GM’s Satisfaction Guarantee Offer: Good Faith, Great Marketing

I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear that General Motors was giving customers (specifically, “eligible buyers” of new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles) a 60-day satisfaction guarantee.

Personally, I believe every company should be willing to go to such lengths in order to reassure prospective customers that they will meet, if not exceed, their expectations — even if it means the possibility of doling out refunds to those who might be dissatisfied. A guarantee is a strong demonstration of good faith.

Of course, the direct marketer in me also knows just how much a guarantee can lift response rates and, ultimately, sales.  As I wrote here…

…a strong guarantee will go a long way toward mitigating any concerns your constituents may have about buying your products or services.

In fact, when I had my own small business in the mid-1990s, I once tested the notion of guaranteeing our work in order to attract new clients (a story told once before on this blog here). In a simple, albeit successful, self-promotional letter, I proudly proclaimed…

The chances are very slim that you’re not going to like what you see from Cargill Creative, but you might never see a thing unless we make such a bold offer.

Yes, like GM, I saw a guarantee as a way of commanding the attention of the marketplace and doing business with people who might not have paid attention to me otherwise.

So for more than one reason, I have to say good for General Motors for offering a satisfaction guarantee to its customers. Good for Ed Whitacre, the new chairman of GM (seen in the video below). And good for you, me and the rest of the car-buying public, too. With an offer this good, everybody wins.

For more information on the new GM Satisfaction Guarantee offer, click here and here.

To read what I’ve written before about using a guarantee of satisfaction as an offer, click here and here.

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