Product Returns Management: A Major Retailer's Strategy that Delivered Financial Value Across the Entire Organization?

The Product Returns Management Strategy implemented by a nationwide retailer makes a definitive statement about how they choose to run their organization. Your returns strategy not only impacts your customer experience management process -- but also employees on your sales floor all the way up to the your corporate office. Focusing on product returns management (by way of both volume and impact) without alienating end customers requires thoughtful planning, anticipation, strategy, and precise execution!

How Anticipation Led To Reduction in Product Returns

What causes product returns? Could be poor sales transactions, scheduling, delivery, service after-the-sale, or product quality. How about the end customer experience or their inability to operate the product? The reasons are numerous. But, the real question to ask yourself is “how much insight do we have and what do we do with that knowledge”?

How effective are your current Reverse Logistics Strategies? Find out by asking your CEO, CFO, VP of Sales, Heads of Design, Engineering, Packaging, Manual Design, Operations, and Call Center these two fundamental questions:

1) Who manages our Returns Reduction Program as part of your overall reverse logistics strategies? Who is the single person inside our company responsible for following and working on reducing our product returns from the design stage all the way through to return liquidation?

2) When one of our end customers takes one of our products home and has a “perceived” problem, what is the first thing we want that customer to do? What practices have we put into place that ensure this action will actually happen?

If you discover inconsistencies in the answers you receive (or perhaps an inability to get sufficient answers along with supporting data), then read on. The potential for increasing profits via reverse logistics is significant and attainable.