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As you hire more customer service agents, providing quality support across the entire team becomes a major challenge. Without clear rules, agents may each handle key tasks — like building self-service resources or handling refund requests — in different ways.

Fortunately, a good customer service policy helps avoid these problems. But to be truly effective, your policy needs more than platitudes like “Be friendly” or “Respond quickly.” Instead, it should include specific and actionable information. 

In this guide, we’ll help you create a useful customer service policy by sharing the five key topics it needs to cover. We’ll also discuss how to write and enforce your policy.

First, let’s start with the basics. Or, you can skip straight to the advice for writing a useful policy. 

What is a customer service policy? 

A customer service policy is a document containing a set of guidelines, rules, and standards for customer service teams. Its goal is to help agents handle day-to-day tasks and set benchmarks for great customer service.

How and where are customer service policies used?

Customer service policies are among the first documents provided to new agents during their training. They act as cornerstone documents for a business's entire customer service team, since agents can use them during difficult or process-heavy interactions, like customer complaints, order cancellations, and so on.

A customer service policy is an internal document, so you won’t share it publicly. However, you can use it as a foundation and repurpose parts of it into various customer-facing policies (like cancellation or refund policies). These policies help you set customer expectations and reduce repetitive inquiries like "What's your return policy?" 

Take a look at how Marine Layer does this in a concise way:

You can share these customer-facing policies in:

• FAQ pages (like the example above) and help center documentation
• Transactional emails: For instance, emails that confirm an item has shipped from the warehouse and includes order tracking and a clear return policy
• Terms and conditions that people sign when becoming customers: These documents usually have sections dedicated to customer-facing policies around refunds, returns, order cancellations, and so on.

Customer service policy vs service-level agreement (SLA)

While similar, customer service policies and service-level agreements (SLAs) are not the same. 

Customer service policies are internal documents that help agents by setting standards and policies. Service-level agreements (SLAs) are external documents that define the expected level of service between a business and its customers. Use an SLA to communicate information like:

• Your support team’s business hours
• Your estimated response and resolution times

If you have SLAs, your policy needs to reference them, as you’ll see in a bit.

For a real-life example, check out Berkley Filters’ Contact page:

Above, Berkey listed the working hours for two of their support channels, as well as their average response time. This is a clear promise to customers that sets their expectations for the level of service provided by Berkley Filters.

The importance of having a customer service policy

While customer service policies vary for each company, they bring some key benefits to all organizations. Specifically, they:

• Help customer service agents do their job. A clear, easy-to-find policy lets agents quickly find the rules they should follow in any given situation. This saves them a lot of time and effort since they don’t have to come up with (or remember) what they should do on the fly.
• Ensure consistent support for every customer. Without a policy, agents can interpret identical situations differently, resulting in inconsistent service. A good policy nips this problem in the bud and guarantees that customers get the same level of care across the board.
• Establish standards and expectations for the customer service team. A key outcome of the policy is defining what “quality customer service” is — how fast service reps should respond, how quickly they should resolve issues, and so on. This provides agents and their managers with an objective measure for evaluating performance.

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When should you create a customer service policy?

Even if you're a customer service team of one, we recommend laying the foundations of your customer service policy as early as possible.

Here’s why:

You, and any agents you hire, will be faced with some situations over and over, regardless of business size or industry. The sooner you set the rules for these scenarios, the better your chances of providing consistent service, avoiding confusion, and setting standards for your team.

For online stores, these common situations are:

• Item exchanges
• Order cancellations
• Refund and return requests 
• Damaged goods and missing package complaints 

Team members who handle customer inquiries should know how to deal with these from day 1. 

Outside of these situations, you should continue to expand your policy as your customer service team grows. That’s a major aspect of ensuring consistent, high-quality service across a larger team. We’ll discuss some additional policy topics in the next section.

What to include in your customer service policy [checklist]

Some elements of the customer service policy will vary depending on company size and industry. For example, a clothing brand's return policy will be different from that one for a brand that sells perishable goods.

However, pretty much all policies should cover the following 5 key topics below.

1) Steps for handling common customer service workflows

This is the most important part of your customer service policy. It empowers agents with the knowledge they need to resolve customer issues and provide quality support.

Here are some common workflows to include in this section:

• Refund and return requests. Agents need clear instructions on how to act when buyers request refunds or want to return an item. For example, if the request comes in within your policy’s timeframe (say 15 days after the purchase) agents should give a no-questions-asked refund. Some businesses allow refunds and returns for repeat shoppers even after the deadline, so don’t forget to list all exceptions to this rule.
• Order cancellations. At a minimum, your policy should state how much time buyers have to cancel an order after placing it. Allowing cancellations until an item ships out of the warehouse is a simple way to handle this. 
• Damaged goods complaints. Online stores usually specify a timeframe in which damaged goods claims have to be filed (e.g., 2 days after the item was received). If the complaint was made on time, agents should explain how to return the product and what to expect next. Some businesses even offer buyers a choice between exchanging their item or keeping it with a small discount when the damage is small.
• Shipping problems. Lots of factors can result in an order being delivered after the deadline you promised (or not being delivered at all), so agents must know how to handle these situations. Offering credit to the customer’s account is a commonly-used practice here.  
• Item exchanges. Your policy should clearly state which items buyers can exchange and under what conditions. For example, custom items (e.g., with a person’s name) usually can’t be exchanged, while generic ones can be exchanged with others in the same category and price point.
• Dealing with angry customers. We’ve discussed how to handle these situations in our article on dealing with angry customer emails. Most importantly, instruct agents to read the complaint carefully, acknowledge the customer’s problem, and don’t let the situation affect their emotions. Also, make sure to lay out guidelines for escalation, when a manager should be involved in the conversation.

As you can see, there are many scenarios to consider here. Fortunately, once you’ve outlined them, you can easily build a library of message templates around your common processes, so your agents don’t have to waste time typing from scratch.

Gorgias’ version of templates, called Macros, include variables that automatically populate with each customer’s unique information (like names, order numbers, shipping information, and more). This means you may be able to simply pull up and send the relevant Macro without any copy/pasting. 

You can also put information about these key policies in useful self-serve resources like FAQ pages or a help center. These empower visitors to instantly resolve simple issues themselves, instead of flooding your team with repetitive tickets (and having to wait for a response).

2) Guidelines for prioritizing customer inquiries

This is another crucial topic for your agents’ day-to-day that every customer support policy should include. Without prioritization rules, agents can follow their own prioritization logic, resulting in poor response times for urgent tickets.

Here are three prioritization factors to include in your policy:

1. Inquiry channel. If you’re using messaging channels, consider prioritizing them to meet the built-in expectations for fast responses. As a rule of thumb, real-time channels like SMS and live chat should be answered within a few minutes, while emails should be answered within a day. 
2. Request urgency. Say a customer reports a bug that prevents them (and potentially other shoppers) from completing a purchase. Regardless of the channel, these types of inquiries should take priority over more generic questions.
3. Customer type. You want to keep your best customers happy with priority service. On that note, consider that repeat shoppers generate 300% more revenue than new customers, as we mentioned in our Customer Experience Growth Playbook. 

We have lots of useful advice on this topic, so check out our detailed guide to prioritizing customer service requests.

3) SLAs and customer service standards

As we mentioned, SLAs are customer-facing promises about your team's response and resolution times. This information should also be in your policy, so agents are aware of the expectations your SLA sets.

But what if you don’t have an SLA? Well, your agents still need to what standard they’ll be held to, i.e., what “good customer service” means for your company. 

That’s why your policy needs to establish a set of customer service metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs), regardless if you have an SLA or not.

First Response Time (FRT) is the primary metric to consider here.

FRT measures how long your agents take to respond to customer inquiries, on average. You can have different FRT targets, depending on the channels you use. For example, a 1-hour FRT might be great for email support, while 1-2 minutes is usually a good target for live chat and SMS.

As Brianna Christiano, Director of Support at Gorgias explains:

“We actually have members of the support team who monitor FRT every hour. This allows us to keep a pulse on our workload and pivot if necessary. If we notice that live chat or SMS inquiries are getting overwhelming, we’ll ask team members who typically do, for example, email support to help with the live messaging channels so we can maintain a low FRT.”

Also, you can use FRT to nudge buyers to try a specific customer service channel.

Let’s take another look at Berkley Filters’ Contact page:

Besides setting expectations, making the average response time public helped Berkley Filters push more buyers toward their new SMS channel. 

Other useful metrics for your policy include:

• Average Resolution Time (ART): How long your customer service team takes to resolve tickets, on average. To calculate it, you first need a specific time period to analyze, like one week or a month. Then, add up the length of all resolved conversions during that period. Finally, divide that number by the number of customer conversations you had during the same period.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): A measure of how satisfied visitors are immediately after an interaction with a customer service agent. You can collect feedback by running customer surveys with a question like “On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with your experience today?” Then, to calculate your CSAT, divide the positive customer feedback (4- and 5-star responses) by the total customers and multiply the result by 100.

• Support Performance Score. This is a metric we created for our team at Gorgias and share with merchants to get a single snapshot of their team’s performance. It combines average first response time, average resolution time, and CSAT. The result is a score between 1 and 5, representing the team’s (or an individual agent’s) performance.

4) Tone of voice and acceptable language

Your support team may be the only direct point of contact with your business for many customers. That’s why it’s crucial to establish that agents’ tone of voice should match the brands’ — whether that’s professional, friendly, or a mix of both. 

But this is a pretty broad rule that can be difficult to apply in real-life situations. You also want to add clear examples of what fits within your tone of voice guidelines and what doesn’t.

For instance, starting customer interactions with an energetic tone can be a good foundation. However, agents should adapt to each customer’s tone after the initial contact. After all, annoyed visitors likely won’t respond well to humor or light-hearted conversation.

Also, make sure to add an exhaustive list of words for your agents to use and avoid. For instance, agents shouldn’t sound overly apologetic when discussing fixed company policies (refunds, order cancellations, etc.) with customers. You can instruct them to avoid apologetic language and instead use empathetic — but not overly apologetic — phrases to communicate the facts.

If you use different customer support channels, it’s a good idea to include specific guidelines for them. For instance, call-center agents can be instructed to:

• Periodically reassure people that they’re listening
• Speak clearly without rushing or raising their voice
• Give people enough time to explain their problems 

Of course, apply these same tone-of-voice considerations to any customer support templates or self-service resources. All of these are an extension of your brand, and ensuring consistency at the source is mission-critical. 

5) Rules for proactive customer service

Customer service is much more than responding to tickets. Proactive customer service — where agents make the first move, instead of waiting for people to contact them —  can help you exceed buyers’ expectations, drive revenue, and reduce repetitive questions.

If you haven’t tried proactive customer service, here are some ideas you can test and describe in your policy:

• Reach out to shoppers with items in their carts. This is one of the best ways to reduce cart abandonments. To pull it off, you need a helpdesk like Gorgias to detect shoppers who linger on specific pages — like a product page or checkout page. Learn more about how chat campaigns help you spark conversations with customers and unblock sales. 
• Welcome new followers on social media with a direct message (DM). This can be as simple as thanking them for the follow. Or, you can let them know they can use the chat to ask questions. Learn more about this tactic (and how it can raise overall revenue by 4%).
• Create self-serve resources and send them to visitors. Based on Statista’s survey, 88% of customers expect brands to have self-service resources. Think FAQ pages or a help center that groups resources by topic. Making these resources available and prominently displayed makes the customer experience more convenient (and reduces repetitive support tickets that may currently be flooding your support inbox.)

Learn more about the best customer service software on the market and how it can help streamline your customer service operations and boost revenue. 

How to write a useful customer service policy (outline template)

Before you dive into the policy’s content, make sure to name your document in a clear way, i.e., “Customer Service Policy” or “[Brand Name] Customer Service Policy”. 

No need to get creative with the name. You just need people to be able to find it fast when they need it.

Before diving into writing the policy, consider that it should only cover topics that are specific to the customer service team. Broader topics (like code of conduct or other employee rules) should be part of larger company handbooks or other high-level documents, so the customer service policy doesn’t lose its focus. 

In terms of content, it can be useful to separate the policy into two parts.

1) Information about the company’s mission, values, and products

This first section lays the foundation for the rest of the policy. Your company’s values and mission statement are a common place to start.

For example, Abel Womack — a material handling company — begins the public-facing version of their company’s policy by saying that it “has been established to be reflective of our shared values”, which are integrity, empathy, customer care, and teamwork.

Some policies also include details about the company’s products at this stage. If you sell various complex products, it can be useful to add that information. If not, you can skip it and move on to the meat of the policy.

2) Rules, guidelines, and standards for your customer service team (outline template)

The second half contains actionable information that helps agents provide excellent customer service.

Writing this part can be tricky, especially if you haven’t done it before. Fortunately, an outline makes the process much easier, compared to starting with a blank page.

Feel free to copy the outline below, which is based on the checklist from the previous section.

1) Steps for handling common workflows

1. Refund and return requests
2. Order cancellations
3. Damaged goods complaints
4. Follow-ups
5. Dealing with angry customers

📚 Useful Resources: Our free refund and return policy generator & Loop Returns, which automates the returns process.

2) How to prioritize customer inquiries

1. Factors that determine priority
2. Examples of urgent inquiries
3. Examples of non-urgent inquiries

📚 Useful Resources: Best practices for prioritizing customer service requests.

