Clear policies reduce tickets. When customers can’t find return windows or shipping timelines, they turn to your support team — often unnecessarily.
Each vertical has different CX needs. A fashion shopper wants fit info. An electronics buyer needs setup help. Tailor your policies to match.
Proactive placement matters. Don’t bury policies in the footer — surface them in product pages, chat, emails, and account portals where customers actually look.
Policy + AI = self-service support. Gorgias’s AI Agent can guide shoppers to answers instantly, reducing WISMO and freeing up your team for high-value work.
For many ecommerce teams, store policies are an afterthought, tucked away in the footer or buried deep in the FAQ. But they shouldn’t be.
Great customer experience (CX) starts before a customer reaches out. And with 55% of shoppers preferring self-service support, your store policies are often their first stop for answers.
In this guide, we break down the must-have policies for five key ecommerce verticals, based on real Gorgias ticket data. From shipping delays to subscription changes, you’ll learn how to prevent tickets before they happen.
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Why store policies are a CX power move
If you’re constantly fielding questions about returns, shipping times, or order changes, it’s a policy opportunity.
Well-crafted store policies are one of your CX team's most effective tools for setting expectations, building trust, and preventing support issues before they happen. When done right, they turn common friction points into effortless experiences.
Common blind spots that lead to tickets
When policies are vague or hard to find, customers turn to your inbox, driving up ticket volume and slowing down your support team.
Here are the most common blind spots we see:
Unclear or missing return windows lead to questions like, “Can I still return this?”
No defined process for exchanges or edits confuses customers who need to fix an order.
Subscription rules hidden in fine print frustrate loyal customers trying to pause, skip, or cancel.
Shipping timelines that shift without explanation cause “Where’s my order?” messages that could’ve been avoided.
When policies aren’t clear or easy to find, customers turn to your inbox. And that means more tickets, wait times, and pressure on your team.
Based on real data from Gorgias, these are the top 10 tickets customers send across channels like chat, contact forms, and email:
Order damaged
No reply tickets
Shipping policy
Shipping change
Order change
Product question
Return status
Thank you tickets
Discount request
Shipping status
What do most of these have in common? You can address them with clear, accessible policies.
15 store policies you need, organized by industry
Customer expectations aren’t one-size-fits-all, and your store policies shouldn’t be either.
What shoppers expect from a fashion brand is very different from what they need from a wellness company or electronics provider.
We’ve broken down the top policy must-haves by vertical, using real-world examples from Gorgias customers and ticket data.
Use these examples as your plug-and-play guide to write better policies, reduce ticket volume, and create smoother support experiences — no matter what you sell.
1. Apparel and fashion
When it comes to fashion, uncertainty drives tickets. “Will this fit?” “Can I return it?” “Where’s my order?” The most successful fashion brands like Princess Polly cut down on support volume by making these answers easy to find before customers ever reach out.
Key policies to prioritize
Returns and exchanges: Be clear on timeframes, conditions, and the process. Bonus points for adding visuals or quick links to return portals.
Size guide and fit: To minimize confusion, include details on model sizing, garment measurements, and fit notes.
Order changes: Let customers know how to update their order before it ships.
Shipping timelines: Set expectations around processing and delivery windows (especially during peak seasons).
Princess Polly’s returns hub simplifies the process for every payment method, reducing tickets around what’s eligible and how to start a return.
By linking their returns policy and FAQ, Princess Polly helps shoppers self-serve without needing to reach out to support, reducing WISMO and return questions.
Where to share store policies
Link return and shipping policies on product detail pages (PDPs).
Trigger chat campaigns with the sizing guide when shoppers linger on product pages.
Add return instructions in post-purchase emails to cut “How do I return this?” tickets.
2. Consumer goods
Consumer goods customers often want to know two things right away: “What’s it made of?” and “When will it get here?” These questions can quickly pile up in your inbox if your policies aren’t front and center.
Trove Brands, home to household favorites like BlenderBottle and Owala, solves this by proactively answering product and shipping questions across their site and emails.
Key policies to prioritize
Shipping: Share estimated delivery times, carrier information, and instructions on how customers can track their orders.
Product specs and materials: List dimensions, materials, care instructions, and safety notes to avoid product-related confusion.
Damage/defect resolution: Set clear expectations around what qualifies as a defect and how customers can report it.
Warranty or guarantee: Outline what’s covered, for how long, and how to claim it, especially important for durable goods.
BlenderBottle uses collapsible menus that let shoppers find key policy details without scrolling through long blocks of text.
At the end of each product page, BlenderBottle shares a support menu where shoppers can find information on order status and replacement parts.
A built-in support menu on every PDP gives customers immediate access to order status, product care, and parts — reducing pre-purchase hesitation.
Where to share store policies
Embed product-related FAQs directly on PDPs to answer questions where they arise.
Use conversational AI assistants like AI Agent to automatically resolve tickets related to product questions and damaged orders.
Add warranty and damage policy links in order confirmation and shipping emails to keep customers informed.
In electronics, clarity is everything. Customers want to know how to use the product, what to do if it doesn’t work, and how to get a replacement — without jumping through hoops.
Over-the-counter hearing aid company Audien Hearing nails this by creating crystal-clear support content around setup, shipping, and returns, so customers can troubleshoot confidently and independently.
Key policies to prioritize
Warranty/repairs: Explain what’s covered, how to file a claim, and turnaround times for repairs or replacements.
Returns and exchanges: Clearly state the return window, list of eligible items, processing time, and whether you accept refunds, in-store credit, or exchanges.
Shipping and delivery expectations: Share average delivery timelines and what to expect once a product ships.
Troubleshooting steps: Provide self-service guides for common issues like connectivity, battery life, or setup confusion.
Audien Hearing has clear visual policies that make it simple for shoppers to find the info they need quickly.
Audien Hearing uses a clean, visual layout to guide customers through setup, shipping, and warranty policies, reducing confusion and support requests.
Where to share store policies
In chat, set up an automated flow that answers questions like “How do I set this up?” or “Can I return this?”
Let customers track their return or exchange process, especially when high-value items are involved.
Create step-by-step guides, accompanied by video or images, in your Help Center for setup and basic troubleshooting.
Include warranty and return information in the product packaging, so customers have it readily available in case something goes wrong.
4. Health and wellness
In the health and wellness space, trust and transparency are everything. Customers want to feel confident that the products they’re using are safe and that the support will be just as thoughtful as the product itself.
Brands like period underwear brand Saalt do this exceptionally well, pairing clear product education with empathetic policies that guide customers through everything from first use to subscription changes.
Key policies to prioritize
Product safety and use: Provide detailed instructions, safety disclaimers, and FAQs for first-time users, especially for intimate or ingestible products.
Returns (especially for hygiene items): Be upfront about what can and can’t be returned, and include compassionate language to build trust.
Order change or cancellation: Make it easy to update or cancel orders, especially for items that ship quickly or automatically.
Subscription FAQs: Clearly explain how to skip, pause, or cancel a subscription, and what benefits subscribers get.
Saalt lets customers phrase questions themselves or choose from a dropdown menu.
Saalt offers a flexible help experience. Customers can type their questions or choose from smart dropdowns, making product education accessible and intuitive.
A one-year satisfaction guarantee reassures first-time buyers, helping reduce hesitation and post-purchase concerns around intimate products.
Where to share store policies
Prioritize clarity on your contact form by using dropdowns or checkboxes to organize customer inquiries by topic.
Let AI Agent handle recurring product questions like “How do I use this?” or “Is this safe?” to free up your team.
Include shipping and return info in SMS flows so customers can get answers on-the-go, without needing to email.
5. Food and beverage
Food and beverage customers tend to be both curious and cautious. They want to know what they’re putting in their bodies — and what to do if something goes wrong with the order.
Brands like Everyday Dose get ahead of these concerns by making their policies clear, accessible, and customer-first.
Key policies to prioritize
Ingredient and allergen disclaimers: Transparency is everything. List ingredients, possible allergens, and sourcing details to build trust.
Subscription changes: Give customers full control to pause, skip, or cancel deliveries with minimal friction.
Damaged orders: Outline what customers should do if a product arrives broken or spoiled, and how fast they can expect a replacement.
Shipping and delivery FAQs: Cover delivery timeframes, how orders are packed, and what to do if a shipment is delayed.
Everyday Dose lists frequently asked questions and makes it simple for customers to find important allergen and ingredient information.
Everyday Dose’s use of emoji icons and collapsible menus turns a standard FAQ into a branded, user-friendly experience — inviting customers to explore before they ask.
Given that Everyday Dose is a mushroom supplement brand, many shoppers will likely have questions around allergens and exact ingredients. On each of their product pages, there is a clear “Read the Label” button.
A dedicated “Read the Label” button puts full transparency front and center — reducing ingredient-related inquiries and building trust with health-conscious shoppers.
Providing a detailed ingredient list and supplement facts helps customers find the specific information they need without reaching out to support.
Everyday Dose also has a chat which encourages customers to click through to the correct support link or to track their order.
Everyday Dose integrates FAQs and order tracking directly in chat, letting customers solve their own issues and cutting down on manual support.
Where to share store policies
Enable self-service order management on chat to give customers real-time updates on shipping status and subscription changes.
Feature policy links prominently in your customer account portal — especially for managing subscriptions.
Include your damage/return policy in post-purchase and thank-you emails, so customers know exactly what to do if something’s wrong.
Pro Tip: Use a conversational AI platform to handle common questions at scale. For example, Gorgias’s AI Agent can instantly respond to FAQs like “How much is shipping?” or “When will my order arrive?” — all in your brand’s voice. And when a request needs a human touch, it routes the ticket to the right agent automatically.
Best practices for writing and distributing store policies
Even the most well-written policy won’t reduce tickets if it’s buried three clicks deep in your footer. To truly support your customers (and lighten your team’s workload), your policies need to show up in the right places, at the right moments.
Here’s how to get them in front of customers when they need them most:
Surface policies across key customer touchpoints
Product detail pages: Link to size guides, shipping timelines, or ingredient lists directly on PDPs.
Chat: Use a combination of automated flows and conversational AI to proactively suggest relevant policies based on the customer’s question or page.
Help center: Turn your most common ticket topics into easy-to-scan articles with clear titles and headers.
Email flows: Include return and warranty info in post-purchase emails, shipping updates, and thank-you messages.
Account portals: Make it easy for customers to manage subscriptions, view order policies, and find FAQs in their account dashboard.
SMS or mobile support: Include quick policy reminders in transactional texts, like shipping delays or renewal reminders.
3 core elements of a strong store policy
Clear: Use plain language, short sentences, and bullet points. Avoid legal jargon.
Accessible: Link them prominently in your footer, header, Help Center homepage, chat, and product pages.
Actionable: Tell customers exactly what to do — where to click, who to contact, and what to expect.
Well-placed policies turn support into a self-service experience. They empower your customers to get what they need without ever opening a ticket — and that’s a win for everyone.
Turn store policies into your first line of support
Clear, proactive policies do more than answer questions. They prevent tickets, build trust, and make your support team’s job easier. By tailoring your policies to your industry and placing them where customers actually need them, you turn potential friction points into smooth experiences.
Want to take it a step further? Book a demo to see Gorgias’s AI Agent handle common inquiries like shipping, returns, and product questions, across chat, email, and contact forms.
Ecommerce teams are overwhelmed by app overload, with 42% using six tools daily—leading to inefficiencies, rising costs, and poor customer experiences.
Top brands are consolidating their tech stacks, choosing deeply integrated, ecommerce-specific platforms to simplify operations and lower costs.
AI adoption and excitement are accelerating, with 77.2% of ecommerce professionals using AI daily and 55.3% rating their excitement as an 8-10 out of 10.
Gorgias powers AI-driven support and sales in one platform, through a single workspace that helps ecommerce teams resolve faster, sell smarter, and operate more efficiently.
At Gorgias, we work with over 16,000 ecommerce brands and one common challenge emerges over and over:
Ecommerce tools are essential, but too many tools becomes a burden.
With different teams responsible for different functions, brands risk creating a disconnected tech stack that causes inefficiencies, reduces productivity, and ultimately impacts profitability.
Ecommerce teams are shuffling between tabs, copying and pasting order numbers, searching for customer data, and trying to piece it all together. It’s not only inefficient—it’s expensive, frustrating, and unsustainable as you scale.
So we dug into that data.
Our 2025 Ecommerce Trends Report surveyed ecommerce professionals across industries and job roles to understand what they really think about tech stacks and AI’s role in it.
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Ecommerce professionals are approaching app overload
There is now an ecommerce app for every possible use case a brand could need. But as businesses adopt new technologies for each part of their customer journey, their teams end up working out of dozens of platforms.
The study found that 42.28% of ecommerce pros use at least six apps daily to perform their role. Regardless of the number of apps used, integration and compatibility are a must. When technologies don’t talk to each other, you spend time context-switching instead of focusing on customer experience.
For Audien Hearing, Gorgias’s open API allowed them to create an integration with its warehouse software to manage returns directly in Gorgias rather than a shared Google spreadsheet. This integration helped them reduce returns by 5%, protecting their margins and leading to higher customer satisfaction.
Consolidation is the smartest move a brand can make
The most successful ecommerce brands aren’t necessarily using more tools—they’re using smarter tools. Leading businesses are opting for platforms that are deeply integrated, AI-compatible, and built specifically for ecommerce needs.
A growing tech stack also comes with a growing tech budget. Each new app has new costs, including subscriptions, set-up, management, and development fees. They quickly add up.
Nearly 40% of ecommerce professionals spend $5,000 to $50,000 annually on their tech stack.
