Are you forgetting to give clients the necessary information to make a decision?
Yesterday I was looking at a Bill Pay service offered by my credit card company. My big question was: will I get frequent flyer miles for amounts I pay through bill pay? I go to my account’s website and click on the bill pay link searching for more details. Instead of an explanation of all the features, benefits, and requirements I get a sign up form and a long legal disclaimer. I start reading the legal mumbo jumbo looking for answers but find only more confusion:
“In-Network Payment” means a bill payment made with your credit card to a merchant which accepts credit cards through Bill Pay. … If your credit card has a rewards or points program, your bill payments are eligible to earn rewards or points. …
“Out-of-Network Payment” means a bill payment made with your credit card to a merchant which does not accept credit cards through Bill Pay … These bill payments do not earn rewards or points.
Great, so I realize that I’ll only get rewards if I pay in-network companies. So where is the list of in-network merchants? No where to be found. I’m not going to sign up for a service that may require me paying extra when I don’t even know it will give me what I want.
Explain Everything
If your product or service has great features, present them. If your service will have certain restrictions, make those clear up front. The lawyers may be happy with a lengthy “terms of service” agreement, but you need to augment that with straight forward explanations your customers will understand.