3) SLAs and customer service standards

1. Company SLAs
2. KPIs for live chat support
3. KPIs for SMS support
4. KPIs for email support
5. KPIs for phone support

📚 Useful resources: Detailed guide on evaluating customer service & 25 key customer support metrics.

4) Tone of voice

1. Guidelines for written communication (live chat, SMS, email)
2. Guidelines for verbal communication (phone support)

5.  Rules for providing proactive customer service

1. Contacting visitors with items in their cart
2. Self-serve buyer resources

📚 Useful resources: Our guide on proactive customer service & customer self-service ideas

From here, it’s all about filling in the specifics using your brand’s terminology e.g., “customer service representatives”, instead of “customer service agents”, and so on.

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Practical tips for enforcing your customer service policy

So, you’ve done the hard work of creating a detailed and actionable customer service policy. Now, let’s get agents to actually use it.

First and foremost, ensure the document is easy to find by:

• Putting it in your Google Drive, knowledge base, or wiki. 
• Making it a part of the mandatory customer service training. 

Also, keep in mind that the policy shouldn’t be a static document. Instead, it needs regular updates as you add new products, team members, and support channels. Entrusting a customer service team member, likely a manager, to keep it updated is a must.

Another key tip for improving enforcement is tying the policy to the metric(s) you use to evaluate agents’ performance. This will keep people accountable and give you an objective way to determine their adherence.

Here’s an example of this idea in action by Brianna Christiano, Director of Support at Gorgias:

“At Gorgias, we use an internal quality metric to gauge the support team’s performance. Each week, managers audit 3 of their agents’ tickets and determine the quality and efficiency of the provided service, based on that metric. This lets us continuously evaluate and reinforce customer service rules and standards.”

Finally, getting managers to shadow new agents is another best practice here. This lets managers reinforce your policy from day 1. Plus, it’s a useful way to check if new agents can satisfy customers’ needs. 

Next steps: Evaluate your policy’s impact

After weeks of writing, introducing a new policy to the team feels great. But getting the document out there is only half the battle.

You then need to monitor if the policy is helping you reach your customer service goals.

To do that, keep a close eye on your support metrics (FRT, ART, and so on) in the weeks after the initial implementation.

It’s also crucial to determine if your new policy is truly customer-centric. This means tracking feedback metrics, like CSAT and other customer satisfaction metrics that have a major impact on customer retention.

The evaluation process is as important as creating the policy, so be careful not to overlook it. For additional practical tips, check out our guide to evaluating customer service programs.

Being a support agent has got to be one of the most trying jobs a person can have. Dealing with unhappy customers in your helpdesk isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. So, if you want your team to treat your customers as invited guests, even under tense circumstances, it’s your job to motivate them. These excellent customer service quotes can help. 

Here’s How to Leverage Customer Service Quotes to Inspire Your Support Team 

Whether you’re a support team manager or the owner of your company, you know that keeping your staff encouraged and upbeat at work is crucial to efficient customer service operations, especially in the face of challenging interactions with frustrated customers. It’s one way to reduce the load on your support team. So, you need to do what you can to keep your environment cheerful. 

Think of your team as a group of football players and yourself their cheerleader. You need to use positive language, words of affirmation, and other motivational tactics to keep your support machine well-oiled and increase customer loyalty. So, where do customer service quotes come in? 

Chalkboard/Whiteboard

Yes, offices still use whiteboards or chalkboards. If you’re one of them, this might be the best way to deliver your quotes. If you work in an office with your team, you can use a chalkboard or whiteboard, posted in a visible place, to display your motivational tidbits for the month. You don’t need any animations or tricks to get the point across — just make sure the quote is written legibly.  

Email

Email is one of the most commonly used communication channels in every business. So, alternatively, if you work with a remote team, a monthly email with a quote followed by your own thoughts can help promote an optimistic vibe within your operations. Your staff is likely checking emails all day anyway. So, you can be sure they’ll see your message, and they can save it to their personal desktop if they want to. (By the way, check out these 16 email templates to help your agents deliver quality service quickly.)

Desk Reminder

Everyone has a desk, right? If this is true, and if your team is small enough, you can give (by hand or mail, depending on where your staff works) each employee a poster or card to display at their own desk. They can pin it to the wall behind their workspace or keep it in a drawer to remind them each time they open it. 

Custom Calendars

And, if you’re feeling creative, you can create custom desk calendars with a new quote displayed for each month of the year. This idea is nice because it’s functional as well as fun. Plus, it gives staff the feeling that they’ve gotten a gift. Gifts in themselves are pretty effective workplace motivators. 

Mass Text Messages

Finally, if you want to leverage technology, consider setting up a staff opt-in for an SMS campaign wherein you send the quotes directly to the mobile phones of your support agents. Or, send a text message to each support agent individually. The great thing about this idea is that your agents are likely on their phones when they’re not working, so it keeps your operations at the front of their minds. 

A Customer Service Quote for Each Month of the Year

Now, let’s look at a year’s worth of quotes to keep your team feeling like their perky, happy selves. Whether you’re sending out a monthly email all year long, or posting your quote next to the portrait on the wall of your employee of the month, you’ll need twelve of them -- one for each month of the year. So, here you go! 

1. January: “A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.”

• David J. Greer

January is the beginning of a new year. In most places, it’s still cold outside, the holidays are over, and your staff are just getting back into the swing of things after the holiday rush at work and festivities at home. When it comes to an inspiring customer service quote, you need one that sets the stage for the rest of the year. 

What better place to start than reminding your staff that their performance at work will affect the entire company. The above quote is from David J. Greer, coach and author of Wind in Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth. In this book, Greer uses sailing metaphors and experiential wisdom to convey some powerful business messages. 

The above quote should warm your team up nicely. And, it should remind them that, at the end of the day, a review can make or break your business. So, their job is to deliver the kind of experience that enhances your company’s word-of-mouth marketing, not harms it. 

1. February: “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”  

• Steve Jobs

The second month of the year is a time of romance. February 14th is Valentine’s Day. At this time, most people across the globe celebrate their love in remembrance of St. Valentine, the patron of affianced couples. So, your quote for the month should at least attempt to reflect this. And, it should inspire the team to want to lean-in more intimately to customers’ needs. 

Fortunately for you, the late Steve Jobs, magnate, entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Apple, said just what your team needs to hear. His advice is to get close to the customer. You and your team can use the tokens of affection you see around you as reminders of how to treat shoppers that come to you with their problems. 

This customer service quote serves as a reminder that the relationship between your brand and your shoppers should feel like a personal one -- there should be a spark ready to ignite. And, when you really care about people, you naturally want what’s best for them. Since you’re theoretically the experts in everything related to your product offering, you should know what to offer before their questions are even asked. 

1. March: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

• Jeff Bezos

March is the month for St. Patrick’s Day (and my great grandmother’s birthday) celebrations and Spring Equinox. In a nutshell, festivities and fun happen in March. People are getting out and having a good time. So, this month’s customer service quote should reflect this. 

And, guess what? Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur, investor, and CEO/ founder of Amazon, can shine some light on what you need. Follow his lead and be amazing hosts to your party guests. You can’t offer your shoppers drinks, but you can give them an experience that they won’t forget. And, if your team is having fun, so will your customers. Make each day better than the last. 

Help you support team imagine that your brand is a party and everyone on the other end of the line is a welcomed friend. Cultivating a great shopping and support experience is a surefire way to increase your eCommerce conversion rates and make every day more enjoyable. When everyone is having fun, everyone wins! 

1. April: “Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!”

• Gene Buckley

April showers bring May flowers. The word April is derived from Latin aperit, which means “open.” And, one of the most important customer service skills your agents can possess is the ability to be open to the needs of your shoppers. At the very least, the needs of the customer must come before those of the support staff. So, remind your team with the perfect customer service quote. 

Gene Buckley has you covered. The senior director of customer success, health, and life sciences at Microsoft knows the right time to be smart -- in the shower. The right time to be smart is not when your customer needs you. Actually, when you’re working, you need to be humble. 

Here’s a brighter, more emotional way to say the customer is always right. Save your critical thinking for the moments when you’re alone -- before you fall asleep at night and in the shower. When you’re serving, be present and serve. Listen and make sure the customer knows you’re listening. 

1. May: “Make a customer, not a sale.” 

• Katherine Barchetti

In May, flowers are starting to bloom, Spring is officially in the air, and people are experiencing more happiness in general. For some people, life seems more colorful. So, this month, you might want to keep things simpler than usual. You might want to inspire agents with a quote that gets straight to the point.  

The retail success story, Katherine Barchetti was Pittsburgh’s retail success story. While her stores are no longer open, her wisdom lives on. She built an empire based on the idea that the customer was much more important to success than sales. In reality, the two go hand-in-hand. But, her words are a great reminder for any support agent. 

Envision your customer as a person, not a series of dollar signs. You don’t like being treated like a thing, and neither do your shoppers. Help your agents remember this wisdom with the above quote. In the end, this is the simplest idea at the core of every successful customer service ecosystem. 

1. June: “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”

• Henry Ford

June is the first month of Summer. Children are getting out of school, barbecues are starting, and people are getting outdoors more. They’re also spending. And, if you focus on the right things, you could be a major player in where they spend. And, the right things aren’t what most people think. How can you remind your agents what the right frame of mind is at this time of year? 

Henry Ford, the magnate behind Ford motors, requires no introduction, as his empire is strong even decades after his passing. What did Ford have to say about customer service? Basically, he said it is everything. Absolute devotion to service is his idea of the key ingredient for success. And, it would be unwise to disagree. So, share his wisdom with your agents in June. 

Let this serve as a reminder of how truly important the job of a support agent is in the big picture. Service is the heart of a thriving brand. 

1. July: “Customers want positive, consistent experiences. Consistency creates confidence, which can lead to retention and loyalty.” 

• Shep Hyken

July is when freedom rings. In the United States, independence day falls in July, when people are getting together playing games and lighting off fireworks. Hint: this happens every year, consistently. And, people continue to celebrate the same way each time. So, it might be a helpful idea to share a reminder with your staff about the value of consistencye, potentially with the help of call scripts. But, how? 

Take a look at this quote from Shep Hyken, who speaks nationwide to expert audiences about customer service and experience. He says that consistent positivity is what drives retention and loyalty from shoppers. Hyken has been featured on major television channels and is trusted and endorsed by enterprise brands. His advice is worthwhile for any support team. 

Not only is the job of a support agent to be positive and make customers happy -- true satisfaction also stems from a consistent experience of your brand. When people know what to expect from you, they begin to trust you. And, when people trust you, they want to put effort into maintaining a relationship. 

Your support agents, by delivering a consistent, positive experience, play a major role in the success of your company. Share this quote to remind them. 

1. August: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

• Bill Gates

August is the time of year when parents are getting ready to send their kids back to school. Schedules are being rattled yet again. And, it’s the time of year when people are soaking up the last of their Summer vacations, which might cause a bit of anxiety. There’s so much going on that consumers might be a bit more on-edge than usual. How can you help your agents cope? 

Your go-to for this month, Bill Gates -- principal founder of the Microsoft corporation -- provides an excellent reminder of the fact that not every learning opportunity comes wrapped in a pretty package. In fact, the dissatisfied customers you come across can be the best teachers. Use this as a reminder to find the silver lining and take everything you can from every situation. 

Not every support experience within your operations is going to feel pleasant. So, use dissatisfaction as an opportunity to learn about products, service tactics, and communication. Your agents should be learning how to transmute tense situations into opportunities to optimize your brand experience. So, this month use the above quote to remind them of this. 

1. September: “Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.” 

• Sally Gronow

Ah, September -- the beginning of Fall and prep time for your final quarter operations. You’re probably getting ready for the busiest season of the year. While you’re trying to figure out how to cut costs, your support agents are still plugging away at their jobs, wondering if they’re going to have to help train the new prospects showing up for your customer service interviews. What’s a good quote to share with your team? 

Sally Gronow is the head of customer service at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water in the UK. And, while you may not have heard of her, she has a simplistic yet genius answer. Your support staff could find great wisdom in the reminder that a crappy experience is going to cost so much more than a great one, even if it takes more effort to provide it; use the idea to keep your service team motivated this month. 

Sometimes, it can feel like a lot of work to help a customer through an emotionally mucky issue. But, in the end, it will take a lot more effort to dig yourself out of the hole created when you fail to help them. Poor reviews, loss of retention, and devastating negative word of mouth can kill your business. The responsibility of going the extra mile to deliver satisfaction falls on your support team. 

1.  October: “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department; it should be the entire company.”

• Tony Hsieh

October is a time for harvest; this is the time of year when people come together to reap the rewards of the past year’s efforts. Community is one of the main themes of the month outside the office. So, you should try to create the same theme inside your company. And, luckily, just the quote exists to remind your support team. 

The CEO of Zappos (an outrageously successful online shoe and clothing retailer), Tony Hsieh, said something that fits perfectly with the idea of community. He said that customer service is more than just one group of people within a company, that it should be everyone in the company. And, his wisdom is the perfect reminder for this time of year. 

You may or may not be able to depend on the other forward-facing departments to have the same level of impact as the service team. But, remember that a support agent’s job is the backbone of the company. And, together, your team can move mountains. In the end, the ability to serve the customers well is the central indicator of a successful company. 

