Lost & Found platforms have long been a beacon of hope for customer retention, but unfortunately, many Lost & Found companies’ business models take the magical moment out of the entire experience with a big surprise at the very end.
What surprise? The unfortunately common, short-sighted practice of gouging customers with incredibly high shipping rates for item returns. In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into the impacts of how price gouging harms the customer experience and decreases a business’s Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
The Financial Burden of Lost & Found Gouging
When a lost item is found and is in the possession of an organization or business, state law often requires that they are responsible for reuniting it with its rightful owner. However, some entities partner with Lost & Found software companies whose business models exploit these situations by imposing exorbitant fees and charges to reclaim lost items.
When customers face such unfair shipping costs for Lost & Found, it further frustrates an already-irked customer who is dealing with tracking down their misplaced item. In many cases, the shipping cost can be so expensive that the customer ends up abandoning their lost item altogether, and the business is left holding onto that item for up to 3 months, taking up valuable office/storage space.
But don’t just take our word for it – many customers publicly vocalize their frustrations about these high shipping rates via social media platforms like Twitter, dragging all those involved through the mud.
Undermining Trust and Loyalty
Customer trust and loyalty are fundamental pillars of any successful business. So, when customers are gouged for Lost & Found item returns, it erodes the trust that they have in that business.
The belief that a company prioritizes profits over customer satisfaction can damage its long-term reputation because customers are likely to share their negative experiences with others, making customer acquisition and retention much more difficult than it already is.
Compassionate Policies for Enhanced Customer Happiness
Organizations that genuinely care about customer happiness recognize the importance of compassionate policies in the Lost & Found process. They understand that returning lost items should be a customer-centric service rather than an opportunity for financial gain.The quickest way to make a magical moment unmagical and make a customer leave is by surprising them with an incredibly high shipping rate right when they’re about to get it back.
Luckily, making a change is easy 🙂
If you’re a business partnered up with the wrong Lost & Found software whose business model doesn’t align with your mission of boosting customer happiness and retention, upgrading to Boomerang’s platform is easy.
We wholeheartedly believe that happy customers equal returning customers.
Let’s get partnered up.
Skyler Logsdon
CEO, Boomerang
