11 Steps to Prevent Chargebacks Before They Happen

Chargebacks. You’re cringing just reading that word. 

Chargebacks can result from fraud or some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding by customers.

Whatever the cause of a chargeback, it’s a hassle and loses money.

While you may not be able to prevent all chargebacks, you can take preventive steps to reduce the quantity of chargebacks you have to process.

1. Review chargeback data.

Identify trends in your chargebacks. Once you’ve identified the most common causes of chargebacks, assess what changes you can make to reduce these root causes.

2. Track industry trends.

As events get better at stopping fraud, fraudsters get more sophisticated. Stay up-to-date with trends in fraud and adapt to stay ahead of the industry.

3. Train staff.

Your staff should know what red flags to look for in orders and what to do if they see them. Keep your staff current with that information for your event and how fraud is changing.

4. Be proactive.

Actively review incoming orders, especially large ones. Reach out to customers with questionable orders to confirm the purchase before processing it.

5. Keep inventory updated.

Ensure that your seat map and general admission sales numbers are automatically reflected on your order form. You can’t sell the same seat twice, and you can’t sell more than your venue’s capacity. Stride Events’s ticketing platform automatically keeps these sales updated.

6. Quick and accurate order processing.

Once you’ve sold tickets, confirm the order and send the tickets quickly. Quickly filling the order helps prevent customers from creating a chargeback because they didn’t get what they paid for. Stride Events’s ticketing software confirms and sends tickets once an order has been placed online.

7. Clear communication.

Make it easy for customers to find your billing practices and refund policies. This information should be written so it is easy to understand. Making this information clear from the beginning makes it more likely that customers will use your refund process and communicate with you about their order instead of their bank or credit card company.

The next piece of clear communication is sending reminders and updates about your event. These communications will help keep your event top-of-mind and get your attendees excited about it. It also helps ensure people remember they bought tickets, so they don’t question that charge on their card.

8. Focus on customer service.

Ensuring you have people available to answer billing questions and refunds will make it more likely that customers will work with you rather than issuing a chargeback from their card.

9. Get refund policy signed.

Include your refund policy in your terms and conditions. When customers make a purchase, ask them to agree to them. Stride Events makes it easy to add your terms and conditions to the online purchase pathway.

10. Use multi-layered payment protocols.

Use several factors to verify online payments, including a billing address and CVV codes. Stride Events requires CVV codes and billing addresses to verify cards and purchases from all of its ticketing pages.

11. Block repeat offenders from making purchases.

You know the email and card number of people who aren’t buying your tickets in good faith. Put it to use to stop making sales to them.

Using the Stride Events “Block” feature, you can stop selling tickets to the repeat offenders. The Block feature uses multiple identity markers to stop blocked buyers from making a purchase online.

You’ll be able to focus your ticket sales on attendees, forecast your event’s finances better, and save yourself a headache.