Unboxing the realities of product returns

For any smart home brand, product returns are a major concern. They’re expensive, they take a lot of time and effort to process and restock, and they have ripple effects on your ability to track revenue.

But often, these products come back not because they're defective but because consumers don't understand how their WiFi setup can affect device performance.

Let's unpack some of the facts.

The #1 issue consumers encounter with smart home devices is

loss of WiFi connectivity.¹

Losing WiFi connectivity isn’t always the device’s fault
—but it becomes your problem to handle.

WiFi connectivity issues are

the most expensive to resolve.

Consumers need 2.7 support interactions² to resolve one WiFi connectivity issue with a smart home device. One support call typically costs $26 USD.³

25% of consumers will give up

if they can’t find a resolution.⁴

On average, consumers spend 2.5 hours⁵ trying to resolve a WiFi connectivity issue. If they can’t figure it out, they’ll request an RMA.

One unhappy customer will tell up to 15 others about their experience.⁶

Losing a customer doesn’t just mean losing one customer. It means negative reviews, drastically reducing your pool of prospects.

How do you minimize product returns?

Here are two key tactics used by leading smart home brands:

1

Use in-home visibility to handle WiFi issues without follow-up interactions

For customers, being able to understand and handle their own WiFi connectivity issues adds up to a better overall customer experience. For you, it means reduced expenses, less time spent troubleshooting, and no more repeat calls for the same issue.

2

Provide self-service options that help customers resolve issues on their own

Discover how you can put away WiFi issues for good.

Get started with this essential guide to handling setup and WiFi connectivity issues for your connected products.

¹Parks Associates ²iQor ³ Nokia ⁴ iQor ⁵ iQor ⁶ White House Office of Consumer Affair