Different roles have different priorities
We asked ecommerce professionals what they actually value in their tools. Unsurprisingly, the answer changed based on who we were talking to.
Top tool benefits included:
Revenue growth for support leaders, revenue-focused roles, and founders
Simplified workflows and time savings for support agents
There’s a clear difference between what ecommerce leaders and agents value in a tool and considering both is key to success.
Why brands hesitate to consolidate
Despite the benefits of using fewer, well-integrated tools, there are a few things that hold brands back from consolidating their tech stacks.
We asked respondents:
What, if any, are the biggest deterrents to consolidating your tech stack?
Top concerns are:
Compatibility issues with existing software (52.4%)
Direct costs (fees for software licenses, subscriptions, or customizations) (47.6%)
Time required (40.3%)
AI adoption is accelerating—and it’s driving results
AI is dominating the world of ecommerce. It impacts every aspect of the customer journey, from brand discovery to the post-purchase experience. AI is actively reshaping the way ecommerce professionals work, so we wanted to know how they feel about it.
77.2% of ecommerce professionals use AI and automation to perform their role in 2025, compared to 69.3% in 2024.
55.3% of respondents rate their excitement for AI as an 8-10, compared to 45.6% in 2024.
Despite growing usage and excitement, teams still have their concerns with AI:
The AI shift—From just a support tool to a sales engine
The most impactful use cases we’ve seen aren’t just about reducing support ticket volume. AI is now driving revenue, increasing conversion rates, and enabling 24/7 coverage without expanding headcount.
Gorgias’s AI Agent is now capable of virtual sales assistance through personalized product recommendations, dynamic discounts to reduce cart abandonment, and cross-sells and upsells.
Top brands are already leveraging these new capabilities and seeing results. For example:
TUSHY uses a Gorgias AI Agent to accurately answer pre-sale questions, leading to a 15% conversion rate, with AI Agent driving 2x more sales than human agents.
Trove Brands enabled an AI Agent named Wally that cut misshipments by 70%, meaning reducing unwanted charges, avoidable fulfillment costs, high return rates, and customer frustration.
Caitlyn Minimalist uses AI to reduce response times by 99% and saw a 150% increase in ticket conversions.
Gorgias: A one-tab tool for Conversational AI
We asked one final question to make ecommerce folks really reflect on how they work:
How many tabs do you currently have open?
The average ecommerce professional works with 22 open tabs. We’re not here to judge, but if you’re looking to close a few of those tabs, Gorgias might be what you’re missing.
Gorgias replaces all that complexity with a single workspace. From support to sales, order management to automation, it all happens inside one platform.
Ecommerce businesses can now leverage Gorgias’s Advanced AI for both support and sales. Within the same AI Agent, ecommerce brands can
Fully resolve customer inquiries, not just respond
Provide order tracking details
Cancel, edit, and manage orders in Shopify and integrated apps
Process returns and exchanges
Provide tailored product recommendations
Drive conversions
And much more!
Get your copy of the 2025 Ecommerce Trends Report
This blog just skims the surface of what we uncover in our 2025 Ecommerce Trends report.
If you're an ecommerce leader right now, you’re likely facing a new wave of uncertainty. Rising tariffs, disrupted imports, and sudden cost increases are putting pressure on your margins, and your customer relationships.
At Gorgias, we are working with thousands of brands that are grappling with tough calls: adjust prices, shift sourcing, or absorb costs to protect loyalty. And while the supply chain is where these issues start, the customer experience is where they play out.
Whether you’re a growing DTC or an enterprise brand, your customers deserve transparency. We know the pressure you're under, and we're here to help you navigate it. To help you not only manage the conversation, but lead it with clarity, empathy, and speed.
Ecommerce brands are in an impossible position right now, following the 24 hours news cycle, and waiting to see how tariffs will cut into profits and impact their business.
For customers? It can create confusion, frustration, and a flurry of angry tickets if brands aren’t proactive and transparent. But here's the truth: how your team talks about tariffs is just as important as what they say.
These moments of friction, and how you communicate these changes to your customers can be opportunities to build trust, reduce churn, and even demonstrate the real revenue power of your team. In a moment when clarity and trust are everything, the role of CX leaders is more important than ever.
When tariffs hit, CX takes the call
Tariffs may seem like a back-end issue, but in reality, they shape front-end experiences—from product pricing and availability to fulfillment speed and satisfaction.
For ecommerce brands, especially those sourcing from China or shipping globally, these trade shifts hit close to home. Products get more expensive, shipping slows down, and some SKUs disappear altogether.
And CX teams are often the first to hear about it. The question isn’t if you should communicate tariff implications, but how.
What customers actually want to know
Here’s the good news: customers don’t expect you to control global trade policy. But they do expect honesty.
What matters most right now is:
Transparency: Be clear about what’s changing and why.
Timing: Tell them before they find out at checkout.
Empathy: Acknowledge that increased prices or delays are frustrating and explain what you're doing to help.
And even more specifically, your customers are likely looking for answers to three simple questions:
Did the price increase? Why?
Why can’t I find this product anymore?
Is my order going to be delayed?
In times of change, trust becomes foundational. If you're not upfront about what’s happening and how it affects them, customers will fill in the blank, or worse, turn to competitors.
How to talk tariffs without losing trust
Be clear, not complicated
Tariffs are complex, but your messaging shouldn’t be. Strip out the policy jargon and explain the changes in human terms. Let customers know what’s changing, why it’s happening, and what steps you’re taking to protect their experience.
Instead of: “Due to regulatory changes impacting import duties…”
Say: “Because of new tariffs, some of our prices have gone up. Here’s why, and what we’re doing to keep costs down.”
Say the same thing everywhere
From your Help Center to your agents to your email updates, your message should be consistent. Mismatched explanations create confusion and erode trust. Align your team on the key talking points and update scripts and automations across all customer touchpoints.
Speaking of your Help Center, now might be a great time to create an article specifically about tariffs and how you’re approaching them. The article can serve as a source of truth for your customers and your AI agents on the front lines answering questions.
Lead with empathy
Customers don’t just want the facts, they want to know you care. Acknowledge the frustration, and offer reassurance. Small gestures like a personalized note or a shipping perk can show you’re on their side.
Be specific and honest
Generic messages fall flat. Give customers details that they can rely on: Are the changes permanent? Are you absorbing part of the cost? Is a specific product impacted? When you’re upfront about the situation, and how you’re responding to it, you build credibility.
Decide how AI Agents should help
Times of uncertainty are times to cut costs, but it may also mean increased ticket volume. AI agents can help on the frontlines. But be sure to build your handovers to escalate to your team in the right moments to build trust.
Start with transparency: Beis sets the bar
Luggage brand, Beis, recently sent an email to customers that is a great example in customer-first communication. Rather than quietly raising prices or burying fees in checkout, they called it what it was: tariffs.
Beis released a statement about the rising tariffs in April 2025.
They explained the change clearly, why it was happening, and what customers could expect. And most importantly, they acknowledged the frustration. No spin, or vague language, just a clear message from a brand that respects its customers enough to be honest with them.
This kind of proactive messaging does more than prevent a flood of support tickets. It creates alignment between the brand and the customer. Beis didn’t make the rules but they’re navigating them with their customers, not in spite of them.
Make it a CX conversation, not just a policy page
Too often, tariff policies get relegated to the FAQ page or terms and conditions. Customers typically only land there after they’re already confused or upset.
Instead, CX should treat tariffs as a key part of the customer journey and be equipped to speak about them empathetically and clearly.
1. Proactive chat leads to fewer surprises
Add a proactive message to your chat widget that addresses tariff-related questions before they even come up. A short note like, “You may notice some pricing changes – here’s why,” with a link to your FAQ or a specific article, helps to deflect confusion and prevents cart abandonment.
2. Update your FAQ with key information
Surface timely information right where customers are most likely to look. Use your chat or search function to include a clear callout.
“Looking for information on recent pricing or shipping updates? Here’s what changed.”
This type of visibility empowers self-service, and reduces ticket volume.
3. Equip your agents with scripts that are genuine
Don’t leave your support team guessing. Create internal scripts with clear language on what to say (and what to avoid) when talking tariffs. Script empathy, not just compliance: Empower agents with language that acknowledges the inconvenience while reinforcing the brand's values.
Say:
We’ve made some pricing updates due to new tariffs, and we’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact.
We know this change may be frustrating. Here’s how we’re helping our customers through it.
Avoid:
Overly technical or vague terms like “regulatory adjustments” or “economic climate shifts.”
Any messaging that deflects responsibility or blames external factors without explanation.
4. Build smart macros for Tariff FAQs
If you’re using automation, make sure your AI Agent and autoresponders can explain tariff policies accurately and compassionately. Use macros to ensure fast, consistent replies, without sacrificing tone. Some key macro themes to create:
Why did prices increase?
Are tariffs permanent?
Is my order delayed because of tariffs?
Why is this product no longer available?
Each macro should strike a balance of clarity, empathy, and brand voice, offering both the what and the why.
You can’t control tariffs. But you can control trust.
Tariffs might be out of your control. But how you talk about them? That’s entirely in your hands.
This is your moment as a CX leader, not just to react but to lead. To turn friction into transparency, tension into trust, and confusion into connection. Because when policies change overnight and customer confidence is on the line, the brands that communicate with honesty, consistency, and care don’t just survive. They strengthen loyalty.
Your customers don’t expect perfection. They expect clarity. They expect empathy. And they expect you to show up.
At Gorgias, we’re here to make sure you can. With tools to automate answers, personalize conversations, and empower your team to deliver the kind of CX that builds long-term brand equity, even when times get tough.
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How we achieved 99.99% uptime through strategic database improvements, data restructuring, and enhanced incident response systems.
By Dennis Zhang
0 min read . By Dennis Zhang
TL;DR:
Gorgias eliminated helpdesk outages by implementing multiple database connection pools with PgBouncer, achieving over 99.99% uptime.
We accelerated data retrieval by organizing 40TB of data into 128 partitions, reducing query times to less than 4ms.
Our streamlined incident response process with dedicated Slack channels and clear roles now resolves almost all incidents in under an hour.
Looking ahead, we're strengthening security, doubling our SRE team, implementing production readiness reviews, and enhancing monitoring tools.
When customer service teams are at their busiest, they need a helpdesk that keeps up. That’s exactly why our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team has been working behind the scenes to make the Gorgias platform faster than ever.
Over the past year, we've made remarkable improvements to our platform to eliminate bottlenecks, speed up data retrieval, and reduce incidents. For you, this means fewer disruptions, faster load times, and a more reliable helpdesk experience.
Here's how we did it.
Eliminating helpdesk outages by increasing our connection pools
The challenge
Our platform relied on a single, shared database connection pool to manage all queries. Think of it as having just one pipe handling all the water flowing through your house — when too much water rushes in at once, the whole system backs up.
In practice, this meant a single surge in database requests could clog the entire system. When lower-priority background tasks got stuck, they could prevent high-priority operations (like loading tickets or running automations) from working properly. This would cause the entire helpdesk to slow down or, worse, become completely unresponsive.
The solution
Using PgBouncer, a tool that manages database connections and reduces the load on a server, we implemented multiple connection pools. Instead of relying on a single pipeline to stream all requests, we created separate "pipes" for different requests.
How Gorgias handled database traffic before and after splitting up our connection pools with PgBouncer.
Like how road traffic picks up again after an exit, routing our database traffic into separate connection pools makes sure high-priority customer interactions don’t lag behind automated background tasks.
This solution is future-proof. In the event that a lower-priority task is delayed in one connection pool, other functionalities of the helpdesk will continue working because of the remaining connection pools.
The benefits
The results speak for themselves:
Complete elimination of helpdesk-wide outages caused by connection pooling issues
Faster response times — 99% of automated rules tasks take less than 800 milliseconds to complete from inception
Partial degradation instead of full outages if issues do occur — at worst, only a single feature might be affected instead of your entire helpdesk
We've eliminated incidents caused by connection pool issues in the helpdesk completely. This reduced major helpdesk outage incidents by around four per year and maintained an average uptime of over 99.99%.
Speeding up the helpdesk by organizing 40TB of data into 128 partitions
The challenge
As Gorgias grew to over 15,000 customers, so did the volume of data. We’re talking data from tickets, integrations, automations, and many more. The combination of more users and data meant slower searches within the helpdesk.
However, the amount of data was not the problem — it was how our data was organized.
Imagine this: An enormous storage room full of file cabinets containing every piece of data. Sure, those file cabinets kept data organized, but you would still need to spend time searching through the entire room, running up and down aisles of cabinets, to find your desired file. This method was cumbersome.
We needed a more efficient way to keep our data easy to find, especially as more customers used our platform.
The solution
The answer was database partitioning — breaking our large datasets into smaller, more manageable segments. Using Debezium, Kafka, and Kafka-connect JDBC, all managed by Terraform, we migrated over 40TB of data, including 3.5 billion tickets, without a moment of downtime for our merchants.
Instead of a giant room with thousands of file cabinets, we divided that giant room into 128 smaller rooms. So now, instead of looking for a file in one room, you know you just need to go into room number 102, which has a much smaller area to search.
This approach allows our system to quickly pinpoint the location of data, significantly reducing the time it takes to find and deliver information to users.
Additionally, database maintenance has become more efficient. Some of the partitions can probably sit without needing to be changed at all. We just have to maintain the partitions that are getting new files, which cuts down on maintenance time.
