Smiling Through Returns and Exchanges

The season is (almost) over. The rush of crowds buying, buying, buying has now turned into returns, buying and exchanges. Despite the unpleasantness in your cash register after a day of returns or uneven exchanges, your customers still expect to see a smiling face! So even when it can be tough, you have to find ways to deal with it.

While returns hurt – literally – and exchanges don’t always add up and often cause chaos in store inventory, displays and customer communication, this time of year is a great time for your store to shine. Hopefully you started the season with a clear, easy to understand return and exchange policy in check. This will ease any confusion customers may have on what can and cannot be exchanged. If you didn’t, this is a great chance to make some changes in the year ahead. Whether you have a great policy in place or not, the fact remains that you need to smile as you deal with the business of the holiday aftermath.

Make sure any employee working the cash register is clear on how to handle returns. This includes processing the return payment via credit card, check and cash. Based on your policies, your refund procedure should be understood and issued accordingly, with no exceptions. Employees need to be reminded to smile and thank all customers, even when they are leaving the store empty handed but with a thicker wallet.To help encourage exchanges, however, employees should be instructed to offer customers the opportunity to browse the store and look for something in exchange for what they are returning. If a quick “no” is given by the customer, employees should continue with the return transaction without hesitation and yes – continue to smile.

While customers may leave the store without a shopping bag, they don’t need to leave empty handed. Provide them with an incentive coupon for an upcoming sale or special event that will help lure them back to your store. And even without a shopping bag, they can still leave having had a great customer service experience. That’s something worth remembering and something that will likely bring them back to you store!