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USE CASE

Returns are a conversation, not a form

A managed voice agent that takes the return call, captures the real reason, checks eligibility against your policy, and starts the process on the spot — while your team sees only the cases that need judgement.

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THE RETURNS PICTURE

The expensive part of a return isn't the return.

Operators brace for returns as if each one costs a fortune. The measured figure is smaller than the fear: around €2.85 per item in transport and processing, against the €10–15 many assume — and more than 93% of returned items go back on the shelf as new (University of Bamberg, 2020–21 retailer data). The real damage sits somewhere else. It's the queue: the customer who can't reach anyone to start a return, the reason nobody captured, the ticket that takes three emails to resolve. And it starts before the sale — 79% of shoppers abandon a cart if their preferred returns option isn't offered (DHL, 2025). A returns process that's hard to reach costs you the next order, not just this one.

WHAT OPERATORS ASSUME €10–15 MEASURED €2.85 the cost that isn't on this chart: the queue WHAT OPERATORS ASSUME €10–15 MEASURED €2.85 the cost that isn't on this chart: the queue

Cost and resale figures: University of Bamberg European Return-o-Meter, retailer survey, data 2020–21. Cart abandonment: DHL E-Commerce Trends 2025 (24,000 respondents, 24 countries).

From return call to label sent

Return call — no queue, no form Agent captures the reason and checks your policy Eligible → return started, label sent, and the reason logged Outside policy or disputed → your team, with the full case Return call — no queue, no form Agent captures the reason and checks your policy Eligible → return started, label sent, reason logged Outside policy or disputed → your team, with the case

Your policy is the rulebook — windows, conditions, categories, exceptions. The agent applies it consistently and never improvises an approval. Anything outside it goes to a person.

What a return call sounds like

Example call

Live call — Sabato Agent · 01:08
CALLER

I need to send back a jacket — it's too small.

AGENT

No problem. Can I take the order number, or the email you ordered with?

CALLER

29104.

AGENT

Thank you. That was delivered eleven days ago, so you're inside the thirty-day window. Is it unworn with the tags on?

CALLER

Yes, tags still on.

AGENT

Then I can start it now. Would you prefer an exchange for the next size up, or a refund?

CALLER

Exchange, if you have the large.

AGENT

You do — I'm reserving it and emailing your return label now. Drop it at any pickup point; the large ships as soon as the return scans.

Policy details here are illustrative. The agent checks your real policy and your real stock — it never approves a return your rules don't allow, and disputed cases go to your team.

Save the sale, not just the item

An exchange offered on the call is revenue kept; a refund processed by email is revenue gone. When the agent can see the size up is in stock, the return becomes a swap — and the customer gets what they wanted in the first place.

Every return reason, in plain text

Too small, colour looked different, arrived late, not as described — captured in the customer's own words on every call. That's the dataset that tells you which product page is lying and which supplier to have a word with.

Start with a pilot, not a promise

We don't quote you a processing-time saving invented in a slide deck. A Sabato pilot takes your real return calls for two weeks and measures what changes against your baseline: how fast a return gets started, how many become exchanges instead of refunds, and how much of it never reaches your team at all. If the numbers don't convince you, you walk away.

Book the pilot call

make returns easy to reach

Start the return on the call.

We build it, we run it, you see the numbers. Live in two weeks.

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