I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Chapter 147 First Battle a Success (Part 1)

Shen Kang thought to himself, "Didn't I just say that? Why are you asking again?" So he had no choice but to answer again. Zhang Yu also felt that her idol's radiance was even more dazzling, and she couldn't wait to share this new information in the group. Her eyes were even more starry when she looked at Shen Kang.

Manager Zhang felt a little jealous, after all, his daughter had never looked at him like that before, so he simply changed the subject: "Xiao Shen, your rice cooker seems pretty good, but if it breaks down while I'm using it, will you provide warranty service?"

"Didn't Aunt Cao tell you?"

Shen Kang glanced at Cao Dongmei, who was cleaning in the living room, and thought to himself that although she had been trained, it would indeed take some time for the cleaning staff to adapt to suddenly taking on more sales duties.

Cao Dongmei quickly paused her work, stood up, and told Manager Zhang, "We follow national regulations: one-year warranty for the entire machine and three-year warranty for major components. We also offer a seven-day no-questions-asked return policy and a 30-day replacement guarantee for product malfunctions."

When Manager Zhang heard about the one-year and three-year warranty, he wasn't particularly moved: Although the three guarantees are currently mandated by law, in practice, many offline stores don't implement them or only partially do, often resulting in disputes.

Of course, Anjia Household Services has always been of high quality, and Manager Zhang has a lot of confidence in their ability to deliver on their promises.

But when he heard "seven-day no-reason return policy," he was genuinely shocked and couldn't help but repeat, "Seven-day no-reason return policy?"

Cao Dongmei then continued with the training content: "Yes, you can return or exchange goods within seven days of receiving them, without any reason. Even if you simply don't want them anymore, that's fine too."

In an era when some stores still had signs saying "No returns after leaving the store," this news was undoubtedly a bombshell for Manager Zhang. He couldn't help but say to Shen Kang, "Xiao Shen, if you do this, and everyone returns everything after a few days, won't you go bankrupt?"

Shen Kang chuckled: "It doesn't matter. If everyone wants to do it this way, then let them do it. Actually, Taobao already launched this seven-day no-reason service on their Taobao Mall in the first half of the year, but judging from the actual results, this situation hasn't occurred."

The so-called Taobao Mall is the predecessor of the later Taobao.com "Lick Cat". In March of this year, it launched a seven-day no-reason service, which merchants can choose to participate in.

Manager Zhang doesn't shop online much, so he didn't know about this, but he had heard of Taobao.

Upon hearing that Tao Bao was doing the same thing, he felt that Shen Kang's actions made more sense and were no longer so far-fetched, but he still had many doubts.

Especially since he was in business himself, he immediately thought of one very important question.

"It's possible that not all rice cookers will be returned within seven days without a reason, but some people will definitely do it. So, what do you do with these returned rice cookers?"

After asking this question, Manager Zhang subconsciously thought that Anjia Household Services might repair and clean these rice cookers again and sell them as new products.

Thinking about it this way, Manager Zhang felt a bit uneasy. If that were the case, he wouldn't know whether the rice cooker he bought was new or used by someone else.

Shen Kang didn't answer himself, but looked at Cao Dongmei, wanting to see how the employee training was going.

Upon seeing this, Cao Dongmei quickly replied, "These items eligible for the seven-day no-reason return policy will be marked as officially refurbished" and sold on our official website. Customers can choose to buy new products or these officially refurbished items, which will be cheaper."

Manager Zhang became interested upon hearing this, and said, "Then I'll go take a look."

He then went to the study, opened Anjia's official website, and saw the newly added product images of Anjia rice cookers.

After clicking in, in the purchase section, in addition to the normal purchase of 239, there is indeed an "Official Refurbishment" option next to it.

Clicking on "Official Refurbishment" leads to a new page with the colors of Anjia's official website at the top and bottom, and a blank space in the middle with a few words of explanation: "No official refurbished units available yet, please stay tuned."

After reading it, Manager Zhang returned to the living room, his eyes filled with keen interest as he looked at Shen Kang. He discovered that this young Shen was indeed quite capable, with one new business attempt after another constantly emerging.

Of course, it's normal for young people to have many new ideas, but not every new idea can succeed. Manager Zhang really wants to discuss this with Shen Kang to see if his ideas were decided on a whim or after careful consideration.

"Shen Kang, would you like to have a chat with me?" Manager Zhang extended an invitation.

Seeing this, Shen Kang let Cao Dongmei continue cleaning, while he went to the study with Manager Zhang.

Seeing this, Zhang Yu wanted to come in, but Manager Zhang kicked her out, which made her a little upset.

