised, the promise being quality and customer satisfaction “or your money back.”

It seems that those days are gone with every major corporation now trying very hard to pass the buck, limit exposure to loss, and to take no responsibility for selling a product or service that delivers less than promised, as intended and as expected. How unfortunate. I believe we are all so indoctrinated to this new reality of big business lack of responsibility, the “buyer beware” attitude, that without really thinking it through we all tend to either limit our guarantee with conditions or eliminate it all together in our paper flow, following the trends big business has set.

I frequently ask my clients how often they are called on to support their guarantee, to either service and repair or replace defective merchandise or inadequate service. The answer is typically seldom, if ever. Small business remains committed to quality. Then I ask what they do when a customer demands some response to the guarantee when there is a defective product or inadequate service delivered. Most of those I ask answer with an unequivocal “Of course we stand behind our product and our service and we repair, replace or redo to the satisfaction of the customer.”

So let me restate the situation as I see it:

We live in a world now where we tend to universally limit our commitment to replace or repair or redo or products and services with conditions on our guarantees, which everyone both expects and hates. But we then abide by the typical personal standard of standing behind our product or service and treat most situations as fully guaranteed, willing to repair, replace or redo to the customers satisfaction.

What is this, a classic example of saying one thing and doing another? YES.

So, here is my strongest recommendation: Guarantee everything 100%, without limitation. You do it anyway, so project how proud you are of your quality service or consistent high quality manufacturing and assure your customers that you are so confident of the quality that you will, of course, repair, replace or redo for any reason, at any time. Why not?  It’s what you do anyway in the name of goodwill and pride in your work. Why not make it an official part of your sales presentation and company policy rather than appear like a typical corporate sneak, ducking responsibility for doing the right thing? Lest we forget, salesmanship is about creating a relationship with the consumer such that the customer chooses to buy from you. A quality guarantee reflects a quality company and a quality product and supports a decision to buy, as it should.

Let’s not blindly follow the corporate giants who take every advantage they can and shift as much responsibility away from themselves as possible. Also, let’s reflect our true reality, that we are proud of our work and we stand behind it. Say it like it is–guaranty your work 100% and proudly tell your customers.