Timothy Quinn

Sure, you value the chance to speak with your peers and discuss common business challenges. But wouldn’t it be nice to carry tangible solutions back to the office & act on them so that the same exact challenges are not being discussed year after year? Consumer Returns 2015 announces the formation of workgroups on the first day of the program, with the solutions to common business challenges being published in a whitepaper that is distributed to all attendees post-event. As an attendee you’ll have the chance to participate in two 90 minute workgroups. You’ll discuss a common business challenge for an hour with your workgroup and the six workgroups will then report their findings over the course of the next half hour. This gives you an opportunity to understand what others have been discussing at their respective tables.

Workgroups include:

1. What Is The Optimal Returns Policy? Balancing Customer Satisfaction & Loss Minimization
Tony Sciarrotta, Former Director of Asset Recovery, Philips Consumer Lifestyle

2. Developing Insights & Actionable Strategies Around Improving The Customer Experience
Nate Omann, Senior Manager, Services & After Sales, Best Buy

3. What Are The Essential Elements Of A Cradle To Grave Returns Management System?
Lee Gibson, Director, Reverse Logistics, Silent Circle

4. Building A Cross Functional Team To Reduce Returns: What Are The Crucial Inputs?
Timothy Quinn, Manager of Logistics, Budget and Analysis, BJ’s Wholesale Club

5. Accelerating Speed To Remarket: Where Do The Bottlenecks Lie?
Joyce Cruts, Director Return Management, Acer America Corp.

6. Economic Considerations Around Refurbishment: Placing Product In The Best Condition/Channel/Market To Yield Maximum Recovery
Bryan Skaudis, Director – Inventory Optimization, Process Development & Improvement, Best Buy

There is a tremendous opportunity for manufacturers and retailers to collaborate to bring down the cost of returns. This panel addresses:

• Involving OEMs in associate training to develop familiarity with key products & ensure that they can properly represent them
• Preparing retail sales personnel for questions and concerns that could emerge during the buying process
• E-learning/certification programs for sales professionals
• Aligning compensation with a returns reduction mentality: Basing commissions off of net sales rather than gross
• Return reason reporting: Getting tangible data on why units are being returned and establishing formal mechanisms for sharing that data with OEMs
• Solutions driven by data and designed to foster ease of product use
• Changes to packaging: Is it impossible to open?
• Simplified manuals: Too many languages?
• Quick start guides

Talking with your peers about how to confront shared business challenges is the most valuable part of this event. Consumer Returns 2015 has set aside an hour each day so OEMs, retailers and solutions providers can discuss current issues of importance. This is your opportunity to discuss ways to improve out-of-box experience, postsales support and methods for maximizing recovery rate once a return has occurred.

1. Minimizing The Impacts Of Dimensional Weight Pricing With Packaging On Demand
Mike Prochaska, Vice President of Supply Chain, Gopher Sport

2. Resolving Lost Or Damaged Claims With Carriers
Timothy Quinn, Manager of Logistics, Budget and Analysis, BJ’s Wholesale Club

3. Advanced Returns Forecasting Strategies
Lee Gibson, Director, Reverse Logistics, Silent Circle

4. Returns Policies: Trends Around Time Frames & Restocking Fees
Michael R. Galbreth, Associate Professor of Management Science & Moore Research Fellow, University of South Carolina

5. Analyzing Returns Data To Discover Root Causes: Driving Returns Prevention Back To Product Design To Enhance Performance And Reliability
Joyce Cruts, Director Return Management, Acer America Corp.

6. Providing Manufacturers With A Smart Direct Channel To End Users: Managing Their Experience From Point Of Purchase To Point Of First Use and Point Of Need
Tony Sciarrotta, Former Director of Asset Recovery, Philips Consumer Lifestyle

7. Tracking Serial Returners: Retailer Experiences & The Growing Consumer Backlash

8. Leveraging Remote Access And Support Technologies As A Returns Avoidance Strategy
John Meagher, Director, Service Operations, Samsung Telecommunications America

9. Trade-In Programs: Managing The Volume And Frequency Of What’s Coming Back
John Meagher, Director, Service Operations, Samsung Telecommunications America

10. Reducing The Cost Of Returns: Changing The Consumer Mindset
Frank Martino, Director, Service Division, Samsung Electronics Canada

11. Reducing E-Commerce Returns: Utilizing High Quality Images, Product Descriptions, Product Comparisons & Reviews To Bolster Consumer Knowledge

The team behind Worldwide Business Research’s (WBR) Consumer Returns conference – with help from an advisory board of senior-level reverse logistics, supply chain and operations executives from international companies – has created a benchmarking survey that will be distributed to conference attendees. The survey asks firms about their returns reduction strategies and plans to further optimize their reverse supply chain, while looking ahead to 2016 and what changes may be in store. One of the benefits of attending will be a thorough analysis of the survey results with members of the advisory board.

Is there enough communication between your forward and reverse supply chain teams? Many organizations see a gap that must be filled. How do we align forward and reverse strategy?

• Ensuring reverse logistics has an equal voice in negotiations on the front end and that you’re thinking through the full product lifecycle
• How are retailers and logistics providers working together to achieve a high level of consolidation and optimization of both directions of product flow?
• Communicating the need for product classification (product that needs rework before hitting a distribution center, excess and obsolete inventory that is being removed from shelves entirely, etc.) throughout the network