Ebook refunds and absolute satisfaction

Why no-questions-asked ebook refund policies work.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog (“What if Every eBook Could be Returned for a Full Refund…At Any Time?“). It’s republished with permission.

The land of NO by Unlisted Sightings, on Flickr

Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has been getting a lot of buzz since it was announced recently, and rightfully so. I posted my own thoughts about it as a publisher here. Some supporters of the program have mentioned it will be a great way to try before you buy. In other words, borrow the book for a week or two and if you like what you read you’ll probably want to buy the book, not just borrow it. I can see that happening … sometimes. But I don’t think that’s the best way to encourage more ebook sales.

First of all, each of the ebook vendors offers samples of books. I always download and read the sample before I make a purchase. Samples have saved me from making a number of bad purchases. But I’ve often found the samples are way too short to tell whether the book is right for me. That’s where an unconditional, money-back guarantee should come into play.

That’s right. Why not have a no-questions-asked, complete refund option for all ebooks? I’m not talking about the return-it-within-seven-days-of-purchase option Amazon offers for Kindle content. That’s not good enough. I want the reassurance I can get a full refund if I buy it today and don’t even start reading it until a year from now, but then decide it stinks.

Is that crazy? We don’t think so at O’Reilly. Here’s a link to The O’Reilly Guarantee. You won’t find any fine print with exclusions that limit your right to a full refund.

By the way, as the publisher at O’Reilly I can tell you I see all the email exchanges between customers and our customer service team. Very few people ever ask for a refund. In fact, our customer service team sometimes offers refunds when customers don’t even ask for them and most customers reject the offer.

It’s interesting how this works. We stand behind our product with a very simple “absolute satisfaction” guarantee. And believe it or not, customers aren’t banging down our doors asking for their money back. Why? I think it’s the same reason why we’ve been so successful with our DRM-free stance: We trust our customers. Pretty novel concept, isn’t it?

By forcing you to make your product return within seven days of purchase, a retailer is telling you they don’t trust you. Perhaps they assume you’re a speed reader and are just looking for a free ride by gaming the system and reading a book in less than a week. That’s too bad. A little trust goes a long way. Will some customers abuse the system? Absolutely, just like they do with DRM-free content. But the vast majority will not only do the right thing, they’ll also become more loyal to you because you trust them.

Photo: The land of "NO" by Unlisted Sightings, on Flickr

TOC NY 2012 — O’Reilly’s TOC Conference, being held Feb. 13-15, 2012 in New York City, is where the publishing and tech industries converge. Practitioners and executives from both camps will share what they’ve learned and join together to navigate publishing’s ongoing transformation.

Register to attend TOC 2012

Related:

tags: , , , ,