Why zenbilling will never charge anyone without letting them know immediately

In 2008 I bought some online course on marketing. It wasn't a great product, but I got what I paid for. It was alright. What I wasn't aware of, though, was that along with the product was apparently bundled a subscription to something I wasn't interested in, and I didn't know I signed up for.

I only found out about this about 6 months later when my bookkeeper showed up and asked me what that $69 monthly charge was for. I had no idea. It took a bit of digging to figure out what it was. I contacted customer support which was slow, unhelpful, and unapologetic, but eventually told me how to get a refund. I did what they asked, which cost me extra money, but never saw my money, and they stopped responding.

Unfortunately, that's not unheard of in the info-marketing business. Info-marketing, to the uninitiated, is the business of selling (or marketing) information.

And while I absolutely love how online courses enables couples on the brink of divorce to get immediate help in the middle of night, while at the same time enabling a relationships expert to make a living from helping them, I don't like when info-marketers take advantage of people's desperation to defraud them.

That's why I decided I'd deliberately design zenbilling so it makes it impossible to do some of the things that the scumbags rely on, and make it easy to do what's best for your customer, and as a consequence, best for you in the long run.

The most important asset you have in your business is the trust and respect of your audience. Products can be copied, leads can be bought. The special relationship you have with your audience cannot be copied or stolen.

Here are some examples to illustrate how specifically zenbilling is shaped by this core value:

Always send an invoice to the customer when their card is charged

zenbilling will always email an invoice to the customer the instant their card is charged. There's no way to turn it off. Customers have a right to know when they've been charged, so they can object or stop it.

Most other software out there doesn't tell you about charging your card at all. And if you want a receipt for your books, you have to contact customer support and pray that they get back to you. With zenbilling, this is a complete non-issue.

Also, each invoice contains a link back to the site where they can easily grab all of the other invoices associated with that product, in case they've missed one, as well as any content associated with the purchase.

Make it easy to end a subscription

If what you've bought is a subscription, then that same page where you can get your invoices will also have a button to end your subscription, right then and there. Opting out of a subscription should be easy and hassle-free. If you want out, we have no right to hold you hostage.

Refunds are easy

When you sell information, people don't fully know what they're getting until they've already paid and consumed. So the best you can do is build trust, give out samples, "hype" what you have to offer, and offer a reasonable guarantee, so people can get their money back if it wasn't what they thought it was going to be, based on the honor system.

zenbilling makes issuing refunds super-easy. One click, and their money is credited back to their card, and their access to everything they'd purchased and all the relevant customer mailing lists is automatically revoked, instantly.

There's no excuse not to offer an instant refund when that is what's required.

Easy access to the content

When people pay for access to informational content, it shouldn't be a hassle to actually get to that content. That's why zenbilling makes it easy to view online, download, or even podcast right to your mobile device.

We also have a single login for each customer, across all vendors, so you can stay logged in all the time and easily switch between the different online courses you've purchased.

These are just four examples of how zenbilling is designed to make it easy to do the right thing.

A lasting business that lets you fall asleep with calm and pride every night, is about doing what you know is right. Of course, that's also how I do business myself.

As a customer of zenbilling, you're not just one of a gazillion other customers. I care about each and every one of my customers, and I get to know most of them over time. Once inside zenbilling, you click one button, and you type in a box, writing directly to me. Most of the time, you'll get a reply back instantly. If there's a problem, I solve it, no matter what it takes.

I built zenbilling myself, from scratch, and I take pride in my creation. I care about my work. I care about you, my customer. And I care that you get what you're after. I can't magically implement every single request I get, and I won't implement things I disagree with on principles and values, but I will always hear you out, and once you're in, you'll notice the attention to detail, much of which is a result of my close contact with customers.

So if you're in the business of selling workshops, seminars, ebooks, online videos, one-on-one sessions, tours, webinars, teleseminars, or any combination of these, I'd love to see you as a customer, or just to chat about how I can assist you.

Head over to zenbilling.com and check it out - and if you want to get in touch, just click "Questions?".