Over this past week I have seen some mentions about products and services not being delivered and discussions about what or how things should be done to stop those people from taking advantage of others. I don’t want to start another conversation about that specifically.

What I do want to ask and get your thoughts on is what would you do in a similar case of a product or service not being delivered, but when the owner of that product is an authority figure, someone who you look up to, someone who is recognized in the community as being an honest hard-working individual who gives a lot of themselves to help others.

Just to be clear on what I mean. I don’t mean what someone should do in the case of a scammer or someone who is “shady”. The type of person I am talking about is someone who you like, trust, and look up to, but for whatever reason is not (or possibly can not) deliver on their product or service.

Please keep in mind that the product/service does not necessarily have to be an internet marketing product, or even to be online, but I’m not sure if your answer would differ for online products/services. But I suppose that the price of the product could matter. Personally I don’t think I would do to much if it was a $20 ebook. So for this example, let’s say it’s a higher end product that comes with some kind of service or coaching attached that isn’t being delivered.

So for this first part of the question, I’m looking for your thoughts about these topics;

• How would you handle a situation like that?
• How long would you let the situation go? Would you eventually take any action?
• What action would you take?
• How many times would you contact them?
• Would you even consider asking for a refund? What about a payment dispute?

For the second part of this question, let’s expand it a bit further. What would you do now in the following situations;

• What if the product/service was purchased 1 year ago with a promise of delivery within a month, but you are still waiting. What if purchased 6 months ago with a 2 month delivery promise?
• What if during the wait time for the delivery, you saw no improvement or work being done? What if you did see some work being done, but it’s still not complete?
• What if you had little or no communication about the progress of the product/service?
• What if there was communication and added promises were made, but delays still occur?
• Would you consider asking for a refund? What about a payment dispute?

I also wanted to mention that we can’t really forget about the side of the product owner. We don’t really know what they might be going through, business wise or personal. But then let me ask, should that matter? (short term delay vs. long term delay)

Maybe this is a new product for them and they are still sorting things out, or maybe they are unorganized? What is an acceptable excuse on the part of the product owner for not delivering?

I realize that this is a hypothetical situation, so you can’t answer specifically. But I think it can open up some good dialogue, helping us all deal with situations that we all face as business owners.

Post your comments, let us know what you think.

It’s no secret that every internet marketer would love to be able to keep selling to their customers over and over again… and being able to repeatedly sell to buyers several times should be a goal of ours.

But how can we keep buyers coming back over and over again to purchase our products? Well there are many ways to do that, but I with this post I wanted to touch on one very important, but many times over-looked aspect to keeping happy customers.

The quality of customer service is very important in keeping happy and satisfied buyers. If we are continually thanking and giving back to our buyer, the more likely they will stick around and purchase more products from us in the future.

Like most, if not all of my blog posts, come out as a result of an experience I have had recently, and this post is no exception. Over the past month or so I have purchased several different internet marketing related products from marketers who I was not all that familiar with, although I was confident enough in them to purchase. (Note: the products themselves where good, and this post has nothing to do about the individual products).

However, I did have questions that I wanted to ask the marketer about, either to clarify an issue, to expand upon something, or just a general question about the topic. This brings me back to the customer service issue and keeping buyers coming back for more…

… not one of those marketers have responded to my initial (or repeat) contact to them, even though I contacted them in the way that they stated to do so (email, forum message, etc).

If a customer contacts you for almost whatever reason, it is always best to respond to them, either to answer their question or to at least state that you will get back to them by a certain date. None of which these marketers did for me, and it’s been 1-4 weeks since my initial contact.

So how can you keep buyers coming back to purchase from you instead of one of the other thousand marketers? Deliver quality products with quality support systems in place.