Is your return policy shooing customers away

Are you ready for the biggest shopping days of the year? Remember that being prepared also means having a strategic plan in place for after sales made, including handling returns. Even for the most well-organized customer service functions, seeing query volumes and queues rise into the red can be difficult experience to handle. A difficult shopping experience during the holidays can deter a customer from coming back and can leave a brand with less than favorable reviews.

According to reports, 64% etailers are preparing to meet customer expectations this holiday season by transforming processes to become more agile and customer-focused. Prioritizing customer experience when getting your customer service team ready for the season can help mitigate and remove friction from customer interactions. And one of the most important is the return policy during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). If you are clear  to customers about how easy it is to return an item and how long the process would take over the holidays, then you can greatly improve your chances of making better sales. The return policy varies from seller to seller, but the question that arises is, are you equipped to manage your returns?

Serialize your Inventory

The first priority is to serialize your entire inventory so that you can track products at every stage – shipping as well as for returns. Serializing will help you keep a track and record as soon as the product leaves the warehouse; keeping all information at your fingertips.

Be ready to chat

If you use live chat to provide customer support, ensure you’re ready to staff it throughout BFCM days. By being easy to reach, you’re less likely to lose sales due to questions a customer may have leading up to checkout and after sales. Add options to to chat at key areas on the website – their shopping cart, account page or reading the FAQ page. Make chat possible on smartphones and tablets too

Integrate with technology stacks

As companies grow exponentially, a need arises for a way to address the increasing customer demands and queries. The benefits of a chatbot over a human agent in a call center are obvious. It can work 24*7, quicker, efficient, and much less prone to error. It is important to remember that Chatbots are not as intelligent as humans, meaning that complicated queries or instructions will not be comprehensible to them. But any quick task or query is serviced much better in every aspect by a Chatbot.

Deploy technology linked with your warehouse

Ensure your inventory tracking can integrate with your warehouse management system. You can have visibility of products n hand vs returns. You can also track their location in the warehouse and make sure the returns are not mixed up.

Prepare canned responses

Write standard answers to the most common post sales questions and have them ready for email, chat or a call response. Although some of the queries may require specific details, having basic templates ready with additional context and personalization can save a significant amount of time. There will be a level of consistency across the team responses.

Have an omnichannel approach

An omnichannel customer service approach is what you need for BFCM days. A  multi-dimensional customer care interface with email, chat and call options which will help streamline the post sales customer care experience; allowing both the customer and the customer care team resolve challenges effectively and directly.

A key strategy to keep in mind for your returns is to monitor your inventory based reports and analytics that can give you insights and improve your services. The best part is, VSynergize can handle all this for you! services ranging from customer care sales, email and chat support, web testing, chatbots, email marketing capabilities and extending support during rush hours – get it all setup within 24-48 hrs. If you have any questions shoot us an email at info@vsynergize.com or call on +1-732-481-9424.