1. November: “Next time you get bad service, speak up. Remember: it’s your money you are defending – money you worked hard for. Tell the company and others. Use the internet and social media. That’s how customer service will improve for all of us.” 

• Larry Winget

For every retailer, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days you’ve been prepping for all year. And, your support team knows this. If you participate in the promotions, these days are going to be your busiest days of the year, especially where customer support is concerned. It might be a good idea to get your team ready by flipping the script -- what are consumers (not CEOs and support experts saying?  

Larry Winget, author and self-proclaimed “Pitbull of Personal Development,™” encourages consumers to speak out when their expectations aren’t met by customer service teams and brands. The people are cheering each other on with empowering words to ‘say something’ when they’re dissatisfied. So, while your team is under enough pressure to succeed already, it’s crucial that they know how a bad experience could affect your operations. 

Just to stir things up a bit, throw in a customer service quote from a consumer. Make sure your support staff knows that everything they say and do will be scrutinized by the customers they are serving. And, it also has the potential to be seen and heard by the public. So, remind your team to give people something positive to talk about! 

1.  December: “Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.”

• Sam Walton

You’ve made it through Black Friday, but your year isn’t over. Consumers are still shopping for last-minute holiday gifts and they’re celebrating. They’re giving each other gifts, sharing time together, and partying it up this time of year. What they’re trying to do is exceed their loved ones’ expectations to express their love. 

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club, said something that fits the sentiment perfectly. He said that companies should go above and beyond the expectations of their shoppers. And, that’s how he grew a small kingdom for himself, from the ground up. 

Here’s a little reminder that the best practice for agents is to take each interaction a step further than expected -- from dissatisfaction to delight. Keep your team reminded of this and you might be able to crown yourself as well. 

What other customer service quotes do you use to motivate your team? 

Interested in an easy, full-featured support system for your online store? Start your free trial of Gorgias today.

Most companies don’t think about customer support in terms of return on investment (ROI) — only marketing and sales. But during my time as the VP of Success & Support at Gorgias, I've had plenty of opportunities to see the ROI of good customer service firsthand.

I remember working with a company that significantly increased conversion, average order value (AOV), and repeat purchase rate simply by adding a phone contact option — enough to pay back the $1.2 million initial investment, and then some. 

Here’s another way to put it: 90% of shoppers consider customer service when deciding whether to do business with a company, so your customer service has a strong ROI, whether or not you’re aware. It’s up to you whether that ROI is positive or negative.

To help maximize the value of your brand’s customer service, let's discuss everything you need to know about the ROI of customer service. Below, I'll explain why it's important to measure customer service ROI, how to perform customer service ROI calculations, and some tried-and-true best practices to see an ROI boost from your customer service experience.

Why is it important to measure ROI in customer service?

It's always important to measure the return of any investment you make in your company, and customer service is no exception. Measuring the ROI, or return on investment, of your customer service team allows you to determine what works well and what doesn't, helping you continually improve the quality of your customer support — which boosts its impact on your company's bottom line.

Measuring your customer service also helps you with forecasting. By understanding your current situation, you can better predict the staff, resources, bandwidth, and impact any change could potentially make on your customer service program.

The relationship between customer service ROI and business growth

To start, great customer service improves customer retention, which is an especially important avenue for growth, especially considering the cost to acquire new customers has increased by 60% in recent years. 

Unlike customer acquisition, repeat business is somewhat organic. Data around average ecommerce customer retention rates is sparse because rates vary so much by industry. For instance, a company that sells bags of coffee will see far higher repeat purchase rates than a company that sells coffee machines, which are usually a one-time purchase. 

That said, most blogs agree the average rate is around 20-30%. But regardless of your baseline, that percentage can grow if you provide amazing customer service. 

In addition to helping you retain the customers you already have, great customer service can also improve your company's net promoter score (NPS). This means that your existing customers are more likely to recommend your company to their friends and colleagues. 

Of course, ROI isn’t just about output — a strong ROI means maximizing revenue while minimizing spend. Implementing the right customer service tools and processes can actually lower your customer support spending, lifting ROI by reducing your company's expenses.

The formula for calculating ROI in customer service

To calculate your customer service program's ROI, you need to consider how much you're spending versus how much revenue you bring in as a direct result. The formula is pretty simple:

ROI = [ (Money earned - Money spent) / Money spent ] x 100

In practice, say that you spend $10,000 on your customer support program, including the cost of your team and tools. In turn, you make $15,000. Your ROI would be 50%. Here's what the calculation looks like:

ROI = [ ($15,000 - $10,000) / $10,000 ] x 100

ROI = 50%

That said, the above formula is rather rudimentary and doesn’t represent the nuances of customer service ROI. Specifically, it assumes that you can easily track the revenue generated by your customer service inputs. But you already know it’s not that easy. Below, I go a step deeper to help you understand the value of your brand’s customer service — value that you might not currently be claiming.

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4 expert ways to measure the value of customer service

Along with using the formula I covered above, there several other useful ways to go about calculating customer service ROI and evaluating its impact, including:

1) Provide a survey to measure your CSAT score

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) functions as a proxy for lifetime value (LFT). Each incremental increase in CSAT represents a higher likelihood of customers coming back to your brand and buying more.

You can gather this kind of customer feedback with a simple post-interaction CSAT survey. Most helpdesks have built-in survey features. I recommend you use them to gain invaluable data about your customers' experience — and your customer support team's performance.

After a customer service interaction, ask customers to rate their experience on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being a horrible experience and 5 being an exceptional experience). You can then divide the total number of satisfied responses (ratings of 4 or 5) by the total number of responses and multiply that number by 100. 

CSAT = (Total number of satisfied responses (4 or 5 rating) / Total number of responses) x 100

Your CSAT score will be a whole number between 0 and 100 — the higher, the better. This is an essential metric to keep an eye on as you experience customer service challenges and experiment with new tools and strategies.

Any customer service platform worth its salt should highlight your live CSAT score for easy tracking, with additional details for context. Here's what that would look like in the Gorgias platform:

2) Identify your repeat customers

There's no better way to evaluate customer satisfaction than looking at the number of repeat customers your business attracts. Excellent customer service is your best lever to reduce churn, improve your customer retention rate, increase your company's repeat customers — all different ways to describe the same benefit. 

Repeat customers are a great indicator that your customer service program is doing well, so it's essential to consider them during your ROI evaluation.

3) Improve your net promoter score (NPS)

Along with helping you retain the customers that you've already brought on board, good customer service can also help you attract more new customers by improving your net promoter score (NPS). NPS is a measure of how likely a customer is to recommend a company to someone else — consider NPS a type of word-of-mouth marketing generated by a great customer experience.

Calculating your NPS is easy if you're already collecting customer feedback. In your post-interaction survey, include a question like, "On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?" From this feedback, pull out the following information:

• Total number of responses
• Number of promoters (people who give you scores of 9 or 10) and their percentage of the total responses
• Number of detractors (people who give scores of 1-6) and their percentage of the total responses

Then, calculate your NPS with this formula:

NPS = Percentage of promoters - Percentage of detractors 

Your NPS score will range from -100 to 100.

If you currently use Gorgias, consider using any of our NPS calculator integrations for an even easier experience:

• Simplesat and Gorgias
• Delighted and Gorgias
• Reveal by Omniconvert and Gorgias‍

4) Evaluate sentiment and intent

Sentiment analysis uses machine learning to evaluate the overall sentiment of datasets. Analyzing your customer service data to see if your customers' overall sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral is a quick and simple way to get a broad sense of your customer service quality at scale.

Intent analysis also uses machine learning to understand the underlying request of an incoming message. While most other customer service platforms rely on keywords, Gorgias’s intent analysis understands when a customer submits a common request (like asking for order status or updating shipping address) regardless of whether they use one of your pre-selected keywords. The platform automatically handles the ticket, whether that means auto-responding with a Macro or assigning the ticket to a specialized agent with a Rule.

These features are possible because Gorgias is built specifically for ecommerce, meaning we have an incredibly high and untainted volume of ecommerce support tickets which we use to train our algorithms for your online store. 

5 best practices to improve customer service ROI

The entire point of calculating the ROI of customer service is identifying opportunities to boost the value that your customer service agents can deliver to the company. Here are five best practices that you can implement to improve customer service ROI:

1) Provide training or education for your team members

Your company's customer service reps are the cornerstone of your customer service efforts. To maximize customer satisfaction, provide your team members with the training and education they need to perform at their best.

If you use Gorgias, consider having your agents complete a Gorgias Academy Course, which provide certifications for customer service agents using Gorgias.

2) Use customer feedback to create new policies and procedures

Post-experience surveys aren’t just for measuring satisfaction. Open-ended questions allow customers to communicate why they loved their experience or — perhaps more importantly — why they didn’t. Comb through those responses to find areas of opportunity for your customer experience. 

Most feedback will fall into two categories:

1. Policy: e.g. your company doesn’t accept returns
2. Experience: e.g. the customer had to jump through a bunch of hoops to resolve their issue

Take note of patterns in customer feedback to guide you toward the most high-impact opportunities. You may not be able to act today, but this qualitative feedback is gold as you set your long-term roadmap. 

3) Give rewards to team members who provide exceptional customer service

I remember working with a company that went out of its way to reward customer service agents with high customer satisfaction rates. At our Support All Hands, people would read tickets with exceptional support out loud. For example, one customer with a particular sense of humor wrote in old English, so our agent responded in old English to solve his issue. The customer wrote back, "[your brand] just gets me," and proceeded to come back again and again. The Agent got recognized as the go-to for clever replies, and it boosted morale on the floor. 

While rewards such as this may seem trivial, everyone loves being recognized for their hard work. Even something as simple as a few words of appreciation can go a long way toward boosting your customer service team's morale and performance.

4) Consider developing an omnichannel customer service strategy

If contacting a call center is the only customer service option you provide to your customers, you are probably missing out on many opportunities to make your customer service more convenient and accessible. Omnichannel customer service turns communication channels such as SMS, social media, email, and live chat into customer support channels, making it as easy and convenient as possible for customers to reach out to your company for assistance. 

At Stitch Fix, we found that simply adding phone instilled more trust for our target demographic. We saw significant increases in AOV, repeat purchase rate, and conversion. We found that phone made more sense for specific instances and actually saved expenses when it came to billing and urgent issues (like an address change) because we would either get notified faster or reduce tons of back and forth. Overall, the additional channel netted Stitch Fix $1.2 million. 

Remember that every time a customer reaches out for help is an opportunity to create a positive experience. Be sure that your omnichannel support strategy is convenient and consistent, so customers can expect the same support quality no matter what communication channel they choose.

5) Lean on customer self-service

Customer self-service options such as knowledge bases, FAQ pages, and automation like AI chatbots can improve your customer service ROI in two key ways. For one, self-service options can reduce your customer service expenses by eliminating many customer support tickets you’d otherwise pay a human agent to handle. 

In addition to reducing expenses, lowering your support ticket volume can also free up your team to spend more time focusing on complex customer issues that require more personalized service. 

Common issues companies face with customer service ROI

Over the years, I've encountered several common issues while helping companies improve their customer service ROI. Hopefully, examining these common issues will help your company avoid making the same mistakes.

Over-reliance on vanity metrics

Many companies look at the wrong data when evaluating their customer service quality. Rather than looking at the number of support requests your team receives, it's much more enlightening to consider your CSAT score and compare customers who report the best and worst experiences. 

Evaluating the differences between these two groups can tell you much more about what's working well and what isn't than looking at customers who write in versus those who don't.

A false assumption that customer support is an expense, not a growth opportunity

Far too many companies put too much emphasis on lowering customer service costs and not enough emphasis on improving customer satisfaction. While lowering expenses is an integral part of maximizing customer service ROI, offering fast first response times and high-quality service is even more critical in the long run.

When you consider the rising cost of acquiring customers, it puts the cost of investing in your support to retain customers into perspective. Industry standard says the cost of acquiring a customer costs (at minimum) 5 times more than the cost of retaining one. A customer who gives you a ⅕ CSAT probably won’t come back — if it would have cost you $5 extra to make sure they were delighted, you now have to spend $25 to win a new customer instead. 

Reluctance to invest in a scalable customer service organization

Providing excellent customer service is easy when support tickets are few and far between. But as companies grow and ticket volume increases, a more strategic and efficient approach to customer service is often required. Usually, this means investing in tools and processes. 

But again, if companies view customer support as a cost center, the impact of customer support is limited. (Which makes leaders reluctant to invest in tools and processes. Which limits the impact. You see the cycle.)

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How to present customer service ROI to company leaders

Before you can achieve an optimal customer service ROI, you'll first need to convince your company's management team that customer service is a worthwhile investment. To this end, you can highlight several key metrics when proposing your customer service ROI strategy, including:

• Percent of revenue on the expense side
• Cost per ticket
• Cost per order

By comparing these metrics against metrics such as NPS, CSAT, and churn rates, you can present a compelling argument for investing in customer service. Thankfully, Gorgias makes it easier than ever to demonstrate the importance of customer service ROI by providing you with access to a wealth of customer service data, including revenue statistics — all of which you can customize and quickly pull from your Gorgias dashboard.