The benefits
Better database partitioning provides several benefits:
Faster queries — We have an average of 600 lookups or updates per second across these databases, each taking less than 4ms
More efficient database maintenance — We halved the number of automated maintenance runs and cut each run’s duration in half
Better scalability as our infrastructure is now equipped to handle continued customer growth
Faster resolutions with a streamlined incident response process
The challenge
When incidents occurred in the past, our response process was inconsistent, leading to delays in resolution. It was sometimes unclear who should take the lead, what immediate actions were required, and how to effectively communicate with affected customers.
Additionally, post-incident reviews varied in quality, making it difficult to prevent similar issues from happening again. We needed a standardized framework to address incidents in a timely fashion.
The solution
To streamline incident management, we introduced a replicable, automated process:
Dedicated Slack channels — Every incident gets its own Slack channel, ensuring our team is immediately notified.
Clear roles & responsibilities — We defined specific roles so every engineer knows what next steps to take.
Retrospectives — After each incident, we conduct thorough post-mortems to analyze root causes, identify improvements, and share learnings across teams.
Proactive prevention — By improving our monitoring tools, we catch potential issues earlier, reducing the likelihood of major disruptions.
The benefits
With our improved incident management process:
Response times have decreasedsignificantly — almost all incidents are mitigated in under an hour
Customers receive clearer communication during incidents, including our regularly updated Gorgias Status page
100+ smarter preventative measures to reduce the overall incident frequency or permanently fix recurring problems
What's next: Four ways we're improving the platform experience
With more brands catching on to how essential a solid CX platform is, our team's got our work cut out for us. Here's what's on the way:
Enhanced security measures — We've hired a dedicated security engineer to strengthen our security infrastructure.
A bigger SRE team — Our Site Reliability Engineering team has doubled, allowing us to address performance issues rapidly.
Production readiness reviews — We're formalizing a process to audit new and existing services, ensuring they meet our reliability standards before deployment.
Improved monitoring — We're investing in better monitoring tools to detect and resolve potential issues before they impact customers.
Count on a reliable future with Gorgias
Gorgias will inevitably face new challenges in performance — no system is completely immune to downtime.
But we've built our architecture with the future in mind, and it’s more resilient than ever as more and more brands realize the power of conversational AI CX platforms.
The result? A platform you can count on to help you deliver exceptional customer service, without technical issues getting in the way.
Use AI to segment behavior, predict intent, and personalize CX across chat, email, and support touchpoints.
By Tina Donati
0 min read . By Tina Donati
TL;DR:
Use AI across both support and sales. Ecommerce brands are using AI to drive revenue and efficiency by combining automation in chat, email, and customer data with personalized product guidance and upsells.
Analyze post-purchase surveys with AI to uncover customer insights. AI quickly identifies themes, sentiment, and trends from open-ended feedback to inform product, shipping, and support decisions.
Predict customer intent with AI before they take action. By analyzing behavior like cart activity or page views, AI can engage high-intent shoppers with personalized nudges in real time.
Automate QA and proactive support with AI. AI reviews 100% of conversations, flags quality issues, and triggers outreach for known problems — all before customers even ask.
Shoppers aren’t just open to AI — they’re starting to expect it.
According to IBM, 3 in 5 consumers want to use AI as they shop. And a McKinsey study found that 71% expect personalized experiences from the brands they buy from. When they don’t get that? Two-thirds say they’re frustrated.
But while most brands associate AI with support automation, its real power lies in something bigger: scaling personalization across the entire customer journey.
We’ll show you how to do that in this article.
AI for customer data
Before AI can personalize emails, recommend products, or answer support tickets, it needs one thing: good data.
That’s why one of the best places to start using AI isn’t in sales or support — but in enriching your customer data. With a deeper understanding of who your customers are, what they want, and how they behave, AI becomes a personalization engine across your entire business.
Enriching surveys with AI
Post-purchase surveys are gold mines for understanding customers — but digging through the data manually? Not so fun.
AI can help by analyzing survey responses at scale, identifying trends, and categorizing open-ended customer feedback into clear, actionable insights. Instead of skimming thousands of answers to spot what customers are saying about your shipping times, AI can surface those insights instantly — along with sentiment and behavior signals you might’ve missed.
Try this prompt when doing this: "Analyze 500 open-ended post-purchase survey responses. Identify the top 5 recurring themes, categorize customer sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), and surface any trends related to product quality, delivery experience, or customer support."
Predicting customer intent before they even say a word
One of AI’s biggest strengths? Spotting intent.
By analyzing things like page views, cart activity, scroll behavior, and previous purchases, AI can identify which shoppers are ready to buy, which ones are likely to churn, and which just need a little nudge to move forward.
This doesn’t just apply to email and retargeting. It also works on live chat, in real time.
To eliminate friction in the buying journey, TUSHY introduced AI Agent for Sales — a virtual assistant designed to guide shoppers toward the right product before they drop off.
Instead of letting potential customers bounce with unanswered questions, the AI Agent steps in to offer:
Personalized product recommendations based on shopper questions
Compatibility guidance (especially for customers unsure which bidet works with their toilet)
Real-time installation tips and links to helpful how-to articles
TUSHY removes pre-sales friction with Gorgias's AI Agent to answer product questions, resolve compatibility concerns, and deliver personalized recommendations.
With a growing product catalog, TUSHY realized first-time buyers were overwhelmed with options — and needed help choosing what would work best for their home and hygiene preferences.
“What amazed us most is that the AI Agent doesn’t just help customers choose the perfect bidet for their booty — it also provides measurement and fit guidance, high-level installation support, and even recommends all the necessary spare parts for skirted toilet installations. It’s ushering in a new era of customer service — one that’s immediate, informative, and confidence-boosting as people rethink their bathroom habits.”
—Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Sr. Director of Customer Experience at TUSHY
Forecasting revenue by segment
AI also helps you see the road ahead.
Instead of looking at retention and loyalty metrics in isolation, AI can help you forecast what’s likely to happen next and where to focus your attention.
By segmenting customers based on behaviors like average order value, order frequency, and churn risk, AI can identify revenue opportunities and weak spots before they impact your bottom line.
All you need is the right prompt. Here’s an example you can run using your own data in any AI tool:
Prompt: “Analyze my customer data to forecast revenue by segment. Break customers into at least three groups based on behavior patterns like average order value, purchase frequency, and churn risk.
For each segment, provide:
A projected revenue trend for the next quarter
A key insight about their behavior
One actionable recommendation to either grow or retain revenue from that segment.”
Here’s what a result might look like:
VIPs (Top 5% by LTV): Predicted 15% growth next quarter based on repeat behavior
One-time Buyers: 70% churn risk flagged—time to trigger a win-back campaign
Discount-Only Shoppers: Revenue likely to dip unless incentive strategy changes
Instead of flying blind, you’re making decisions with clarity — and backing them with data that scales.
AI for sales
When used strategically, AI becomes a proactive sales agent that can identify opportunities in real-time: recommending the right product to the right shopper at the right moment.
Here’s how ecommerce brands are using AI to drive revenue across every part of the funnel.
Dynamic pricing that responds to the market (and the shopper)
Your prices shouldn’t be static — especially when your competitors, inventory, and customer behavior are anything but.
AI-powered pricing tools like AI Agent for Sales help brands automatically adjust pricing based on shopper behavior. The goal is to make the right offer to the right customer.
For example:
Show a discount to a price-sensitive shopper who’s hesitating at checkout
Recommend premium add-ons to high-LTV customers who are more likely to spend
With dynamic pricing, you can protect your margins and boost conversions — without relying on blanket sales.
Turning chat into a personal shopper (that never sleeps)
AI-powered chat is no longer just a glorified FAQ. Today, it can act as a real-time shopping assistant — guiding customers, boosting conversions, and helping your team reclaim time.
That’s exactly what Pepper did with “Penelope,” their AI Agent built on Gorgias.
With a rapidly growing product catalog (22 new SKUs in 2024 alone), Pepper knew shoppers needed help discovering the right products. Customers often had questions about styles, materials, or sizing, and if they didn’t get answers right away, they’d abandon carts and move on.
Instead of hiring more agents to keep up, Pepper deployed Penelope to live chat and email.
Her job?
Instantly answer questions about fit, fabric, or product differences
Guide shoppers toward the best option for their needs
Recommend complementary products (like matching panties or bottoms)
Free up agents to focus on higher-value 1:1 moments, like virtual fit sessions
“With AI Agent, we’re not just putting information in our customer’s hands; we’re putting bras in their hands... We’re turning customer support from a cost center to a revenue generator.” —Gabrielle McWhirter, CX Operations Lead at Pepper
Pepper uses AI Agent to provide proactive sales support on chat, handling objections and encouraging customers to make informed purchases.
Let’s look at how Penelope performs on the floor:
Real-time recommendations
A shopper asked about the difference between two wire-free bras. Penelope broke down the styles, support level, and fabric in plain language — then followed up with personalized suggestions based on the shopper’s preferences.
Proactive engagement
Using Gorgias Convert chat campaigns, Pepper triggers targeted messages to shoppers based on behavior. If someone is browsing white bras? Penelope jumps in and offers assistance, often leading to faster decisions and fewer abandoned carts.
Intelligent upsells
If a customer adds a swimsuit top to their cart, Penelope suggests matching bottoms. No full-screen popups, no awkward sales scripts — just thoughtful, helpful guidance.
Support and sales in one
Penelope also handles WISMO tickets and return inquiries. If a shopper is dealing with a sizing issue, Penelope walks them through the return process and links to Pepper’s Fit Guide to make sure the next purchase is spot on.
A customer asks about the fabric used in her Pepper bra. AI Agent successfully responds with the proper details in a natural tone of voice.
By implementing AI into chat, Pepper saw a 19% conversion rate from AI-assisted chats, an 18% uplift in AOV, and a 92.1% decrease in resolution time.
With Penelope handling repetitive and revenue-driving tasks, Pepper’s team now has more time to offer truly personalized touches — like virtual fit sessions that have turned refunds into exchanges and even upsells.
Curating bundles with AI-powered sales data
Bundling is a proven tactic for increasing AOV — but most brands still rely on subjective judgment calls or static reports to decide which products to group.
AI can take this a step further.
Instead of just looking at what’s bought together in the same cart, AI can analyze purchase sequences. For example, what people tend to buy as a follow-up 30 days after their first order. This gives you powerful clues into natural buying behavior and bundling opportunities you might’ve missed.
If you’re looking to explore this at scale, you can use anonymized sales data and feed it into AI tools to surface patterns in:
Frequently bundled items
Follow-up purchases within a set time frame
High-value product pairings with repeat potential
Try this prompt:
"Analyze this spreadsheet of order data and identify product bundle opportunities. Look for: (1) products frequently purchased together in the same order, (2) items commonly bought as a second purchase within 30 days of the first, and (3) patterns in high-value or high-frequency product pairings. Provide insights on the most promising bundles and why they might work well together."
Just make sure you’re keeping customer data anonymous — and always double-check the insights with your team.
AI isn’t just here to deflect tickets. From quality assurance to proactive outreach, AI can elevate the entire support experience — on both sides of the conversation.
Quality checks powered by AI
Manual QA is slow, selective, and often feels like it’s chasing the wrong tickets.
That’s where Auto QA comes in. Instead of reviewing just a handful of conversations each week, Auto QA evaluates 100% of private messages, whether they’re handled by a human or an AI agent.
It gives support leaders a full picture of how their team is performing, so they can coach with clarity, not just gut feeling.
Here’s what brands can do with automated QA:
Save time by focusing only on the conversations that need attention
Ensure consistency across agents and AI with a single scoring standard
Improve agent performance with targeted coaching and feedback
Deliver higher-quality support that customers actually notice
Let’s walk through a real example.
Customer: “Hi, my device broke, and I bought it less than a month ago.”
Agent: “Hi Kelly, please send us a photo or a video so we can determine the issue with your device.”
Auto QA flags this interaction with:
Communication Score: 3/5 — The agent was clear, but could have shown more empathy in tone.
Resolution Score: Complete — The issue was addressed effectively.
Proactive support that reaches out first
Reactive support is table stakes. AI takes it a step further by anticipating issues before they happen — and proactively helping customers.
Let’s say login errors spike after a product update. AI detects the surge and automatically triggers an email to affected customers with a simple fix. No need for them to dig through help docs or wait on chat — support meets them right where they are.
Proactive AI can also be used for:
Order delay notifications with live tracking updates
Subscription renewal reminders
Back-in-stock alerts with support follow-up for next steps
This saves the time of your agents because the AI will spot problems before they turn into tickets.
Understanding sentiment at scale
Your customers are telling you what they think. AI just helps you hear it more clearly.
By analyzing reviews, support tickets, post-purchase surveys, and social comments, AI can spot sentiment trends that might otherwise fly under the radar.
For example:
Multiple reviews mention “runs small”? AI flags it, so your team can update the product description or add a sizing chart.
A sudden rise in “frustrated” language in support tickets? Time to check if something’s off with your shipping or product quality.
Personalization at scale starts with the right AI stack
Whether you’re enriching customer data, making smarter product recommendations, triggering dynamic pricing, or proactively resolving support issues, AI gives your team the power to scale personalization without sacrificing quality.
With Gorgias, you can bring many of these use cases to life — from AI-powered chat that drives conversions to automated support that still feels human.
And with our app store, you can tap into additional AI tools for data enrichment, direct mail, bundling insights, and more.
Personalized ecommerce doesn’t have to mean more work. With the right AI tools in your corner, it means smarter work — and better results.
Discover the top AI trends in ecommerce for 2025 and learn how to use them to improve customer experience, drive sales, and stay competitive.
By Holly Stanley
0 min read . By Holly Stanley
TL;DR:
AI is reshaping ecommerce, giving early adopters a competitive edge. From visual search to dynamic pricing, these tools meet rising customer expectations and drive growth.
