The 50 Best Tips of 2006

Keep your customers close.
If the address of one of your multibuyers suddenly gets flagged as undeliverable, have your contact center call that customer on the phone to verify the address. It’s very likely that an order-entry error occurred within your contact center the last time that customer called to place an order. Thirty percent to 40 percent of customers will respond to the call and correct the error.
—Rod Ford, CognitiveDATA, source, “How to Hook and Keep Gold Customers,” January, Catalog Success

Convert returns into sales.
Ensure that your customer service reps (CSRs) are capable of turning returns into exchanges. The CSR can simply say, “Ms. Jones, would you like the item in a different size, color, etc.?”
—Jim Gilbert, Gilbert Direct Marketing, Contributions to Profit, “Profit From Your Returns,” May, Catalog Success