Event attendees should be refunded their money if they want if a speaker doesn't show

While the idea of giving a refund to an attendee who is looking forward to a particular speaker or who cancels the day of (with no real emergency) are nice, the truth is that by the day of the event, there are too many hard costs involved. Food. Venue. Giveaways. Some organizers can't reduce these costs on the day of, so I typically offer and suggest partial refunds unless it's an emergency as to someone's absence. As an event organizer, it's necessary to have back-up plans to back-ups, especially when it comes to speakers. Always have a ram in the bush. While you can't promise that things will go according to plan 100% when dealing with situations and people out of your control, you can have contingencies in place to still give attendees the razzle dazzle without them asking for a refund.

Let's turn this question, "Who deserves a refund?" on it's head.

What if conference and event organizers offered a money-back guarantee instead?

Then the event professionals would do everything in their power to ensure a successful event experience for each of their attendees. If money-back guarantees were offered for conference experiences, event professionals would think, plan and do things differently than they normally do.

Would most event organizers consider offering a money-back guarantee? Doubtful. Why? Perhaps they have a low comfort level that their event is stellar and are concerned about a high risk of refund requests.

Most events I've planned have a refund policy that more than 30 days before the event, the attendee can request a full-refund minus a handling fee. 30-15 days before the event is a 50% refund. 14 days or less is $0 refund.

When an attendee comes to me and requests a refund due to a lack of a no-show or poor experience, I usually give it to them, regardless of the policy. My belief is that the customer service and trying to retain them as a future attendee is more important and worth the small loss.

So it really comes down to which is more important-customer service and retention or keeping their registration.

In my opinion, refunds at events are at the discretion of the event organiser. It should be looked at on a case-by-case and the organiser can decide to give a full refund, a partial refund or not to refund at all. It will depend on what grounds the delegate is requesting a refund and whether the event organiser is at fault or could have prevented what happened.

If the objective is to retain the delegate for future events, then I would recommend a refund or a complimentary delegate pass to a future event or even a combination of the two, even if a no-refund policy is in place.

Jeff,

Thanks for your comment. I have been on both ends of giving/receiving refunds (as an organizer and attendee). It's very important to advertise/publicize a refund policy (your example was perfect), and I/we view the refund policy more along the lines as a customer service issue as well.

Last summer, we kept a perfect (printed) attendance record (via Eventbrite) of our Mashable Summer Tour. We offered full refunds to those who did not attend the event (referencing the attendance sheets). Again, it's all about customer service! However, if and when someone has attended an event and did not have a great experience, I make sure that I speak with this person (or group of people), learn about their experience, and discuss how we can fix the problem(s) for our next event. I/we may offer him or her a full or partial refund, maybe a discount on a future event. It depends on how everything works, out.

-B

Petra,

When someone contacts me/us regarding a refund for an event, we do scrutinize all information received in order to ensure that they can be eligible for one. In regards to Jeff's comment above I believe customer service is a key issue and try to obtain all information before making a final decision. There have been times when someone has demanded a refund and after speaking with the person, no refund would be issued because we found a common solution. Still, we do see them at the next and future events!

Thanks for adding your comments! :-)

Brett,

That is the ideal solution and normally works very well!

P

If you have a problem at the event (like a speaker no-show) and you are only considering giving refunds to those that ask for it (e.g., complain), from a customer service standpoint you're shooting yourself in the foot.

For each person that complains, there are 20 others that are equally as disgruntled but won't take the initiative to let you know. You're losing them completely as customers. You need to be proactive and turn the bad experience into a good one for all.

Whether the particular problem warrants a refund is wildly variable upon the circumstances of course (as mentioned above). If the no-show was the keynote and was the major draw, some sort of refund is certainly in order. If an adequate replacement was found or she was a breakout speaker, a refund would be overkill.

Mike,

I agree - If one person complains and/or asks for a refund, it's likely that others will do the same. I didn't mention this in my post (and I should have!).

If an event organizer is well-aware that a large amount of people will ask for a refund, something has to be put into place. Do we offer everyone some money back, a discount on a future event, schwag, etc? As always, a refund policy should be made visible on all event information.

In regards to the situation I had written about the speaker was a "draw" to some extent, and I personally don't believe a refund should be issued for his (last-minute) absence. The speaker schedule was rearranged on behalf of the event organizer(s) and everything went well.

Possibly a partial refund is what is in order here. If this person enjoyed the other speakers, and felt there was some value to it. There may need to be a compromise here. However, if the person was 100% dissatisfied, and left the event, did not attend any other parts of the event because this speaker did not attend, then the attendee should receive a full refund. Here's a story from my side when I got a refund, but it was not easy to do without contacting a mediator. I attended the a technology event in 2008, and I did not know I had purchased a pass to attend the educational conferences on its website. I just wanted to walk around on the floor and view the exhibits. After the event was over, I was talking to someone, and I asked them if they had paid the same price as I did to walk around the floor. I was told they paid much less, and was bummed out because I thought the event overcharged me, when I inadvertently clicked on the wrong pass, and then paid for it. Since I did not enter (they tracked this) any of the conferences or speaking sessions at the event, I called up the event holders and asked them for a partial refund. They would not provide it to me right away, and said it was my mistake for purchasing the wrong pass on the website. I told them I was not aware of this mistake, and that an accidental click on the wrong ticket should not cost me more. So happens, I did not know the other pass even existed just to walk on the floor, I just picked the lowest price educational conference pass, when I meant to pick the pass just to walk around the exhibit hall. Since they would not refund me for my mistake right away, even though they understood my mistake to click on and order the wrong ticket, I had to bring in a mediator. So, I filed a complaint with a mediation organization, and they understood and saw that I did not attend any of the educational conferences, and just walked around the floor. The event provided me a partial refund, they refunded me of the amount that I paid for the educational conferences, which I did not attend, and I still had to pay for the day pass to walk around the floor. This is interesting, because this might have happened to someone else before, they purchase the wrong ticket to an event not knowingly, and they end up attending, but not attending the full ticket. The moral of the story is, always make sure you are clicking on the ticket you will use when you buy a ticket. Also, if you accidentally purchase the wrong ticket, try to report it as soon as possible. There is no reason why you should wait until the end of the event, unless you did not know you had purchased the wrong ticket. Always, when you buy a ticket, the buyer should beware. So, I'm happy to say that I resolved this issue, but it goes to show you that it's not always easy to resolve an issue with an event by yourself. Sometimes, you have to take the extra step and go to an outside mediator to explain, so that you get the refund you deserve. If you deserve a refund, don't be shy about going after it. Too many people have made a mistake by purchasing the wrong ticket at an event, and sometimes they did not purchase the ticket that allows them to attend all the conferences they would like to attend. In this case, you can always ask and see if you can upgrade a ticket. It shouldn't be a challenge to upgrade, so it should work the other way, it shouldn't be a challenge to get a refund.