Conversational AI boosts support efficiency and customer satisfaction. Solutions like Gorgias's AI Agent automatically resolve up to 60% of tickets while personalizing responses across channels.
Personalization now extends beyond product recommendations. AI is customizing everything from discounts to website layouts in real-time, creating unique experiences that convert.
AI automation streamlines back-end operations for inventory and pricing. By predicting demand and adjusting prices dynamically, brands improve margins while reducing stock issues.
AI is no longer a futuristic concept associated with sci-fi movies and robots. It’s driving real change in ecommerce right now. Currently, 84% of ecommerce businesses list AI as their top priority. And it’s only getting bigger. By 2034, the ecommerce AI market is expected to hit $62.64 billion.
Brands that use AI to improve personalization, automate customer support, and refine pricing strategies will have a major competitive edge.
The good news? Most brands are still figuring it out, which means there’s huge potential for early adopters to stand out.
Let’s dive into the key AI trends shaping ecommerce in 2025, and how you can use them to future-proof your business.
1. Visual search
Instead of searching for keywords, shoppers can upload a photo and instantly find similar or matching products. Visual search eliminates the guesswork of finding the right words to describe an item and reduces friction in the search process.
In 2025, improvements in computer vision and machine learning will make visual search faster. AI will better recognize patterns, colors, and textures, delivering more precise results in real-time.
For customers, visual search simplifies product discovery while brands benefit from increased average order values. Visual search creates more opportunities to surface related products that customers might miss during manual searches, ultimately boosting conversion and revenue.
Pinterest is already doing it. With Pinterest Lens, users can take a picture on the spot to find similar products or ideas to help them with easier purchases or creative projects.
Pinterest users can snap pictures of furniture or other objects like clothing and find similar items for sale using the app’s visual search feature.
Pro Tip: Optimize product images and metadata (like color, size, and material) so your products appear accurately in visual search results. Clean, high-quality images and detailed tagging will make your catalog easier for AI to process and match.
2. Conversational AI
Conversational AI, like Gorgias’s AI Agent, already handles 60% of customer conversations. Brands that adopt it often see more than a 25% improvement in customer satisfaction, revenue, or cost reduction.
Soon, advanced natural language processing (NLP) will make it easier for customers to use text, voice, and images to find exactly what they’re looking for. These multimodal capabilities will elevate support conversations, resulting in fewer abandoned carts and support teams that can focus on more complex issues.
For example, Glamnetic uses AI Agent to manage customer inquiries across multiple channels, resolving 40% of requests automatically while maintaining a personalized touch. Their AI can automate responses to common questions, recommend products based on browsing history, and even track orders in real-time.
AI Agent can respond to repetitive questions as well as provide personalized recommendations
Pro Tip: Invest in AI chat tools that integrate with your customer support system and sync with real-time product and order data. Your responses will be accurate and timely, without losing the personal touch.
According to McKinsey, omnichannel personalization strategies, including tailored product recommendations, have a 10-15% uplift potential in revenue and retention. But with only 1 in 10 retailers fully implementing personalization across channels, there’s a massive opportunity for brands to innovate.
In 2025, AI-driven product recommendations will become even more precise by analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history in real-time. Predictive AI will adjust recommendations on the fly, showing customers the right products at the right moment.
Take Kreyol Essence as an example. They use Gorgias Convert to track customer behavior and recommend products based on past purchases and browsing patterns. When a customer buys a hair mask, AI suggests complementary products like scalp oil or leave-in conditioner — increasing average order value without feeling pushy.
The creation of product bundles featuring Kreyol Essence’s S.O.S Serum, helped boost sales.
Personalization boosts sales by helping customers discover products they actually want. Plus, it creates a more tailored shopping experience, which encourages customers to return.
Pro Tip: Test different recommendation strategies, like “frequently bought together” or “you may also like,” to see which ones drive the most conversions.
In 2025, more customers may use smart speakers and voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant to shop hands-free. AI will improve voice recognition and contextual understanding, so it’s easier for customers to find products they want.
Instead of fumbling with a keyboard, customers will be able to say, “Order more coffee pods,” and AI will not only recognize the request but also pull up the preferred brand and size based on past orders. Less friction will make the buying process more intuitive, especially for repeat purchases.
Voice commerce expands shopping accessibility and creates a more convenient experience for busy customers. It also opens the door for brands to surface product recommendations and upsell during the conversation.
Pro Tip: Optimize product descriptions and catalog structure for voice search. Clear, simple language and detailed product tags will help AI understand and surface the right products.
5. Dynamic pricing
A recent McKinsey report suggests that investing in real-time customer analytics will continue to be key to adjusting pricing and more effectively targeting customers.
In 2025, machine learning will allow ecommerce brands to adjust product prices instantly based on demand, competitor pricing, and customer behavior. If a competitor drops their price on a popular item, AI can respond immediately, so you stay competitive without sacrificing margins.
Machine learning will also refine pricing models over time, finding the sweet spot between profitability and customer conversion.
For example, AI might detect that customers are more likely to buy a product when it’s priced at $29.99 rather than $30, and adjust accordingly. More competitive pricing means higher revenue and better margins, but it also increases customer trust when prices are consistent with market trends.
Pro Tip: Test different pricing strategies and monitor how they affect sales and customer behavior.
6. Better customer insights
According to McKinsey, AI-driven personalization and customer insights can improve marketing efficiency by 10-30% and cut costs significantly.
In 2025, AI will analyze customer data like purchase history, browsing patterns, and feedback to generate smarter, more actionable next steps. Instead of guessing what customers want, brands will have the data to predict it.
For example, Gorgias’s AI Agent for Sales can identify a shopper’s interest level and purchase intent and then use it to adjust its conversational strategy. It analyzes shopper data like browsing behavior, cart activity, and purchase history.
Here’s how it would behave for different customers:
A browsing customer: AI Agent will ask clarifying questions
An interested customer: AI Agent provides tailored recommendations and handles objections
A customer with an intent to buy: AI Agent assists with checkout, payment, and nudges purchase
Gorgias’s AI Agent for Sales collects shopper data to customize its conversational support and sales strategies.
7. Personalized shopping
AI-driven personalization leads to a 5-10% higher customer satisfaction and engagement. Yet, only 15% have fully implemented it across all channels — leaving a huge gap to fill.
In 2025, AI-driven personalization will go beyond product recommendations. Brands will be able to adjust website layouts based on customer preferences, highlight products that align with their style, and even customize customer service interactions.
A higher level of personalization will boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. When customers feel like a brand “gets” them, they’re more likely to make a purchase and come back for more.
For example, AI Agent for Sales can adjust discounts and provide smart incentives to drive sales. When adjusting for discounts, AI Agent analyzes shopper behavior, including browsing activity, cart status, and conversation context, to offer a discount based on how engaged and ready the shopper is to buy.
Gorgias’s AI Agent for Sales tailors its discounts according to a shopper’s behavior and purchase intent.
Pro Tip: Use AI to test different personalization strategies and refine them based on performance data. Small adjustments, like changing product order or highlighting specific categories, can have a big impact on sales.
8. Automated inventory management
Keeping the right products in stock at the right time is about to get a whole lot easier. In 2025, AI will predict demand patterns and automate restocking decisions based on sales trends, seasonality, and customer behavior. Instead of manually tracking inventory, AI will handle it in real time to avoid stock issues.
For example, AI could notice a spike in orders for a specific product right before the holidays. It could then automatically increase stock levels to meet demand or scale back on items that aren’t moving as fast. Real-time tracking means fewer missed sales and less wasted inventory.
Efficient inventory management not only cuts costs but also improves the customer experience. When products are consistently available, customers are more likely to trust and stick with your brand.
Pro Tip: Implement AI-powered inventory management to sync data across all sales channels. This ensures accurate stock levels and seamless fulfillment, whether customers are shopping online or in-store.
Embrace AI trends in your ecommerce store in 2025
AI makes it easier for brands to deliver a personalized and efficient shopping experience. From helping customers find products faster with visual search to automating support with conversational AI, there are plenty of opportunities for personalization.
The brands that adopt and refine these strategies now will be better positioned to meet customer expectations and stay ahead of the competition. Start by implementing conversational AI and later test some other AI trends like personalized suggestions.
Ready to see how AI can upgrade your brand? Book a demo to see AI Agent in action.
On average, 15% of interactions were resolved with automation
Experts predict that 2024 will focus on strategic planning, optimized AI use, more real-time communication, and amplifying the voice of CX within companies
This year, we witnessed customer service teams from 16,140 brands support over 77 million shoppers and millions of tickets with Gorgias.
As we turn to a new chapter, we want to spotlight how six of the top-performing industries delivered customer service in 2023.
From food to fashion, we’ll see how quickly agents answered questions, then discover what customers were asking, and learn from experts about what customer experience trends to expect in the new year.
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Support teams resolved tickets in 2.5 business days
Step into the ecommerce world, where you’ll find a vibrant population of merchants, each with their own niche and groups of loyal customers. Together, they generated $1.45 billion in revenue in 2023.
Of course, this would not have been possible without the grit of customer service teams and their dedication to customer satisfaction.
Support teams across 20 industries answered customer inquiries within one business day and solved them in two and a half, resulting in very satisfied shoppers. Impressively, 15% of interactions were fully automated and resolved on average.
Here are the average industry support stats:
First response time: 7.6 hours
Resolution time: 18.6 hours
CSAT score: 4.5/5
From food to fashion: a cross-industry glance at support statistics
The most popular ecommerce industries — Apparel and Fashion, Health, Wellness, and Fitness, Cosmetics, Food and Beverage, Consumer Goods, and Luxury Goods and Jewelry — were the top performers.
Using exclusive Gorgias data, we’ll look at how support teams from these industries handled tickets. Then, we’ll gain expert insight into the ecommerce experience in 2023, and how experts predict it will change in the coming year.
Apparel and Fashion strutted with a 4.5/5 CSAT score
Our first stop is the bustling market of Apparel and Fashion. We’re all familiar with how tricky online clothes shopping can be. Most likely due to issues with sizing and style, support teams mainly dealt with inquiries about:
Shipping status
Returns
Refunds
Yet, despite receiving the highest number of customer tickets among the six industries, Apparel and Fashion brands kept customers happy. They responded within one business day and resolved issues within two, with 15% of interactions being resolved with automation.
Here are their stats compared to the overall industry average:
First response time: 8 hours (+0.4 hours)
Resolution time: 17 hours (-1.6 hours)
CSAT score: 4.5/5
According to Loop, over 50% of their merchants now charge for certain returns, including fees for exchanges and returns for store credit. This change aligns with consumer preferences, as their report shows 70% of shoppers are willing to pay for premium, convenient experiences, a trend already embraced by half of these customers.
Cancellations and returns were Health, Wellness, and Fitness’ biggest hurdles
The next stop on our tour is the thriving Health, Wellness, and Fitness industry.
Unfortunately, brands in this sector had a challenging year keeping up with unpleasant tickets about:
Shipping status
Subscription cancellations
Refunds
Perhaps support teams could have automated more than 15% of interactions to handle these repetitive tickets better. But despite their slower-than-average first response time, customers were still pleased with the support experience:
First response time: 9 hours (+1.4 hours)
Resolution time: 18.3 hours (-0.3 hours)
CSAT score: 4.5/5
Expert Insights: Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at women’s wellness brand Love Wellness, highlights that personalized customer service has been a key trend of 2023. She’s observed that customers now expect to receive personal recommendations during their shopping journeys.
Cosmetics enhanced support with 18% automation
Now, take a peek at the fast-growing Cosmetics industry, and you’ll see how eager customers were to check out the hype around both small businesses and celebrity brands.
Given the boom of influencer marketing for these highly personal products, customers often inquired about:
Shipping status
Feedback
Damaged orders
To solve these tickets, support teams automated 18% of interactions and attained faster times than average:
First response time: 7 hours (-0.6 hours)
Resolution time: 15.8 hours (-2.8 hours)
CSAT score: 4.5/5
Food and Beverage served it fresh with a 5-hour first response time
Getting hungry? This year, the growing appetite for Food and Beverage in the ecommerce world was unmistakable. Beef jerky or freshly squeezed fruit juice, customers savored their snacks. But it also didn’t stop them from being tough critics.
The main issues raised to Food and Beverage support teams revolved around:
Shipping status
Feedback
Damaged products
Luckily, they cut down their first response time by automating 15% of interactions — nearly three hours faster than average:
First response time: 5 hours (-2.6 hours)
Resolution time: 17.2 hours (-1.4 hours)
CSAT score: 4.5/5
Expert insights: Zoe Kahn, former Manager of CX & Retention at Chomps and now Owner of Inevitable Agency, saw inventory issues as a major challenge of 2023. The complexity of inventory logistics is difficult for consumers to understand, leading to higher outreach from customers wondering when items would be back in stock. "Quieting those concerns is really difficult," Zoe notes. However, after witnessing inventory issues over the last few years, Zoe realized that "it's inevitable that inventory problems will happen because of how challenging the logistics of selling a product are."
Consumer Goods has CSAT down pat with a 4.6/5
There’s a lot to explore in the all-encompassing Consumer Goods industry. You’ll find brands that sell everything from sustainable water bottles and furniture to everything else in between, like dog toys and mystery subscription boxes.