Boost your business's customer service ROI with Gorgias

If you are looking for a simple solution to optimize your company's customer service ROI, Gorgias' industry-leading customer service platform is a great option. 

With Gorgias, you can easily develop an omnichannel customer service strategy that enables you to offer customer service via social media, SMS, email, live chat, and numerous other channels. You can also implement self-service options to improve convenience, reduce ticket volume, access insightful customer service analytics, and more. 

To see how our powerful customer service solutions can dramatically boost your business's customer service ROI, be sure to sign up for Gorgias today!

When customers reach out to your support team, they expect their problems addressed promptly and accurately. Providing an effortless experience for your customers is one of the best ways to nail customer support — it may be the difference between keeping that customer for years and never seeing them again. 

The best customer service agents can solve issues quickly and provide high-quality, personalized customer support without delay. But since many issues crop up repeatedly, written and call center scripts are a smart way to empower agents when they're dealing with frustrated or angry customers.

Not all customer service interactions can (or should be) scripted. But by developing scripts for your most repetitive questions you can give more time and attention to complex and high-impact tickets that need a human touch. 

Below, we put together customer service scripts for 29 common scenarios, inspired by top ecommerce brands that use Gorgias, like Steve Madden, Timbuk2, and Vinter’s Daughter.

What are customer service scripts? 

Customer service scripts are pre-written answers to questions that customers commonly ask. By proactively writing out answers, or creating scripts, companies prepare team members with thorough, correct answers, thereby helping them build strong problem-solving skills. This creates a more helpful, supportive experience than expecting customer service reps to think of good answers on the fly, especially if they’re dealing with frustrated customers. 

When are customer service scripts useful?

Scripts can be useful at any point in the customer interaction, however, they’re particularly useful during situations that recur often: calming angry customers, directing customers to resources like your returns policy, and answering frequently asked questions just to name a few. These are responses that will change very little from one customer to the next, so using a script can save time and provide a consistent customer service experience.

Customer service scripts can live in an internal knowledge base or standalone document library. However, scripts are most helpful when they’re integrated into your helpdesk or customer service platform. This way, your customer service agents can pull up, populate, and modify scripts without any copy/pasting or tab switching — no matter which customer support channel they’re using, from social media and email to live chat and SMS.

Related: Read our guide on omnichannel customer service to learn how to unite all these channels.

On Gorgias, scripts are called Macros and include variables that automatically populate with customer information, like the customer’s name, order number, and more:

29 customer service scripts categorized by topic

Customer service scripts are a highly effective way of keeping your team members on the same page and providing quick resolutions for customer issues. However, you do need to take some time upfront to create different scripts that specifically address common issues and questions. Otherwise, they won't be valuable or hit the mark.

Below, we’ve categorized several common potential customer service issues and provided several sample scripts for each one. Feel free to use them as inspiration as you create your own templates, but remember to adjust the language to fit your branding — no two companies have the exact same style.

Scripts to cover shipping issues 

These scripts deal with lost or slow shipments, questions about shipping costs, and needing to change the shipping date after an order has been placed. 

1) Tracking shipment 

Hello! Thanks for reaching out! Here is the link that you can use to track your shipment: [support agent pastes tracking number for last order]. Alternatively, we have also sent a follow-up email with your tracking information. Look for the subject line, “Your order has shipped!”

We are here if you need more information!

Enrich your responses with real-time data from Shopify

Using a customer helpdesk connected to your ecommerce platform, you could insert customer variables like the last order ID and tracking URL dynamically into your answer. Here is what could look like the previous template:

Hello! We are happy to help! Your tracking number is {{Tracking number of last order}}, and I have also included a link to track your package below for your convenience: {{Tracking URL of last order}} For further questions regarding your shipment or anything else, please feel free to contact us!  

2) Late shipment

We are terribly sorry about the delay in the shipment! Sometimes, the delivery is out of our hands and unfortunately we cannot speed things up. We do appreciate you and we are always transparent about any shortcomings from our side. For your convenience, we are sharing the tracking link {{Tracking URL of last order}}. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you! 

To thank you for your patience, here’s a $10 coupon off your next order.

3) Lost shipment 

Thank you for reaching out! Our team is so sorry to hear that you were unable to locate the missing package. Rest assured we will remedy this situation for you. 

We can offer two options: we can ship a replacement to you or a full refund for the order instead. In case you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you please confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We are looking forward to receiving your reply.

4) Need to change shipping options after ordering 

I understand that you want to change your shipping option so you can receive this order as quickly as possible. If this is correct, not a problem :) We just cancelled the order and can re-order the item with your desired shipping option. Please note that the additional cost is [$]. Let us know if there is anything else we can do for you!

Scripts to address order issues 

Few things get under a customer's skin quicker than having trouble placing an order. Dealing with these customer interactions quickly and helpfully can be the difference between creating a loyal customer, or losing a first-time customer. 

5) Can’t place an order 

Thank you for reporting this! I will make sure this is addressed with our team. Would you mind letting me know which product you are purchasing so that we can help right away? Thank you :)

6) System placed order incorrectly (system error) 

We are terribly sorry for this inconvenience. I can fix this right now for you. Would you mind sending us your order number so that we can change and remove incorrectly added items?

7) Customer wants to change their order within the allowable time limit 

Hey there! I have just checked your order information, and since it was purchased within an allowable timeframe, we would be happy to make the requested changes. If you would like to fully cancel the order instead, just let us know and we can do that for you as well. 

8) Customer wants to change their order outside of the allowable time limit  

Thank you for your request! We are sorry to say that we are not able to process the change, since your order is currently on the way. If you are interested in returning your order, please follow the instructions from our page here, you will find all the needed details! We are sorry that we are not able to help more and we thank you for your understanding!

 9) No order confirmation email 

I understand that you didn’t receive an order confirmation. How long ago was the order placed? 

Did you see a thank-you page screen after ordering? Thank you for the details provided, this will help us fix the issue fast!

Scripts to address product issues

Being able to use customer service scripts to address issues customers experience with your product mitigates the issue quickly and increases the chances you can keep customer satisfaction intact. 

10) Product listing issues (not as described, pictured) 

Thank you for reaching out and for the details you have provided! To process your return, would you mind clicking on “Get a return label” link here? Once this is done, we will continue processing your refund. If you have any other feedback regarding the product, we would be happy to hear it!

11) Negative product reviews 

I understand you have concerns about some of the reviews you’ve seen. Our product isn’t a fit for everyone, but we have 2,000 positive reviews from customers who love it and we are always transparent and upfront! There are no risks, as we offer a full refund if you ship the unused portion back to us within 30 days.

12) Product questions  

I see you’ve got some questions about your product! We would be happy to help. Ask away.

13) Damaged products 

We are terribly sorry for this inconvenience. We aim to provide the most excellent service and carry our business to high standards We try our best to make sure items reach you in perfect condition, but sometimes mistakes happen that are out of our reach. Please send the item back to us using a prepaid label, which you can print here: (link). We’ll ship you a replacement right away.

Thank you for understanding!

Scripts to cover returns 

Requests for returns are one of the most common queries to come through customer service tickets. Customers often looking to bend the rules during the phone call or live chat session can pose a unique challenge to representatives who need to provide good service, but also follow company policies. Here are three must-have scripts for addressing tricky returns issues. 

14) Request to return the product 

Thanks for contacting us! We allow returns up to 30 days from the purchase date for all items except clearance items. You can initiate your return and print a shipping label with our easy return portal here: (link)

15) Request to return a product outside of policy 

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, your order is outside the window of return. However, because it is only outside the window by a couple of days, I can allow you to return the item. Please confirm you’d still like to return it and I will email the prepaid shipping label. If we don’t receive the product within 10 days, we will not be able to accept your return. 

Or...

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, your order is unable to be returned because it is well outside of the time window (30 days) outlined in our return policy. 

16) Tracking the status of a return 

Thank you for reaching out! Let us provide a timeline here. We typically refund orders within 3 to 5 business days from receiving them. I can see that your package is expected to arrive tomorrow, so you should expect to receive your refund within 2 weeks.

Integrate customer service and returns software for a better CX

Leveraging product integrations that work seamlessly with your customer service platforms can put the power of returns primarily into the customer’s hands. Gorgias’ Loop integration does exactly that, letting customers take control of their returns on their own time and giving them a better customer experience in the process. 

The integration is valuable to your support team, too: Instead of spending time on return tickets, they can focus on new customers, shipping issues, etc.

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Scripts to cover billing and payment inquiries

Staying friendly and accommodating during a customer service call can be difficult, depending on the customer's attitude. Customer service scripts keep your team members — especially new customer service agents — on track and focused on resolving the problem at hand. 

17) Accepted payment options 

Hi, thank you for contacting us. Regarding payment, we accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, and gift cards. Anything else we can help you with?

18) Paypal acceptance

Yes, we do offer PayPal! Just select PayPal and you’ll be prompted to log in and choose your payment method through PayPal.

19) PayPal issues 

Thank you for reporting that. Like all platforms, unfortunately, PayPal has issues sometimes. Since this is a third-party app, we don’t have access to troubleshoot your account. Please ensure that your login information is correct and contact PayPal support with any issues. Alternatively, you can complete your order using a credit card or debit card. Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with!

Scripts to address gift card questions or problems

Many ecommerce companies receive lots of questions about using gift cards. From checking its balance to troubleshooting why it’s not working, answering gift card questions is crucial to maintaining customer satisfaction and building brand loyalty. 

20) Gift card balance

Thanks for contacting us about your gift card balance. You can find that information by entering the gift card number here: (link)

Let me know if I can help you with anything else!

21) Gift card policy 

Gift card balances expire after 6 years and can be used for any purchase, including clearance items. For our full gift card policy, please visit this link: (link)

22) Gift card not working

We will look right into that, thank you for reporting it. Would you kindly provide us with the gift card number? 

Scripts to cover coupon code questions or problems 

Issues with using coupons can enrage even the calmest customer. You can avoid this problem by having friendly, helpful customer service scripts on hand to solve the most common problems that come up with coupon codes. 

23) Coupon code not working 

Not to worry, we will look into that immediately! It seems that the coupon doesn’t apply to your order. However, here’s a coupon for free shipping that you can use for orders over $50. 

24) Stacking coupon codes 

Unfortunately, coupon codes can’t be used together. Would you mind choosing one coupon code to use per order? If there is anything else needed please let us know!

Scripts to address user account issues 

There can be a lot of user account issues that can frustrate customers who are trying to log in, check order status, or initiate a return. Make sure that your customer service team is trained in requesting the additional information needed, such as their account number or order number, to troubleshoot the issue. The following three scripts can help address common customer requests regarding user accounts.

25) Can’t log in

Not a problem, we can definitely help with that. Can you please use the “forgot username” or “forgot password” buttons here? (login link)

26) User account not showing order 

I understand that the order isn’t showing up in your account. Please note that it can take up to 30 minutes for the order to show on your account. Would you mind confirming that this timeframe has passed since you placed the order? Thank you.

27) Other user account issues 

We are terribly sorry for this inconvenience. Would you mind sharing a bit more details about the issue you have experienced so that we can fix that for you? 

Scripts to answer website QA issues

When customers discover issues on your site, use the right words to show your appreciation. Check out these quick scripts to use when a customer discovers a bug or issue on your website or ecommerce store.

28) Error discovery 

Great catch! Thank you for reporting it. Our development team will fix it ASAP. Can I help you with anything else?

29) Confusing pages or elements 

I’m sorry about that! I can see what you mean — that is confusing and could be improved. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know about this issue. Our development team will fix it ASAP. Can I help you with anything else?

The benefits of customer service scripts in ecommerce 

As touched on above, customer service script templates help support agents address customer needs with consistent, uniform responses. They also help with customer service training and strengthen customer relationships. Beyond being an excellent way to mitigate customer issues with ease and consistency, customer service scripts offer the following benefits:

Unlocks cost savings by reducing manual work 

Make it easy for your customer service representatives to instantly access scripted responses inside of your ecommerce helpdesk. This reduces the time it takes to either craft a response from scratch or hunt for the template in a wiki. 

You can further cut back on manual time by automating ecommerce customer service, which we’ll cover in more detail towards the end of this guide.

Minimizes customer service team stress 

Providing great customer service can be stressful, even for senior support reps. They need tools like customer scripts to help them be prepared and stay on top of issues — fast. Instead of expecting your team members to formulate and articulate answers as they're dealing with impatient, frustrated, and difficult customers, scripts help them keep a cool head. Positive scripting reduces customer frustration and relieves stress on both sides as your team members work toward a resolution.

Standardizes support quality 

You don’t want one customer to have a great customer service experience and another customer to have a bad one. This inconsistency can reflect poorly on your brand: Customers won’t know what to expect when contacting you, and you’ll end up with some negative online reviews and social media comments.

Scripts help everyone — even new agents — follow company procedures and policies, and even adopt a standardized tone of voice.

Here are the four core ingredients to high-quality support:

Related: Our best strategies for improving the quality of your customer service program.

Streamlines the onboarding process 

Customer support positions are prone to twice the average rate of employee turnover. You can mitigate high employee turnover with faster onboarding. Get new customer service team members up to speed with ready-to-use scripts. Scripts reduce many of the customer problems that crop up during a team member’s first few days or weeks on the job, like “How do I answer this question?” and “What’s the protocol for this type of customer issue?”

However, scripts only help if your team uses them. An internal knowledge base is a great way to house your scripts so that your team members can easily access them when needed, whether they’re a new hire or an established employee. 

Here are a few signals your customer service team may need some additional training and resources like customer service scripts:

Related: Our Director of Support’s guide to training for customer service.

Allows for faster issue resolution 

When your support team uses customer support script templates, they can resolve issues more quickly, leading to increased customer satisfaction and effortless customer experience. 

It is always a good practice to incorporate articles from your knowledge base or FAQ into your scripts. For example, your scripts and FAQ page should both address common customer questions, like those about your shipping policy. 

For example, men’s jewelry brand Jaxxon makes their shipping policy available as a Quick Response Flow (or an autoresponse) in their live chat widget and on their FAQ page. This way, shoppers have two methods of understanding the company’s shipping process without having to reach out to customer service:

If your business doesn’t have an FAQ or knowledge base yet, consider adding one to your ecommerce store as an easy way to address customer questions and improve user experience. These resources can deflect repetitive tickets by giving customers self-service information with minimal (or even zero) direction from an agent. Find out more about how to set one up and take a look at some great FAQ pages in action.

Related: Our guide to reducing resolution time, with insights from our Director of Customer Support. 

How to automate customer service responses 

Automation is one of the best ways to build an efficient customer support team, and this includes prewritten live chat scripts. While leaning on technological functionality like automated responses saves time and effort while ensuring consistent quality, it also has the added benefit of providing much more step-by-step information for customers. 

For example, a scripted response to, “Where is my order?” still requires the agent to manually go look up the order and shipping details. But when utilizing technology like Gorgias’ Macros, that information can be automatically pulled from Shopify or BigCommerce and sent to the customer — in a templated format that’s consistent with your brand’s voice:

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The response is only the beginning. When you pair Macros with automated Rules, you can also trigger actions like assigning tickets to agents, prioritizing tickets, changing shipping addresses, refunding orders, and so much more:

With a helpdesk for ecommerce like Gorgias, your entire team can access and use your library of templated customer service scripts (Macros) to accelerate and improve their responses.

Gorgias also offers robust, intuitive customer service automation tools that are much more customer-friendly than most other platforms’ chatbots. Through Gorgias’ Automate, merchants don't even have to dig into Shopify data and send a scripted response — customers can find and change order details right within the chat box, no agent attention required:

Go beyond customer service scripts with dynamic auto-responses and self-service

Customer service scripts are priceless tools for your customer service agents. Using them effectively reduces response times, and helps with resolution time since your agents will have everything prepared for them upfront. This workflow keeps everyone satisfied: customers for getting fast resolution and agents for not having to type in the same response over and over again.

Gorgias’ deep integration with Shopify and other ecommerce platforms makes it easier than ever to set up Rules and Macros that empower your agents to work through repetitive tickets faster so they can focus on the most important customer conversations.

Check out our Loop Earplugs customer story to see how Gorgias helped Loop decrease WISMO (“where is my order”) tickets from 17% to 5% by providing self-service information, and increase revenue from CX by 43% using Gorgias Automate.

“We’ve seen 43% increase in revenue from customer support since we launched pre-sales flows. Quick response flows give us the ability to build trust with our customers and that’s priceless. When customers get a quick and honest answer, they often end up buying more than one product in a short span of time. Seeing customers live the life we’re aiming to create for them in Loop Earplugs is extremely rewarding for us.”

— Milan Vanmarcke, Customer Service Manager

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Key Takeaways:

• Effective customer service hinges on excellent hiring, the right tools, clear processes, and an efficient training program for support agents
• The ideal support agent should demonstrate patience, effective, communication, adaptability in ambiguous situations, active listening, and empathy
• Key indicators your customer service team needs training: negative feedback, disjointed communication, outdated information, compliance violations, inconsistent brand voice, new tool adoption, and slow or confused agents

Your brand’s customer service team has a direct impact on the success of your business: 

• 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer experience, according to a Salesforce report
• 73% of customers will leave your brand for a competitor after fewer than just three poor service experiences, according to Retail Dive

Great customer service hinges on a few things: excellent hiring, the right tools, clear processes, and an effective customer service training program. How you prepare your support agents, from onboarding to ongoing coaching, will come to fruition in your brand’s growth (or lack thereof).

In this guide, we’ll cover all the basics of customer service training, including the types of training that directly impact revenue. We'll also give you 15 effective training activities to try, and five Gorgias customer service training courses to help you sharpen your team’s skills and multiply its impact.

What is customer service training?

Customer service training is everything you as a customer support leader do to help customer service team members be as effective as possible. This includes onboarding agents, creating training resources, providing ongoing coaching, and more.

Customer service training is one of the greatest levers you have to improve your team’s impact on the business. If customer service representatives are continuously building up their repertoire of customer service techniques and skills, they can handle customer service requests faster and with more accuracy, boost customer satisfaction, upsell customers and get more reviews and referrals, and find new ways to provide an excellent customer service experience. 

What to cover in your customer service training

Regardless of what skill(s) your customer service team requires training on, there are some aspects that you should include no matter what. These sections can also help you create a template of modules to apply to any training your employees require — even outside of customer service. 

Let's dive into big-ticket training items in order from most important to least important. 

Product and service knowledge

Everyone on your customer support team should be an expert regarding your products and service offerings. If there is a clear lack of knowledge in one particular area within product knowledge, focus on that. Otherwise, you can open up a discussion to evaluate where the team is as a whole in terms of their product and service knowledge, then offer suggestions or additional points they can weave into their go-to highlights.

A common example is to make sure everyone knows how your referral program or exchange process works. All agents should be able to explain exactly what a customer needs to do for either of those programs — down to which buttons to click. If that’s a problem for your agents, it will trickle down and become a problem for your customers.

Policy and process knowledge (like shipping, returns, and exchanges)

Policy knowledge is the next area to consider in all customer service training. Again, you can customize which type of policy knowledge training to include based on what the training is about. 

For example, suppose you’re involved in customer service training to address poor feedback from customers about your brand’s exchange policy. In that case, you may want to ensure all customer service team members know the policy inside and out — and how to talk about it with customers. This could also be an opportunity to address cracks or flaws in already-established policies and potentially update them to be more customer-friendly. 

Customer service tools (like your helpdesk and any automation you use)

You’ll want to include any effective customer service tools currently used by the customer service team in training sessions. This could include a helpdesk, Help Center, or other automation tools you use. 

With customer service, you may hire agents without previous experience using a helpdesk. It’s more important to hire someone with great soft skills and dedication to customer success than someone with helpdesk experience. So, be sure to cover the basics in your onboarding training, including where to find open tickets, how ticket assignment works, how to use templates, etc. 

If you’re still shopping for a customer support platform, consider seeking one with built-in agent training. This will help you train agents on your new system (and onboard new agents) much faster than creating your own training. At Gorgias, we offer a series of courses and customer service certifications called Gorgias Academy to help agents of all levels get more comfortable with the tool:

Technical skills

Solid technical and problem-solving skills are extremely important for members of your customer service team — these skills will help make the entire customer service department run more smoothly and help support a great customer experience. 

Things like knowledge of the hardware your company uses as well as processes within the company can ensure customer issues are addressed quickly and correctly the first time. The most common example is following an internal escalation process to talk to the right person, be it the engineering team or the product developers This will help solve client issues quicker, which keeps customers happy.

The difference between a good and bad ticket

Another area to include in customer service onboarding and training should be good and bad ticket examples. Everyone in your organization — regardless of team affiliation — should know what a good ticket looks like and what a bad ticket looks like. 

Often, the difference between a good and a bad ticket is obvious, like whether a ticket correctly explains what the customer should do next. Another consideration is whether the ticket reflects your brand values: Your customers should get a solid feel for your organization's values through how customer service reps respond to their inquiries. 

To incorporate good and bad tickets into your training, you should develop a detailed guide for ticket quality — some brands even set up the document like a scorecard that all other tickets could be measured against. The document should explain every aspect of a “good” ticket, from voice and tone to correctness. Consider including the response and resolution times of the ticket. (This is important because 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question.) 

You can share this document during onboarding and use it for ongoing ticket reviews from peers and managers. For example, you can discuss a couple of tickets during team meetings. Read the interaction from beginning to end, then have customer service team members vote on which ticket is the “good” example and which is the “bad” example, followed by a group discussion.

Branding considerations, including voice and tone

As mentioned, your brand’s values should be reflected in how customer service reps respond to customers. What kind of tone do you want to portray to customers? Professional and friendly? Helpful and casual? Whatever supports your brand, be sure customer reps know how to translate it into writing. 

In order to scale these efforts, create voice and tone guidelines that explain your brand’s level of formality, certain phrases you like to use (and avoid), and anything else you’d like to standardize across the team. If you use Gorgias, make sure your templated Macros are updated with these voice and tone expectations. 

Soft skills

Customer service teams aren't only adept in the technical department. The most effective agents exhibit exceptional soft skills like patience, effective, communication, adaptability in ambiguous situations, active listening, and empathy, all of which contribute to building positive customer relationships.

Patience

Dealing with frustrated or upset customers requires patience. Customer service agents need to remain calm and composed while addressing inquiries or complaints.

Effective communication

Clear and accurate communication is a vital soft skill for agents as it reduces misunderstandings and ensures customers receive the most up-to-date information.

Adaptability in ambiguous situations

One of the most valuable customer service skills is being comfortable with ambiguity. This skill allows customer service teams to adapt to unique situations, think on their feet, and provide solutions when the situation may not have a straightforward answer.

Active listening

Active listening enables support agents to fully understand customers' concerns, leading to more accurate issue resolution and improved customer satisfaction.

Empathy

Empathy is essential in showing customers that their feelings and concerns are understood, which leads to more positive interactions and long-term customer loyalty.

These soft skills are a great fit for role-playing exercises, which we’ll discuss later on.

Key customer services phrases and terms

In customer service, there are many words and phrases only other customer service reps can understand. These words and phrases can make working together as a team more seamless and lead to a greater understanding among team members. Read up on our list of essential customer service phrases to use (and avoid) to help keep communication strong with your customers.

15 customer service training activities for your team to try

Once you have the outline of your customer service training, you’ll want to plan certain activities to support each module. Here are some customer service training ideas to try that will boost quality customer service and serve as team building. 

Training activities to boost product knowledge

Your product is the most important aspect of your business because without it, there would be no customers. Because of this, support associates must be experts on the products customers are buying, and be up to date on all of the latest updates and product additions. Ensure your customer service reps are product experts using these training exercises. 

1) Review customer interactions 

Reviewing customer interactions can be nerve-wracking for some team members. That said, they should serve as a learning experience — not as a time to call anyone out on skills that may be lacking. If you can, anonymize the customer interactions you share in the training. 

Also, use the guidelines on good vs. bad tickets described above to make sure these are standardized critiques and everyone is working toward the same goal.

2) Analyze product demos from the sales team

If you’re a brand with a product that shares demos with potential customers, conduct a deep dive into those product demos. This can ensure your customer service team is well acquainted with what customers are experiencing on the sales side of the process and may help anticipate customer questions about the product.

3) Dedicate time to reading about your product

An ongoing practice customer service reps can participate in is setting aside time each week to stay current on the company’s product. This could mean reading updated website information, briefs from other departments, and even blogs published on your brand’s website. 

If you don’t already have a help center or knowledge base, consider creating one — both for customers to help themselves, as well as for agents to brush up on product and process knowledge without having to bug their manager.

4) Test out your company’s product or service 

If you’re a software company or provide a digital service, testing your product is the simplest way to put yourself in your customer's shoes. Run through typical use cases for your product from your customer's perspective and assess how it stacks up to common pain points.

5) Create a Loom to share every new product update

Each time you launch a new product, your agents are on the hook for understanding it and communicating clearly with new customers and repeat buyers. As a way to provide real-time training for any updates, create a Loom (a screen recording) that walks customer service agents through everything they need to know to meet customer needs. Depending on the product, this could be information about the product’s sizing, materials, pricing, or compatibility with other products.

To solidify the new knowledge, you can test agents with a quiz after watching the video. And while we framed this section around new product releases, you could implement the same strategy to teach agents about a new process agents should follow, or a new ticket management system you just introduced.

Training activities to increase process knowledge

Processes can make or break a team — especially in customer experience — and are only as good as those executing them. Therefore, boosting process knowledge is key when it comes to ongoing training methods.

6) Try to stump your agents

Give your customer service agents a challenging situation relating to shipping, returns, or exchanges (like an order from someone out of the country, for example) to see whether they know how the business’s policy applies.

7) "Explain it like I’m five"

Good customer service is clear and jargon-free so all customers can understand. Ask your agents to explain aspects of complicated company processes in the simplest way possible — like you're a five-year-old. While your ecommerce store should clearly state the policies, agents should be able to articulate the need-to-know information in a way that almost anyone could understand. 

Training exercises to enhance communication skills

Communication is at the core of a great customer experience. Use these exercises to enhance your customer service reps’ communication prowess. 

8) Study standout tickets where agents navigated tricky questions or provided helpful answers

Similar to reviewing good and bad tickets, you can share and analyze support tickets that were particularly tricky with your entire customer service team. If you review and discuss difficult or complex situations, your service reps will have a reference point when they encounter tickets with similar complexity. It also may be helpful for newer customer service associates to hear from more experienced associates about how they approach difficult customer questions.

