We know that walking into the CFO’s office asking to budget for new software is not always an easy conversation, so we’ve put together the cost-benefit analysis framework for you during that conversation 🙂
Start with the hard cost of fielding calls and emails for Lost & Found
For simple math, let’s say you collect 50 items a month in Lost & Found. The reality of Lost & Found is the customer will call and email you the first time to get a lost item claim across to you. These aren’t quick phone calls either – they are usually a series of questions about the item, all jotted down by pen and paper by the company.
If you don’t have their item, you will ask the customer to call or email you again tomorrow for a status update. Generally, this lasts 4 to 5 days until the customer loses hope. For 50 items a month, you can expect 300-500 phone calls or emails, give or take. Remember, the item could have been picked up by an individual, so even though you don’t have the item in your possession, you’re still going to have to field calls and email inquiries from the customer.
Multiply the hourly cost of your customer support representative, and you’ll be able to come to your hard customer support costs when fielding Lost & Found inquiries.
Time spent matching items
With every inquiry, your team has to go to the physical Lost & Found box or cabinet to review the inventory and check if you have an item in your possession that matches the customer’s claim description. This is very time-consuming, especially if the inventory sits in a separate office or storage space from the support center.
Shipped Returns
Oftentimes, customers want their items shipped because they are not local. This generally requires a request to the customer to go to a carrier, buy a label, and send it to you. In some cases, properties will pay for the customer’s label to avoid the cumbersome request to ask a customer to pay for a label and then email it back. If you’re indeed paying for shipping today, with Boomerang, our platform allows a payment gateway to enable the customer to pay for their own shipping label with all major carriers. This would allow you to no longer have to pay for shipping labels.
Winning the trust of customers is priceless
Companies join Boomerang to win customers’ trust and bring integrity and process into how they handle found items. As Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta, told Fortune, “Without trust, you have a broken business model.” By getting customers back their lost items, you show them that you value them so much that you invested in technology to help your team win their trust. By returning more lost items to customers, you wow them in a department where they least expect to be impressed. Such investment boosts net promoter scores (NPS), loyalty, and customer relationships.
In short, not licensing Boomerang is expensive. Join Boomerang today, and let’s start wowing your customers together.
Skyler Logsdon
CEO, Boomerang
