Posts Tagged ‘web hositng business’

I have been working in small businesses since I was 19. I have come up with quite a few creative approaches to problems that businesses face everyday. Today, I would like to discuss how to reduce Web hosting Chargebacks. Call after call in a web hosting billing department will get these types of comments: “I think my husband (or other close relative) used my credit card to purchase a service from your company.”, “I thought this service was going to cancel after the first year.”, “My credit card has expired and I still see a charge for your service”, “I no longer wanted the service and was hoping to cancel before this renewal.”, “My website made no money and I didn’t want the service any longer.”and finally “Who are you and why are you charging me ?” Now, being in the webhosting industry I know there are more colorful ways that this has been presented to you on an everyday basis. You as the company need to think about the issues that are at hand, not that fact that the client is on the line complaining. They have a ligitimate complaint. How can you as a hosting company proactively solve this issue BEFORE it becomes a customer service and experience issue ?

1. Let’s look at chargebacks. I know a lot of bigger hosting companies will say “We can afford chargebacks.” Can you? Look at the overhead time and effort it takes to process a chargeback. I can guarantee that a lot of hosting companies cannot process a chargeback in less than five minutes. If you cannot do that with all the legal documentation and evidence that goes with it you are already losing money. Let alone the fees generated by just Having a chargeback.  That’s right consumers, just filing a chargeback generates a fee to the hosting company, even if they win. Your first task is to automate the chargeback process.

2. How can someone who has a credit card charge from you quickly reach a manager to resolve the issue ? Your website is typically not designed to help people with credit card issues, why not ? Most companies would like to hide behind their homepage design and order process and neglect the fact that there are customer service issues that cost them a lot of money to resolve.

Think like this type of consumer. If you saw a charge from a company on your credit card statement what action would you take ? Pretend you are a resendential user not a business users. They chargeback the most. How can you funnel those customers into the billing department faster to resolve their question about the charge ? Can your billing system find that customer with the information provided ? If someone else in the household with a different last name called and the person complaining only has the last 4 digits of the credit card on file, can you resolve the issue over the phone in less than 5 minutes? If not you have a chargeback, in which later you will still need to be able to find the information in less than 5 minutes. Contact me if you need more information on how to make this procedure more efficient.

3.  What does Visa and Mastercard say about renewals ? If you have not read the information provided by VISA and MASTERCARD then you should not be a Billing Manager. Bottom line.  You are responsible for knowing what the business side and repercussions are as well as what you are allowed to do, and how much time you have to legally do it.

4. What happens to the client domain when there is a chargeback case ? What happens if this case is won by the hosting company? You would be surprised to find out that the client, in most cases is still legally entitled to the domain.

5. How do you resolve an existing chargeback if the client agrees the charge is legitimate ? Can you get your processing fee back ?

I have implemented some very creative solutions for multiple web hosting companies on how to reduce chargebacks, get a credit card holder to proactively call you before a chargeback, and how to expedite and organize the chargeback procedure.

If your web hosting company management is unable to answer any of these questions you need some web hosting consultation. Contact me if you need more information about these procedures, policies and ideas on how you can prevent, reduce and win chargebacks.