In addition to regular reviews as a group, encourage agents to poke through your helpdesk and see how other agents handle interactions with customers.

9) Take an online Udemy or Coursera course

Building online training courses into your customer service training can be a helpful way for customer service reps to work on skills in between formal training sessions. Udemy and Coursera offer hundreds of courses, many of which are free, covering communication and soft skills in customer service. Here are two excellent Udemy courses to encourage your team to take before the next structured training:

• Improve Communication: Speak Smoothly, Clearly & Confidently
• Communication Fundamentals: How To Communicate Better

10) Role-play as customers

Role-play is a tried and true exercise that can be extremely helpful in customer service training. You could lead many types of role-playing in a customer service interaction like a simulated call center to practice phone calls — or even a simulated digital customer service interaction on social media, live chat, or SMS.

Customer service training activities for better listening skills

Part of communication is listening, and active listening is an imperative skill as a customer service team member. Use these activities with your team to improve your active listening. 

11) Do the “draw that” activity

To help hone listening skills, play a game where one person has a photo of a design and describes to another person how to draw the design on a whiteboard without looking at it. The game requires both parties to be engaged and overly communicative to get the desired end result.  

12) Play a game of Hot or Cold?

Even as an adult, a game of hot or cold can be a simple way to exercise communication and listening skills. One person closes their eyes (or is blindfolded), while the rest of the team directs them to an object — but the catch is they can only say “hot” or “cold.” All players need to be alert and engaged with each other to keep the game going and ultimately help the blindfolded player find the object.

13) Take an online Udemy or Coursera course

Listening and communication go hand in hand, and just like communication, there are some great online courses available to help foster better active listening. Check out these two from Udemy: 

• The Power of Deep Listening 
• Listening Skills - The Ultimate Workplace Soft Skills

Customer service training to boost technical skills

In-depth knowledge of the product and the ability to quickly manage technical troubleshooting will elevate a good customer experience to a great customer experience. This can also help develop good customer relationships — and customer loyalty. Here are some ways to help customer service staff boost their technical skills. 

14) Have a TypeRacer challenge for your team

The faster someone can type without mistakes, the faster they can answer customer inquiries. As a fun way to boost your team’s typing speed (and encourage some healthy competition), run a TypeRacer challenge to see who can get the best score. You can even offer a small prize or incentive for the winner. 

15) Attend a seminar on your product/service

Attending a seminar about your product is another technique to put yourself in your customer's shoes. If another department is hosting an online or in-person seminar, encourage the team to attend to gain insights that they may not get elsewhere (Note: You may need to put your team members on a rotating schedule so that everyone can attend). 

Key indicators your customer service team needs training

Beyond onboarding new employees, you should conduct customer service training regularly, as well as on an as-needed basis. Your ongoing training can be done as a refresher bi-annually, for example. Still, there are some instances when your customer service team (including team leaders) will need more rigorous training in specific areas. 

But how will you know if your team needs training if they don't even know? There are a couple of things to look for. Keep the following red flags in mind to help you address potential customer experience issues before they get out of hand. 

Your brand is getting negative customer feedback

There will always be some customer complaints, but your customer service team will want to address these complaints internally in a reasonable amount of time. This is especially true when your team hears the same negative customer feedback repeatedly. 

Some leading indicators of this issue include low NPS scores, negative CSAT survey responses, and negative reviews of the company on public websites. If you notice any of these, look over your recent interactions with customers to see if you’ve been giving slow, unhelpful, or inaccurate answers. If you’re not already sending CSAT surveys, a helpdesk like Gorgias can help you automatically send them after interactions and see trends in responses over time:

Communication (email writing, responding to chats, and social media responses) is disjointed

Communicating via the written word is a large part of what customer service representatives do, so if there is a clear lack of skills when it comes to writing skills, team leads should provide additional training. And keep in mind that communication expectations vary across different formats: email versus social media, for example, should vary in message length, tone, emoji usage, etc.

If you don’t have guides for tone and voice, you may run into responses that vary in quality. For example, one agent may use a very casual tone while others use a formal tone. 

You can get a sense of the unification of tone by periodically reviewing tickets in your helpdesk. Also, if you see that certain agents have very high resolution times, it could be a signal that their responses aren’t helpful and interactions go on longer than they should. With Gorgias, you can see all of your agents’ metrics — like online time, tickets closed, and open tickets — at a glance. You can use this view to see if any agents are lagging in terms of tickets closed for their number of hours worked.

Your agents are giving unhelpful or outdated information about your product and processes

The way your brand talks about products or services will inevitably change over time. But to achieve the highest customer satisfaction, your customer experience associates must provide the most updated information to customers. If they aren’t — or there is a definite gap in the information that team members provide — it's time to set up some internal training. 

A common example of this is customer service agents using outdated processes to apply refund credits to customer accounts. If agents add these credits in different ways (or to different places), customers may need to reach out again because they don’t see updated credits on their end. 

One leading indicator of this issue is a high repeat contact rate from customers who didn’t actually get the issue resolved.

You have violated HIPAA or other compliance regulations

A clear indicator that your team may need additional training is if you’ve been notified of a HIPAA or other compliance regulation breach. Violations are more common for healthcare and legal providers, and usually include sharing private identifying information in public channels or leaving devices and documents unattended. 

Depending on the type of regulation, there are specific training courses to take as refreshers. For example, if your company must meet HIPAA guidelines, then HIPAA compliance officer training may be beneficial for your customer service team leaders. From there, they can monitor the agents on the team and provide feedback and additional training as needed. 

You want a consistent tone for your company voice

When your company is still in its startup phase, you may still be modifying your brand voice. Having training to cover the company's tone will be beneficial to get all customer support staff on the same page.

Clear quality guidelines that explain what makes a ticket “good” or “bad” will help create standardized expectations and make ticket quality more consistent across your team. We’ll discuss these guidelines more below.

You’ve recently upgraded your customer service tools

If you’ve recently added a tool to your customer service team’s tech stack, like a helpdesk, it's important to get your agents up to speed as fast and efficiently as possible. This will help limit the number of mistakes made and improve the speed at which your agents can use the tool, which will help limit the number of frustrated customers. 

Your agents are slow and often confused

If you have a single agent with particularly long response and resolution times, you may need to pull them aside for some one-on-one coaching. But if your entire team runs into a lot of issues in their day-to-day ticket handling, you probably need to bolster your training program and create an internal knowledge base with helpful resources about your product and policy.

Additionally, using Macros can help speed up agents and reduce confusion by giving them a clear start for common issues. A Macro that automatically inserts a link to a customer's tracking URL, for example, could reduce inaccurate answers and time spent on WISMO requests.

How long should your customer service onboarding be?

Customer service training should be the most in-depth when a team member is brand new. For most brands, your customer support agents should be able to handle tickets on the frontline within their first couple of weeks and, depending on the complexity of tickets, should be fully onboarded and ramped within their first two or three months. 

During these onboarding and ramp-up periods, the training should go over essential product knowledge and internal processes pertinent to succeeding in their role on the customer service team.

Once your new hire is fully onboarded, spend anywhere up to five hours a month on dedicated training time. This could include conducting post-mortems on old tickets, role-playing with a manager, taking a course to sharpen a customer service skill, or something else depending on which areas will have the biggest impact.

5 Gorgias customer service training courses to upgrade your training

Online training options and webinars can be great for remote teams and teams who may need more flexibility when completing certain training. If you’ve recently started using Gorgias within your customer service team or are thinking of adopting the platform, here are five courses to include in your training materials to help your team get up to speed.

Basic Agent Training

This training is a perfect place to start for support agents who are new to Gorgias. After the training, your support team will be able to easily navigate Gorgias and be ready to answer support tickets. 

Register for Gorgias Basic Agent Training here >>

Lead Agent Training

If your company uses Shopify and Gorgias, this training is for your customer support agents who are already familiar with the platform but want to take their customer service skills to the next level to lead customer service teams. 

Register for Gorgias Lead Agent Training here >>

Working with Rules

Setting up and working with rules in Gorgias is a major aspect of the platform, so this training is ideal for customer service reps who want to learn more about rules on an intermediate level. This course will help agents create new rules, manage rules in your brand’s account, and troubleshoot basic issues. 

Register for Gorgias Working with Rules training here >>

Admin Power User Course

For administrative customer support staff who want to take their Gorgias use to the next level, this course will walk them through how to answer questions to be awarded a “power user” certificate. The course also offers productivity tips and advanced insight into Gorgias’ customizations. 

Register for Gorgias Admin Power User Course here >>

Support Agent Power User Course

Similar to the admin power user course, this course will super-charge customer support agents with the knowledge to pass the power user certification and teach tips and hidden gems to make their work as support agents even more impactful. 

Register for Gorgias Support Agent Power User Course here >>

The importance of ongoing customer service training

Addressing ongoing training needs within your customer service department helps your team keep up with customer expectations, especially as your brand and tech stack evolve.

Whether or not you are introducing a new system or technology, it's essential to remind team members of your brand's voice and tone. They should also have an opportunity to reflect on it, ask questions, and have their work reviewed on a regular basis. You may even consider lining up ongoing training sessions with quarterly reviews, which can be a good way to make use of time already dedicated to reflecting on performance.

To help develop your customer service training program, you can evaluate your current program using these best practices, or get more practical support tips from the Gorgias customer support team.

Set your customer service team up for success with Gorgias 

Setting your company up for success requires multiple moving parts — one of the largest being a smart and efficient customer care team that provides high-quality customer service. 

Providing solid onboarding and ongoing training will help, but if you’re looking for more, you don’t need to look any further than Gorgias. Our platform can help you streamline all customer service efforts and boost customer retention. Get started today with training ready-made ready for you to pass along to your agents!

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Looking for some customer support statistics to develop your business strategy for 2023? You’re in the right place.

Understanding customer expectations and their impacts on your business is a great way to improve your company’s customer service. For example, it can help you: 

• Make your request for more support resources more compelling and data-backed
• Inform your strategy, including deciding where to invest
• Benchmark your performance against similar companies

In this post, we’ve gathered tons of customer support statistics all in one place so you can understand the objective numbers behind the state of customer service as it stands now.

Customer service stats takeaways

Technology has driven the evolution of ecommerce in many ways, and the same trend rings true when it comes to customer service. Some of the biggest takeaways from this data include: 

• Customer expectations are growing. 79% of businesses believe that customers are smarter and more informed now than in the past. They expect A+ service from every brand. Bad customer service experiences will even cause shoppers to look for alternative options. 
• Seamless cross-channel journeys are challenging, but essential. 53% of consumers say customer support interactions feel “fragmented.” This is a critical challenge, as customers expect the same experience regardless of when and how they’re interacting with brands and service teams. 
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is here. 64% of service professionals who use AI believe it allows them to personalize and improve the service they provide. AI technology is a cost-effective way for brands to keep up. And modern consumers are warming up to the idea, easing concerns about AI leading to bad experiences and issues with privacy, trust, and ethics. 

Recommended reading: 8 Customer Service Trends for 2023

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The state of customer service in 2023

Excellent customer service is becoming both more challenging and a bigger competitive advantage than ever before. To deliver on that, brands have to overcome the challenge of high-effort, disconnected experiences.

• 88% of customers say the experience a brand provides is equally as important as the product or services it sells. This is up from 80% in 2020. Consider a good customer service experience one of the most important things you can sell. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 53% of consumers say customer support interactions feel “fragmented.” This is often due to hold times, handoffs to other customer service representatives, and ill-equipped customer service reps. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 13% of shoppers believe it takes minimal effort to get their issues resolved. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 29% of consumers feel like it takes “a lot” of effort to find solutions to their service issues. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• Simplifying the customer journey while simultaneously reducing call volumes and costs is one of the top three customer service priorities for businesses in 2022. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

• 79% of businesses believe that customers are smarter and more informed now than in the past. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)

• 85% of businesses believe that customers are more likely to share both positive and negative experiences in 2022 than in the past. This could have a huge impact on your company’s word of mouth — a big concern if you’re offering poor customer service experiences. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)
• 27% of customers who place an order reach out to support at some point in the buying journey, based on data from 12k ecommerce brands. (Source: Gorgias data)
• Brands receive an average of 882 monthly tickets, based on data from 12k ecommerce brands. (Source: Gorgias data)
• 61% of customer care leaders have experienced an increase in total calls in 2022. They cite “increased contacts per customer” and a growing customer base as the leading causes. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• Brands’ top four customer service priorities in 2022 are creating a great customer experience (45%), customer success (37%), customer retention (35%), and customer engagement(33%). (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)
• 88% of customer service leaders say customer expectations have soared to an “alltime high” in 2022. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)
• 83% of customers expect to be able to resolve their complex issues with just a single customer support representative. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

The top 10 reasons customers reach out to (ecommerce) support teams (based on a Gorgias survey of 12,000 ecommerce sites) are: 

• Order status
• Returns
• Pre-sale product questions
• Shipping questions when deliveries aren’t received
• Order change
• Order cancellation
• Missing an item from an order
• Marketing
• Negative customer feedback
• Warranty questions

Customer service benchmarks

Customer service is increasingly important, and average response times are decreasing. Benchmarks are helpful to keep in mind to ensure you’re competitive, but it’s equally important to set your own benchmarks and compete against yourself.

