This is the age of the informed consumer. This means that the return of goods is simply an inevitable occurrence you have to deal with. As a business owner, you should not look at returns as negative. Instead, you should look to customer returns as an opportunity to create a positive experience.
You could be the bad guy or the great guy!
When a customer buys a product there could be many reasons why he feels the need to return it. Whatever the reason you should view a customer returning to your shop as an opportunity. The customer made the effort to be physically back in your store. You should listen to what the customer has to say and seek ways to remedy the situation.
You can decide to upsell alternatives or perhaps sell accessories to solve the customer’s problems. This can be done only if the customer receives a positive experience from you or your sales assistant. Sales assistants need to be well trained in order for this to happen.
Make it easy on the customer
Train your staff to deal with customer returns. Explain the above benefits to them so that they understand why continuing to offer a high-level customer service experience to an irate customer makes good sense. Make sure that your return policy is easy to understand by your customers.
Offering convenience to your customers is always a win-win. You are not doing this to encourage customer returns. You are doing this to encourage customer feedback, which might appear negative but can turn into a lasting and loyal relationship.
The Infographic
As with many of the concepts we introduce on The Fun Entrepreneur, we have an infographic to help you. Our friends at Storetraffic have gathered all the important information you need to know about customer returns. You can also find statistics about the costs of returns to retailers.
We love it as it also gives useful pointers on how to deal with returns in terms of both the customer and staff training.
