Quote:
Originally Posted by Toby
OK, bear with me for a moment and I'll relate a story from my retail management days that ties into that very well.
I was a store manager for most of the 15 years I was in retail shoe sales, with a sales staff that was paid on commission. As store manager I got a commission on the overall store sales, plus a smaller commission on my own sales. For that reason I usually only waited on customers when everyone else was already busy.
The one exception was when a customer came in with a worn return, complaint, etc. I usually got called out of the back room to handle it. One particular Saturday morning, with two salesmen on the floor, the first several customers were returns. In each case I made the exchange, usually with a prorated credit for the wear, plus sold them at least one other pair and accessories.
Early afternoon they took a tally on what each of us had sold that day. By just handling returns I'd made more sales than the two of them combined. I didn't get called out of the back room to handle returns any more.
Moral of the story: Returns are an opportunity to turn an unhappy customer back into a happy customer and sell him something else.
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I have never quite thought of it in those terms, but that is exactly what we do. Someone is pissed off because he expected something he didn't receive. So we give him either a refund or another product and an additional free membership. It is an opportunity to develop the trust necessary to retain business and more often than not another sale. Words of wisdom from Toby.
So you sold shoes.....now I see the progression to fetish....lol....jk, T.