The end of term is a busy time. With graduation, finals, moving home, etc. buyback and rental returns may not rank high on a student’s to-do list. That’s why it is important for campus stores to make the buyback and return process as simple as possible. We have three tips to help stores streamline their buyback and rental returns.
3 Easy Steps to Streamline Buyback and Rental Returns
- Automate messaging
Automated messaging is a great way to save your store and its associates time during the end of term while still ensuring students are getting regular reminders to bring back their textbooks.
MBS System partners have the option to use inSite Buyback Alerts to automatically let students know the current values (retail and wholesale) of the books they purchased from your store. Also, students can add books they purchased elsewhere and get alerts on the values of those books — in the same email or text message. After a student opts in to receive a notification on specific titles by entering the ISBNs, they will receive an end-of-term message displaying the value of their book and the quantity the store is seeking.
Our system partners can also select from several customizable standard rental return reminders to send to students. Using this functionality, you can send personalized letters, emails or text messages at any point during the term to remind students about how they can return their rentals or inform them about an overdue return.
- Knowledgeable buyback staff
Another way to streamline buyback and rental returns is to staff the buyback events with knowledgeable workers and make sure anyone new to buyback has been trained for the event.
“When we staff our buyback, we always start with people that we know. Our head buyback buyer used to work for the college then she retired. So, we knew her, and we knew she would do a terrific job,” College of the Holy Cross Bookstore Textbook Manager Doug Schutz “She told us that she had some friends who might also be willing to help. That’s how we put together our group of buyback buyers.”
Read more about how the College of the Holy Cross Bookstore streamlines its buyback. - Contact your MBS representative
This may seem simplistic, but your MBS representative can offer your store a lot of advice and assistance with setting up a great buyback. They can help with:
- Selecting a good campus location
- Making a logistics plan for the event
- Ordering free MBS marketing materials when you utilize our buyback and rental return services
- Creating a custom buyback list — Some titles used on your campus this term might not have wholesale values listed in our buying guide. MBS Custom Buyback gives you a chance to provide students with more value for their books during buyback by reviewing those titles that don’t have a wholesale value listed. Just send the list of titles used on your campus this term to your MBS representative and they will create a custom buyback list that is specific to your campus.
- Making suggestions for how to use your MBS Premier Partnership Promo Dollars
- Providing promotional ideas
- Downloading the latest MBS guide and test that it is working as intended
What changes has your store made to its buyback setup over the last few years? Let us know in the comments.
