Leveraging opportunities in customers returning merchandise

[mandy]

Be Support Savvy
If shoppers do indeed want to process returns, make it easy. Put your return policy and a link to your online return processing area in a location that's easy to see and access. Make sure your seasonal support representatives are cordial and patient. Many people returning items are not the original purchasers so this is a prime opportunity to display your company's top notch, hassle-free customer service. Consider returns and exchanges as an opportunity to extend your marketing arm as opposed to an abrupt interruption in your supply chain.

"The exchange/return interaction can be an opportunity to win new customers or to move merchandise that has been languishing in inventory. In terms of the branding context, many times the return is the first human interaction they have with the company and this is where the rubber meets the road. If your brand promise doesn't deliver, you've done serious damage to your brand," says Rocky Cipriano, President of Insight Marketing, a New York-based marketing and branding consultancy.

Be Flexible
This is not the time of year to militantly enforce your return policy. If someone can't find the receipt or order number and they have the purchaser's name, make sure your virtual point of sale system is set up to make it easy for customer service representatives to look up orders using different order-specific data (i.e. purchaser's phone number, shipping address, etc.) to process returns for customers...

full article: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions...hp/3650421