Q: Can you send me your latest recommendation regarding refund policies.

A: LERN recommends a liberal, customer-friendly refund policy. Some of the best programs not only have a "no-questions-asked" refund policy, but provide a voucher for an additional class at no charge if the participant has been dissatisfied. In general, good programs do not see refund requests greater than 4%, and this is tiny compared to the harm that negative word-of-mouth can do, especially in these days of social media.

If you find that you are being asked for refunds at a high rate, then you should use this as a wake-up call that you need to make some adjustments in your program. Recently, in one of our LERN events, we had a person who indicated dissatisfaction. We offered a refund, and they refused it. This actually happens more often than you would think. Often, people are not looking for a refund if they are dissatisfied, they are looking for you to fix a problem.

Often, people ask for refunds before a class starts. We strongly recommend that you give a full refund or at least a credit voucher for a future class. If you have incurred expenses, based on the expectation that an individual will be in the class, you might excluded that expense from the refund. For example, if you are providing a meal and the person cancels after it is too late for you to change your meal count, you might provide a refund, minus the cost of the meal.

Overall, it is better to be generous in your refund policy. This builds trust and good will, and in our experience, generous policies are rarely abused.