How Retailers Can Help with Consumer Recall Notification
Sometimes the best way to get something done is to do it yourself.
How, for example, can product recalls be best managed? For retailers, the best practice from both a business and public safety standpoint is to take matters into their own hands – and enhance their own product safety initiatives in the process.
It is especially important for retailers to be aggressive and proactive, when the defective products are already in consumers’ homes. When that’s the case, drug recalls, food recalls, or consumer product recalls cannot succeed unless retailers play a critical role.
The good news is that retailers have a variety of tools and resources at hand to ensure the success of any sort of recall involving products they’ve sold to the public. There are shopping records, for instance, including frequent shopper card programs that provide rich information to guide the recall logistics. Sales receipts likewise disclose when a product was purchased.
Armed with such data, retailers can personally reach out to consumers in order to both protect the public and cement stronger relationships between themselves and their customers.
Such initiatives by retailers do not eliminate the need for regulatory entities to do their job in advising the public, nor does it make it any less important for consumers to educate themselves about ongoing recalls and other product safety trends. That said, retailers have a right and a duty to protect themselves against the liabilities associated with failures to notify consumers about recalled products.
For retailers, the ideal recall strategy is effective to a point where even consumers who do not remember the lot number, brand, or type of product they brought home from the store are aware that they need to return it or dispose of it appropriately.
No doubt effective consumer notification is an exhausting and time-consuming part of the recall process, particularly since there are now resources available to inform each customer on an individual basis. At the same time, effective recall management still requires that regulators and consignees be kept informed during every step of the recall process.
Sound guidance may be needed from the outside experts at recall agencies. There are rich returns on that investment both in minimizing potentially devastating liabilities and in maximizing the trust and loyalty of your customers.
