Comments on: Money Back Guarantees in Hypnotherapy and a Hypnotherapy Student P.R.A.T

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:23:28 +0000

Alan, thank you. Funnily enough, I only saw his blog work of fiction after he posted it due to blog alerts, because his blog title was the same as my book title, a ploy of sorts I guess…

Well played for applying what we taught in the business development webinar series! 🙂

Nonetheless, I think you are gracious and charitable in your reflections, and that is wonderful Alan. I hope much is learnt on his part during his training too… He may well be less of a P.R.A.T than I have suggetsed, but I am going to reassess my judgment when he offers up some evidence to demonstrate as much.

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:17:44 +0000

In reply to Gráinne. Thank you for that Dr Gráinne Murphy, I always appreciate your comments in this respect. Delighted to hear that your sister is still smoke-free too! :-)

By: Alan Herbert

Alan Herbert — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:22:56 +0000

The profession of Hypnotherapy attracts people from various backgrounds, learning and understandings about how things should be. I know that I for one, had some marked preconceptions about the topic before I began as a student on your Clinical Hypnotherapy Diploma Course.
Of course, most of those went out the window after the first few hours as a pupil, I’m pleased to say, and I certainly never offered up my untrained thoughts on the subject or those leading the way to change.
I had previously read the afore mentioned complainer’s [can’t be bothered with the acronym just now] blog just after he had posted it. This is down to you and your wonderful ongoing support with the current webinar series you are developing, to help therapist’s and the like to grow their business and gain a good web presence. It’s amazing what Google Alerts throws at me over my breakfast.
I think that as with so many things in life, only those educated in a topic are qualified to criticise, or at least to have their criticism taken seriously.
As an educated shopper, he felt qualified to criticise your policy when comparing it to apparently similar retailers. Without a good understanding of the detriments a money back guarantee could suggest, it’s an easy mistake. Unfortunately, his rant included excerpts of your response which explained why you did not currently offer such a policy – as you have mentioned here – and he chose to disregard those.
Assuming he completes his training – on behalf of his potential clients, I hope he learns much about the art of communication and understanding from anothers point of view.
Keep up the great work.

By: Gráinne

Gráinne — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:13:14 +0000

Bizarre. I think you should refuse to sell someone the product if they ask about money back guarantees before they even buy a hypnosis programme….on the basis that they’ve already decided for themselves that it’s going to fail and it’s therefore a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Seriously though, very few treatments of any kind come with a money back guarantee-and it’s even less routine if the therapy itself involves a genuine input from the client. I’ve seen diet clinics advertising it….but apparently they’re incredibly strict in their definition of “compliance” so it’s not easy to avail of it. How could you assess compliance to an audio programme?!?
It’s laudable that you are doing this but I hope he’s only a small reason. Your products are actually really reasonably priced and even more so when you have the intermittent special offers on them. I know the money I spent on buying the smoking cessation programme for my sister was probably the cheapest and best present ever. She’s still a non-smoker years on. They can’t even claim that they don’t like your voice or manner-there’s a free trial!
Some people are just determined to be unhappy.

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:17:27 +0000

In reply to Mel.

Mel, a voice of sanity and reason… Thank you.
You are quite, quite right… It has been shrugged… Though you know how I like to vent my spleen once a week or so in some kind of flawed Freudian cathartic manner. 🙂

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:09:05 +0000

And he hasn’t even STARTED his training yet … Somehow I doubt there’s any point in “logically” arguing with this person, so probably best to simply shrug it off. It’s not that you’d have anything to prove Adam.

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:32:04 +0000

In reply to Andrew Fogg.

Andrew, I think you have hit the nail on the head and certainly what you say is very much my point of view too… Thpough others will disagree.

We once had a lady buy over £100.00 worth of audio programmes, then ask for a refund on the basis that she “did not really need it anymore” – it was like we were a library of some kind; lend the programme out, take a deposit, when the user has finished, we then give them the money back… Although they got to keep the programme anyway!

Of course, we’ll get bad apples prone to abusing such a system, but I would not want it to make us too cynical… We are in the therapy world after all!

Your contribution is very much valued here Andrew, thanks.

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:28:25 +0000

In reply to Dave Harrison. Dave, thanks. Your comments are appreciated and even I can tolerate some new-agey clap-trap every once in a while when it is communicated politely :-)

By: Andrew Fogg

Andrew Fogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:07:52 +0000

Well said, as always, Adam. And what a P.R.A.T. – him, not you!

Your blog is well-timed for me, particularly in terms of the arguments for and against offering money back guarantees, as I am just planning an initial launch of audio products for sale from my website. You’ve certainly confirmed my decision not to offer any guarantees.

My experience in business consultancy, training and, more recently, as a hypnotherapist has confirmed for me that if the client hasn’t made a real financial commitment they tend to not follow through with my products and services. In my training business, I experimented with offering evaluation places to prospective clients and got lots of takers. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t turn up on the day, sent a very junior replacement or failed take part fully in the course. The clients who paid for a trial place generally booked courses for more of their people.

Like you, I offer a lot of free material on my website and through my ezine as well as offering a free sample audio programme. That means that there’s no excuse for anyone saying they didn’t know what they were buying. If I buy an apple and then find when I eat it that I don’t like apples, then it wouldn’t be reasonable to ask for my money back, now would it!

I know that I will lose a few potential customers if I don’t offer a money back guarantee, but are they likely to be the sort of people who are going to put in the work needed to benefit from my products and services? I am in this business to make a living, but it’s important to me that I do it by helping people to improve their life – and their golf!

By: Dave Harrison

Dave Harrison — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:38 +0000

PRAT indeed.

I’ve learnt to trust the Universe/serendipity/chance to lead me to what’s right for me at the time. And that’s how I chanced upon your website. Random links, certain words catching my eye etc, and it just “felt right” (trying to avoid any new-agey claptrap here).

And so far I’ve not been disappointed. I’ve purchased a lot of your products, and they’ve been right place right time. When the product hasn’t “worked” for me, that’s always been because I’ve not followed the instructions or got sidetracked with other things, procrastinated or just been lazy.

Never entered my head to have a money back guarantee. Good job too because I might have valued the investment less. Maybe it’s useful, but if people aren’t prepared to take a risk, to invest in their future, that says more about the client than the therapist…

Keep on keeping on
All the best
Dave