When you only have so many hours in the day and so much manpower at your disposal, your first priority is probably getting orders out of your store and into the hands of your customers.
Although that’s a noble pursuit, any retailer has to be prepared for the flip-side of that coin: having to take returns. It happens. Sometimes you ship the wrong color sweater, sometimes the customer simply doesn’t like the product, but whatever the reason, they’ll judge you more heavily on how you manage returns than how you deal with shipments.
Reverse Logistics are Vital to Your Company’s Health
If you don’t have the time to dedicate to merchandise returns, you’ll soon find yourself in hot water with your customers. In fact, according to the 2014 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, 60 percent of customers who have bad experiences are more than happy to tell an average of 21 people about the problems they had with your company all of the time. Another 35 percent will discuss those problems “sometimes” or “rarely.” Not a single person surveyed in 2014 reported that they’d “never” discuss a customer service related issue with others.
The good news is that those same customers are willing to give you a fair shake and a chance to make up for their poor experience. Sixty-three percent are willing to give you at least one more try before switching to another company. If you have your sales team and warehouse team at the top of their game, you only need to worry about how your reverse logistics are being managed.
It’s true that reverse logistics can be one of the most time consuming parts of your business, but this is a key area. You’re better off to partner with a 3PL to handle these delicate situations than to ignore them completely. The money you spend on outsourcing reverse logistics will be more than made up by the customers you retain when they don’t have to deal with a hassle when trying to exchange their order for something else in your catalog.
When you’re ready for more information on reverse logistics services, you don’t have to go any further than your computer or telephone. A full service logistics company like ShipWizard can quickly answer all your burning questions about reverse logistics, as well as provide you with a price quote so you can decide for yourself if outsourcing returns is right for your business.
