How To Deal With Course Refunds

By: Justin Ferriman • June 16, 2016
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stacking-coinsMaking an online course takes a lot of time and energy.

You have to research your topic, create your storyboard, develop the actual course, test out its effectiveness, and launch it. During this process you also have to be marketing it.

But if you do this correctly then the hard work is rewarded when you start getting customers.

In many ways your course sales are validation that what you are teaching is of value. It is a testament to the course content and the work that you put into it.

In a perfect world, you would make sales and everyone would be happy.

Your customers are happy because they have great content.

You are happy because your course is generating revenue.

But Not Everyone Will Be Happy…

If making sales is energizing then getting refund requests can do just the opposite.

Despite your best intentions there may be reasons why someone requests a refund. I think we all understand that this is a possibility.

Most of the time people will be cordial, but not always.

Occasionally you will not only get a refund request for your online course but it will be downright rude or insulting.

So how do you deal with rude requests?

First, remember that it does you no good to argue with the customer or to debate the merits of their request. They want their money back and they will not be persuaded otherwise.

Remember this can save you a lot of time and stress. If they are unhappy then chances are you probably don’t want them as a customer anyhow.

Instead of just issuing their refund though you should try to gather some more information. Create a refund request form that asks for more information so that you can see if there are potential opportunities for your course offering to improve.

If the refund requests that come in all mention something similar then you now can see where your course may need some work. Making the appropriate adjustments can potentially decrease the refund rate.

The idea here is to not to take the requests personally but attempt to gather as much information as possible so that you can improve your course and customer experience.

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter