Appeasements
Introduction
About the feature
OneStock provides a comprehensive Appeasement module that allows Customer Service agents to manage financial gestures and appeasements directly within the OneStock Order Management System (OMS).
What is an appeasement ?
In an eCommerce and Order Management (OMS) context, an appeasement is a financial gesture or discount granted to a customer after a purchase to compensate for a poor experience, without requiring the customer to return the items.
Unlike a standard refund triggered by a product return, an appeasement is a proactive action taken by customer service to "appease" frustration and maintain loyalty.
Key Characteristics
The Intent: Restoring customer satisfaction following an incident (e.g., delivery delay, damaged packaging, or picking error).
The Mechanism: It is a partial or full refund of the amount already paid. The funds are sent directly back to the customer’s original payment method (via the PSP).
The Context: The customer keeps the product. There is no physical inventory movement or return logistics involved.
Difference from Vouchers: An appeasement is a real monetary flow (cash back). It is not a credit note, voucher, or promo code to be used on a future purchase.
Concrete Examples
Shipping Fee Waiver: A parcel arrives 4 days late. The CS agent refunds the €5.90 shipping cost as an apology.
Damaged Item Gesture: A customer receives a table with a small scratch. Instead of returning the heavy item (which is costly for the retailer), CS offers a 20% refund for the customer to keep the product as is.
Benefits for you and your customers
Integrating manual appeasements within your OneStock workflow creates a seamless experience for both your internal teams and your end consumers:
Operational Efficiency: Reduces the number of tools (PSP, ERP, OMS) required to handle a single customer claim.
Customer Loyalty: Enables immediate corrective actions (e.g., refunding shipping fees for a late delivery) to restore satisfaction.
Financial Accuracy: Ensures that appeasements never exceed the original order amount.
Traceability: Provides a clear audit trail of who performed an appeasement, why (reason codes), and its current status (initiated, pending, success).
Objectives
The objectives of this documentation are to:
Understand the core capabilities of the Appeasement module (MVP vs. future versions).
Guide users through the process of triggering an appeasement from the OneStock Back Office.
Define the technical requirements (Payment configuration in Onestock, Taxes) for a successful rollout.
Outline the business rules and known limitations of the current version.
Target audience
The audience for this documentation is:
Customer Service Leads : To define refund reasons, limits, and operational workflows.
Customer Service Agents: To understand how to apply appeasements, which scenarios are supported, and how to see and review an appeasement in the order.
IT & Integration Teams: Responsible for connecting OneStock appeasements events to ERPs or PSPs.
E-commerce Managers: Seeking to improve the post-purchase experience and customer satisfaction KPIs.
How this documentation is organized
Product Guide : High-level capabilities, supported appeasements scenarios, and functional behavior.
Configuration Guide : How to set up appeasement reasons, rules and configurations.
Technical Guide : Data models, tax management, and communication with external payment tools.
Known Limitations : Scope boundaries (e.g., no voucher generation, no bulk appeasements).