Tony Sciarrotta

The “Internet of Things” was first coined by British visionary Kevin Ashton, describing how internet connected devices would change our lives. Today households have brands like Nest and Hive connecting their heating systems to the internet and there is no doubt that ore and more connected technology will be coming to your home in the near future. But there is an elephant in the room and that is a lack of industry standards. How will all of these devices talk to one another? Many critics point out that the benefits of a smart home are outweighed by the inconvenience of having to open separate apps for every major device. Many players in the industry have built and protected their own ecosystem rather than signing up for industry-wide standards that would benefit consumers. Many are predicting a repeat of VHS vs. Betamax and HD-DVD vs Blu-ray. Join us for a captivating discussion around the Internet of Things and the lack of standardization, including the implications for your returns business.

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

Making sure that a customer has the right expectations and understands a product’s capabilities is crucial. Whether it’s an air conditioner that can only cool a certain size room or a tv that will only deliver top notch sound with a soundbar, there often seems to be an expectations gap. How do we close that? How important is the box in communicating the true capabilities of a product? Consumer education is a multichannel process, involving face-to-face interaction in a physical store, phone support and web resources – i.e., FAQs and product videos – that help consumers make more informed purchase decisions and drive down returns. Learn what strategies are being employed by industry leaders:

• Obtaining a comprehensive view of social media feedback (blogs, Facebook, Twitter) to drive better customer service: Identifying user experience hiccups
• Utilizing – and building awareness of - diagnostic applications to resolve customer issues with purchases
• Employing different strategies for new product categories vs. mature product categories
• Educating your employees on specific products to ensure that they are able to address customer concerns prior to the sale
• Informing the customer about support options so they turn to those when experiencing difficulty, rather than returning an item out of frustration
• Online tutorials & chat
• Call center support with special attention to first-time customer contact (priority handling) Home appliance strategies: Taking a proactive approach to ensure a product will work in a customer’s home and that it will be deliverable

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.

How safe is your brand when you enter the secondary market? Why is brand protection important to your company and how do you manage risk? All it takes is one rebuilt vacuum that doesn’t work to sabotage a brand that was associated with quality for decades. Such a blunder can impact a brand’s revenue through its primary channels. This panel will address questions such as:

• Is the priority to get the highest recovery or to protect the brand?
• What do you do when channel conflict occurs?
• Issues around devices going overseas: How do you make sure devices are not coming back into the US market fraudulently and competing against partners in your supply chain (such as those selling refurbished devices)? What’s the best way for OEMs to structure agreements with retailers in order to protect their brand?