Rebate Case Study Summary
We helped one our our clients solve a problem through our customized systems and flexible solutions.
Our client had a retail partner that was often upsetting customers with invalid rebates and they were curious what was happening at the retail level that caused a high rate of declined rebates.
Their prior rebate management vendor gave the client little insights into what was happening, besides lots of rebates being rejected.
Identifying the Problem
A major reason that our client chose Incentive Insights is because we have the ability to collect and report on specific reasons on why rebates are being declined and to make processes for exceptions to be made for good customer service.
This was becoming a major issue for them as customers were largely buying their products for the rebate and being confused as to why they weren’t getting the rebate back.
This was starting to lead to poor reviews and public relations for the client in general.
Our Approach
DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
We worked with our client to accurately record all of the declined rebates, including tracing originating stores, employees and very specific reasons of the declined rebate. Within weeks, we had enough data to understand what was happening at the retail store level. What we found shocked our client and led to an uncomfortable conversation with the retailer.
Our Findings
It turns out that the retailer was ‘selling’ the customized part to the consumer, but actually installing a different, cheaper product and many of the techs had figured out a workaround to pocket the difference.
Needless to say, this was devastating to our client’s sales numbers, as well as brand perception. Customers were told they were getting a superior replacement part with better performance, but instead they were getting, in most cases, an acceptable, but below OEM specifications product.
Results
24%
Armed with fresh data, serious conversations with the retailer happened at this point. The retailer could simply no longer dismiss the manufacturer (our client) out of hand, and they launched an internal investigation.
Very quickly, assisted by specific data, many employees were ‘re-trained’ and others were let go. Our client’s sales increased 24% next quarter through this retail channel, to match what they typically got through most channels.
