Returns and warranty claims in one traceable flow.
A return or warranty claim starts the moment a customer is unhappy and ends only when they have an answer they accept — repair, replacement or refund. Everything in between is a chain of handoffs: intake, inspection, technical assessment, approval and resolution. When those handoffs happen across e-mails, chat messages and spreadsheets, claims get lost, customers chase you for updates and the same disputes happen again and again. Tenderely BPM brings every step of that chain into one structured record so nothing falls through.
What does a returns and warranty process repeat?
01
Intake and registration
A customer submits a return or warranty claim. Without a structured intake, the same information is collected differently each time — or not at all — making later comparison impossible.
02
Eligibility check
Is the item still under warranty? Was it purchased within the return window? This check has to happen before any technician picks up the product, or time is wasted on ineligible claims.
03
Physical inspection
Someone examines the returned item and records what they find: condition, fault description, photos. Without a standard form this step produces different information each time and cannot be audited.
04
Technical assessment
A technician determines the root cause and recommends a resolution — repair, replacement or refund. If that recommendation is not documented, the decision is invisible.
05
Approval and resolution decision
Depending on the value or the type of resolution, a manager or finance team may need to sign off before the customer receives an answer. That approval step stalls if it lives only in someone's inbox.
06
Customer communication and closure
The customer needs to know the outcome and, where applicable, when to expect the repaired item or replacement. A claim is only closed when the customer has that answer in writing.
Where does this break down today?
Claims get lost between teams
Intake is handled by one person, inspection by another, approval by a third. When the handoff is a forwarded e-mail or a chat message, something is always missing on the other end, and no one has the full picture.
Customers have no visibility
The customer submits a claim and then waits. They do not know who has it, what stage it is at or when to expect an answer. They call or write to chase it, which costs your team time to handle.
Inspection records are inconsistent
One technician writes a paragraph, another writes three words, a third sends a photo with no note. Because there is no standard, the data cannot be used to spot patterns or defend decisions.
Resolution times are invisible
How long does the average claim take from intake to closure? Which step causes the most delay? Without a system those questions require someone to manually dig through records — by which point the problem has already affected customers.
What changes with Tenderely BPM
01
Every claim is a structured record
Customer details, purchase information, fault description, inspection notes and resolution are all fields in one record. Claims become searchable, comparable and reportable from day one.
02
Customers submit from outside
A public form lets customers open a claim themselves without needing an account. Their submission lands directly in the flow, already structured, ready for the next step.
03
Approval routes itself by resolution type
Conditional branching means a low-value replacement can be approved at one level while a refund above a certain amount goes to a second approver automatically. No one has to decide who to forward it to.
04
Waiting steps chase themselves
Give any step an SLA and Tenderely BPM sends a reminder when the deadline passes. Claims stop sitting quietly in an inbox waiting for someone to notice.
05
Inspections happen on a phone
The inspection form runs on iOS and Android, so a technician fills it in on the shop floor and attaches photos directly to the claim record. Nothing is transcribed later.
06
Resolution times become a dashboard
Average handling time, claims by resolution type, steps where delays cluster — these stop being numbers you have to calculate and become figures that are simply visible.
FAQ
Can we set different rules for warranty claims versus straightforward returns?
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Yes. The flow can branch at intake based on claim type, so a warranty claim goes through an inspection and technical assessment step while a standard return within the return window follows a shorter path. Each branch is configured without code.
How does the customer know what is happening with their claim?
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Notifications can be sent at any step transition — when the claim is received, when inspection is complete, when a decision is made and when the item is ready. The customer receives an update at each stage without anyone having to write a manual e-mail.
Can we track who approved what and when?
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Yes. Every action in the flow — submission, status change, approval, comment — is recorded in an audit history attached to that record. The log cannot be edited, so it is reliable for disputes or compliance purposes.
What if our approval authority depends on the value of the claim?
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Conditional branching handles this without code. A claim below a threshold can be resolved by a team leader; above it, the flow automatically adds a step requiring a manager or finance sign-off before the resolution is sent to the customer.
Can we see which product lines or suppliers generate the most claims?
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Because every claim is a structured record with consistent fields, you can filter and group claims by any dimension you capture at intake — product category, supplier, fault type or sales channel — and those breakdowns appear on a dashboard rather than requiring a manual export.