A guarantee is a promise a brand makes to a consumer. It assures the buyer that the product will do everything it’s advertised to do—and if it doesn’t, the consumer can get some type of recompense.
Here are 5 types of guarantees that help consumers feel secure when buying your product or service.
1. Lifetime Guarantee
A lifetime guarantee, or warranty, says that a product or service will be free from any defects throughout the product’s lifetime.
This type of guarantee typically covers manufacturing defects and errors in workmanship. It’s a way of telling customers that the product is built to last, and that if it doesn’t last as long as it’s supposed to, the company will make it right. Usually with a replacement or repair at no cost to the consumer.
My favorite example of a company with a lifetime guarantee is Gerber.
The outdoor pocketknife and camp tool brand backs its products with a “Gerber Guarantee” that covers “defects in material and workmanship for as long as the original consumer owns the product,” as explained on its warranty page.
Outside of North America, the warranty is a little more limited, extending 25 years instead of indefinitely.
Gerber’s guarantee page is an excellent example for other brands. It’s visually appealing, with a bright button inviting customers to submit a claim.
The entire guarantee process is quickly explained with illustrations and a bit of explanatory web copy. This keeps customers informed and gives a sense of mutual trust between the consumer and the brand.
Below the fold, you’ll find another CTA button inviting customers to submit a claim, along with extra information about what is covered and what isn’t.
Then, there’s an FAQ section spelling out common questions customers have—like whether defective items must be sent in (usually, no) and whether customized items are covered (yes, they are).
At the bottom of the page, there’s an appealing, advertisement-like video that shows Gerber customers using the products: chopping wood with Gerber axes, using Gerber tools to get tent stakes out of the ground, and getting Gerber tools wet as they fish, drive through rivers, and do donuts in the snow.
All of this is overlaid with text that says, “No matter what, you keep going. That’s why we guarantee all of our gear to do the same. Adventure longer. Gerber.”
Gerber’s lifetime guarantee is definitely not an afterthought. It’s a core part of the brand’s identity, and customers are encouraged to use it if they need to.
This builds an immense amount of trust in consumers, which is exactly what a well-designed lifetime guarantee should do.
A lifetime guarantee shows that you stand behind the quality of your products and is a major driver of conversions.
2. Money-back Guarantee
In a money-back guarantee, a company promises customers that if they aren’t satisfied with a product or service, they can return it and get a refund.
This type of guarantee—also called a satisfaction guarantee—is usually limited to a specific timeframe, like 30 or 90 days.
For SaaS products, a money-back guarantee is a common alternative to a free trial. Unlike a free trial, it requires payment up front. But it still carries low risk for buyers because they can get their money back if the product isn’t a good fit.
QuickBooks is one such example. The Intuit-owned software company offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for customers who aren’t satisfied with QuickBooks.
Satisfaction guarantees can improve conversions for two reasons:
- Higher-quality leads. Money-back guarantees require consumers to invest money in the product upfront. While you might get fewer signups than if you offered a free trial, the folks who do sign up or buy are more serious about their purchase.
- Low/no risk for consumers. A money-back guarantee gives consumers a safety net to fall back on if they truly don’t end up liking what they bought. This makes it easier to say yes to the purchase.
Just make sure you clearly define what is and isn’t covered in your money-back guarantee, like Intuit does in the screenshot above.
3. Results Guarantee
A results guarantee gives customers a promise that the product will do something specific. Something they can measure and define. If your product or service fails to bring about the promised outcome, the consumer can get their money back.
Or, as in the case of SaaS management platform, BetterCloud, users can get several months of free use if the results guarantee isn’t met.
BetterCloud offers a results guarantee that promises a 3x return on investment (ROI) within 90 days of signup. If this doesn’t happen, BetterCloud offers 90 extra days of free use.
Results guarantees take confidence to put into action. You have to be certain that your product is so good that it can deliver exactly what it should, every single time.
Or at least, almost all of the time.
If you know your product well and feel completely confident in its abilities, this type of guarantee can drive serious conversions. It takes the trust of a money-back guarantee to the next level.
You’re promising that your product will deliver a beneficial outcome within a set number of days. And if it doesn’t, users get compensated in some way.
So, they’re not just getting a helpful new product or service. They’re getting a helpful product or service and a guaranteed positive outcome.
What could be more tantalizing from a user’s point of view? If you’re ever unsure about how effective your guarantee is, use A/B testing to spot the best, most high-converting versions of it.
4. Best Price Guarantee
A best price guarantee tells customers that they won’t find a better price for a specific product anywhere else.
And if they do, your company will lower the price of the product to match the competitor’s.
This is an excellent way to drive conversions, especially for brick-and-mortars or ecommerce stores. It draws customers away from the competition, all by simply guaranteeing your store will give shoppers the lowest price.
One variation is a price match guarantee. This type of guarantee promises customers that if they find the same product for a lower price somewhere else, your store will match that price.
Another version is when a store promises it will refund the difference if the price of an item drops during its return and exchange period.
Say you buy a kayak for $600 from a sporting goods store with this type of price guarantee. Two weeks later, the same kayak goes on sale for $450. If you’re savvy, you can go in and get a refund of $150.
This happened to me, but unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of the store’s guarantee. So I didn’t get $150 back for the kayak I bought at that particular store.
Target has an interesting example of a best price guarantee. The store price matches if you:
- Buy (or find) a qualifying item at Target
- Find the exact sime item for less on Target.com, or Amazon and Walmart—the store’s biggest competitors.
- By exact same, Target means the exact same: it must be an “identical item, brand name, size, weight, color, quantity and model number” and “must be sold or fulfilled by Amazon or Walmart, and in stock for shipping and delivery / pickup at time of price match”
- Show proof of the lower price either at the time of the purchase or within 14 days
There are a litany of guidelines and exclusions to this price match policy.