• Ecommerce businesses have an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 50. (Source: Retently)
• The customer satisfaction rating (CSAT) on Gorgias is 4.55. (Source: Gorgias data)
• Customer support agents handle an average of 1 ticket per hour. (Source Gorgias data)
• Brands have an average of 3 active agents at any given time. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average resolution time is 18.1 hours. (Source: Gorgias data)

• The average first response time is 11.4 hours. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average first response time on Facebook is 10 hours. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average first response time on email is 7 hours and 34 minutes. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average first response time via contact form is 11 hours and 25 minutes. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average first response time on live chat is 42 minutes. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The average first response time on SMS is 35 minutes hours. (Source: Gorgias data)

• The recommended average resolution time is same-day for email. (Source: Gorgias)
• The recommended average resolution time for SMS tickets is 10 minutes. (Source: Gorgias). (Source: Gorgias)
• Live online chat support queries are typically resolved in under 10 minutes. (Source: Gorgias)
• Customer support interactions over the phone are best resolved in 1 call. (Source: Gorgias)
• Social media queries should ideally have a same-day resolution for comments and a 10-minute resolution for DMs. (Source: Gorgias)

Want to get better at measuring your service? Check out our guide to customer service metrics. 

The importance of great customer service (and danger of poor customer service)

Customer service impacts the bottom line, and customers are willing to share their experiences — good or bad. It also builds trust with shoppers, making them more eager to make a purchase and build a lasting relationship with your brand. 

• 94% of customer respondents say the “treatment of customers” is the top influence on their purchase decisions. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• Improving the customer experience can increase sales revenues by 2%–7% and profitability by 1%–2%. (Source: Prediction: The future of Customer Experience, McKinsey & Company)
• Improvements to customer service also boost overall shareholder return by 7%–10%. (Source: Prediction: The future of Customer Experience, McKinsey & Company)
• 48% of customers will seek out competing brands for better customer service. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• 74% of customers say it’s more important now than before the pandemic for brands to communicate honestly and transparently. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 62% of customers feel an emotional connection to the brands they buy from most, which is amazing for customer loyalty. Impersonal interactions, including irrelevant offers or waiting on hold, damage those relationships. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• Repeat customers account for only 21% of customers, but generate 44% of revenue and 46% of orders. (Source: Gorgias)

• 94% of shoppers say they’re likely to make a repeat purchase after a positive customer service experience. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 82% of customers have recommended a company because they had a positive customer service experience. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 80% of consumers will even forgive brands after they made a mistake, so long as it’s followed up with good customer service. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 78% of consumers have made purchase decisions based on their customer service experiences. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• 68% of customers trust businesses are telling the truth in 2022, compared to 59% in 2020. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• 96% of customers say excellent customer service builds trust. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• Repeat customers drive 300% more revenue than new customers. (Source: Gorgias)

Customer service teams and employees

Challenges with employee retention have led to reduced quality in terms of service standards. Brands with strong customer service training and strong, loyal service teams stand to gain a competitive advantage. 

• In 2021, nearly half of customer care managers faced increased employee attrition. (This was largely because up to 85% of the workforce shifted to working from home in 2020–2021). (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• The top-cited reason for employees leaving is poaching by competitors—58%—followed by employee dissatisfaction (39%), lack of advancement opportunities (31%), and lack of work–life balance (30%). (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

• 41% of service business leaders say it takes three to six months to train a new employee. 20% say it takes more than six months. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• “Retaining and developing the best people” was one of the top three customer service priorities for businesses in 2022. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• According to service leaders, the most effective ways to retain top customer service talent is through focusing on motivating and building trust with employees (34%), encouraging leaders to act on employee feedback (24%), offering new career opportunities (11%), and aligning their work to the overall company’s goals and values (11%). (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

• According to 54% of customer service professionals, peer relationships are the best way to learn. 50% learn by attending conferences and 39% from formal mentors. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)
• Service professionals actively learn new skills for their roles “a few times a month or more often” (32%), “about once a month” (30%), or “a few times a year” (28%). (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)

Personalization in customer service statistics 

Customers continue to expect more relevant messaging and promotion from brands, including personalized customer support. And their hesitations around data privacy and related technologies are waning, making them more open to sharing information to receive improved customer service interactions. 

• 73% of customers expect brands to understand their personal customer needs. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 62% of shoppers expect brands to anticipate their needs. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 56% of shoppers expect all offers to be personalized to them. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 56% of customers feel like brands just treat them as a number, not as a person to build a relationship with. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• 46% of consumers would share their style preferences if it meant they would receive personalized offers and rewards. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 61% of consumers feel comfortable with brands using their personal information transparently and beneficially. This is an increase from 52% in 2020. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• Almost 80% of consumers say that when brands are transparent about how they use their data to provide personalized experiences, it makes them trust the brand more. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

Customer service tools and platforms

Technology is key to delivering exceptional customer service experiences. The right tools, from helpdesks to live chat support apps, are essential to meeting today’s customer expectations. 

• Only 12% of digital platforms are “highly integrated.” (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• There are 94 help desk solutions currently available in the market. Gorgias has the top spot. (Source: Datanyze)
• Gorgias customers improve ticket resolution by 34% by adding phone support. (Source: Gorgias)
• 86% of live chat tickets end with a satisfied customer. (Source: Gorgias)

• 77% of businesses use some form of digital means to provide customer service and assistance, yet only 10% of new digital platforms are fully taken advantage of by customers. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• 95% of customer service leaders believe a customer relationship management (CRM) platform can help boost productivity. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)‍
• 36% of brands track NPS scores as a way to listen to customers. (Source: HubSpot Annual State of Service in 2022)

Multichannel customer service statistics

The number of communication channels customers can use to interact with brands (and vice a versa) is constantly increasing. This number is only going to grow, so brands need to understand not only how to leverage each customer service channel but also how to integrate all the touchpoints into a single synonymous customer experience. 

Synergy across an omnichannel support experience is the new baseline for good service. 

• 43% of shoppers prefer to use non-digital channels for customer service, preferring in-person or phone support. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 83% of shoppers say they have more brand loyalty when customer service is consistent across departments. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• 86% of live chat tickets end with a satisfied customer—more specifically, a 4- or 5-star CSAT rating. (Source: Gorgias)
• Businesses plan to increase digital customer interactions by 1.5 times by 2024. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

AI and automation in customer service

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables more self-service options, as well as automations. Effective use of support automation technology can boost efficiency and reduce resolution and response times. 

• Nearly 80% of businesses have experienced an increase in customer adoption of self-service customer support channels, including chatbots. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• Only 20% of online support interactions are completely self-serviced and unassisted. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• Nearly two-thirds of customer care leaders say that higher-quality self-service options have contributed significantly to reduced call volumes. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• 14% of Gorgias tickets are automated. (Source: Gorgias data)
• The top 5% of Gorgias Automate users automate 45% of all interactions (source: Gorgias). 

• 79% of customer service professionals believe AI is “somewhat to very important” to their jobs. (Source: HubSpot)

• 64% of service professionals who use AI believe it allows them to personalize and improve the service they provide. (Source: HubSpot)

• 65% of customer service tasks are automated. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• 57% of consumers trust companies to use AI ethically. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• 72% of shoppers have concerns about the ethics behind companies’ use of AI. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• 69% of customers are open to the use of AI if it can improve their experiences. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

• Only 20% of online support interactions are completely self-serviced and unassisted. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• Nearly two-thirds of customer care leaders say that higher-quality self-service options have contributed significantly to reduced call volumes. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)

• 88% of consumers expect brands to have self-service support tools. (Source: Statista)

• In 2022, 58% of customers have used chatbots for simple customer service. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)
• In 2022, 65% of customers reported having used self-service account portals for service. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• 66% of Millennials prefer self-service for simple support cases, compared to 61% of Gen Zers, 59% of Gen Xers, and 49% of Baby Boomers. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

The future of customer service

Anticipating future trends and advancements can help you stay ahead of the curve. Customer expectations will continue to rise, touchpoints will become increasingly complex, and AI will play a growing role in delivering top-notch service. 

• 58% of service leaders believe call center volumes will continue to increase over the next 18 months. (Source: The State of Customer Care Survey 2022, McKinsey & Company)
• Digital channels will become increasingly important. Millennials and Gen Zers are the most digitally savvy. Each of these generations, for example, is 1.6x more likely than Baby Boomers to prefer digital channels. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

• AI-powered self-service options are also going to grow. Nearly 80% of businesses have experienced an increase in customer adoption of self-service customer support channels, including chatbots. (Source: State of the Connect Customer report, Salesforce)

Are you ready to improve your customer service in 2023?

Now that you know the latest customer experience statistics in 2023, check out our list of customer service best practices to put this knowledge into action and become a more customer-centric company to attract and retain loyal customers.

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Every business has to have customer service. But what makes an experience memorable versus just functional means imbuing every customer interaction with magic. 

I’m Ren Fuller-Wasserman, the Director of Experience at TUSHY. At TUSHY, our end goal is to have everyone using bidets — and that means it’s crucial for our team of Poo-Rus (our customer service reps who are poop gurus!) to make people feel comfortable enough to talk about what they would never dare — bathroom hygiene.

On paper, customer service and customer experience may have different definitions, but ecommerce founders need to know that they’re inseparable when crafting long-lasting relationships with customers.   

How customer service and customer experience intersect

When you build customers a world that intertwines both customer service and customer experience, you have a higher chance of aligning them with your brand mission and converting them into loyal amb-ass-adors.

What is customer service?

Customer service is the functional side of interacting with customers and addressing customer needs. It is assistance that can be managed by service agents or automation, like a one-on-one conversation on email or an automated conversation through an AI chatbot or self-service options on your website.

There are several ways to evaluate your customer support program, like response time or keeping track of how many customer service interactions it takes to resolve an issue, or what’s called a Customer Effort Score (CES).

Where does customer experience come in? 

If you think of customer service as the reception of an establishment, it’s necessary, essential, and expected. Customer experience is all the welcoming perks, extra treats, your favorite corner table with your name on it, and fancy decorations that take the rating of an establishment from three stars to five.

In short, customer experience comes down to how a customer feels after interacting with your brand — and what will bring them back again and again. It includes every interaction a customer has with you, from seeing an ad and liking a post on your social media, to browsing your website and receiving the product on their doorstep. 

You want each experience to mimic your brand’s core values. At TUSHY, we want our customers to experience magic and delight at all touchpoints. 

Customer experience is usually quantified by customer perception of your brand, using metrics such as a Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

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5 ways to blend customer service with customer experience

Below are five ways our CX team wraps customer service in a nicely packaged experience with the help of Gorgias. We’ll look at how we build an exceptional experience with a chat widget, the right tone, omnichannel support, a proactive attitude, and a consistent experience across all platforms.

➡️ See our posts on why customer service is important and how to improve customer service. 

1. Anticipate customer needs with automated chat conversations

Customer and agent conversations are where we see the most friction, which is why it's crucial to pad it with a customer experience that can make customers feel taken care of right off the bat.

Often, the first tickets we get from new TUSHY customers are about bidet installation and usage. To prepare for these inquiries, we use Flows, or pre-configured conversations, to customize our chat widget to include an “I need help with installation!” button. In a couple of clicks, customers can watch our video tutorials to install their TUSHY product on their own.

Customer service isn’t only about getting an agent in front of a customer. It’s also about finding the most convenient ways to get an answer to your customer with the least amount of obstacles. Changing culture is hard, so we want to make it as easy as possible for customers to learn more about bidets.

🚽 Where customer service comes in: Agents identify and anticipate the customer issue.

🚽 Where customer experience comes in: An easily accessible chat widget on the homepage offers one-click answers to the appropriate issue. 

2. Find the right tone for customers

While TUSHY is known for its cheeky brand voice, we turn it down a notch when it comes to answering customer tickets. Customer interactions about a bidet can get pretty intimate and we want people to know we’re trustworthy and have their backs (and bottoms).

The Customer Sidebar on Gorgias is helpful in adjusting our tone for each customer since customers don’t always speak to the same Poo-Ru. When a different Poo-Ru gets assigned to an existing customer, they can find the customer’s order history, location, and personal notes from the sidebar and use the right tone to naturally continue the conversation.

We once even had a mother tell us how using TUSHY helped her daughter deal with threadworms! When we put effort into building relationships, customers feel comfortable enough to tell us even the most personal details, and we often learn new things about how our customers interact with our product that we might not have even considered.

🚽 Where customer service comes in: Agents adjust their voice and tone depending on the customer.

🚽 Where customer experience comes in: Conversations are continuous and don’t have to restart with every interaction, allowing customers to feel valued and heard.

3. Provide multiple avenues of support at post-purchase

We pay close attention to the post-purchase stage for two reasons: to make sure customers are educated and satisfied.

To ensure our customers are confident with their new bidets, we educate them through Gorgias omnichannel support or support through channels like email, SMS, live chat, FAQs, and our Help Center.

Through these channels, we manage customer expectations by letting them know that installing a bidet isn’t actually a major plumbing project. Our comprehensive TUSHY Support Center covers everything from order management and installation videos, to our rewards program and fun fact articles about our eco-conscious efforts.

🚽 Where customer service comes in: Provides your customer base with multiple support channels to reach them where they are.

