Rubina Farooq

Director of Customer Operations
LG Electronics

Rubina Farooq joined LG in 2005 as a Director of Finance and Planning and moved into operations role in 2007 primarily to reduce returns losses and reduce Home Depot end user returns. Under her leadership the company was able to reduce the end user returns by 50% in units a saving of over $15 million in returns cost. She is also responsible for reverse supply chain management, which includes working with transportation and distribution counter parts to reduce logistics cost. Prior to joining LG she worked at Sony Electronics for 8 years in variety of Finance Planning and Supply Chain roles. Before that she worked for Time Warner and Simmons Cable in a Financial Controller roles.

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Rubina.

Download The Latest Agenda

Day 2

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

08:55 Panel Session: Multichannel Consumer Education: Helping Consumers Make More Informed Purchases That Meet Their Expectations

Tony Sciarrotta, Former Directory of Asset Recovery, Philips Consumer Lifestyle
Dr. Annibal C. Sodero, Assistant Professor, Department of Supply Chain Management, University of Arkansas
Rubina Farooq, Director, Customer Operations, LG Electronics

Making sure that a customer has the right expectations and understands a product’s capabilities is crucial. Whether it’s an air conditioner that can only cool a certain size room or a tv that will only deliver top notch sound with a soundbar, there often seems to be an expectations gap. How do we close that? How important is the box in communicating the true capabilities of a product? Consumer education is a multichannel process, involving face-to-face interaction in a physical store, phone support and web resources – i.e., FAQs and product videos – that help consumers make more informed purchase decisions and drive down returns. Learn what strategies are being employed by industry leaders:

Obtaining a comprehensive view of social media
feedback (blogs, Facebook, Twitter) to drive better
customer service: Identifying user experience hiccups

Utilizing – and building awareness of - diagnostic
applications to resolve customer issues with purchases
categories vs. mature product categories

Educating your employees on specific products to ensure
that they are able to address customer concerns prior to
the sale

Informing the customer about support options so they
turn to those when experiencing difficulty, rather than returning an item out of frustration
o Online tutorials & chat
o Call center support with special attention to first-time
customer contact (priority handling)

Home appliance strategies: Taking a proactive approach
to ensure a product will work in a customer’s home and
that it will be deliverable

17:00 Roundtable Discussions

Talking with your peers about how to confront shared business challenges is the most valuable part of this event. Consumer Returns 2014 has set aside seven hours across three days so OEMs, retailers and solutions providers can discuss current issues of importance. This is your opportunity to discuss ways to improve out-of-box experience, post-sales support and methods for maximizing recovery rate.

1. How Do You Determine Appropriate Pricing For The Secondary Market? - Facilitated by Combiz Shams, Senior Warehouse Manager, Refurbishment, Belkin & Layth Hussain, Director, Operations, Americas, Belkin
2. Tackling The Dearth Of Information Systems For Reverse Logistics - Facilitated by Ric Spicer, Manager, Operations-E-Commerce, Reverse Logistics, Sears Holding Corporation
3. Establishing Full Cost Visibility Around The Reverse Supply Chain - Facilitated by Timothy Quinn, Manager of Logistics, Budget and Analysis, BJ's Wholesale Club
4. Wireless Returns: Addressing Third Party Software Conflicts - Facilitated by Lee Gibson, Director, Reverse Logistics, Huawei Device USA
5. More SKUs, More Problems? - Facilitated by Michael Ketzenberg, Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University
6. Returns Issues Around White Goods - Facilitated by Michael Fahey, Vice President, Operations, Haier America
7. Returns Issues Around Small Appliances - Facilitated by Kathy Murphy, Senior Sales Operations Manager, Jarden Consumer Solutions
8. The Value Of A Global Remarketing Process: Aligning Your Organization - Facilitiated by Robert Pignataro, Executive Vice President, Sales, FreeFlow
9. Online Consumer Education - Facilitated by Rubina Farooq, Director, Customer Operations, LG Electronics