why I refunded two paying customers (embarrassing)

Confession:

Last week I had to refund two customers.

Not because they were unhappy with what they bought…

But because they bought something they already had access to.

Here's the deal:

I hosted a live workshop last week.

Tickets were $97.

But as I was looking at my sales dashboard…

Two names caught my eye…

Because they were both already members of the community…

Which meant they had already had access to the workshop.

(community members get to attend for free)

So I reached out to both letting them know they’d been refunded and could still attend the workshop.

But it got me thinking…

If two people made this mistake, how many others are confused or unclear?

Case in point:

I spoke to another community member just a few days later…

And he mentioned he wasn’t sure whether workshops were included with his membership.

D’oh 🤦‍♂️

Moral of the story:

What's crystal clear in your head isn't always crystal clear to your customers.

You know every detail of your offer…

Every feature, every benefit, every bonus…

And it’s easy to assume your customers are reviewing your offers with a finetooth comb…

But the reality is:

They’re juggling a million other things.

They're skimming your sales pages between meetings…

Making buying decisions while their kids are screaming in the background…

And trying to remember what they signed up for three months ago.

So when you launch something new, they don't automatically connect the dots.

The solution?

Overcommunicate everything.

Spell out exactly what people get…

Tell them what's included and what's not…

And when the offer closes.

Use bullet points, bold text, and most importantly — repetition.

Because most subscribers aren’t reading all your emails…

And you’ll get tired of your marketing long before your audience does ;)

Jim Hamilton