While Consumer Goods brands only automated 14% of interactions, their resolution time was two hours faster than the industry average, resulting in the happiest customers among the six industries:
First response time: 8 hours (+0.4 hours)
Resolution time: 16.4 hours (-2.2 hours)
CSAT score: 4.6/5 (+0.6)
The top tickets Consumer Goods brands received were about:
Shipping status
Damaged orders
Customer feedback
Expert Insights: Ren Fuller-Wasserman, the Director of Experience at TUSHY, notes that the impact of the macroeconomic climate was among the top challenges faced in 2023. “As there's talk of recession and inflation, people are really looking for products that provide added value,” she says.
Our partner Okendo, a growth marketing platform that has worked with well-known brands like SKIMS and Rhode, notes that tech stack consolidation has been the top priority in 2023. They saw that merchants who used a multifaceted product with app integrations resulted in a 15x return on investment.
Luxury Goods and Jewelry polished interactions with 28% automation
Our final stop is at the small gem of an industry, Luxury Goods and Jewelry. Making sure their pricey wares arrived to customers safely was the top priority. That’s why the top questions support teams received were in regard to:
Shipping status
Discount requests
Damaged orders
Out of all the industries, Luxury Goods and Jewelry brands automated the most interactions at 28%, which certainly helped to shorten response and resolution times:
First response time: 6 hours (-1.6 hours)
Resolution time: 17.1 hours (-1.5 hours)
CSAT score: 4.4/5 (-0.1)
Expert Insights: Caela Castillo, Director of CX at Jaxxon, advises preparing early for BFCM but being flexible to change. She notes, “Sometimes you need a different perspective,” acknowledging that agents are valuable resources to gain customer insights, especially when it comes to planning new customer service strategies.
How to prepare for ecommerce in 2024 (according to experts)
It’s been a fruitful year of expediting the traditionally slow support process. However, with greater strides made in AI technology, ecommerce has only scratched the surface of providing accelerated service.
We interviewed ecommerce experts who saw the rise and fall of trends in 2023 and are ready to use their learnings to make the new year better.
Here are the top four actions ecommerce companies should take in 2024.
1) Identify business goals to adapt to new tech
We’re constantly fed an endless stream of new technology, which can be a distraction to business goals. That’s why the CTO of ecommerce agency Novatize, Pierre-Olivier Brassard, highly recommends planning a robust strategy first. Clear business goals will help teams pick the best tools — not the other way around.
2) Maximize the use of AI to streamline support
Customer service management platform TalentPop saw AI as the top CX trend of 2023. They foresee late adopters using AI next year, while early adopters will focus on optimization. To get ahead of the game, TalentPop recommends that support teams research all AI options since CX will only become more saturated with AI tools.
Brandon Amoroso, Founder & President at Electriq and Co-founder at SCALIS observed similar trends. In 2023, many CX teams implemented more self-service options for customers. Going into 2024, Brandon notes that a “continual integration of AI into the entire customer experience” is likely.
3) Offer real-time communication options
As social shopping gains traction, marketing platform Yotpo predicts customers are going to look for more real-time communication with brands. In fact, HubSpot reports a 45% year-over-year surge in using social media DMs for customer service. Therefore, using tools that enable interactions through DMs or text, like Yotpo SMS, will be a crucial strategy in the upcoming year.
4) Amplify the voice of the customer
Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, advises CX leaders to ensure their contributions are recognized. Kwasniewicz notes that support teams often know the business better than any other department. "Beat the CX drum loudly. If you're not in the room, find a way in the room," she stresses.
Helpdesk automation uses both AI and automation to handle recurring tasks and reduce manual work done by agents
Using an automated helpdesk results in better customer satisfaction, decreased ticket volume, and higher revenue
Ensure your automated helpdesk has features like chat, one-click answers, an order management portal, and article recommendations
The top helpdesk automation solution is Gorgias, an automated helpdesk made for ecommerce merchants at all levels
Customer service helpdesks are essential for managing customer conversations, but support teams are looking to increase efficiency beyond being organized. Answering customer questions is the easy part for agents — the main challenge lies in making manual tasks like typing up responses faster. This is where helpdesk automation comes in.
The top helpdesks have automation features that solve issues without agents needing to sift through complex documents or advanced settings. Helpdesks shouldn’t only streamline the customer experience, they should also simplify the process of delivering that service.
This guide will explore the benefits of helpdesk automation, pinpoint the must-have features of a helpdesk, and highlight the leading automated helpdesks. By the end, you’ll be ready to put helpdesk automation into action and trim out the extra tasks from your workflow.
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What is an automated helpdesk?
An automated helpdesk is a customer service tool that uses automation and AI to synthesize customer messages from various channels. The goal of automated helpdesks is to handle repetitive tasks, like categorizing and routing support tickets, so agents have fewer manual tasks to do.
The Gorgias Helpdesk is an example of an automated helpdesk made especially for ecommerce merchants. Notable features include:
Rules. Processes, such as ticket tagging or rerouting, are automatically activated when certain conditions are met.
Macros. Pre-written response templates that can be reused for recurring customer interactions like WISMO requests.
Inbox. Omnichannel communication is prioritized with email, SMS, voice, and social media messages in one inbox.
Quick Responses. Automated one-click Q&A interactions on Chat.
Flows. Interactive Chat conversations powered by automation.
Why more companies are adopting helpdesk automation
Helpdesks are brilliant tools by themselves but truly shine once combined with customer service automation. The time saved from automation leads to a significant drop in resolution times, and a boost in CSAT scores and revenue. Let’s take a closer look.
Resolve customer issues instantly
If you run an online store, you’re familiar with replying to the same messages about your shipping policy, returns, and products day in and day out. The beauty of helpdesk automation is how it handles frequently asked questions with self-service resources, like a knowledge base, that are available 24/7 and allow customers to get instant answers outside of business hours.
Give your agents bandwidth to focus on trickier tickets
When you remove copy-pasting answers from your customer service responsibility list, support agents get time back to engage with high-value shoppers who are either loyal customers or at risk of churning. With more time to focus on complex tickets, response times will be faster, and customers happier.
Drive more revenue by turning questions into sales
Automation is a proven way to drive more revenue, not just a quick fix to smooth out the wrinkles in your support workflow. Working with 30 brands, Gorgias found that brands that automated 30% of their customer support tended to generate around 8.7% of their companies' revenue.
6 key automation features your helpdesk needs
Automation is common in many helpdesk software, but the key is to focus on how the automation features can speed up support tasks.
Below are six essential automation features a helpdesk should have.
1) Chat
What is it? A website chat window for customers to get automated or real-time answers. The chat window’s visibility can differ on each webpage.
The manual task it replaces: Exiting the brand website and using a different channel (like email or social media) just to contact a brand’s support.
Why is it important? If the process of getting help is too complicated, customers are forced to switch to competitors with simpler solutions. But when you provide a clear way to receive support, customers get faster responses, are better informed, and more inclined to make a purchase.
The best part about Chat is it gives shoppers the option to either receive a quick, automated answer or chat with an agent if they prefer real-time assistance.
Success story with Gorgias:RevAir implemented Chat and increased response times by 93% and revenue to $76k per quarter.
2) Quick Responses
What is it? One-click question-and-answer scenarios that occur in Chat. Quick Responses are not powered by a chatbot and use pre-set answers to reply to users.
The manual task it replaces: Responding to frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Why is it important? Quick Responses is your solution to 24/7 support when agents aren’t available. Giving customers a low-stakes method of asking questions lets them experience a more pleasant and low-pressure shopping journey.
Success story with Gorgias: ALOHAS nearly tripled growth by automating 83% of support with Chat and Quick Responses.
3) Order Management
What is it? An in-chat order portal that lets customers track, cancel, and return their orders without contacting a support rep.
The manual tasks it replaces: Resolving where is my order? tickets, order return and cancellation requests
Why is it important? Customers who ask order-related questions typically have one of two goals: to track the status or change the status of their order. Basically, order management tickets aren’t unique and can be easily handled by automation. When you provide answers to your customers’ top priority (their purchase), you deflect a ticket from entering your inbox while improving customer satisfaction.
Success story with Gorgias:Topicals implemented Chat to reduce returns and ended up deflecting 69% of tickets from manual agent intervention.
What is it? Promotional messages in Chat that activate when visitors interact with your website.
The manual tasks it replaces: Spending money and time finding new customers, promoting storewide discounts and sales, upselling and cross-selling
Why is it important? Finding new customers is more expensive than retaining the ones you already have. Chat Campaigns acts as a virtual salesperson, making sure sales, promotions, and products are getting the attention they need. Even when agents are offline, Chat Campaigns work overtime to capture every visitor, effectively reducing cart abandonment, website bounce rate, and lost sales.
Success story with Gorgias:Glamnetic’s exit intent Chat Campaigns increased sales by 49%.
5) Autoresponders
What is it? AI processes that declutter your email inbox of spam and easily answered inquiries
The manual tasks it replaces: Deleting spam emails, answering WISMO tickets, sending tracking links, and processing refund requests
Why is it important? Autoresponders handle routine inquiries such as order status or refund requests. This improves customer service response times and frees you up to focus on more complex issues that require a human touch. You can also gain insights into the effectiveness of your automation strategies with Autoresponders, allowing you to monitor what customers need more or less of.
Success story with Gorgias:Stoov leveraged insights from ticket information and increased CSAT to 4.9 with 10% cost savings.
6) Article Recommendations
What is it? An AI-powered recommendation tool that resolves questions with relevant Help Center articles
The manual task it replaces: Responding to product-specific inquiries
Why is it important? Answering product questions can get long, especially if agents are manually typing the same explanations and instructions over and over again. By offloading this repetitive and laborious task to AI, customers receive consistent and detailed answers, while agents focus on resolving one-of-a-kind tickets.
Article Recommendations combines the knowledge power of AI and your own Help Center to give customers accurate and personalized solutions. This allows curious shoppers to receive complete information about your brand and products since articles can include images, videos, and links.
Success story with Gorgias:TUSHY gained 25% in revenue from leveraging pre-sales education including the use of Article Recommendations.
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The top 6 automated helpdesk options
Within the diverse range of available options, there are five standout helpdesk platforms renowned for their remarkable features: Gorgias, Zendesk, Kustomer, Freshdesk, Help Scout, and Shopify Inbox. Let’s take a closer look at what each helpdesk offers.
1) Gorgias
Price: Starts at $50/month; billed per ticket
Best features: The only ecommerce-focused helpdesk, powerful and easy-to-use automation features
As more businesses rely on ecommerce platforms to offer their products, Gorgias stands out as the best helpdesk for merchants at all levels. Gorgias offers seamless integration with major ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento and centralizes customer data and conversations within the platform.
Combining it with the AI-powered Gorgias Automate makes it a top contender for customer support teams seeking to streamline the customer experience and maximize the power of automated workflows. Gorgias Automate checks off all the boxes with foundational features like Quick Responses, Order Management, Chat Campaigns, Autoresponders, and Article Recommendations.
2) Zendesk
Price: Starts at $49/month; billed per user
Best features: Designed for enterprise companies, advanced reporting capabilities
Zendesk is favored by enterprise-level businesses for its excellent multi-channel support and strong reporting features like real-time data views and customizable dashboards.
However, while its specialty is raising customer satisfaction, users report dissatisfaction with Zendesk’s very own customer service due to unresponsiveness and difficulties with subscription changes. Despite these drawbacks, Zendesk's configurability makes it a valuable tool for larger businesses aiming to optimize their customer service operations.
3) Kustomer
Price: Starts at $89/month; billed per agent
Best features: Interface is easy to navigate, ability to add internal notes to tickets
Kustomer shines in organizing data and managing customer interactions. Though it may not fully meet the needs of ecommerce-based businesses, its strengths in streamlining support processes stand out. Users have noted some drawbacks such as a complicated search engine and limited mobile functionality. However, if a straightforward ticketing system is what you need, Kustomer may be the right fit.
4) Freshdesk
Price: Starts free for up to 10 agents; billed per agent
Best features: Includes a free plan, innovative collaboration features for convenient ticket assignment
If you're a SaaS business, Freshdesk is a great pick, excelling in basic ticket management. Its ability to integrate seamlessly with non-ecommerce applications like Salesforce and Jira makes it valuable for tech companies. Large ecommerce stores, on the other hand, might find Freshdesk's features somewhat limited.
Freshdesk's solid ticket management system, coupled with its user-friendly interface, makes it a top choice for SaaS businesses.
5) Help Scout
Price: Starts at $20/month; billed per user
Best features: Intuitive user interface, extensive knowledge base and documentation features
Help Scout excels in managing inbound customer emails with its feature-rich toolset. Recent enhancements like help docs and video embedding have improved its functionality. However, workflow automation still needs improvement and can lead to unintended mass email responses.
The limitation of features like real-time chat on higher-tier plans and subpar support experiences are its weaknesses, but its streamlined email support and knowledge management make Help Scout a strong option for teams that rely on email support.
6) Shopify Inbox
Price: Free for Shopify users
Best features: Native Shopify helpdesk solution for Shopify merchants, user-friendly interface
Shopify Inbox is favored by Shopify store owners for its excellent customer communication and user-friendly interface. Users appreciate its ability to centralize conversations and enhance customer engagement, which is great for brand-new merchants.
However, some find the initial learning curve challenging, with concerns over limited reporting features and inconsistent message notifications. Nevertheless, its cost-effectiveness and efficient customer engagement tools make Shopify Inbox a great pick for customers who don’t want to leave the Shopify environment.
Gorgias is the ultimate automated helpdesk for ecommerce
Gorgias stands out as the only helpdesk designed explicitly for ecommerce businesses. Boasting an incredible 4.3/5 stars on Shopify, it offers unparalleled integration with major ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Its suite of features is powered by advanced AI, streamlining ticket and order management, support workflows, and customer communication.
