Returns Best Practices

1) Establish a clear standardized return policy

• Include a time period limiting the age of potential returns (e.g. six months).
• Limit interpretation by clearly detailing grounds for the acceptable and non-acceptable reasons for returns
• Establish a clear approval process for specific types of returns or ones that exceed certain $ amounts
• Implement restocking fees for returns resulting from customer error

2) Communicate the Returns Policy

• Regularly train customer service and sales teams
• Publish in pricing guidelines and other terms/conditions of sale documents
• Include policy terms in customer contracts and product quotes

3) Define and Monitor Cause Codes

• Categorize returns into appropriate categories (e.g. Product Quality, Order Entry Error, Customer Error, Transit Damage, etc.).
• Establish a validation process for all returns to ensure they are properly coded (e.g. quality errors should be verified).

4) Measure and Audit your performance

• Set goals and routinely measure performance to the return policy.
• Identify customer behaviors and trends impacting product returns. Leverage this information in your relationship or pricing management of individual account(s).