I get it. I do. These exclusions protect the store from undercutting prices for things like clearance items, typos, and anything in Alaska or Hawaii.
As a resident of Alaska, I recently found this out the hard way. An item was listed as $32 inside my regional store in Wasilla, Alaska. On the Target app—also set to that Wasilla store—the price was $26.
I tried to price match. The employee told me that in Alaska, Target does not price match with its own app. If I wanted to get the product at the less expensive price, I would have to place a pick-up or drive-up order and wait two hours to pick it up.
I still don’t quite understand the logic there. Maybe Target really really wants Alaska residents to use the app and place pick-up or drive-up orders? I’m not sure. But I ended up just buying the item in the physical store and paying the full price.
Whatever you decide to do for your store’s best price policy, make sure it makes sense, the terms are clear, and you have a backend way to verify price matches. According to employees posting on Reddit’s r/Target forum, the price match scanner has the final say.
As one deleted user said, “If I use the price match app on my scanner, and it doesn’t pop up I’m not price matching anything. I don’t care what’s on your phone.”
Honestly, this makes sense because, as another user pointed out, “It’s definitely not protocol to just check the guest phone and match it. That’s often a scam.”
The clearer and fairer the best price guarantee, the more likely it is to drive high-quality conversions.
5. Service Guarantee
A service guarantee is a promise a business makes to its customers about the quality, reliability, or performance of a service. It sets clear expectations for what the customer should get in exchange for their payment.
It also outlines the compensation the customer will get if the service doesn’t meet expectations. This could be anything from a refund to a redo.
Service guarantees are common in—you guessed it!—service-based industries like hospitality, home services, consulting, and education. They reduce risk for buyers and show that the business stands behind its work
Because of that, service guarantees can help drive conversions.
I mean, if you presented me with two home renovation contractors and one offered a service guarantee while the other didn’t, I’d 100% pick the contractor with a guarantee.
One famous example of a service guarantee is the 100% Hampton Guarantee. Once upon a time in 1989, the guarantee stated that if a guest was, for any reason, unhappy with their stay, they’d get a full refund.
The language read, “If you’re not 100% satisfied, we don’t expect you to pay. That’s our promise and your guarantee,” according to this r/Hilton Reddit post with a photo of a Hampton brochure.
This service guarantee got a lot of attention back in the day. In 2014, a piece featured on Franchising.com celebrated the policy’s 25-year, “Silver Anniversary.”
The writer praises the guarantee—with a pinch of snark—in the piece: “Invoked for anything from missed wake-up calls, a broken bottle of cologne, bedding too soft for a guest’s tastes, or the late-night mooing of an un-milked cow, the unconditional money-back guarantee has seen… millions of dollars in free room nights honored over the past quarter-century.”
Phil Cordell—then-global head of focused service and Hampton brand management, Hilton Worldwide—praised the guarantee even more: “The 100% Hampton Guarantee is considered a customer service best practice that actually increases business rather than detracts from it.”
According to Cordell’s estimate as quoted in the piece, “only one percent of total revenue goes towards honoring the Guarantee, and of that one percent, only about a half of a percent could be attributed towards guests taking unfair advantage of the promise.”
Sounds pretty good, right?
But these days, the language surrounding the guarantee is much murkier. Customers are now assured they can “talk to any member of [the Hampton Inn team] and we’ll Make It Right.”
What does “Make It Right” mean?
I’m not sure. And I couldn’t find any official verbiage about it on the web.
The language seems geared far more toward finding a solution to an imperfect stay, rather than instantly refunding entire stays for things that Hampton Inn team members can’t control.
Like the aforementioned mooing cow situation, which actually did happen. (Read the piece if you have a minute—it’s a fascinating look into the history of the 100% Hampton Guarantee.)
According to users on Reddit’s r/Hilton subreddit, the guarantee still offers a full refund, but other avenues are pursued, too. Like a replacement room, an offer of hotel points, or some other form of compensation.
Here are a few situations pulled from the “Has anyone ever made use of the Hampton guarantee?” question on the subreddit:
- “I have only ever invoked it if there was something major. A room that was not cleaned and I found disgusting crap in the bathroom. The shuttle didn’t run as promised and I missed a flight. Unsuitable noise at 2am from the housekeeping laundry on the other side of the wall.” (To which another user responded, “Sounds like you’ve done it multiple times. You must be a delight.” Ah, the snark of Reddit. I kinda love it.)
- “I just requested it three days ago after a nights stay where the shower didn’t work. Person at the desk said they couldn’t do a refund or points credit, said manager would be in touch, but haven’t heard anything.”
- “I booked a hotel near a major airport to use the airport shuttle. When I checked in the front desk person said it was all full and I could take an uber at my expense. I asked about the satisfaction guarantee and was told ‘that is excluded from the guarantee.’”
- “We have just tried to and the [sic] literally offered $20. What a joke.”
- “Recently attempted to. Edinburgh West End Hampton. Unfortunately didn’t work. They offered me 40k points or a $400 USD check (after I pushed). It was a 4-night stay costing ~$1200, so 30% Hampton guarantee.”
It seems the guarantee maybe wasn’t driving as many conversions as Hampton said in 2014.
If I were the person in charge of this service guarantee, I’d try to strike a balance between the bootlicking, the-customer-is-always-right flavor of the 1989-era guarantee and the vague “Make It Right” version in place today.
For your own service guarantee, finding a middle ground is your best bet to drive conversions without draining revenue.
Take your time, learn how to write a high-converting guarantee, and you’ll be on the road to increased profits.
