How To Prevent Buyer’s Remorse

The day you close a customer is the day you start losing them.

As customers, we all want to be sure we’ve purchased the “right” one.

Why?

Because we want to get out of pain and towards gain, in the fastest, easiest way possible..

But if you don’t prevent buyer’s remorse, at best, you’ll get no:

  • Repeat customers;
  • Recommendations; or
  • Referrals;

And at worst:

  • Refunds, requests; or
  • Reported.

Buyer’s remorse is the:

  • Anxiety;
  • Fear;
  • Guilt; and
  • Regret.

That a customer has made a bad or wrong purchase.

The first two are future based.

The latter two are past based.

Buyer’s remorse is cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is where one thought is in opposition to another thought or thought in opposition to an action.

The buyer feels any psychological discomfort because their actions (the purchase of the product, service, or solution) does not match their thoughts (their expectation of the purchased item).

The Human Purchasing Process outlines following five steps:

  • STEP 1: Becoming aware of their needs;
  • STEP 2: Determining if they want to change;
  • STEP 3: Finding out about brands and products, services and solutions;
  • STEP 4: Convincing themselves that one (ideally your) brand and products, services and solutions are the best for their needs; and
  • STEP 5: Purchasing a product, service or solution.

At Step 4, excitement about your products, services or solution occurs.

This excitement increases adrenaline and dopamine in the bloodstream.

Dopamine is one of the most addictive naturally occurring human hormones!

Dopamine can be created by the expectation of new experiences (in this case a purchase.)

When the purchase is made, relief and euphoria are experienced, and this is the time when buyer’s remorse can strike.

It can happen between 60 seconds and 3 days or more.

If that relief and euphoria turns into regret and guilt, then buyer’s remorse has arrived, and you better deal with it.

The following factors influence this:

  • The more currencies invested;
  • High perceived consequences;
  • High price (creates high expectations of results);
  • Low reward or benefit;
  • Not forced to purchase (agency); and
  • More options and opportunity cost.

This is all illustrated below:

At this point customers have two options:

  1. Continue to experience buyer’s remorse; or
  2. Return to homeostasis and experience satisfaction.

How you manage these two, will seal the customer’s fate.

If it is the former, then a customer can ask for a:

  1. Return the purchase for a refund (but sometimes they are too lazy, or it is too hard);
  2. Repair (if it is faulty);
  3. Replacement/exchange (if it is faulty);
  4. Reimbursement (if it is faulty and the consumer repaired themselves); or
  5. Re-supplying services (if it is faulty).

Or they can just keep it.

If that relief and euphoria turn into regret and guilt, it could be because of the following:

  1. Have no need or willingness to pay;
  2. Have the wrong timing, and it’s not urgent;
  3. Have no buying authority or ability to pay;
  4. Have no budget or ability to pay;
  5. Do not know what they get with the product, service or solution;
  6. Do not like or trust your brand;
  7. Do not believe (i.e. trust) the product, service or solution will work;
  8. Do not believe (i.e. trust) the product, service or solution will work for them;
  9. Do not think the product, service or solution is valuable; and
  10. Many, many more.

There are some psychological things at play here:

  • The approach motivational system; and
  • The avoidance motivational.

The approach motivational system focuses on what a prospect desires and is strong prior to purchase.

The avoidance motivational system helps customers deal with negativity and is strong post-purchase.

Before purchase, a prospect is overwhelmed by:

  • Pain;
  • Desire;
  • Options (Paradox of Choice);
  • Heighten possibilities;
  • Anticipation;
  • Contrarians with money;
  • Fear of loss;
  • Etc.

Then, at purchase, the customers have clarity of wisdom and wonder if really need this product and if they had been fooled:

After purchase, a customer is overwhelmed by:

  • Opportunity costs;
  • Lack of options (and now opportunity cost);
  • Etc.

As well as having internal questions like:

  • Where they rushed?;
  • Was it hyped?;
  • Was there a better price?
  • Did they think it through?;
  • Did they make an impulse decision?;
  • Did they make an error of judgement?;
  • Etc.

And as a rule of thumb, as long as your product, service or solution delivers the benefits promised, the customer will realize this eventually, but in the meantime, there are somethings you can do to help this realization occur.

To minimize the chance of buyer’s remorse, be proactive just before and at the Relief & Euphoria stage, that is, doing a thing in the sales process and post-sale (and certainly if a customer reached the Regret & Guilt stage):

Pre-Sale

Pre-sale: you can do the following in the following approximate order to reduce buyer’s remorse and make the purchase stick:

  1. Give away freebies (these are commonly done at the start of the interaction);
  2. Don’t pressure sell (there are laws around this);
  3. Invite the prospect to discuss the purchase with any possible Blockers;
  4. Offer a money back guarantee;
  5. Include a bonus to add perceived value (this could be VIP club or user groups admission or a coupon towards a future purchase);
  6. Discover and address any concerns they may have;
  7. Use their name and personalize communication; and
  8. Set expectations for what will happen after the purchase is made.

Post-Sale

Post-sale: you can do the following in the following approximate order to reduce buyer’s remorse and make the purchase stick:

  1. Immediately deliver the product, service or solution;
  2. Thank them for of their purchase and reassure them of the value and benefits of their purchase, that is moving them away from pain and or towards pleasure (this can be done in a handwritten snail mail if possible or phone call);
  3. Give them a way to contact you for customer service;
  4. Provide a Quick Start Guide (which shows how to use, consume and get the most out of the purchase to get results;
  5. Offer an immediate upsell or one time offer that is complimentary what will get results with speed or automation, not a new product service or solution (the latter will destroy trust as it is not related to the original pain or gain);
  6. Ask for a recommendation (this will solidify the reason for purchase in their mind);
  7. Ask for a referral to another prospect or for them to become a promotional partner (this will reinforce that the customer made the right choice as they are now justifying their purchase to another. This is called Confabulation. Confabulation is where we create a story and rationalize with logic after the fact. It also the “Commitment and Consistency” principle of influence from Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The Commitment and Consistency principle says “we feel we must always align our outer actions and promises with our inner choices and systems, such as our beliefs and values.” Once we had some confirmation from others.)
  8. Let the customer use the product, service or solution, so they can experience moving them away from pain and or towards pleasure (and ideally achieve that result);
  9. Send Success Stories, as this will overcome the customer’s internal objection that product, service or solution will work and work for them;
  10. Offer a loyalty program; and
  11. Communicate and follow up with the customer (for at least the entire money back guarantee period).