Game Changer: GOT BAG Reduces Daily Customer Service Inquiries from 500 to 100 in Just One Week
When a company's in-house Customer Happiness Team has to spend most of their operational day processing returns, something is seriously wrong. Because there's hardly any time left for the department's actual mission – turning customers into fans of the brand.
That's exactly why Martin Lutz, Lead of Customer Happiness at GOT BAG, pulled the emergency brake last October and completely transformed returns management at GOT BAG. In this interview, he tells us what the exchange and refund processes looked like just a few months ago, what has changed since the system switch, and why he and his team chose 8returns.
Martin Lutz, Lead of Customer Happiness at GOT BAG
Environmental Protection and Happy Customers: This is GOT BAG
Anyone looking for a new backpack while carrying nature in their heart can hardly pass by GOT BAG. As the world's first manufacturer, the Mainz-based company offers bags in their shop made from recycled plastic that was previously a threat to the Indian Ocean.
Founded in 2016, 45 full-time employees and 20 working students now work for the Rhineland-Palatinate company – and growing, thanks to a steadily expanding customer base and a healthy expansion strategy.
However, this success is not based solely on the increasingly important aspect of sustainability; personal consultation and care for each individual customer also plays a major role.
Slow and Laborious: The Old Returns Process
Between 300 and 500 returns come in at GOT BAG every month. During the first two business years, every single request was processed manually. Martin Lutz describes the returns workflow before switching to 8returns:
An Almost Unmanageable Flood of Emails
"When a customer wanted to initiate a return, they first had to send an email to our customer service. From there, an email usually went back asking about the reason and clarifying whether it was an exchange or a refund.
Once we had all the necessary information together, a member of our Customer Happiness Team had to create the return label; manually via copy-and-paste directly on the DHL website, and then send it manually.
When the goods arrived back at our warehouse, they would inform us by email. We then manually contacted the customer to send them another email once we had initiated the refund.
So it was a confusing back-and-forth of emails that cost us a lot of time and nerves. I haven't even mentioned our warehouse and accounting yet."
Missing Information About Return Reasons
"At the same time, we naturally tried to document return reasons as best as possible and prepare them profitably for our other departments. Because when a bag is constantly being returned because customers don't like the color, that's valuable information that can be used for product development and improvement.
Creating such reporting often cost me hours though. I had to laboriously piece together all the information from emails. Overall, our Customer Happiness Team was 80 to 90 percent occupied with work related to our returns. Unfortunately, consultation and service often fell by the wayside."
From Email Flood to 8returns
Somehow, Customer Happiness at GOT BAG still worked, even though the returns situation was often barely manageable and returns were a taboo topic. In the summer of 2021, pandemic-related delivery bottlenecks almost led to a collapse.
The Corona Summer Disaster
"We were also heavily affected by the global delivery difficulties," Martin explains. "Shipments to our customers were sometimes delayed by weeks, and accordingly many messages reached our Customer Happiness Team.
It was quite frustrating for our team when the inbox was still just as full at the end of a workday as in the morning. When a customer had to wait a bit longer for a response, they naturally wrote the next worried email right away. It was like a chain reaction. We urgently needed to change something."
System Change in Just One Week
"Despite everything, we couldn't rush into anything. We spent a good month searching for a suitable partner for our returns management, but none of the offered services really met our needs. One option was too expensive, another provider was based in Hong Kong and was barely reachable. When we thought we had finally found someone, we were offered onboarding in half a year.
Until our CEO's assistant finally made us aware of 8returns. We had our first contact on October 22nd, a Friday. The demo took place the following Monday, by the next Wednesday everything was ready to go and I could introduce our employees to the new system. The onboarding only took 20 minutes because the software is self-explanatory."
Inbox Halved, Disaster Averted, Positive Reviews Collected
"Within a single day, we were able to process half of all return requests. We informed all customers with an exchange request about our system change in an email and pointed them to our new returns portal. Everything else ran fully automated from then on.
The response was overwhelming. On that one day, we even received numerous positive reviews from customers who had sometimes been waiting longer for their request to be processed. Overnight, they could initiate the return with a few mouse clicks and had all information and confirmations immediately in their inbox. That excites people, of course, and our buyers were happy to express their joy."
Fast, Simple, Customer-Friendly: Returns Today
Of the monthly 300-500 return requests, Martin and the Customer Happiness Team only have to personally handle about a third since switching to 8returns – the software takes care of the rest.
Time Gain of About Four Hours with Personal Customer Contact
"Every email that we used to laboriously create manually now goes automatically to our customers. Overall, each employee now has about three to four hours more time per day to dedicate to other matters. That's an incredible time gain, of course. Only the edge cases land on our desk now – and that's a good thing. Because personal contact with our customers is still very important to us and we're always happy when we can help directly."
Positive Effects at All Levels
"And it's not just the Customer Happiness Team that benefits from switching to 8returns. The effects are noticeable in all departments. Our warehouse no longer has to book each return individually. Instead, a complete list is generated once a month. Product design and production are happy about clear statements about why items are being returned. We can now document return reasons very easily. And management receives meaningful reports that I can pull from our system in no time."
Responsive and Accessible
"There were no problems when introducing 8returns. Our IT team was even a bit disappointed that there was nothing for them to do. When we did have a question, the answer was always just a short phone call away.
Sometimes it feels to me like we didn't just buy software, but now have another department in addition to our customer support that only handles returns. Given how quickly questions are resolved and how accessible 8returns is, the team could just as well be sitting in the office next door."
Looking to the Future
More time for core tasks, satisfied customers, simpler processes – returns are no longer a taboo topic at GOT BAG. So we'll gladly leave the final word to Martin Lutz, the Lead of Customer Happiness:
"By now, returns management is actually fun for everyone involved. That's why we definitely want to optimize the process a bit further. Through direct integration with our ticketing system and inventory management, for example. Or by directly linking our warehouse with 8returns. 8returns is already working on new solutions specifically for us.
If I may give the companies of this world one final tip: Take care of your returns process in time and don't wait as long as we did. There are easier ways than a sea of emails. We learned that last year."
All images courtesy of GOT BAG.
