Prevent Chargebacks and Lawsuits At Your Creative Agency

Hey Agency Owners and Creative Entrepreneurs, have you recently had a client chargeback? Or are you worried that your client might demand a refund?

Chargebacks mainly happen when trust, delivery or communication break down. I had it happen at the worst of times, and it sucks.

After a lot of struggling with this, I’ve learned you can reduce the chances of chargebacks by doing the following:

1. Break large projects down into smaller chunks. This solves all sorts of problems. Your client will be sending smaller payments to you, meaning smaller chargebacks and lower risk for you. This is also a smaller outlay of trust on their part, which reduces their anxiety and buyer’s remorse. Smaller chunks also means more regular updates, more regular communication, etc, which solves many other problems.
2. In the discovery, find problems they can’t afford to solve, and solve them (if it’s something your team can easily do). This will increase the “emotional bank account” you have with your client. When their debt to you feels like it goes up, the chance of a chargeback goes down.
3. Bank transfers: there is a lower chance of a chargeback with bank transfers.
4. Clear expectations: The clearer you can define the client’s expectations, the better you can put together a clear agreement and deliver on expectations.
5. Speedy responses: The faster you respond to questions or concerns, the less time your client has to sit and stew over it, making the issues grow bigger in their mind. Proactively connect with your clients on a regular basis, and get them to give honest feedback. Let them vent about any issues. Volunteer to take the blame so they can see you are ethical, responsible and willing to help. (You are not just trying to shift the blame to someone else). This will improve trust, and reduce chargebacks.
6. At the end of the day it’s about client satisfaction. Are you under promising and over delivering? Make sure your end goal is not just “sales” (for you), but in delivering the value you’ve promised to your client. If life were a business video game, your points should come from client happiness. This will reduce chargebacks, boost your brand reputation in the long run, and it’s the right way to run a successful agency.

What are your thoughts?

To your success!

If you need help scaling your agency to 6 or 7 figures, or just want to get “unstuck” faster, then grab the free training and let’s start scaling!.

Chris Johnson,
Upscale Method,
Agency Growth Mentor