Tips for Handling Returns (720 words)

Be fast, consistent and discreet, and you'll have happy customers who will come back again

By Chris Merritt

Put yourself in this customer's shoes: In the spring, Susan telephone-ordered an A-line jumper in the popular, seasonal color "shrimp" and in her usual size. When the jumper arrived, it fit too snugly in the hips. So Susan sent it back with a request for the next-largest size. A month passed. She had no jumper, no acknowledgment from the company and, when her credit card bill arrived, no credit for returned or exchanged merchandise.