You or your staff members might sometimes think, "If I let this customer return this merchandise for a credit, it would be morally wrong. I can't let them get away with that."
But keep it a business decision, not a matter of morality. Here's a reminder from Making Money Is Not Illegal, Immoral or Fattening:
"If I really wanted to get your feathers up, get you so you'd start disagreeing with me, I'd say my opinion is with anything that comes back for a refund in the store, give the refund, take care of the customer. Now you go, 'Two years ago, I had somebody steal a drill. You mean I'm going to take care of that guy?' Then I ask, 'How many refunds do you do in your store?' 'Well, we do a whole bunch.' So isn't what happened with the drill an exception? Just deal with it and move on. Don't let that be the only thing you remember about refunds, please. Do not ever let one customer impact the way you think about all customers.
"I was working with a retailer who told me, 'I agree with everything you said except this one thing about taking care of customers on refunds.' And I said, 'Rob, how much volume do you do?' Well, Rob does a good job. He's a great retailer. A multimillion dollar business. I said, 'Rob, what percentage of those sales are a problem where you say maybe somebody took advantage of you a little bit?' He replied, 'I don't know, about $30,000 a year.' I said 'That's about two-tenths of one percent of your business. Let's walk through your store and find some areas where you can pick up two to three to four margin points, and then let's forget about the bad refunds."
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