For ecommerce businesses looking to elevate their customer support experience, look no further than Gorgias. To see how Gorgias can transform your customer service, book a demo today.
Key customer service techniques for agents include understanding customer issues, using positive language, thoroughly understanding products, adapting to different communication styles, and setting clear expectations.
Key techniques for support leaders include providing agents with enriched customer data, building a library of templates, specializing agents in specific channels or issues, and training the entire organization to be customer-first.
Gorgias offers features such as automated responses, self-service options, live chat for pre-sales support, and integrations with other tools to enhance customer service.
Amid the barrage of social media ads, email campaigns, and influencer endorsements that consumers navigate weekly, PWC highlights that 73% of people see customer experience as a pivotal factor in their buying decisions.
The techniques today’s customer service teams use are the foundation for those excellent experiences.
Below, learn five key customer service techniques for agents and four for CS leaders.
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9 customer service techniques for agents, leads, and managers
Here are five essential techniques for agents to provide great customer service.
Effective techniques for agents to enhance customer service
To deliver good customer service, agents should first aim to understand customers’ issues at the beginning of each interaction. Then, they can leverage other tactics like reframing statements and setting clear expectations.
1) Get an understanding of the issue before you start the interaction
Every customer service encounter is unique and should be approached with a fresh perspective. Here’s how to make sure you understand the customer’s issue before diving into problem-solving mode:
Active listening: Context is key. Start every conversation by allowing the customer to feel heard by giving them the space to fully express their concerns before making any recommendations.
Review previous interactions: Skim past customer interactions to gain context. Tools like Gorgias streamline this process by integrating data across multiple channels, offering a comprehensive customer history at a glance.
Ask clarifying questions: Politely ask for more details if the customer’s problem isn’t immediately clear.
Avoid assumptions: Never assume you know the issue before the customer fully explains it, even if it seems familiar.
Empathy: Demonstrate understanding and concern for the customer’s issue to empathize with them.
2) Maintain a positive and uplifting tone in your communication
The words we choose in customer service can significantly impact the tone of an interaction.
Psychology professor Albert Mehrabian conducted insightful research on communication and found a fascinating breakdown: only 7% of a message's meaning is derived from the actual words spoken, while a much larger portion, 38%, is understood through tone. Meanwhile, body language proves to be the most influential factor, accounting for 55% of how the message is interpreted.
Since all customer conversations for ecommerce brands happen via chat, email, or on the phone (not face-to-face), agents can’t rely on body language. This means tone of voice becomes even more important for agents to get right.
How can you maintain positive language?
1️⃣ First, avoid negative words: “can't,” “won't,” or “don't” can often be reframed in a positive manner. Swap them for phrases like "I understand," "I'm here to help," and "Let's see what we can do," which are much more reassuring to customers.
2️⃣ Second, aim to be solution-oriented. Focus on potential solutions or next steps rather than dwelling on the problem.
3) Develop a comprehensive knowledge of the products or services
What happens when a recent customer sends an email asking about how to fix a broken part from the product they purchased from you, and your agents don’t know enough about it to help?
Or, if your skincare line recently underwent a formula change that your agents get asked about, but they aren’t sure what was changed and how it alters the performance of your products?
Knowledge of the products you’re selling is critical for accurately informing customers and managing their expectations.
💡 Our recommendation: Encourage a culture of sharing by creating feedback loops across the entire organization. The product team should communicate product details and capabilities, marketing teams should share information about customer behavior, and support teams should share the pain points they hear from customers.
Plus, when one agent learns something new about a product, such as an undocumented use case or a common customer complaint, sharing this insight with fellow agents can enrich everyone with deeper product knowledge.
4) Adapt your communication style to suit different customers
Every customer comes with a unique set of expectations and comfort levels, making flexibility in your communication skills a key skill for customer service agents.
Whether you’re talking on the phone or messaging the customer on Instagram, you can match a customer’s preferred style byrecognizing customer profiles.
Pay attention to cues that suggest how each customer prefers to interact. Some customers are straight to the point, desiring quick, factual information with minimal fuss.
Others might appreciate a more personable and reassuring approach, especially if they're dealing with a stressful issue.
Take it from Deja Jefferson, CX and Consumer Insights Manager at Topicals: “I ensure that customer service provided by Topicals not only exhibits empathy when issues arise but should be seamlessly integrated throughout the entire transaction process. Our priority is to ensure that our customers feel fully supported at every step.”
If you use Gorgias Helpdesk to manage your customer support channels, you’ll easily be able to see historical conversations with customers to give you an idea of their preferred communication style. You can also leverage sentiment detection, a Gorgias feature that automatically detects the tone of voice the customer is using. Using sentiment detection, you can also prioritize support tickets based on customers' urgent needs.
5) Establish clear expectations with customers
Managing customer expectations is a delicate balance. You don’t want to overpromise services, but you also don’t want customers to feel like you aren’t able to help them.
The balance? Be optimistic about solving their issues, but equally crucial not to promise more than can be delivered. Here's how to set realistic expectations:
Be transparent: When a resolution might take some time, communicate this to the customer, providing a realistic timeline. It's better for a customer to be pleasantly surprised by an early resolution than frustrated by a late one.
Keep commitments achievable: Assure the customer that what you know can be delivered within the set constraints.
Follow up: If you've provided a timeframe, check back in with the customer within this period. If there’s a delay, communicate it promptly—customers will appreciate the update even if it's not the news they were hoping for.
Acknowledge limitations: If a request falls outside the scope of what the company can provide or if there are factors beyond your control, it’s better to be upfront about it. Honesty goes a long way in maintaining a respectful and professional relationship with customers.
The truth is, you won't always have the answers customers want to hear. But being clear and honest with them can help them grasp why things are the way they are.
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Techniques for leads and managers
Effective leadership in customer service hinges on empowering agents with the right tools and strategies to excel in their roles.
Considering that 78% of customers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad customer service experiences, it’s important for your team to be well-equipped for success.
Let’s talk about how to do that.
1) Provide agents with enriched customer data
For customer service teams to excel, they require more than just basic customer information. Leads and managers can empower their teams by providing enriched customer data, leading to more personalized and efficient service.
A helpdesk software will make this easy — if it offers a range of integrations. This is an essential feature to look for because you want your helpdesk to mesh with your existing tech stack. Here’s why: agents need access to data beyond a customer’s name. Integrations are the only way a helpdesk can pull in this additional context.
We’re talking about past orders, historical conversations, engagement info, and conversion metrics into comprehensive customer profiles. This will help agents get a holistic view of the customer, paving the way for tailored interactions.
Bonus tip: Beyond your helpdesk, share any feedback you hear from customers with the rest of the team. Integrating your helpdesk with a tool like Slack can make this easy, and it’s one way the Love Wellness team actions quickly on the advice from customers:
“We have a channel in Slack dedicated to customer feedback. Dropping in feedback is part of the team’s daily and weekly responsibilities, which helps them get really familiar with all of the content.
“It also allows our team to dissect them and collaborate on how we can improve. You could also schedule recurring feedback share sessions with the Product or Website teams, or even invite them directly into Gorgias (at no extra cost) and create a dedicated view for product feedback, website feedback, and so on.”
—Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of CX at Love Wellness
2) Create a library of templates to streamline agent responses
Templates are a big help for customer support teams, especially those who are strapped for time (which, let’s be honest, that’s 99% of them).
Two types to build include:
Standard responses for common queries: Develop and include a set of pre-written answers tailored to frequently asked questions and routine issues. This ensures quick, consistent, and accurate responses to customer queries.
Scenario-specific templates: Different situations call for different responses. Having templates specifically designed for complaints, product inquiries, returns, and other common scenarios can guide agents to handle each situation with the appropriate tone and information.
Gorgias offers dynamic, reusable answers, so your agents can build a template of canned responses for all your FAQs. These are easily accessible for agents to swiftly locate and use when replying to customers.
If you want some tips on how to craft these templated responses, check out this article with tips for responding to frustrated customers for a good start.
3) Specialize agents in specific channels or issues
Just as every customer is unique, so too is every communication channel. Providing specialized training for agents in their chosen channels — be it phone, email, social media, or live chat — ensures they are not just familiar but highly skilled in navigating the nuances of these platforms.
But you can take this one step further by encouraging agents to become connoisseurs of specific product lines or types of issues. This deep dive into a particular area enables them to provide not just answers but insights, elevating the customer experience from good to great.
However, remember that specialization doesn’t mean working in silos. It's still crucial for specialized agents to also have a broad understanding across all areas.
💡 Tip: With Gorgias, you can auto-assign tickets to an agent based on issue or channel. This way, you’re routing tickets to agents who can best help every customer.
4) Promote a customer-first mindset across the entire organization
A tip that we love from Amanda Kwasniewicz at Love Wellness is the idea that to truly excel in customer service, a customer-first mentality needs to be woven into the very fabric of your organization.
This goes beyond the customer service department and includes everyone, from the C-suite to the front lines.
She suggests organizing workshops that paint the picture of the crucial role a customer-centric approach plays in every department. These sessions should highlight how each team member's contributions echo in the symphony of customer satisfaction.
“At Love Wellness, we believe that every single team member plays a vital role in creating a haven of care and understanding. That’s why we created an immersive customer experience training program that involves each and every one of us, including the president of the company and even our office manager!” she said.
Additional resources to support customer service teams
For those who are eager to dive deeper into the world of customer service and sharpen their skills even further, Gorgias offers a treasure trove of resources.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to refine your expertise, these materials are designed to enhance your understanding and execution of top-tier customer service:
Customer Service Terms: A comprehensive glossary to get you fluent in the language of customer service.
Customer Service Phrases: This collection of key phrases can help guide your communication towards more positive and impactful interactions.
Customer Service Skills:An outline of the essential skills every customer service professional should master, for any situation.
Customer Service Tips: A series of actionable tips that can be implemented to improve your customer service delivery immediately.
Customer Service Email Templates: Save time and maintain consistency with a variety of templates that cover common customer service scenarios.
Each of these resources is designed to instruct and inspire your customer service team to exceed expectations and create memorable customer experiences.
Enhance agent support with Gorgias
Exceptional customer service isn't just about the right words; the helpdesk tool you use is equally important to enhance efficiency and deliver exceptional service.
Gorgias is tailored to provide such support with innovative features that streamline your customer service processes. Let’s review a few in detail:
Automate responses with reusable Macros
Macros are pre-scripted customer service templates that accelerate response times by using automation to tackle those repetitive but essential customer inquiries that come in droves. Think of them as pre-made customer service scripts.
Often called ‘empty-calorie tickets,’ queries like “Where is my order?” don't require personalized responses and can be time-consuming if handled manually. Automating responses to these repetitive questions frees your agents to focus on more complex issues.
Here are some other times when Macros help:
Welcome emails: A friendly and informative welcome message can set a positive tone for the customer relationship.
Order status updates: For updates on transactions, shipping, and delivery, a Macro can provide customers with the information they need promptly.
Refund confirmations: When processing refunds, a clear and courteous Macro can assure customers that their request has been handled.
Customer loyalty messages: Keep your loyal customers engaged with updates and rewards information through efficient Macro communication.
Enable customers to find answers themselves
A staggering 88% of customers prefer to find answers independently, according to Statista. This tells us that the modern customer values autonomy, which is why self-service options are key.
Self-service options are resources for customers to get the answers they need without contacting an agent. These include FAQ pages, help centers, chat widgets, and interactive quizzes.
Here’s how each self-service option can benefit you:
FAQ page: Centralizes customers’ most commonly asked questions on one page to prevent your inbox from being filled with the same questions.
Help center: Larger in scope than an FAQ page or contact center, a Help Center is a database of detailed resources like articles and how-to videos to help customers learn more about your brand and product.
Chat: Chat can turn into a self-service option with the implementation of Quick Responses, or preset conversations that can answer customers without a live agent.
Interactive quiz: A fun self-service addition to online stores that carry highly specialized products, like skincare, health supplements, and apparel.
Here’s a great example from BrüMate, which uses a product finder quiz in its customer knowledge base:
Use live chat for pre-sales support
Live chat has become an indispensable tool for connecting with customers in real-time. Some inquiries present a great opportunity to sell a specific product, which Olipop shows here:
Live chat impact on sales and customer satisfaction is notable: 86% of live chat engagements end with a satisfied customer, and adding live chat to your website has been linked to a 12% improvement in conversions.
Gorgias live chat is designed to integrate seamlessly with the leading platforms for ecommerce customer support. It allows you to manage live chat tickets alongside those from email, phone, and social media, providing a unified interface to serve your online customers more effectively.
Chat campaigns can trigger when certain conditions are met (like visiting/dwelling on a certain page or being a repeat shopper). You can hit these targeted shoppers with personalized product recommendations or provide a unique discount code.
To sum it up: You're not only addressing customer needs in real-time with live chat but also creating opportunities to influence purchasing decisions positively.
Integrates your helpdesk with the rest of your tech stack
This extensive range means that Gorgias can likely connect with whatever tools you use to manage your ecommerce business, creating a streamlined workflow for your customer service agents.
The real win with these integrations? They let your agents get super personal with support.
When an agent pulls up a ticket, they’re able to see everything they need to know— past buys, loyalty points, you name it. This means they can give spot-on help that feels really tailored to each customer, cutting down on all that back-and-forth and making the whole experience smoother.
“Having quick access to previous order info in the helpdesk is super convenient and helps us turn our support agents into sales people.”
—Ian Anderson, Operations Manager @ mnml
Boost revenue through improved customer satisfaction
When it comes to turning satisfied customers into sales, Gorgias users are living proof of the potential.
