Guarantees Written on the Page

A promise only callers hear

Plenty of small businesses stand behind their work with a real promise. Come back free if the problem returns. Redo the job if it is not right. Refund the deposit if the date slips.

They mention it on the phone, and the estimator repeats it on site.

The website says nothing, or says satisfaction guaranteed in small type in the footer, which is not the same thing.

So the guarantee reaches only people who have already decided to call. The visitor comparing three businesses in three tabs never hears it, and that is the visitor it was for.

What the visitor is weighing

Hiring a stranger to work on your home or business carries one specific worry: what happens if it goes wrong.

Reviews answer part of that, mostly by describing jobs that went well.

A written guarantee answers the rest. It says, before any money changes hands, what the business will do if the result is not what was promised.

Between two similar businesses at similar prices, the one that has written that down has removed a reason to hesitate.

What a written guarantee states

• What is covered, named in the words a customer would use.
• For how long, counted from a stated date such as completion.
• What the customer gets: a return visit, a redo or a refund.
• What is excluded, stated as plainly as what is included.
• How to claim it, and what to keep, such as the invoice.

The fourth is the one most businesses leave out, and it is what makes the rest believable. A promise with no limits reads as marketing; one with stated limits reads as a policy somebody intends to keep.

The Competition Act and guarantees

A guarantee is a claim made to the public, and Canada's Competition Act treats it as one.

The Act specifically covers warranties and guarantees, including promises to repair or replace something, or to repeat a service until it achieves a stated result.

A guarantee that is materially misleading, or that there is no reasonable prospect of honouring, can fall foul of it.

The Act also considers the general impression a claim gives, so a bold promise qualified away in small print is still a problem.

None of this argues against guarantees. It argues for one you will honour every time, in words a customer would read the way you meant them.

From slogan to specific

Most guarantees on small business sites are slogans: satisfaction guaranteed, quality guaranteed, we stand behind our work.

None of them says what happens if the customer is not satisfied, which is the only part the visitor wants to know.

The specific version names the problem and the response. If paint we applied peels or blisters within two years, we come back and repaint the affected area at no charge.

It is longer than a slogan, and every word does work, including the part showing the business has thought about failure.

Where it belongs on the page

A guarantee does its work at the moment of decision, so it belongs where the decision is made.

On each service page, put one line beside the phone number or the quote button, linking to the full wording.

Repeat it as a sentence above the send button on the quote form, then in the written estimate and on the invoice.

Not in the footer, and not only on the about page, which most visitors never open. Nor inside a badge graphic: plain text works on any phone, for screen readers and for search engines.

A worked example

A promotional products supplier, selling branded pens, mugs and caps to local businesses, offered a free replacement for any order that arrived with a mistake on its part.

Whoever answered the phone mentioned it on most calls, and it often settled the order. The website never mentioned it.

Office managers comparing suppliers on their phones saw three similar sites, and the one with the best promise looked like the other two.

The fix took an afternoon. The guarantee went into four sentences: which products, which mistakes, fourteen days from delivery to report one, and what voided it, such as an error in an approved proof.

One line went beside the phone number on every product page, linking to the full wording. The same text went into the order confirmation email, so the promise on the site matched the one on the phone.

Nothing about the service changed. Visitors could simply see it before deciding.

Guarantees not to write

Some promises do more harm on a page than off it.

A lowest price guarantee invites every visitor to find a cheaper quote, often for different work, and then argue about whether it counts.

A promise about timing the business does not fully control, such as arrival within the hour anywhere in the region, breaks on the first busy morning.

A lifetime guarantee that never says whose lifetime, or the life of what, is an argument waiting to happen.

And a guarantee that would cost more to honour than the business can absorb is a bet that nobody claims.

One wording, everywhere

The guarantee on the site, the one staff describe on the phone and the one on the paperwork should be the same guarantee.

When they differ, the customer remembers the most generous version, usually the one said aloud, and the dispute starts there.

Keep the wording in one document, give it to everyone who talks to customers, and change it everywhere at once when it changes.

The counter-case

Not every business can offer a simple guarantee, and some should not try.

Work on old houses often uncovers problems nobody could see when quoting. Regulated professions often have rules about promising outcomes. And results that depend on what the customer does afterwards cannot honestly be guaranteed.

In those cases a narrower promise still helps: a guarantee on workmanship rather than results, on turning up when booked, or on an estimate that will not change without the customer's approval.

A business that offers no guarantee should not invent one for the website. If you already keep a promise, though, write it down with its limits and put it where the decision is made.

This week

1. Write down the promise you already make on calls.
2. Name what it covers and for how long.
3. List the exclusions in plain words.
4. Put one line beside the phone number on service pages.
5. Link that line to the full wording.
6. Give every staff member the same wording.
7. Honour it every time someone claims it.

Step four is the one that turns a promise into a reason to call. A guarantee changes decisions only when it is visible at the moment of deciding, which is next to the phone number.

Making the next step easy once the guarantee has done its work is covered in booking online instead of phoning back.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.