Maybe you’ve been enrolled in the Visa dispute monitoring program and need to come up with a chargeback remediation plan. 

Or, perhaps you’re simply tired of losing revenue, wasting resources, and dealing with relationship fallout from disputes and want to get the issue under control before it spirals out of control.

Either way, we’re going to help you come up with a chargeback reduction plan so you can lower your chargeback ratio to a more acceptable level. From assessing the primary disputes you deal with to putting chargeback remediation strategies in place, we’ll help you figure out next steps. Just use this as inspiration:

The best approach, though, is to leverage a solution like Disputifier. With our chargeback company watching over your business you can prevent up to 95% of disputes from ever arising in the first place. 

When they do slip through the cracks, we’ll fight them on your behalf, winning up to 70% through an automated solution that saves you time and stress. Learn more about how it works today!

What is a Chargeback Reduction Plan?

Chargebacks are a frustrating, prevalent problem for businesses across all industries, but they’re especially common in eCommerce. 

This is a dispute initiated by a customer who is either unsatisfied with a purchase or did not authorize a purchase. Their issuing bank will then reverse the payment and return the funds to the customer.

While chargebacks were initially designed to protect consumers, they have evolved into a complex issue that can impact a business’s financial health and reputation. So, how do chargebacks affect a business? 

Not only are you losing revenue from the sale itself - but chargeback fees can add up over time. You’ll also have to deal with the headache and hassle of managing these disputes. 

Eventually, a high chargeback ratio could land you in hot water with banks and payment processors, which is where the chargeback remediation plan comes into play.

You may implement this tactic on your own or be forced to by a payment processor like Visa. Whatever the case, the goal is to identify the root causes of chargebacks, implement preventive measures, and improve the transaction process to reduce disputes. Key components include:

• Business overview: Breaking down your product/service, marketing channels, billing methods, and other pertinent information helps you get a better understanding of what an acceptable chargeback ratio looks like for your business.
• Root cause analysis: Review transaction data, reason codes, and customer feedback to figure out what’s causing most of your disputes - be it fraud, customer dissatisfaction, or misunderstandings about product descriptions.
• Current strategies: Outline any chargeback defense measures you currently have in place. This could be fraud detection tools, customer service protocols, refund policies, etc.
• Next steps: Based on the insights gathered through the first three steps of the plan you’ll come up with strategies to lower your chargeback ratio.

We’ll take a deeper look at the most effective chargeback remediation strategies in a few moments. But let’s figure out whether this is necessary in the first place or not.

Why is a Chargeback Remediation Plan Necessary?

If you only deal with a few disputes here and there you probably don’t need to dedicate resources to one of these plans. It becomes essential when your chargeback ratio exceeds the acceptable limit - which is under 1%. 

As this ratio climbs higher you’ll feel the burden internally in the form of resource allocation, customer service complaints, and lost revenue. 

But if left unchecked, you may even be placed in a plan through your payment processor which requires you to come up with a chargeback reduction plan. Here are some reasons to consider developing your own plan:

• Compliance with Card Network Rules: Visa and Mastercard have strict chargeback guidelines. Businesses exceeding acceptable chargeback ratios are placed in monitoring programs and subject to additional scrutiny, penalties, and potentially restrictive measures. A chargeback remediation plan will help you get out of the monitoring program. 
• Financial Protection: Not only does a chargeback cause revenue loss, but you’ll incur additional fees from payment processors as well. As the chargeback ratio climbs you may face higher processing fees or even account termination, limiting your ability to operate.
• Reputation Management: Customers may lose trust in your business, while banks and payment processors may categorize the business as high risk.
• Operational Efficiency: Handling chargebacks can drain resources. You may feel overwhelmed by the administrative burden of responding to disputes, gathering evidence, and managing communications with banks. A remediation plan streamlines this so you can focus on growth and customer satisfaction.

Don’t worry, you can learn how to prevent chargebacks as a merchant by following our tried and true chargeback remediation plan below. We’ll help you get started on the right foot so you can get this problem under control.

Our Tried-and-True Chargeback Reduction Plan

Here at Disputifer we’ve helped countless companies get their chargeback ratio under control through a practical, simple chargeback reduction plan. Businesses like Tabs, Ryze, Doe, and more rely on our solutions and you can too. Here’s how it works…

Outline Your Business Information

The first step in any effective chargeback remediation plan is clearly defining and documenting your business's key details. 

This includes your company name, contact information, and other relevant business identifiers. This will help contextualize the data and strategies you'll be implementing.

