Reverse Logistics Professional

When was the last time you filled out and mailed in that Product Registration card? “Never” is the answer from most people. Why not just keep the receipt handy? Why bother with the effort just to get on another junk mail list. Not so any longer. A number of trends are now encouraging consumers to complete product registrations and these factors are opportunities for Reverse Logistics teams to reduce returns and decrease costs.

Mr. Sudipto Ghosh, the Chief Customer Support Officer of Acer India provided the key note presentation in October at the Reverse Logistics Association 2011 conference in Singapore. As part of his presentation, Mr. Ghosh provided some of the key trends and challenges he is facing as the head of service in India. His insights are worthy of discussion and will be important or critical to the ongoing success of most reverse logistics and aftermarket consumer electronics service teams.

How well are your Reverse Logistics processes performing?  How do you know where to identify changes that will improve your operations or your Reverse Logistics software?  What Best Practices are others using that you should be incorporating into your returns processing? 

In response to numerous member requests, the Reverse Logistics Association Information Technology Committee is assembling a resource to assist you to analyze your operations.  This resource is a Universal Reverse Logistics Framework Model.

A Reverse Logistics Framework

Experts from Philips, Best Buy and Genco share insights on how to utilize Return Allowances to Reduce Reverse Logistics Cost.

Despite good intentions, return allowances, if not done correctly, may not be a good solution to reduce Reverse Logistics costs.   Return Allowances started out as a quick and easy way for a manufacturer to give an allowance to the retailer to manage its returned items, thereby reducing the reverse logistics costs of processing, logistics and transportation for both parties.   The intention of a Return Allowances was to provide a quick and easy way to negotiate a win for everyone. 

However, if not thought through carefully, return allowances can have negative results for both the manufacturer and the retailer.  “Very often they are not saving anyone money”, explained Tony Sciarrotta, Director of Returns Management at Philips.  To help you better understand return allowances, Sciarrotta, John Slothower, Manager of Innovation and Services at Best Buy and Curtis Greve, President of Retail Services at Genco Supply Chain Solutions have shared some of their knowledge, insights and secrets to achieving better return allowances.

Some excellent Reverse Logistics benchmarks and best practices from L.L. Bean for e-commerce retail returns handling and processing from an article by Amanda Loudin from Inbound Logistics.com, DC Solutions.  

Many proactive companies are spending a lot of time trying to determine how to avoid returns.  If you could reduce Your No Trouble Found (NTF, NPF No Problem Found) how much of an impact would that have on your reverse logistics?  Below is a great Product Re-Design Tool and questionaire to help assess your products with the goal of reducing NFT returns.