Here’s a question for you…especially those of you out there in retail land that offer special orders to your customers – what are your policies regarding deposits and returns on a special order? 

I require fifty percent down on the order and a signature to proceed.  Our receipts clearly state that “sales of non-stock, non-standard or custom items are final”.  Luckily, knock on wood, we’ve had little issue with folks changing their minds but some retailer friends of mine have not been so lucky.  They’ve increased their deposit to 80% but still suffer through customers leaving their special orders at the store for long periods of time prior to final pick up or worse yet not picking them up at all.

My husband (remember him from “Turf Wars”?) has a tendency to be very opinionated when it comes to certain business practices.  This one - suffice it to say - ranks tops on his list.  He wants me to have customers pre-pay for their custom orders, period…end of story.

I’m not sure why I’m so reluctant to take the plunge.  We certainly prepay for that hamburger that they “make to our order”!  We certainly paid for the entire washing machine and dryer when we ordered it.  We’ve prepaid for much of the inventory that we buy and even for certain services that have been provided to us.  But somehow I can’t seem to do it.  I guess for now, I’ll stay with my program and continue to roll my eyes when my husband lectures me on the deposit.

I’m a thinker.  I need to hear some other opinions and mull it around.  And, while I like my messages to you to be a bit lighter, once in awhile, we need to tackle serious issues.  We need to be very strategic in the policies that we make in our stores.  We need to stand out from the big boxes, and heck, even our colleagues but we certainly don’t want to stand out because we are too difficult to buy from or not customer service champions.

So, this message comes with a request for the sake of my retailer friends and me…tell me how you process special orders in your store.  How much of a deposit do you require?  Once the order arrives, how long do you keep it before you get nervous that you’ll be stuck with it?  Do you charge a storage fee?  (I actually had a client purchase two antique chairs, pay for them in full and pick them up two, yes two, years later but that’s another story.)

All you have to do is hit the lil button that says “post a reply” and share your ideas.  I appreciate it…and so do my buddies down the street.