After Shen Kang sat down, Manager Zhang poured him a cup of tea, then sat down as well and asked, "Your idea of ​​'official refurbishment' is indeed quite good. I was just wondering if what I bought was something someone else had returned without a reason within seven days. This clear official refurbishment has largely dispelled my doubts."

"But I'd like to know, have you considered the costs involved? If there are too many people returning your rice cookers within seven days without reason, many of them will become officially refurbished units, sold at a discount. Will the money you make from rice cookers be enough to cover these losses?"

Manager Zhang specifically brought Shen Kang here alone to point out this point, which was somewhat of a suggestion.

Upon hearing this, Shen Kang said, "We have established a model in advance, estimated and calculated the cost of returns and exchanges, and found a break-even point between gross profit margin and return rate. The specific figures and formulas are trade secrets, and I cannot disclose them. What I can say is that, based on our previous experience with Anjia Housekeeping and Anjia Rice Cookers, as long as the return rate is kept below a certain value, we will not lose money."

The number he didn't say was 52%.

Once more than 52% of customers return their smart rice cookers within seven days without giving a reason, Anjia Home Service will start to lose money in the sales of smart rice cookers.

However, this has nothing to do with Anjia Technology.

This model is based on the fact that "Anjia Home Services" purchased rice cookers from "Anjia Technology" at a price of 204 yuan per unit, and this model is used to independently calculate the break-even point of the "Anjia Home Services" channel.

Even if "Anjia Housekeeping" loses money, "Anjia Technology" still makes a profit.

However, based on Shen Kang's later knowledge of the home appliance industry's return rate of 25% to 47%, this shouldn't be a major problem. This is why he ultimately pushed for the implementation of the "seven-day no-reason return policy." In fact, the price of 239 yuan was determined based on the break-even point between this gross profit margin and return rate. Therefore, the close difference between 47% and 52% wasn't because 239 yuan just barely met the cutoff, but rather the opposite; the price of 239 yuan was derived from the upper limit of 47% known to Shen Kang in his later life.

This is actually an experiment, which allows us to adjust the appropriate profit margin for the "Anjia Housekeeping" channel based on various data from actual operation.

In addition, from the customer's perspective, the introduction of the "seven-day no-reason return policy" can also increase their positive feelings towards settling down, which is another potential benefit in terms of brand value.

Of course, I wouldn't tell Manager Zhang any of this.

Hearing what Shen Kang said, Manager Zhang understood that Shen Kang's idea wasn't just something he came up with on a whim. This piqued Manager Zhang's interest even more, and he chatted with Shen Kang about some business matters. The conversation eventually turned to sales models: "—I think your Anjia's 'customer-referral' model from last time was quite good. Should we use it this time?"

Manager Zhang still remembers Anjia Household Services' previous "existing customers can get a bonus for referring new customers" program. He had introduced some people and received a bonus of 300 yuan.

Shen Kang shook his head: "I'm really sorry, Uncle Zhang, there won't be any new user referral activities this time."

Manager Zhang was a little surprised: "Isn't that model quite good? I even brought you some customers because of that model."

Shen Kang smiled and said, "The main problem is that we don't think this product is suitable for this kind of customer growth model."

In fact, when Shen Kang decided to let Anjia Household Services sell rice cookers, he had considered whether to adopt this customer growth model. However, after careful consideration and discussion with Kang Zhengyang and the others, he gave up on it.

One reason is the possibility that an existing customer might refer several new customers to buy a rice cooker in order to earn a referral bonus. After the existing customer receives the bonus, the new customers simply return the rice cooker within seven days without giving a reason, allowing the existing customer to get the bonus for free.

Of course, there are solutions to this problem: a risk management system can be established, using a model of "dynamic commission locking + credit rating + behavior monitoring" to identify genuine customers and distribute bonuses accordingly. However, this is too complex and adds to the overall cost.

In addition, there were some complex factors that ultimately led them to decide to abandon the customer referral model this time.

Rather than rapid expansion, they chose to maintain the "Anjia" brand and preserve customers' trust in Anjia, which has always been the foundation of Anjia.

Just as Shen Kang and Manager Zhang were chatting in the study, Manager Zhang's wife, Liang Jie, returned from grocery shopping. Seeing Cao Dongmei, dressed in her Anjia uniform, cleaning, she gave her a brief greeting and then carried the groceries into the kitchen.

As soon as Liang Jie entered the kitchen, before she even put down the vegetables, she noticed the two new smart rice cookers and exclaimed, "Old Zhang!"

Old Zhang didn't call him, but Little Zhang came over from the bedroom immediately.

Liang Jie pointed to the two new smart rice cookers and asked, "Why didn't your dad tell me he was buying rice cookers? And two at once! Is he just throwing money away?"