According to a recent study by UPS and Comscore, returns are an area where U.S. retailers continue to struggle.

There’s still a lot of room to improve in this arena, from the development of an easy to understand return policy to the actual return or exchange experience in-store. Even shipping products back to the retailer could be a lot easier. If customers are having this much trouble on their end, it stands to reason that there’s a lot of chaos going on behind the scenes.

If only U.S. returns management could be made a lot easier.

U.S. Reverse Logistics Experts Can Help

Although many small- to medium-sized businesses work closely with 3rd party logistics companies to send products out to their customers, fewer realize that there are sister businesses that do the exact opposite job.

These reverse logistics experts can help ease your return management nightmares, improve customer satisfaction with every element of your returns experience and improve your ROI on returns.

Here are just a few of the services they offer:

  • Arranging returns on your behalf. When customers want to return an item, they may call for an RMA or mailing address. Instead of spending your valuable time on the telephone, your returns management team can field those calls and send the caller a customized, printable smart label via email.Smart labels make it easy to track the shipment as it travels from the customer’s door to your reverse logistics facility and backward to the warehouse.
  • Sorting returns upon arrival. Not all items arrive in pristine condition, unfortunately. That’s why each and every package has to be opened, inspected and sorted individually.Your returns management team has the workflows in place to make this somewhat cumbersome process as efficient as possible so that products get back on the sales floor as quickly and customers get their credits fast.
  • Repairing or recycling what can’t be resold. Items that can’t be resold in the condition they arrive in can often be refurbished and then sold on a secondary market or for scrap value to a recycler.Reverse logistics companies have arrangements in place with various materials experts who buy these products every day, so you don’t have to figure out where to store piles of duds or pay to toss them out.

Your small business can improve the customer experience dramatically with the help of a U. S. returns management company. Only two-thirds of customers are happy with the way returns are managed in today’s world, so you have lots of room to impress and stand out from the crowd with excellent customer service delivered right now.