Even though you’ve worked so long and hard on your product, you’ll notice that there are still customers that will return what they’ve ordered, meaning you’ll have to spend on getting it back and replacing the customer’s money.
This can be disheartening for a lot of business owners, and while inevitable, especially as you grow, this knowledge doesn’t make it hurt any less. This is why today we’re going to explore seven of the most common reasons why customers send their orders back, so you can avoid it happening in the first place.
#1 – Customers Finding a Better Price
One of the most common reasons someone will return a product will be because they’ve found a better price elsewhere. This is because they can simply get their money back and go elsewhere. Make sure you’re continuously researching your prices to ensure you’re offering a fair deal.
#2 – Did Not Match Expectations
Especially the case when people are buying things online, they may get them through the door and find the product not to be what they thought it would be. This can be a shame, but it can also be avoided by simply offering more detailed descriptions on your website.
#3 – An Incorrect Product
This doesn’t refer to people buying the wrong product, but more a product in the wrong size or colour or description to what they originally wanted.
Although this is mainly a customer’s fault, it’s important to make sure you’re detailing your products so they can be easily understood and provide size and color guides where possible.
#4 – A Simple Change of Mind
Another common customer return reason is simply that they’ve changed their mind. There’s not much you can do here, except potentially asking the customer why they no longer wanted the product and then seeing if you can make an improvement to stop it happening again.
You can use an automated solution so you can avoid manual data extraction with Netverify to stop these problems materializing or being too much of a pain!
#5 – Holiday Season Paradox
While a lot of companies will benefit from a spike in sales over the holiday periods, especially Christmas, a month or so later is a spike in returns. This is simply because people are buying their loved ones gifts that they don’t really want, or already have, and end up returning them.
There’s not much you can do to counteract this one; it’s just how it goes!
#6 – Late Delivery Times
If a customer is waiting a long time for their products to be delivered, perhaps longer than they expected, they may get fed up on waiting, especially if they needed it quickly, and they end up cancelling the order and getting their money back. Make sure you’re clear with what your delivery times are.
#7 – The Product Didn’t Work
This is especially important if you buy an electrical product that doesn’t work or work as intended, such as buying the wrong controller for a game console. To prevent this from being an expensive problem, you may want to think about offering exchanges only.
Summary
As you can see, there are lots of reasons why a customer may bring a product back and try to refund it with you. Always have a good return policy. Make sure you’re asking and finding out why, enabling you to have access to the information that can help you better your customer experience.