Assess Primary Dispute Reasons

Maybe you struggle with chargeback for services not rendered as a result of delays. Or, perhaps you’ve gone a bit overboard with your marketing messaging and are being hit with chargebacks for item not as described. Maybe you need a better way to fight fraud chargebacks.

Whatever the case, you need to figure out exactly what type of chargebacks you face the most frequently. Other potential culprits are credit not processed, products not received, or subscription cancellations. 

Once you’ve pinpointed the issue, coming up with chargeback remediation strategies is far more straightforward.

Set Your Chargeback Reduction Goals

At this point you can lay out your goals for reducing chargebacks. This will require an understanding of your current chargeback ratio, which is easy to calculate. 

Pull the numbers on your transaction data for a given period (a monthly or quarterly analysis is our recommendation) and see how many disputes you incur relative to the number of transactions you process.

Goals should be specific, such as reducing the dispute rate within 45 days or lowering the overall dispute rate by a certain percentage. For example, if your chargeback rate is currently 1.5%, a good goal would be to get it below 1% within 30 days.

Look at Existing Measures

Next, you should review the current measures your business has in place to manage and prevent chargebacks. This might include fraud detection tools, customer service protocols, or existing dispute resolution processes. 

Evaluating what is already working, and what isn’t, will help you identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. From there, you can come up with additional chargeback remediation strategies to put in place.

Additional Chargeback Remediation Strategies to Implement

The final step in the chargeback reduction plan is to figure out your next steps. How are you going to meet the goals you laid out earlier? 

There are many ways you can do this, with the most obvious being getting set up with the best chargeback prevention companies, like Disputifier. This will get you access to Ethoca chargeback alerts or Visa rapid dispute resolution so you can refund customers before a formal dispute is opened.

There are plenty of other techniques you can implement alongside our solutions, though. Even things as simple as improving customer communication, refining product descriptions, or adjusting refund policies can have profound effects on your chargeback rate.

Or, maybe it’s a matter of coming up with a better strategy for managing disputes when they occur. You could try increasing your win rate with a better approach to building representment in chargebacks, or responding within the chargeback time limit.

Perhaps you need to find a new shipping partner - like if most of your disputes are the result of orders not being received, or being delayed too long. This is why starting with a root cause analysis is so important for informing your next steps.

Whatever the case, building out a plan like this will help you eliminate the stress and uncertainty of how you’re going to bring your dispute rates down. Just follow the plan and see how easy is it to get the issue under control!

Start Reducing Chargebacks Today With Disputifier!

If you’re at the point where you need a chargeback reduction plan, you’ve probably already tried the basic advice like improving communication, enhancing your return policies, and providing better customer service - to no avail.  You need a more sophisticated solution like Disputifier.

Our chargeback prevention service helps you eliminate up to 95% of disputes through intuitive chargeback alerts from Verifi and Ethoca. You can refund orders automatically to prevent them from counting against your ratio. Set the parameters however you see fit to maximize ROI.

We also have fraud-scanning features in place that analyze hundreds of data points to stop up to 99% of fraud without causing false positives that can cut into your profits.

Businesses struggling with order unreceived disputes can leverage our tracking features that help you find lost orders and keep customers informed throughout the delivery process. This tool not only reduces chargebacks but also increases customer satisfaction!

The process is 100% automated and will help you work towards the goals you laid out in your chargeback remediation plan without having to lift a finger. 

But we don’t just help you prevent up to 95% of disputes. When they do occur, we can fight them on your behalf with customized responses tailored to your unique business and the reason code at hand.

Because we fight so many chargebacks we are constantly improving our win rates, helping you recover as much revenue as possible. Plus, you only pay when you win the dispute - so it’s a risk-free investment! 

You may wonder, how often do merchants win chargebacks through Disputifier? Our customers see a 67% improvement in win rates on average. 

So, take a powerful first step in putting your chargeback remediation strategies into practice today. Learn more about how Disputifier can help you stop the bleeding and put the problem of chargebacks in the past for good!

Final Thoughts on Chargeback Remediation Strategies

That does it for our guide to building out your own chargeback remediation plan. This is an essential strategy for businesses placed in monitoring programs or those trying to avoid placement in such programs.

Follow our template to identify the root cause of your issue, look at your current techniques, and see where you’re falling short. From there, you can come up with next steps to regain control of your transactions.

As you get started putting your chargeback reduction plan to the test, learn more about dispute management in our blog. We have resources on what happens if a merchant does not respond to a chargeback, chargeback response template, how to win a chargeback as a seller, pre-arbitration, chargeback vs dispute, merchant chargeback insurance, and more.

The best way to reduce chargebacks takes just a few clicks. Get set up with Disputifier and discover firsthand how effortless protecting your profits and reputation can be!

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