Changing the return policy can be one of the biggest moves for the companies in the current scenario, particularly when they know that it has been impacting the sales and the customers in a negative way. Changes are good provided the change does aim at making things turn into their favour. Now before the customers can actually exploit your return policy and let you do all the painful stuff, it’s better to be smart and reform it in such a way that it favours your business as well as your customers. The idea is to frame a return policy that ultimately helps you hit it hard on the sales pipeline.
There are plenty of ways in which you can ensure that your return policy is good enough to not shag your sales. Here are a few factors to actually keep in mind before you think of doing the needful with your return policy.
What your Return policy should Aim at?
Make sure that you remember that the sole aim of your return policy is not to keep your customers happy, it is actually meant to ensure that the sales increase. The aim of the same policy should be to ensure that the sales force of your business has been adequately trained to sell the right kind of service or product to the customer. The return and refund policy of Rope-Barriers.com is pretty straightforward and simple.
How should you make your Product look like?
Make sure that your product is something “sticky” in terms of substance so that your customers are made to realise what they have lost by returning the same to you. This is going to be one of the best ways to ensure that you get your frequency of returns under control and reduce them drastically. For example, customers are usually entitled to a few kinds of “benefits” that they get to earn with the product they buy. If they return the product, they must also be able to return the benefits they earned, in some form or the other. Well, this is what we call adding the element of “sticky” into your service or product. Amazon does the same. It sometimes offers discount on its products and if the customers return the product, they lose the benefit.
What should be the Time Limit?
You must have some time limit as well as cost that needs to be associated with the return. You must have a clear return policy in place first. The customers should also return the product with all its original contents and packaging. Your sales team must be trained on the same. Get rid of the buyers who are always keen on taking products back home only to bring it back sooner. They are not going to convert into loyal customers helping you convert your negotiations into convincing sales in the future.
How should the Customers be Treated?
Customers who are willing to return your product with a proper rhyme or reason should be treated as opportunity and not as problems. You can possibly sell them more or different products in future and we can assure, they will be interested in checking you out for what else you have. You should not handle these customers as you are trying to give them something but rather they should be treated as you are trying to sell them something. Flipkart follows the same rule. Its customer service representatives never show their irritations as they if they serve their customers properly, they will become their repeated customers.
Can you please Everyone?
We would say, this is near to impossible! Customers might get angry over something and at times, you can’t do anything simply because you have a “policy” in place that you are to follow. All customers should be treated according to the policy and if you are willing to go out of your way and give a few of them some special treatment, be ready for more! Take it only when you can handle it. Sometimes, you will need to refuse simply because you know that you can’t please everyone and if you do, you are going to do something terribly wrong with your sales and progress pace of your business.
Lastly, you should be willing to pay close and special attention to the return policy cases that you come across. If you feel they are not doing any good to your sales, you can simply put a hold even when your competitors are keen on welcoming different returns polices. Aim at having a returns policy that focuses on building your brand value and boosting your sales.
