Our first refund request 😢💸
I want to share with you guys the story of my first refund request.
TL:DR Our first refund request was devastating. Then it wasn't.
We released a paid version of Hevy almost exactly a month ago. After a few days our first paying customers starting rolling in and it felt amazing. It was the first time in my life anyone had ever paid for software I built!
Fast forward 30 days (to last night) and we get our first refund request email (seen at the top of the post)....
Obviously this was inevitable, but it felt as bad as making our first sale felt good... For a split second my stomach dropped and, as dramatic as it sounds, I questioned if it even made sense to keep working on Hevy. Luckily, that feeling past and I started thinking about how to respond.
I looked up his account and found he was technically past the 14 day refund window by a few days. But since he had bought a subscription for an entire year and, as he said, had no plans of using the app, it didn't seem fair to not give him the refund. So I gave him a full refund before sending the following email:
https://i.ibb.co/gW1tyqC/Screenshot-2020-01-16-at-09-28-07.png
He responded quickly with some really great feedback - saying that the app was missing some key feature that he wanted. I sent him another email thanking him for the feedback and explaining that we actually planned to add something similar to the app in a future release. Then i went to sleep 😴💤
When i woke up this morning, I checked our conversions and i couldn't believe it. The user had resubscribed. At first I thought it was a bug in the subscription service we're using (it wasn't, shout out to RevenueCat).
He didn't respond to my last email so I'm not sure what made him change his mind, but this was a huge learning experience for me. I have to guess that by giving the refund no questions asked helped build trust. Even if he didn't resubscribe the feedback he gave would have easily been worth the cost of a yearly subscription.
So yea that ended up being a pretty great experience... Take from it what you will!
nice story!
Did he subscribe to the same plan?
For some reason RevenueCat doesn't load.🤔
Thanks! Yea same yearly plan and everything 🤷♂️
Oops there was a typo in the link. Fixed it! Thanks
That is a pretty good example of how sometimes customers just want to be heard.
I had a customer ghosted me recently :) I'm going to email him again, maybe he just didn't see my email. 🤔
Being an author on CodeCanyon I went through way too many refund requests, but each one of them made me learn more about my product and my customers. I usually approve most of them, unless it's clear it's a scam.
I still always ask the customers if they are sure they want a refund if they don't mention any reason, because if they have a specific issue I can look into it and fix it or maybe implement a new feature for that need in the next update.
First of all, congrats on the app! I don't know if there are other similar ones out there, but this is the kind of app I believe I was looking for. Looks like you can track progressive overloading easily over time, which is something I struggle with. With pen and paper, or the notes app, this goes so far.
As for the refund initial feeling, I don't want to get you down by the way, it won't get better in time. Each refund is like a rejection, and deep down it hurts.
On the bright side however, each refund is an opportunity to learn why the decision was made, which can lead to improvements for your app. I'd say to always ask your customers for details. Offer the refund no matter what, but ask about the why.
To many more customers!
Thanks! I hope you'll try Hevy out then. Let me know if you have any feedback 🙏.
Yea you're right, it's a feeling i'll need to get used to. I'm hoping the first time is the worst and it gets better after that. You're right though, it's always a learning experience.
Moral of the story: Always ask for feedback and talk to your customers. Even the ones that are leaving. I have been running a business for almost 6 years now and I can tell you that cancelling clients do come back as long as they were treated fairly. Great story and congrats for getting this client back.
When I had a product up and running, that was a struggle for me, too. Honestly, it was tough not to take it personally every single time. They said, it sounds like you've got some good traction, and that's an awesome place to be!
Thanks! Yea it'll be a struggle, i'm sure. Easier as time goes on i hope 🤞!
Thank you for sharing!
I released an iOS app years ago when the app store first came out. The first couple of reviews I got were okay and that was very exciting.
Then a got a really bad review. Like, very insulting. That hurt! It is like when you build these apps it is part art form and rejection is very painful because of that.
Anyway, it sounds like you handling it perfectly! Good lesson to learn from!
I feel your pain! I actually wrote another post about how we had 6 hours of downtime during our launch a while back. That resulted in a few of 1 stars, which really stung. Especially because it was my fault 😅
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-slept-through-6-hours-of-downtime-during-a-launch-6fd9ead2e1
I'll have to check out the post, thanks!