🚽 Where customer experience comes in: Customer conversations are continuous and streamlined with Gorgias’s omnichannel support feature.

📚 Related reading: How omnichannel communication can drive revenue & boost customer loyalty

4. Foster a proactive team unafraid to talk to customers during slip-ups

Our TUSHY CX crew is a deeply empathetic bunch who truly care about being of service to people even when slip-ups happen. That means we don’t just fix pain points in the customer journey, we encourage our Poo-Rus to be proactive and reach out to the affected customers.

We’re fervent believers that even the worst customer experiences are actually opportunities ripe for the Poo-Rus to convert into meaningful customer interactions, experiences where we can show a customer that we’re truly listening and have heard their concerns. We can’t always solve every problem, but our customers knowing that they have a real live pooping human supporting them through their woes has been invaluable in building lifelong product and brand relationships.

If you can believe it, multiple customers have sent us photos after devastating house fires, showing the TUSHY still intact but needing a replacement part or two. We respond by sending them the full suite of TUSHY products, including our now famous “Ask me about my butthole.” shirts. This small gesture can mean so much in this time of need, and it’s the least we can do!

These are the great customer experiences, coupled with support, that define our brand.

By creating an environment that motivates agents to be creative and empathetic problem-solvers, maintaining customer retention becomes a breeze.

🚽 Where customer service comes in: Agents engage in proactive customer service to listen to customers.

🚽 Where customer experience comes in: Customers feel heard knowing their opinion will be directly applied to how customer service will run in the future.

💡 Pro Tip: Team-building is integral to keeping your customer service team aligned and thriving. At TUSHY, we have a monthly space called TUSHY Gang where we engage in group activities to build stronger bonds with each other, and for our remote team this has made our CX game even stronger. Investing in our team has been a valuable way to invest in our customers — we’ve seen how when they feel cared for they always want to pass this along! 

5. Continue the customer experience across all platforms and mediums

Some customers purchase TUSHY outside of our website, like Amazon or Walmart, which can make it challenging for us to provide a uniform customer experience.

We realized that the common touchpoint for all customers regardless of their entry point is the unboxing experience. Thus, the easiest way we would bring them into the TUSHY-verse would be right at their fingertips.

Here’s what we print on our packaging to bring customers closer to TUSHY:

• A scannable QR code: Customers can access product registration, warranty activation, and a list of other resources with a quick scan of their phone. 
• Our website: hellotushy.com is printed on the front flap of the box in big, clear text.
• Our social media handles: Our username and the icons for each of our social media platforms on the front flap of the box.

The goal is to give customers just enough information but also make them curious enough to check us out and engage with us. If they dig in, there’s a wealth of bidet knowledge!

🚽 Where customer service comes in: The essential contact points like website and social media handles are included on the packaging.

🚽 Where customer experience comes in: We provide an uncomplicated unboxing experience with only the essential information customers need, and they can find more as needed without feeling overwhelmed. 

How TUSHY provides poo-rific post-purchase support

As we mentioned before, new customers often have problems with installation. Right after purchase, we see a drop-off when customers aren’t comfortable installing TUSHY. We uncovered this gap via user focus groups, return reports via Loop, Stella Connect reviews, NPS score ratings, and Okendo product reviews.

Our customers tend to get very excited when they learn about a bidet, and might pull the trigger on a purchase only to later discover they aren't ready to take on a small DIY project. It's pretty common for TUSHYs to sit in their box for weeks, months, or years before getting installed. So we're aiming to close that gap with more in your face installation guidance and instructions, so that TUSHYs aren't sitting in closets, but rather under butts delighting the customer!

To recapture customers who may need help, we make use of post-purchase SMS and emails (we use Klaviyo). In our messages, we make sure to give customers exactly what they need with a link to our YouTube video tutorials and our website for additional educational resources.

Go beyond the numbers and learn from customer feedback

Metrics are important, but they need the context that comes from customer feedback. That’s where insights from your agents who talk to customers day in and day out will be extremely beneficial.

For example, we noticed that a percentage of customers were returning their bidets, but we didn’t know why. So, we had a chat with 10 customers and took note of the challenges they were facing with our product and the improvements they wished to see in our service. Turns out, they simply didn’t want to go through the hassle of installation. 

Without taking the time to reach out to our customers, we wouldn’t have had the knowledge to fix a critical metric like churn rate.

Build unforgettable customer experiences with Gorgias

When you weave CX and CS together, the most memorable customer moments can happen. At TUSHY, we can attest to that. With the help of a customer-centric helpdesk like Gorgias backing our Poo-Rus, we’ve managed to make over tens of thousands of bums happy with our best-selling, five-star-rated Classic bidet.

Gorgias puts brands in the driver’s seat by championing personalized customer service. They let you customize everything from scheduled messages with Macros, interactive messages with Flows, and an educational hub with a Help Center.

From the overall customer experience, to customer support, and everything in between, Gorgias makes it easy for TUSHY users to feel supported through the entire customer journey. As a result, every touchpoint builds the potential to gather a mass of loyal customers.

📚 Related reading: How TUSHY influences 25% of sales with Gorgias Convert

All we had to do was refine our customer service experience and we got brand ambassadors. How amazing is that? If you’re looking to do the same, book a demo today.

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When a customer's problem goes unanswered on Twitter, you lose that customer and possibly the audience of people who watched it happen. 

It’s hard to come back from that, which is why customer care is so important on social media platforms. In fact, Shopify found 57% of North American consumers are less likely to buy if they can’t reach customer support in the channel of their choice. 

Your customers want to talk to you — and you should want the same, before they head to a competitor. But first, you need to build a customer support presence on Twitter that lives up to your broader customer experience.

We've helped over 8,000 brands upgrade their customer support and seen the best and worst of social media interactions. Here are our top 10 battle-tested best practices for providing exceptional Twitter support.

1. Promptly and accurately respond to tweets

Prompt response time is one of the most important pillars of great customer service, and according to data from a survey conducted by Twitter, 75% of customers on Twitter expect fast responses to their direct messages. 

Of course, responding with accurate and helpful information is ultimately even more important than responding in real time, so be sure that you don't end up providing inaccurate information in a rush to reduce your response times. 

Promptly and accurately responding to customer service issues that are sent to your company's Twitter account is often easier said than done. To do both, you need an efficient system and a well-trained customer support team. 

This is where a helpdesk is critical, to bring your Twitter conversations into a central feed with all your other tickets. 

If you’re trying to manage Twitter natively in a browser, or through copy-paste discussions with your social media manager, you’re not going to see the first-response times you need to succeed. 

As data from Twitter's survey shows, speed is a necessity in order to meet customer expectations and provide a positive experience.

2. Move conversations out of the public space

There may be instances where customers contact your Twitter support account via a mention in a tweet as opposed to a direct message. In fact, one in every four customers on Twitter will tweet publicly at brands in the hopes of getting a faster response according to data from Twitter. In these instances, it is important to move the conversation out of the public space as soon as possible by moving the conversation to the DMs.

There are a couple of reasons you would want to avoid resolving customer service issues on a public forum. For one, keeping customer service conversations private allows you to maintain better control over your brand voice and image since customer service conversations can often get a little messy and may not be something you want to broadcast to your entire audience. 

Moving conversations out of the public space also enables you to collect more personal data from the customer such as their phone number or other contact information, details about their order and their credit card information without having to worry about privacy concerns.

In Gorgias, you can set up an auto-reply rule that responds to public support questions and directs them to send a DM for further help. This can ensure that people feel heard immediately, even if it takes a while for your team to get to their DM.

3. Don’t get into emotional arguments

Regardless of whether you are discussing an issue with a customer via your Twitter account or any other medium, it is never a good idea for your reps to get into arguments with the customer. 

Social media platforms such as Twitter tend to have a much more informal feel than other contact methods, and they also tend to sometimes bring out the worst in the people who hide behind the anonymity that they provide. You may end up finding that customers who contact you via Twitter are sometimes a little more argumentative than customers who contact you via more formal channels. 

Nevertheless, it is essential for your Twitter support reps to maintain professionalism and avoid engaging in emotional arguments with customers. It may even help to establish guidelines for your team, to help deal with this type of customer tweet. You can include rules on emoji use, helpful quick-response scripts, and whatever other priorities you have.

Recommended reading: How to respond to angry customers

4. Have a direct way for your support agent to reply to tweets

It is certainly possible to use Twitter alone when providing customer support via the platform. However, this isn't always the most efficient way to go about it. 

Keep in mind that, like other social networks, Twitter wasn't necessarily designed to be a customer support channel. There aren't a lot of Twitter features beyond basic notifications that will be able to help your team organize support tickets. 

Thankfully, there are third-party solutions that you can use that allow your support agents to respond to tweets and Twitter direct messages from your company website in a way that is much more organized and efficient. At Gorgias, for example, we offer a Twitter integration that will automatically create support tickets anytime someone mentions your brand, replies to your brand's tweets, or direct messages your brand. (By the way, we also offer integrations for Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.)

Agents can then respond to these messages and mentions directly from the Gorgias platform, where they will show up in the same dashboard as the tickets from your other support channels. 

This integration makes Twitter customer support far more efficient for your team and is one of the most effective ways to take your Twitter customer support services to the next level.

5. Always respond to feedback (even if it’s negative)

It is always important to respond to all questions and feedback that customers provide via Twitter, even if that feedback is negative. This is an important part of relationship marketing.

Many brands shy away from responding to negative feedback on public forums for fear of drawing more attention to the issue. However, this doesn't usually have the desired effect. Failing to respond to negative feedback can make it seem to anyone who happens to see the tweet in question that your brand is dodging the issue. 

While you may wish to move the conversation out of the public space as soon as possible, you should always provide a public response to public feedback — negative or not. 

For examples of brands effectively responding to negative tweets, check out this article.

6. Be as personable as possible

According to data from Forbes, 86% of customers say that they would rather speak with a real human being than a chatbot. Even if you don't rely on chatbots for providing customer support, though, your customers may not be able to tell the difference unless you train your reps to be as personable as possible. 

When your reps tailor their responses and connect on a personal level, it provides a much more positive support experience that provides a halo effect to your brand. Customers will remember that the next time they arrive at the checkout button, and they might even be open to upsell opportunities at that very moment.

7. Create a tracking strategy for brand mentions

Small businesses may not struggle to keep up with brand mentions, given that there are less to track. For larger companies, though, keeping up with brand mentions can often be a difficult task. This is especially true when some users tag brands with hashtags instead of handles.

This makes it important to create an effective strategy for tracking brand mentions in an efficient and organized manner. One of the best ways to go about this is to utilize integrations that will create a support ticket anytime a customer mentions your brand in a tweet. You can even create custom views in Gorgias to centralize all of these mentions.

By tracking these brand mentions, you can also retweet positive posts for brand awareness.

8. Create guidelines to explain which issues you support via Twitter

Not every customer service issue can be handled via Twitter. If there are certain types of issues that fall into that category for your brand, it's a good idea to keep your customers in the loop by providing concise FAQ guidelines that explain which issues you do and don't support via Twitter. 

These guidelines can come in the form of a pinned Tweet at the top of your Twitter support account or an off-Twitter link that you provide to customers when they contact you on Twitter with an issue that requires a different medium for resolution. You could even have a visual you add when you respond to questions that don’t fit your guidelines. 

Simply responding to customers and requesting that they direct message you for further assistance is another option for addressing issues that you don't want to handle on Twitter. If you set up the auto-reply we mentioned in the second tip, above, it could even include a link to these guidelines.

Check out what this brand did when contacted on Twitter with a problem that needed to be taken off-platform in order to be resolved.

9. Consider having multiple Twitter handles for sales, marketing, and customer support

If it makes sense for your brand, it may be a good idea to create multiple Twitter handles that are designated for sales, marketing, and customer support. Creating multiple Twitter handles that serve different purposes allows you to better organize your direct messages and mentions by breaking them down into different categories. 

Having a designated customer support Twitter account can also better encourage customers to contact you via Twitter with their customer support issues since it reassures them that this is the purpose that the account serves. 

But even then, some customers will still tweet at your main account with issues. When this happens, you can use intent and sentiment analysis in Gorgias to automatically route those issues to the correct agent or team.

10. Understand the full context of every Twitter interaction

When a customer takes the time to reach out to you on Twitter, whether it’s via direct message or a mention, it’s likely not the first time that customer has interacted with your brand. 

If you respond on Twitter, you can see the direct message history on that platform, but that’s where the context ends. With Gorgias’s Twitter integration, you can see the full customer journey, including all social media engagement, support tickets across all of your channels and even past orders.

This context is crucial to understanding the conversation you’re walking into, so you can deal with the situation appropriately. If the person is a long-time customer who engages frequently, you’re going to treat that conversation differently than that of a customer who bashes you on social networks and returns products frequently.

Break down your Twitter customer service silo

Any customer support you provide through Twitter will make things more convenient and accessible for your audience. 

But to make the experience faster and more pleasant on both sides of the conversation, you should consider handling all of your social media customer support in one platform, alongside all your other tickets. 

Gorgias ties social handles to customer profiles from your Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento store, uniting relevant conversations from across all of your support channels. All of that info is automatically pulled into your response scripts, and you can even automate the process for no-touch ticket resolution.

Check out our social media features to learn more.