How Local Business Can Turn an Exchange or Return Into A Big Upsell

The Adidas manager made a big mistake because although I got item exchanged, I feel very bad about their store and about “Adidas” the brand. They won’t be happy either because they took that damage item anyway. Plus I would no longer shop with them and I will tell everyone about it. Especially with the internet, things get worse more quickly.

Their poorly trained store associates and sales manager make Adidas lose way more sales which they’ll never see or realized. They fail to realize that customers who ask for exchange or return are still buying customers. They are the customers walking in, offer the store another chance to upsell. They are the buying traffics, just like free internet traffics driven by a buying keyword (it could be a negative keyword in this case, but it is still a buying keyword). While many other customers who walk by but never walk in, are like free internet traffic with no conversion which means no sale.

turn everyone into happy customer

Actually things can be totally different. If I were the manager, I could turn such case into a big profit for the store. Instead of saying: “sorry we can’t accept that exchange or return, for (whatever reason)”, the smarter way is to explain that “we really want to help, but for case like this, we really can’t do the exchange. BUT!”

Good things always start with the magic “BUT”. “But we would like to give you a special deal today to make it up, just for you!” “How about I giving you a special $10 discount when you buy $100 today?” That way, I guarantee store not only save that customer but make way more sales. The store won’t have to take that $10 lost, and the customer will feel happy too because he gets a good deal! That’s what I called win-win solution for the business and the customer.

Or even though customers don’t want to take that special deal, just refund or exchange the item. That way you save those customers. Who says they wouldn’t buy hundreds from you in the near future!

Local retail business owners shall learn the lesson from this. It shows how you could turn an exchange or return into a big upsell to make big profit. Best of all, to get a happy customer, who will shop at your store ever and ever again.