Aftersales Handling Time Requirements

Key Points:

• Aftersales handling involves one or two steps of review. Aftersales Handling Time is the average time sellers take to handle refund, return, cancellation, or replacement requests (Request Approval Time and Item Inspection Time).
• Sellers who respond within 24 hours are more likely to have repeat purchases from customers.
• Speed up your Aftersales Handling Time with auto-approval tools (log in required).
• Aftersales Handling Time will be evaluated on a daily basis and published on the Shop Performance Score page.

Overview

• Requests that require your review to reject or approve
• Requests that are auto-approved according to rules set by you
• Time-out auto-approvals (missed SLAs)

Two-Step Review Process

1. Review to approve requests: measured by the Request Approval Time. This is the initial time taken for the assessment of the after-sales request — such as a return, customer cancellation, or refund — to decide whether to approve it. If a return is approved, you will be asked to do an item inspection.
2. Review to inspect items: measured by the Item Inspection Time. This is the time taken to inspect the returned item and decide whether to approve the final refund. It begins when the product has been returned and delivered back to you.

How Aftersales Handling Time is Calculated

• Formula: After-Sales Handling Time = Total handling time for seller-reviewed after-sales requests ÷ Total seller-handled review counts for request approvals and item inspections

1. A return and refund request: It had 2 review counts, with Request Approval Time and Item Inspection Time taking a total of 4 hours
2. A refund request: It had 1 review count, with Request Approval Time taking a total of 3 hours

• (4 + 3) hours ÷ (2 + 1) review counts = 2.3 hours, rounded to the nearest one decimal place.

Exceptions for Aftersales Handling Time

• Requests that do not require sellers to review (reviewed by the platform)
  • For more information, refer to our Guide to Managing Returns, Refunds and Replacements.
• Any after-Sales request that has been raised to us for further investigation.
• Seller-initiated cancellations and exchanges

How Aftersales Handling Time Impacts Your Shop

• Example: If you were checking your After-Sales Handling Time on Monday, April 28, you are looking at your performance for the weeks of Feb 24 - April 27.

Appeals

How to See Your Aftersales Handling Time

1. Head to Seller Center homepage
2. Use the sidebar to navigate to Shop Performance Score under Account Health
3. Click Preview at the top of the Shop Performance Score page
4. Scroll down to the Improve these metrics section
5. Under Customer Service, click on After-Sales Handling Time
6. Scroll down to the Problem Order Details section

How to Respond to Aftersales Requests

1. Head to Seller Center homepage
2. Use the sidebar to navigate to Orders and go to Manage Returns
3. Scroll down to the Awaiting Your Action tab
4. Select Order ID in each request to view the order details and order history
5. Select the after-sales request status—for example, Platform Processing—in each request to view the Return Order ID (if applicable), customer's reason for the request, initiation time, and completion time of each request.

Best Practices

1. Stay up-to-date on your after-sales requests
   • Monitor the status of return/refund orders consistently and follow up with your customers as needed.
   • Check out our Guide to Managing Returns, Refunds and Replacements to learn about the return and refund process.
2. Set up your return policies
   • Create auto-approval rules for eligible after-sales scenarios to resolve these requests automatically.
   • Go to Orders > Return Settings

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• After-Sales Handling Time is a new metric that will be added to Shop Performance Score on July 7.

• This metric provides visibility into your efficiency in key after-sales services, and offers opportunities to improve your after-sales processes for a better customer experience and higher customer retention.

• No, there are no violation enforcements for After-Sales Handling Time. This metric is only included in Shop Performance Score and will not impact your Account Health Rating.

• Platform auto-approval
  • Not included in After-Sales Handling Time.
  • After-sales requests that are approved by TikTok Shop may be given when:
    • Eligible after-sales requests are routed to TikTok Shop for review by an agent handling the request
    • Eligible after-sales requests meet our Customer Order Cancellation, Return, and Refund Policy. For example, a customer's refund request was not responded to within 24 hours of an order status changing to Ready to Ship (RTS).
• Seller auto-approval
  • Included in After-Sales Handling Time. Each review count with a seller auto-approval will be given a default handling time of 1 minute.
  • Seller auto-approvals are triggered when eligible after-sales requests meet the approval rules set by the seller in in Seller Center.

• TikTok Shop prioritizes seller protection with automated systems to manage refunds, block risky customers, and ensure fair claim verification. Features like extended review periods for high-value and undelivered returns provide sellers with more time to assess requests thoroughly.
• If you believe an after-sales request was included in your After-Sales Handling Time in error, chat with support through the Help Center or contact your Account Manager.