Peter Drucker once said,”The best way to predict the future is to create it.” I fully agree! As a part of creating the future, we must include systematic processes that eliminate problems that exist today. The problem of customer returns or buyer’s remorse is what we will work to eradicate from our future in this post. First, I want to reveal some of my research about the reasons people return items and/or back out of deals.

In a survey conducted by the car industry, to determine why people didn’t buy, they discovered that customers feared not buying the right model, paying too much, or making the wrong decision altogether. Overcoming the same buying decision fears are a problem for many companies.

Therefore, it is my recommendation that your marketing department create a 2-step system that 1) keeps your product or service sold and 2) causes people to feel compelled to repurchase from you.

In direct marketing terms, the system is called “Post-Purchase Reassurance,” which virtually eliminates buyer’s remorse. I used the word virtually because no system is foolproof, but this will have a tremendous impact in curtailing the problem of buyer’s remorse. The post-purchase reassurance system is a simple process of re-selling, or reaffirming, the client’s buying decision. In it’s most basic form, a post-purchase reassurance system simply reconfirms that a customer will get exactly what they want from your product or service. I suggest implementing the post-purchase reassurance system in one of three simple ways. A letter, a phone call, or visit from a company representative.

If you decided to have your customer service or sales representatives contact customers, my advice is to have them learn a powerful NLP technique, called “Future Pacing.” Future pacing simply means that you lead people through a future experience of your product or service. For instance, here’s how a IT sales person would use future pacing:

Imagine a CIO has just decided to invest a majority of his budget in your new database administration technology. You would ask the question:

1. “Can you imagine how much peace of mind you will have in the future after this system is protecting your data?”
Simple? Yes it is!

However, if you want the absolute best results, I also suggest having your rep make sure that the customers are committed to the purchase.

2. “What will cause you to stay with the decision you’ve made to invest in this mutual fund?”

3. “Will simply having someone challenge your investment decision cause you to become even more committed?”

NOTE: After each question be quiet, and wait for the person to respond.

By far, future pacing is the most powerful technique for dealing with buyer’s remorse. This is because you have people imagine the results of their decision in the future and you get them to verbally commit to their decision.

Want a written formula?

Here’s a sample letter from my personal marketing files:

Beginning of example
—————-

Dear (Your Name),

Congratulations on your decision to invest in my book! I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but the information contained in the pages of this book has only been available to select few presidents and CEOs of billion dollar companies. Why?

Unfortunately, they didn’t want you, the to get a hold of the marketing strategies that have built their corporate empires. They wanted to keep you from winning over any of their customers with the competitive intelligence in the book; competitive intelligence that will allow you to rapidly grow your enterprise to heights you previously imagined.

———————-
End of example

You get the idea… right?

If you want more help dealing with buyer’s remorse, email me with the rest of your contact info or call me directly. Have a great day!

With your success in mind,

Ron