Take Kirby Allison, for instance, who saw a 23% uptick in conversions after automating 30% of their customer support tickets. Or consider TUSHY, influencing a whopping 25% of their sales through Gorgias Convert.
These success stories highlight a clear message: customer service strategy isn’t just about problem-solving but about creating opportunities.
Ready to see the difference a proactive customer-first approach can make for your bottom line? Give Gorgias a try.
Consumers are increasingly multi-screen and multi-channel. From desktop to mobile to tablet, they interact with businesses through Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, emails, support chat, and even phone calls.
Though omnichannel customer service lays a valuable foundation, communicating effectively as a brand involves weaving marketing, sales, and customer service into a cohesive omnichannel communication strategy.
An omnichannel communication approach makes it easier to talk to customers in a personal way, helping drive sales and keep customers loyal.
This article explores how centralizing communications offers your team — from marketing and sales reps to support staff — the tools and insights they need for a consistent customer experience.
By doing so, you don’t just react to customer needs; you anticipate them, opening avenues for proactive engagements that positively impact both relationships and revenue.
Omnichannel communication: an overview
Omnichannel communication is a customer-centric approach that integrates different methods of communication and business channels into a unified, seamless experience for prospective and existing customers.
Omnichannel communication goes beyond just offering multiple avenues for customer interaction; it creates a seamless and integrated experience across all touchpoints.
How omnichannel works
Omnichannel communication focuses on three key facets—data unification, fluidity of customer interactions, and data-driven insights. By focusing on these key tenets, omnichannel communication moves beyond being a buzzword to a strategic approach that places the customer at the center of your business operations. This strategy allows retailers to deliver an experience that is consistent, contextually relevant, and highly personalized.
Data unification
Centralizing customer data from various digital channels like email, social media, and in-store interactions enables a more consistent and personalized experience. Also, it serves as the foundation for customer profiles. These profiles are critical for delivering targeted offers, rewards, and personalized service to shoppers.
Fluidity of customer interactions
Customers don’t experience channels; they experience your brand. They want to transition effortlessly between online chats, phone calls, and physical visits and have a conversation pick up right where it left off. This seamlessness is particularly beneficial for ecommerce retailers, who can use these channels to provide real-time updates such as stock availability or order status, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing friction.
Data-driven insights
Turn data into actionable insights. By analyzing integrated data across platforms, you can discern valuable patterns in customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to continuously refine your marketing strategies and improve the overall shopping experience.
Omnichannel communication moves beyond being a buzzword to a strategic approach that places the customer at the center of your business operations.
Omnichannel communication in action
While the concept sounds promising, how does it manifest for a single brand?
Graza excels at omnichannel communication, offering its customers a seamless and enriched experience across various touchpoints.
Using Gorgias Live Chat, they provide real-time customer support, resolving queries when customer service reps are online. As an alternative, their customer service email channel serves as both a satisfaction tool and a means for personalized marketing, sending targeted offers.
On social media platforms — like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — they respond to customer inquiries and engage the community with educational content about their single-origin olive oils.
Graza captures customer emails through Gorgias Chat's offline hours feature.
Graza's Instagram profile
This multi-layered approach ensures that every interaction is not just a transaction but an opportunity to deepen the relationship. The outcome is higher customer satisfaction and increased brand loyalty, leading to repeat purchases and a more robust bottom line.
Omnichannel communication vs. multichannel communication
We’re in a platform renaissance: retailers now have many ways to connect with customers.
However, not all channel strategies are created equal. Understanding the differences between omnichannel and multichannel approaches is critical to developing a communication plan that meets customer expectations.
Data integration sets omnichannel apart
Both omnichannel and multichannel strategies use multiple channels for customer engagement. Omnichannel takes it a step further by integrating data across these platforms. This provides cohesive and personalized customer experiences, rather than fragmented interactions that are often the result of multichannel approaches.
Customer continuity is a hallmark of omnichannel
An omnichannel strategy focuses on offering a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints, whereas multichannel often treats each channel as an isolated silo. This can result in a disjointed and less satisfying journey for customers who hop from one channel to another, asking the same question to different customer service reps.
Instant communication and real-time interaction
Omnichannel doesn’t just collect data; it leverages real-time analytics. This level of insight can drive data-driven decision-making, which is generally absent in multichannel strategies. This makes multichannel less effective for optimizing customer engagement and marketing efforts.
More tech setup for better communication
To make an omnichannel strategy work, you need strong tech systems that bring together data and tasks from different channels. While this may cost more at first compared to simpler multichannel setups, the benefit is happier customers and smoother day-to-day running of your business.
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Different channels to focus on
In the retail landscape, multiple channels connect your brand and your customers. To harness the full power of an omnichannel strategy, you need to focus on integrating different types of customer service and specific channels that offer different advantages for customer engagement.
Selecting the right mix of channels allows you to meet your customers where they are and offer them a consistent and seamless brand experience. Keep in mind that different communication channels have different customer expectations. According to data collected by Gorgias from over 12,000 ecommerce brands, here are the average response times for different communication channels:
Email
Below average: 1 day
Average:12 - 24 hours
Above average: Under 4 hours
Stellar: Under 1 hour
Social media
Below average: 1 day
Average:12 - 24 hours
Above average: Under 4 hours
Stellar: Under 15 minutes
SMS
Below average: 1 hour
Average: 10 minutes
Above average: Under 5 minutes
Stellar: Under 1 minute
Live chat
Below average: 1 hour
Average: 10 minutes
Above average: Under 5 minutes
Stellar: Under 1 minute
With that in mind, here are some channels to consider including in your own omnichannel communications strategy:
Email
Email remains a powerful tool for businesses to speak to customers, allowing for targeted marketing campaigns tailored to specific customer segments. Personalized follow-up emails are also critical for nurturing long-term customer relationships and encouraging repeat purchases.
SMS
SMS is an increasingly effective channel for businesses, offering real-time customer engagement. Targeted SMS campaigns can reach specific customer groups with timely offers and updates, while personalized follow-up messages help sustain long-term relationships and promote repeat business.
Social media
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram facilitate immediate customer engagement and provide a wealth of data on customer preferences and behavior. This data can be integrated into your larger omnichannel strategy to refine marketing campaigns and product offerings.
Live chat
Live chat offers real-time, on-site customer support, which can drastically improve conversion rates. Resolving customer queries and concerns in real time removes barriers to purchase and enhances customer satisfaction.
Mobile app
A dedicated mobile app can be a hub for personalized promotions and a streamlined shopping experience. A well-designed app can significantly boost customer engagement, build loyalty, and even integrate with your in-store experiences.
In-store experience
Physical stores are not just about sales; they offer tactile and immediate experiences that are challenging to replicate online. They also provide opportunities for cross-promotion with online channels, making a thoughtful in-store experience a vital part of a cohesive omnichannel strategy.
Phone support
Even in the digital age, phone support retains its value. According to a report, 43% of consumers favor non-digital customer service methods, such as in-person consultations or phone calls. Many customers prefer the immediacy and personal touch of voice support, especially for resolving complex queries or deciding about high-ticket items.
The impact that an omnichannel strategy can have on your company
Implementing an omnichannel strategy has far-reaching implications for your business, affecting everything from customer engagement to your bottom line. Here, we delve into how this integrated approach can drive revenue, increase customer loyalty, and offer other pivotal advantages for your ecommerce business.
Boost brand awareness and reach
A solid omnichannel strategy amplifies brand awareness by offering unified messaging across all customer touchpoints, whether social media, email, or in-store interactions.
This consistency strengthens brand recognition and facilitates customer engagement as they know what to expect from your brand. This multi-pronged strategy, leveraging both digital and traditional channels, ensures you’re where your customers are.
Parade, an undergarment brand committed to comfort and inclusivity, maintains a solid social media presence that includes customer support on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Using Gorgias tools, Parade offers customers a seamless omnichannel communication experience.
Parade integrates their Facebook messages to Gorgias for a smooth omnichannel experience.
Drive more revenue
Omnichannel communication isn’t just about convenience — it’s a revenue multiplier. Customers who feel understood and valued across all touchpoints are more likely to become repeat buyers. This is achieved by harnessing data for personalization and ensuring consistent, real-time communication. Here’s how:
Personalized offers. Tailoring offers to individual customer behavior increases both engagement and spending.
Seamless interaction. Providing consistent and timely responses across channels boosts customer trust and satisfaction, further fueling revenue growth.
Earning customer loyalty is about creating brand advocates through consistently exceeding expectations. Exceeding expectations across all channels fosters a sense of reliability and trust in your brand. Here’s how:
Brand credibility. By delivering a consistent and high-quality experience across all touchpoints, your brand becomes a trusted name that customers gravitate back to.
Immediate support. Real-time support minimizes customer wait times and leads to higher satisfaction and positive reviews.
Enhanced loyalty programs. Managing loyalty programs with unified data allows tailored rewards based on individual customer behavior, increasing lifetime value.
Bychari boosts brand trust through omnichannel communication
BYCHARI is a luxury jewelry brand established in 2012, known for its unique and modern handmade pieces designed for women who desire luxury while appreciating simplicity. The brand excels in omnichannel communication, offering a variety of customer touchpoints, including a contact form, live chat powered by Gorgias, calls, and emails.
To empower customers 24/7, especially when live support is unavailable, BYCHARI also provides self-service options like comprehensive FAQs, and uses Gorgias Flows to automate tasks such as order tracking and management.
BYCHARI’s contact page includes a contact form and Gorgias Chat.
Optimize marketing efficiency
Centralized data and analytics make your marketing campaigns smarter and more efficient. When you understand your customers’ behaviors and preference across channels, your targeting becomes dynamic and your messaging more personalized. Here’s how:
Clearer ROI tracking. Aggregating data from multiple channels into one dashboard sharpens your view of ROI, enabling quicker strategy adjustments.
Channel-specific insights. Detailed analytics help pinpoint which channels are driving customer conversion and engagement more effectively.
Efficient personalization. Using cross-channel data, both customer service and marketing teams can tailor their interactions, saving time while boosting customer engagement.
Enhance customer data analysis
A holistic view of customer data from multiple touchpoints uncovers insights that can drive quick, informed decisions. This rich data not only refines marketing efforts but also helps product teams tailor their offerings. Here’s how:
Actionable insights. Integrated analytics convert behavioral patterns into actionable tactics for sales and marketing adjustments.
Improved customer segmentation. Comprehensive data allows for more precise customer categorization, enabling highly targeted campaigns.
Maximized impact. This granular level of data enhances the effectiveness of each customer interaction, contributing to long-term business success.
How to create an omnichannel communication strategy
An omnichannel communication strategy can transform customer engagement and drive meaningful business results. This section will guide you through the essential steps for crafting a practical omnichannel approach that aligns with your retail goals.
1) Measure engagement across channels
Understanding your customer’s journey begins with measuring engagement across multiple channels. Use analytics tools to capture key metrics such as click-through rates and time spent on various pages, providing a quantitative foundation for your omnichannel communication strategy. By comparing these performance metrics, you gain insights into which channels are most effective in capturing and holding customer attention.
While these analytics can offer a comprehensive view of customer activity on marketing platforms, don’t overlook support channels. Platforms like Gorgias can measure engagement metrics within customer support, supplementing your overall data collection. Gorgias Support Performance serves as a control center for tracking key metrics such as ticket volume and agent activity, offering actionable insights to improve customer experience and measure engagement across various platforms.
Combining this support data with your broader analytics will provide a fuller understanding of customer engagement, equipping you to refine your omnichannel strategy.
2) Focus on brand voice and values in employee training
Employee training ensures that your omnichannel communication strategy reflects your brand’s voice and values. Developing a robust employee training program can instill these crucial elements in all customer-facing personnel, setting the stage for consistent brand representation. Real-life scenarios can serve as effective teaching tools, guiding employees on maintaining branding consistency during interactions, whether via email, social media, or SMS.
Given that companies evolve, your training materials must keep pace with any shifts in brand messaging or objectives. Regular updates to these resources can help your support team adapt to changes and continue to offer an aligned and cohesive customer experience across all touch points.
Don’t miss our article on customer service training, which provides 15 valuable activities your team can try to improve customer interactions.
3) Centralize customer data
When creating an effective omnichannel communication strategy, the importance of centralizing customer data can’t be overstated. A CRM system aggregating customer information from various touch points into one database is invaluable. It brings together disparate data and provides an integrated view of customer interactions, helping your team make data-driven decisions.
To realize the full potential of this centralized approach, ensure your CRM seamlessly integrates with all communication channels your company uses, enabling real-time data updates. Data from customer support platforms like Gorgias can then be merged with the information in your CRM, enhancing the quality and depth of the customer profiles that drive your omnichannel strategy.
4) Foster interdepartmental collaboration
Effective omnichannel communication necessitates collaboration that extends beyond the confines of individual departments. One approach is to conduct regular cross-departmental meetings where teams can share and discuss customer data insights. This guarantees everyone is on the same page about customer behaviors and needs, contributing to a holistic customer engagement strategy.
All departments should be aligned to respond more cohesively to customer needs. Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, ensures that her team collaborates broadly by having an internal communication channel for discussing customer concerns.
“We have a channel in Slack dedicated to customer feedback,” she says. “Dropping in feedback is part of the team’s daily and weekly responsibilities, which helps them get familiar with the content. It also allows our team to dissect them and collaborate on how we can improve.”
Establish a feedback loop, particularly with customer service, to continually share frequently encountered customer issues and trends. This feedback can catalyze improving products, services, and customer communication strategies.
