This Episode: Learning To Love Returns
This time of year can be joyful and exhausting all at once, and it’s important to pause and remember why we do this work in the first place. In this episode of Real Retail TV, I want to share a perspective shift that can make these final days not just more profitable, but more meaningful for you and your team.
We’re talking about something most retailers dread: returns. As it turns out, they might actually be one of your biggest opportunities. When handled the right way, a return can become something far more powerful than a transaction. It can deepen trust, build loyalty, and even grow the sale. If you’re willing to rethink how your team approaches these moments, you may discover that what feels like a problem is actually a gift.
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Well, hello, everybody. It’s Bob. And first and most importantly, I hope that the holidays have been wonderful for you so far. You know, we’re coming down the stretch.
I hope your sales have been strong. I hope your team has been healthy. I hope your customers have been happy and I hope that you’ve been happy. I hope you’re finding joy in this.
Sometimes I know as retailers, the grind can be a little bit overwhelming, but I hope that you’re still finding the joy in the season. We’re coming up into the last week. I hope you end strong and I hope that you really, really have an amazing time, a beautiful time, a loving time with your family during the rest of the holidays. But so having said that, let’s talk retail in this episode of Real Retail TV.
We’re going to talk about how to learn to love returns.
Returns get a bad rap. And if you’re an e commerce business, I absolutely understand why people, why you might hate returns. But as a brick and mortar retailer, assuming you’re a brick and mortar retailer who is watching this, I want to encourage you to love returns. Because if someone comes into your store with a gift that they’ve received and it’s not perfect, you have an opportunity to make it perfect. If somebody comes into a store with a gift that they purchased and they’re returning it again, you have an opportunity to make it right, to save the sale and save the sale is the operative concept here and save the sale and learning. Teaching your people how to save the sale is an important thing for you to do this week.
So if you’ve been part of our community for any amount of time, you know that we’ve created a retail selling process called the six steps to the perfect purchase. And the idea of the perfect purchase is that you always want your selling that sales process to get your customer to the place where what they’re walking out with is perfect for them. Not best for you, perfect for them. Because when you focus on making the the sale perfect for your customer, you will be rewarded with loyalty.
You will be rewarded with that sort of enthusiastic word-of-mouth that helps you grow your business. And you will be warded rewarded with a bigger, better, more sustainable business. Well, this idea of the perfect purchase moves itself into the holiday spirit with the idea of the perfect gift. So if somebody is coming into your store with a return, it means that it wasn’t perfect.
And you have the opportunity to take what wasn’t perfect and make it perfect. This idea of saving the sale. So if somebody comes into your store with a bag, means that they’re not happy. It wasn’t perfect.
What has to happen then is you need to start the selling process again. You start by getting into the second step of the perfect purchase, which is questioning and listening. You ask questions and you listen actively to what they say. Why wasn’t this right?
Oh, it didn’t fit. Great. We can find you something that doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work as you thought it might.
Well, great. What didn’t work? What do you want to have happen? You just keep asking questions till you understand what would be perfect.
So that return turns into an exchange.
They now leave happy. So when we talk about questioning and listening, one of the things for you to recognize and for you to share with your team is this idea of the more you know, the better you serve. The better you serve, the more you’ll sell. So when somebody comes in, the name of the game is to keep asking good questions until you find out what would be perfect and move them into that. Another beautiful thing about this is once they’re in your store, once they’re engaged in your merchandise, once you’re bringing that return and making it into an exchange, it’s also an opportunity to sell them more stuff. Right there.
Let’s show them more stuff. As my colleague, Harry Friedman says, show, show, show until they say no. You probably have things on clearance. It’s an opportunity to show.
So we’re always looking to take that return, make it into an exchange, and then hopefully sell them more stuff. So this is a, you know, again, it’s a great opportunity for it’s it’s a mind mind set shift that I’m encouraging you to make. I’m encouraging your team to make through your education and training. But it really, really is one of those opportunities that a lot of people don’t recognize, therefore don’t take advantage of.
Save that sale, baby. Save that sale. So anyway, once again, so that is your tactical tip for this week. But my my my main message to you is I hope that this holiday season is filled with love and joy, and we’ll see you next week.
