Managing returns from customers is a major challenge faced by almost all business owners or outlet managers. A lot of returns directly indicate declining customer experience and satisfaction. How Return Management Software can help tackle this problem and improve customer experience?
Every return that comes back to your store account for several overheads with it:
- Liability of defects or damages in returned products
- Extra shipment costs for the returns
- Storage space for returns
- Negative reviews from customers
- Loss of potential customers
Reducing the number of returns is a challenge for every business or brand, and one has to go thoroughly through the feedback forms who have returned the products to find out the most common reasons why people are returning your products and resolve them.
It is also important to manage these returns and the preceding processes smoothly. By managing the product returns smoothly, you can overcome most of the overhead costs that are added with these returns, as well as enhance your customer’s experience while returning their respective products potentially avoiding negative feedback. Standardizing the return processes with the help of a return management system or return management software (RMS) can help you to manage your returns more effectively.
The Return Process
During the entire return process, the customer interacts with the business or brand three times. The ideal Return process involves the following three steps:
1.Initiation of return
The customer will request a return, replacement, or exchange and immediately receives guidelines for returning the products, as well as a scheduled date on which the delivery guy will pick up the product from their location.
2. Receiving of product
The second step is when the product covers the entire shipment journey and arrives at your store or fulfillment center or warehouse. The next step involves inspection of the damages, defects as per customer feedback. Once the defects and damages are repaired, the product goes back to the inventory. If the customers have requested any replacements or exchanges, it needs to be shipped out immediately, so that the customer receives it as soon as possible.
3. Processing of return
The next step is to process the refund through cash transfer, store credits, or vouchers to the customers who qualify for the same. The return process ends once the refund is done or the replacement has been delivered.
Return Management Software
A lot of companies and businesses are now engaging with return management software, custom-made to resolve their return management issues efficiently and to provide their customers with a smooth return process.
While looking forward to managing your return processes, it is important to change your perspective a little bit and look at the returns as an opportunity to provide your customers with a smooth experience and build their trust, loyalty, and satisfaction, rather than looking at it as a liability for your business. It is an additional service which you provide your customers, and it should be reviewed with the same importance as selling the products. A satisfactory experience during the return processes will build the customer’s loyalty to your brand, and not drive him away from placing any more orders with you.
In order to manage the returns, especially if your business is a multichannel e-commerce business, it is best to employ return management software with your inventory management system to make this task effortless and automated. Using a Return Management Software comes with various advantages:
1. Accelerate Return Processes
With properly synced return management software, most of your tasks would be automated resulting in a reduced time for fulfilling return requests. Hence, the return processes are accelerated greatly.
2. Track real-time status
It is easier to track the real-time status of any return or replacement shipment for the buyers as well as the sellers, enhancing their experience and reducing tracking queries significantly.
3. Reduce processing costs for returns
Streamlining all your returns on one platform will allow you to assess their locations closely and reduce the time and costs spent for each return pickup. Scheduled pickups based on location data can potentially save a lot of time and fuel costs.
4. Maximize the recovery value
Reduced processing costs can help you to fetch higher recovery values per order, which will prove beneficial for you when considered on large scale.
5. Manage and track returned products effectively
An organized and standard process of managing the returns can streamline your return processes resulting in a stress-free and cost-effective management of data, along with a reduction of manual error or delays caused due to various external factors.
6. Manage and process refunds
A powerful Return Management Software can help you to directly process refunds and credit transfers on the same portal bringing it all on one platform, saving a lot of time and effort. Such portals can also help you to display as well as access the records of previous transactions and search and filter through them quickly.
