Turning Around Refunds (and Other Communications) Quickly

On the other hand, sometimes there are valid reasons that customers are unhappy and rude. Too often, they have to deal with promises that aren't kept—especially in regards to refunds. So it's imperative to turn around refunds quickly; even in the worst-case scenario, try to take care of this within the span of a week.

Whatever your refund process is, making refunds quickly and notifying customers that you've done so will make them feel good about doing business with your company again. Email works, or you could send a voice broadcast out to every refunded customer. In either case, it should say something like the following:

I got your product back and we'll do the refund.
We've done the refund; it'll show up on your credit card statement in 3-5 business days.

My philosophy is that you can never overcommunicate with customers. They can never be over-informed about what's going on with their order, refund, or request. Keeping customers in the loop should be a big priority, and it's something that you should systemize as soon as you can, so that it happens automatically.

Imagine a customer writing a letter to you, and the same day you receive it getting a voice broadcast saying, "Thanks for sending your letter! I'm reading it now, and will write you a response tomorrow!" And then, the next day, writing the response and voice broadcasting to them , "Hey, I finished the letter and dropped it in the mail today! Look for it in 5-7 days." And then following up two weeks after that with another voice broadcast: "Hey there! Did you get my letter? Did I answer you fully? If not, call me at 555-555-5555 and we'll get you squared away!"

Massive personal communication will truly set you apart from your competition.