Is Your Business Prepared to Handle Post-Holiday Gift Returns?

Christmas is officially over and Americans all over the country are starting to consider which presents will stay and which will go. According to the National Retail Federation, “Americans returned about $284 billion in merchandise last year.”

No matter how many return requests you’re planning to receive this year, you’ll need to prepare your staff to handle those transactions. Hiring a holiday answering service can ensure that both your team and your customers alike have the support they need.

How a Holiday Answering Service Can Help With Returns And Support: 

Helping Customers Understand Your Return Policy

Even though your website clearly outlines your gift return policy, some people will still have questions. Take this opportunity to offer human assistance to the recipients gifted with your product. Even though they don’t like their gift, you can leave them with a great impression of your company.

Our customer service agents can assist your callers looking to return a gift by:

• • Answering their general and frequently asked questions.
• • Letting the customer know about your restocking or delivery fees.
• • Providing your store’s policies and timeframes for refund requests.
• • Performing a store locator search for customers who prefer to return the product in-store.

Hiring a team of virtual CS agents will give your in-house staff a chance to focus on receiving, inspecting and replacing the merchandise returned.

Processing Customer Gift Returns 24 Hours a Day

Most eCommerce businesses can ship their products nationally and depending on the market, globally. This opens a new set of barriers for the average business owner. Your new customers will be calling you from various time zones and perhaps in different languages to make return requests. A digital call center offers multilingual customer service agents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

We can start handling your online purchase returns in just a few steps.

1. 1.) Consult with our account specialist and in-house programmer to develop and customize your account.

1. 2.) Our virtual receptionist team will undergo in-house training to learn how you want your customer’s gift returns handled and processed.

1. 3.) Working with your customer management system and/or sales database, we will process all returns based on your specific instructions and guidelines.  

Turn the unfortunate reality that someone is returning your product into a great opportunity. Make customer service a priority by assisting giftees on their timetable; giving you the chance to turn them into return customers.  

Expert Customer Service Agents at Your Disposal

While we process your callers’ post-holiday return requests, we can also handle other customer service tasks as well. Don’t be the retailer that gives customers a bad experience because your team is so busy and worn out. A holiday answering service can bring you the administrative support needed to end the busy season on a high note.

• • Virtual agents can encourage callers to make exchanges before processing their refund requests.

• • Our telephone agents use a mixture of confident caller control and human-to-human compassion when handling disappointed or upset callers.   

• • We can take your customers through a customized survey to obtain feedback on the reasons for their return. When analyzed, this information will allow you to see if there are products that are defective or undesirable.

• • Our technical support answering service can create and manage support tickets that your in-house team of experts can tackle at their convenience. “While self-solutions are in demand, you don’t want to offer just automated solutions. Sometimes, your customers want a real person to handle their issue.”

These are just some of the support services we can offer your business.   

Helping to Cut Down on Post-Holiday Return Fraud 

A recent study conducted by the National Retail Federation reported that, “Holiday return fraud is expected to cost retailers $2.2 billion, up from approximately $1.9 billion last year.” Post-holiday return fraud is a critical issue for retail and eCommerce businesses across the nation. It’s important to do what you can to protect your business’s assets from fraudulent return requests.

The following examples are some of the tactics used when a person attempts to return an item under fraudulent pretenses.

• • Ward robing and Renting
• • Returning Stolen Merchandise
• • Receipt Fraud
• • E-Receipt Fraud
• • Employee Fraud
• • Price Switching
• • Price Arbitrage
• • Switch Fraud
• • Cross-Retailer Return

Given access to your customer database, account member data or customer relationship software, we can be fully informed on a customer’s account history. This access gives us the opportunity to alert a supervisor if fraudulent activity is suspected. 

After an approved return request is processed, we can send your customer an email confirmation with instructions for the next steps. You can request daily or weekly reports on the number of returns processed; along with the giftee’s information. Closely monitoring your post-holiday return data will allow you to recognize patterns and study suspicious irregularities.

For your online purchases, we can use your e-Receipt system to confirm order numbers, product barcodes and invoice prices. We will then use that information to ensure that your customers requesting a refund are giving accurate information.

Protect your business’s assets by hiring a customer service team that allows you to eliminate cash refunds by processing refunds telephonically. Our digital call center has state of the art equipment and over 30 years of experience that you can trust with this highly detailed job.

Want Some Help From Our Holiday Answering Service? 

Want to learn firsthand what our holiday answering service can bring to your post-Christmas gift return rush?  Give us a call at 1-800-785-6161 to speak with an account specialist or shoot us a message to discuss your business’s needs.