Now that you’ve revved up the last week of your campaign, and everything’s coming to a close, it’s time to prepare for the next steps.

1. Wait to send out your surveys.


Don’t rush to send out those surveys! First, you’ll need to wait some time for your payments to be processed, allow backers to fix their declined cards, and to deal with refunds. Each crowdfunding platform suggests different wait periods:

From experience, we recommend waiting an additional 48 hours on top of these specifications because the truth is, there will be a lot of people asking for refunds and you’ll need that time to deal with them.

2. Charge backers closer to shipping date to avoid chargebacks.

A chargeback is when a credit card company withdraws money for a transaction from a merchant’s account and deposits it into a consumer’s following a dispute. Backers can do a chargeback if they feel like they didn’t get what they paid for. The dispute can be about the quality or expectation of a good or service, or it can be as simple as the good or service not being delivered soon after a backer’s credit card has been charged. Additionally, the credit card company charges the merchant a chargeback fee.*

*If you are using BackerKit, and your backers purchase more items in BackerKit, we encourage project creators to charge backers when they are closer to their shipping dates to avoid fees and headaches.

 

3. Remind your international backers to add the correct shipping.

Some of your international backers may have forgotten to pay the correct international shipping fee while your campaign was running. Others may not know if they paid the correct amount, or simply just didn’t know about the extra shipping fee. Unless you plan on eating the costs, you’ll need to find a way to track them down, contact them, and arrange a way for them to pay shipping. Make sure they do it, and make a note of it. If it gets overwhelming, BackerKit has a tool that makes it easy to identify the international backers who forgot to add a shipping address. You get a list of international backers who may have forgotten to add funds for the international shipping fee, and can easily invite them to pay the rest.

 

4. Don’t wait to issue refunds.

If you have a few backers who decide that they’d like to cancel their pledge and request a refund after the campaign—please take it seriously and just do it. Don’t waste time negotiating. You want to give refunds immediately so you don’t get any chargebacks. If you get enough of them it could be a threat to your relationship with your payment processor and turn into a huge problem for you. You can easily give refunds via Stripe on Kickstarter, or via credit card or Paypal on Indiegogo. Also, it’s handy to keep track of all your refunds in an excel spreadsheet.

 

5. Give your backers the attention they deserve.

Now that your projects is over, focus on making your backers happy. To do that, you’ll need to work on completing your campaign’s goals. We know you want to look 10 steps ahead to see what’s next for your project, but first remember the people who supported you and make sure they get the very best service and treatment possible. They’re your biggest fans, so you should make them happy. And if you do, they’ll follow you no matter where you end up taking your project.

 

<3 Team BackerKit