Welcome to Today's Coach | 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

December 3, 2001

Dear Readers:

Today's issue on Mastering one of the 5 Professional Standards - the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee - marks the inaugural issue of the newly-merged Today's Coach and Coaching Scoop.

For those of you who are used to seeing the Scoop daily, or Today's Coach weekly, we have merged the two ezines and will now be bringing you two issues each week, on Monday and Wednesday. Our content will continue to focus on highly practical and progressive news, resources and dialogue of importance to Coaches. Your suggestions and submissions are always welcome.

I hope you enjoy today's article on the hot topic of the Satisfaction Guarantee, and its place in a Coaching Practice. As a bonus, you'll discover an interesting link containing questions and wisdom from Coaches who are considering, or currently offering a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

I trust you'll enjoy the merged version of the #1 Coaching Ezine, Today's Coach, now, more than ever. Thanks for your ongoing support!

Andrea Lee
GM, CoachVille


from	Lesson 61 Mastering the 5 Professional Standards: 1. Offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee
Your physician, tax accountant and therapist do not offer a 100% money back guarantee. So why should you? 90% of those who read this piece will disagree completely with me on this topic. Some strongly. Some rabidly. Legitimate concerns aside for the moment, there are 5 big reasons to inform your marketplace that their satisfaction as a client is 100% guaranteed and backed up with a 100% refund promise. Reason #1. Consumers of products and now services are coming to expect a 100% satisfaction guarantee whether it's for a Hershey chocolate bar or for H&R Block tax preparation services. More companies and service providers now offer this level of guarantee because if they don't the consumers will buy from someone who will offer them this guarantee. And, this level of satisfaction guarantee is now entering the world of professional services, including the coaching profession. Within a couple of years, you'll see many, if not most, coaches offering this satisfaction guarantee. At CoachVilleReferral.com, we'll probably even add this as a searchable feature for the folks looking for coaches. That'll bring more coaches further along this path, driven by the desires of the buying public. Offering a 100% money back guarantee of satisfaction is just how business is going to be conducted in every industry. Period. It's just a matter of time. And coaches have the opportunity be at the forefront of this trend for all of the professions. Reason #2. You will be a much better coach, and more quickly, if you have the courage to offer a 100% money back guarantee to all clients. This because, believe me, you'll get a lot closer to your clients and be much more responsive to what they say their needs are, if you and they know they can get their money back. It's a healthy/good fear factor because it's based on performance and satisfaction. Yours and the client. I believe this guarantee significantly strengthens the client/coach relationship. And challenges we coaches to improve our competencies in all areas. It's somewhat scary to offer a guarantee, but I believe that you'll be better off for it. Reason #3. You'll impress people; lots of people. At a very, very low cost to yourself. 90 to 99% of your clients will never ask for their money back, so the financial risk to you is pretty low. But by offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee, potential (and current clients) will be impressed with your professionalism (and courage!). It will set you apart from others and other professionals as well. Reason #4. You'll tend to only accept clients who you can do good work for. One of the biggest problems the coaching industry is facing right now is that coaches are taking on clients that they cannot do great work for either because the client isn't ready/right for coaching or the foci or scope is beyond the coaches expertise in their role as a coach. By offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you'll think twice about taking on a client who you don't have a lot of confidence in or that you don't think you'll be able to do great work for. Reason #5. You'll get more clients because you'll be reducing the risk of a new client hiring you. The biggest, often unspoken, concern that potential clients have when thinking of hiring a coach is "Will coaching work for me?" And their second concern/question is "Will I get ripped off?" Hey, we're a new industry and I believe that we need to go out of our way in order to reduce the buying risk for our clients, especially first timers. Offering a satisfaction guarantee is a way to bring more clients into the fold of coaching. About the graphics... Feel free to download and use on your website or email signature. I created this graphic this morning for you. To download, place your cursor over the image and right click and then save to your hard drive. Both graphics are identical but the on the right is 'animated,' meaning that the 100% flashes. Both graphics are gif files. Enjoy! This is a big issue/item for our industry and I believe CoachVille can facilitate a great forum for an exchange of ideas and strategies. ---- SPECIAL BONUS: Full Practice participants were invited to email with questions about this topic. Thomas then compiled these questions along with answers wherever possible in a special report, available as a special bonus to Today's Coach readers by clicking here. The four other professional standards covered in this unit of the Full Practice 100 eCourse are: Same day customer service response Arms length, professional relationship Nothing negative said, ever 100% confidentiality, always If you are not yet a CoachVille member and wish to access these, and the 95 other lessons in this eCourse, register to become a CoachVille member for $79, and your upgrade fee for the Full Practice tuition is only $39. ADV: Looking for a useful practice-filling course? Details below on "Financial Success With TeleClasses"...

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