Whether you are accepting mobile payments or take payments online, chargebacks come with being a merchant and they are an inevitable occurrence that all retailers should be prepared for. If a customer disputes a charge with their bank they will be refunded the money immediately, or a chargeback may happen if there are problems with the customer’s account such as insufficient funds. It’s then down to you, the merchant, to fight to get your money back where it rightfully belongs by proving that the transaction was indeed valid. Although it’s near impossible to prevent each and every chargeback from happening, we’ve put together some tips to help you best prevent this frustrating situation.
Use a Name Your Customers Recognize
A lot of the time, customers dispute a charge or request a chargeback as they don’t recognize the name of the merchant or account that they money has been paid to when it comes up on their banking statement. If you are banking under a name that’s completely different from your business name that your customers know you by, you’re pretty much asking for chargebacks to happen. Instead, use a name that your customers will instantly recognize as you. If you are unable to do this, let your customers know how to expect the transaction to appear on their statement when they make the purchase.
Be Available
Whilst some customers will simply request a chargeback straight away when the see a charge they’re unsure of on their statement, others might decide to do a little research about it to make sure whether or not its genuine before they take action. This could include calling or emailing your company to make sure that it is your business appearing on their statement and not a fraudulent transaction. In order to best avoid chargebacks, it’s important to be readily available at all times and ensure that you have up to date contact details on your website for customers to use if they need to get in touch. Get in touch with My Payment Savvy for more information about what you can do to prevent chargebacks from occurring.
Offer Refunds
Let’s face it – chargebacks were invented in order to protect online shoppers from scams. If a customer believes that they have been scammed or the item which they have received in the post isn’t exactly what they were expecting, they are well within their rights to request a chargeback. However, if you offer full refunds to any unsatisfied customers, you’ll be able to deal with retuning the money by yourself as well as get the product that you sold back. If somebody isn’t happy with the product or service that you’ve provided them with then they’re likely going to want to get their money back in one way another – so it’s best that you offer them an option to go through you. Most customers prefer to order a refund over requesting a chargeback.
What do you do to minimize how many chargebacks your business encounters? Let us know in the comments.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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