Reverse Logistics Professional

On May 29th the RLA consumer Electronics committee hosted an interactive webinar where Tim Quinn from BJ's Wholesale Club presented several topics and questions that he seeks solutions for or best practices as he leads a strategic review of the reverse logistics and return functions for his company.  The session was well attended by a number of Reverse Logistics professionals and visitors from the CE committee including retailers such as OfficeMax and Staples.  Below is a quick list of a number of take away "nuggets" that may help you improve your Reverse Logistics operations:

“To be or not to be” that is the question for RMAs. The “RMA” (a return material authorization or just “RA” return authorizations) is full of uncertainty. Uncertainty as to whether we want to authorize a return, uncertainty whether we will ever receive the unit, uncertainty what kind of condition it will be in, uncertainty whether we will issue a credit, ship a replacement or do a repair. We are not even certain that an RMA is a formal accounting transaction. Managing uncertainty is much of what we do in reverse logistics, but the RMA is the heart of much of what we do in reverse logistics.

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.