5) Deliver personalized messages on customers’ channels of choice
Elevate your omnichannel strategy by tailoring your communications to the specific channels your customers prefer. Leveraging your centralized customer data, identify which channels—email, social media, or in-app notifications—are most effective for reaching your audience. Then, craft personalized messages that are not generic but informed by customer behavior and past interactions.
Continuously monitor how well personalized customer service resonates with your customers by tracking engagement metrics such as click-through and open rates. Equally important is collecting and analyzing customer feedback to understand the qualitative impact of your efforts. Based on these insights, make necessary adjustments to your messaging strategy, ensuring it remains aligned with customer preferences and behavior.
6) Harness automation to interact with customers 24/7
According to a report from Statista, 88% of consumers anticipate that brands will offer self-service support options. Automation is vital for maintaining a 24/7 connection with your customers. Implement chatbots on your website and social media channels to answer frequently asked questions immediately, enhancing user experience and satisfaction through proactive customer service.
Employ customer experience automation tools like Gorgias Automate to configure automated Flows for common customer queries. Fable, a brand dedicated to elevating dining experiences with premium dinnerware, utilizes Automate to provide round-the-clock customer service. Their automated flows are designed to swiftly answer common customer queries, such as active discounts and return procedures, ensuring customers can always find the information they need.
Fable uses Gorgias Quick Responses in their chat widget to provide automatic answers to the most common customer questions.
Create an omnichannel customer experience with Gorgias
Despite the benefits of a unified approach to customer communication, a 2022 report found that only 12% of digital platforms are “highly integrated.” Gorgias can be your key partner in achieving an omnichannel communication strategy, offering core helpdesk capabilities designed to seamlessly integrate customer interactions across multiple channels. Gorgias ensures that you meet and exceed customer expectations while driving revenue.
Data enrichment for agents communicating with customers
Gorgias equips agents with enriched customer profiles, pooling data from different channels — including social media, voice, and SMS — to provide context during interactions. This feature allows for quicker, more accurate support, as agents don’t have to switch between each communication platform to gather customer history.
A centralized hub to manage customer interactions
Gorgias is a one-stop hub, consolidating communications from email, chat, social media, and more, enabling easier management and response. The centralized system facilitates proactive support, which can directly impact sales by addressing customer concerns before they abandon their shopping carts.
Tools to customize branding in different channels
Gorgias allows you to maintain consistent branding by customizing the look and feel of your customer support channels. This ensures that no matter the channel, customers always have a uniform omnichannel experience that reinforces brand identity and trust.
Cupcakes and Cashmere, founded by Emily Schuman in 2017, has gained a devoted following for its curated jewelry, loungewear, and home goods. To extend this trust and cohesiveness into customer support, the brand uses Gorgias, its chat widget color-matched to the brand’s palette, ensuring a visually seamless and engaging user experience across its website.
Cupcakes and Cashmere streamlines the chat experience by coordinating the Gorgias chat widget with their brand's colors.
Explore Gorgias for omnichannel communication solutions
If you’re focused on streamlining customer interactions across various channels, consider exploring what Gorgias offers. With features that centralize communication, enrich agent information, and ensure brand consistency, Gorgias aims to make the omnichannel communication strategy more manageable and effective for ecommerce retailers.
Take a closer look to see how these capabilities could fit into your existing operations and customer engagement efforts. To learn more about Gorgias, book your demo today.
To maximize email as a support channel, use it as a stepping stone to faster channels.
Email allows for longer, more detailed responses and is accessible on all devices.
To effectively use email, use contact forms instead of listing an email address, funnel customers to faster channels when possible, prioritize tickets by topic and urgency, use templates for consistency, enrich emails with customer and order information, and supplement emails with self-service resources.
As of June 2022, 64% of US customers prefer email when contacting brands, so it’s clear why email is a mainstay in customer support programs. Even still, the Internet’s snail mail can sometimes translate to a slow and negative experience.
So, how do you maximize email as a customer service channel? You use it as a stepping stone to point customers to faster support channels.
Email is simply the medium; the resources are your answer. From including Help Center articles in your emails to replacing a raw mailto link with a user-friendly contact form, we’ll present plenty of ways to transform email into an efficient support channel.
The good and bad of email as a customer service channel
Like all channels, email has its benefits and weaknesses, but you can’t rely on it alone. Here’s what you can expect from email as a customer service channel.
The good 👍
Email is a commonly preferred channel for customers
It would be unwise to skip offering email support when more than half of customers prefer it over social media. Email support provides a vital bridge to connect with customers, especially if you’re a DTC business that can't engage with your shoppers in person.
Email allows for longer, more detailed responses to inquiries
Email can illustrate solutions for customers with embedded links, images, and attachments — something instant channels like social media DMs and SMS would handle with more difficulty.
For example, look below at Dr. Squatch’s eyecatching promotional email. Their use of multiple high-quality images, call-to-action buttons, social links, and logos proves how email can accommodate the most elaborate messages.
Milled
Email is accessible
If you have a digital footprint, email is almost always a requirement. You need it when creating a new account or when contacting people. It’s even accessible on all devices. Email’s prevalence means customers will expect online stores to offer email support at the very least.
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The bad 👎
Email tends to be a slower channel
The average first response time for email is 7 hours and 34 minutes. While most people tolerate how slow email is, it still doesn’t make for the best customer service experience. Urgent customer questions about product defects or bank account issues require rapid responses that other channels are better suited for.
Email inquiries can be challenging to categorize and prioritize
Email allows for more creative liberty than other messaging channels but also has downsides. Since customers are free to format their own subject lines and messages, the responsibility of sorting through your inbox is on your agents.
The problem here isn’t just about maintaining a clean workspace but ensuring urgent messages like angry customer emails aren’t overlooked due to a messy inbox.
How to use email as part of your customer support program
Support teams often feel their inbox is an obstacle course rife with concerned customers and a flood of recurring questions. Luckily, there’s a solution: use a customer service helpdesk that can consolidate email and other support tickets to keep your inbox and support team at bay.
Here’s how to effectively use email as a support channel with a helpdesk like Gorgias.
Don’t list an email address — use contact forms instead
Why? To maintain organization 🗂️ and increase service quality ✨
Plainly leaving your email address on your contact page can be intimidating for customers. What should they put in the subject line? Will they actually get a reply back? Since this contact method has practically no guidelines, you’ll want to set parameters to make reaching out more approachable.
How? Do away with a raw email link and use a contact form. Contact forms provide structure to emails. Thanks to step-by-step guidance through drop-down menus and required fields, you can sort emails even before they reach you.
Topicals’ Contact Us page only contains a contact form with fields for customer name, email, a drop-down menu for the contact reason and a field to attach files.
💡 Tip: We recommend that merchants don't direct customers to an email address for support. Instead, use a contact form to intake email support. Contact forms are superior because messages get structural data that helps customer service agents categorize and prioritize incoming tickets.
How? Let’s say a panicked customer wants to reverse duplicate charges on their credit card ASAP. This interaction could take multiple back and forths spanning several business days. Instead, you can reap the benefits of voice support, SMS or WhatsApp by directing them to your phone number.
“Being able to organize and divert tickets internally, having a good FAQ, making sure that you're actually solving the problems instead of putting band-aids on them, all goes into [reducing] resolution time.” —Zoe Kahn, Manager of CX & Retention at Chomps
Prioritize tickets by topic and urgency
Why? To maintain organization 🗂️ and increase customer retention 🤝
A common customer service mistake is treating tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis. This can lead to more unhappy customers because some tickets are less urgent than others. This is where prioritization can be effective.
How? First, categorize incoming tickets with Gorgias Rules and Tags. Do this by determining the conditions for which tickets should be tagged with an “Urgent” tag. For example, emails containing the word “cancel” will be tagged “Urgent.” Now your most high-value tickets will be solved and your loyal customers won’t need to worry.
You can set up a Gorgias Rule to detect emails about order cancellations and automatically tag them as “Cancel Order.”
How to prioritize unsatisfied customers: Set up a Rule to identify and auto-tag customer complaints as Urgent so you can turn their day around with exceptional customer service.
Use templates to create a consistent standard of service
Why? To increase service quality ✨ and enforce brand voice 🗣️
Being an advocate for personalized customer service doesn’t mean automation needs to be off-limits. Automation can and should be your best friend.
Automating customer service reduces response times and standardizes service quality. Automation can also capture data from customer interactions, letting support teams make data-driven improvements to their operations.
How? Use Macros (pre-written sample emails) to immediately answer questions about common topics, such as shipping information, return policies, and product-specific questions. Macros are a convenient way to compose professional messages, like customer apology emails, while allowing agents to add a personal touch.
Why? To increase customer satisfaction 👍 and service quality ✨
The biggest challenge about sending emails as a business is striking a balance between valuable and bothersome. It’s not only about crafting attractive promotional emails but making even the most mundane “Your order has shipped!” emails pop with purpose.
How? Integrate your ecommerce platform of choice, whether it’s Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento (Adobe Commerce), with Gorgias. You can view customer information from your chosen platform in the Customer Sidebar and extract the data to automatically populate emails.
Create a Macro for order status emails that includes a customer’s Shopify data like tracking number and URL.
Supplement emails with self-service resources
Why? To increase customer satisfaction score 👍 and reduce ticket volume 🔻
In ecommerce, a self-service resource is any resource that answers customer issues without talking to an agent. They include a Help Center (or knowledge base), FAQs, or automated chat widgets.
How? Create a Help Center with linkable articles that can be inserted into customer support emails. This is especially useful for new customers who may want to ask several frequently asked questions. A Help Center effectively acts as technical support, while freeing up agents to deal with more unique tickets.
The beauty brand, Glamnetic, created a Help Center full of articles that customer service reps can link to in their emails.
A successful customer support program should maximize self-service options to minimize manual effort.
Metrics to track your email performance
How well are you serving your customers through email? The answer lies in measuring how quickly you accomplish support tasks like opening and closing a ticket. But it's not only about speed. Tracking metrics is invaluable for troubleshooting gaps in your customer service operations.
Here are three metrics that can shed a light on how well your customer support team is using email.
Average first response time
Average first response time is the average time it takes for your customer service team to send the first response to a customer after receiving a request.
🔻 What slows it down: Inadequate staffing, lack of automation, and poor prioritization
➕ How to improve it: Use automation like Rules, Tags, Macros, and more self-service options
Average resolution time
Average resolution time refers to the average amount of time it takes to resolve or address a specific issue or request, typically measured in hours or days.
🔻 What slows it down: Inefficient process, disorganized inbox, and complex issues
➕ How to improve it: Reroute tickets to faster channels like voice, and build self-service options like a Help Center
First contact resolution rate
First contact resolution rate or FCR rate measures the rate of resolving a customer inquiry within the first interaction. An excellent FCR rate indicates that your support team is well-trained to be able to solve issues efficiently.
➕ How to improve it: Add more self-service options, ensure agents are given complete information on product/service knowledge and resolution techniques
[Callout] How to calculate FCR: Total number of requests resolved with one interaction in a single time period / the total number of requests in the same time period
Manage email — and all your other channels — with Gorgias
Email is stronger when combined with other channels — no one knows this better than multitasking expert Gorgias.
As a powerful helpdesk tool, Gorgias offers omnichannel support and powerful automation features like Macros and Rules that make managing email effortless. You can even supercharge Gorgias with integrations to ecommerce apps like Shopify, Yotpo, and Shipbob to keep you focused on delivering support without distractions.
Ready to bring in a crowd of happy customers? Book a demo now.
Today, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as necessary as its products or services. Conversational customer support can provide more memorable experiences that keep shoppers engaged long-term.
And, conversational customer support doesn’t demand an endless investment of personal time. With the right tools and strategies, you can exceed customer expectations.
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What is conversational customer service?
Conversational customer support is an interactive approach to assisting customers with their queries and concerns. This communication style uses a range of channels, including live chat, messaging apps, chatbots, and even voice support, to engage customers in interactive and often real-time conversations across the customer journey.
The goal is to create a friendly and genuine interaction, which in turn enhances customer satisfaction, builds brand loyalty, and fosters long-term relationships with their customers. Consumers who rate a company's service as "good" are 38% more likely to recommend that company (according to the Qualtrics XM Institute).
Advantages of conversational customer service vs. traditional
When you walk into a physical store, you expect the staff to be knowledgeable, friendly, and ready to assist you.
The same principle applies to online shopping. However, traditional customer support often involves shoppers searching across a website for a contact center to make a phone call, where they’re then placed on long holds while waiting to contact a real human.
Conversational customer support, on the other hand, offers immediate responses, operates 24/7, and uses natural language processing for a more efficient and convenient customer experience. In return, businesses see the following benefits:
Faster responses, anytime, anywhere
Today's customers expect rapid responses. According to Hubspot research, 2/3 of customers expect a reply in under 10 minutes. Embracing a conversational approach and automating your customer support channels can help you meet these expectations.
One way to achieve this is with Gorgias Automate, which allows you to offer 24/7 support and can answer up to 60% of your most repetitive tickets with a 0-second response time.
More personalized experiences, more profits
Personalization is one of the most important pillars of conversational service. But “personalization” has become a bit of a blanket statement over the years, so what does it actually mean?
Personalized customer support is about assisting customers based on their specific needs, preferences, and history with a business. It goes beyond generic responses and addresses customers on a personal level by using relevant data like purchase history and intent-based engagement.
That’s why it’s crucial to use a support platform that can pull relevant information about customers from the rest of your ecommerce tech stack (CRM, marketing automation, logistics), making it easier to automate tailored responses and give your agents all of the context they need to help customers efficiently.
Excellent customer service = more revenue
Conversational customer service isn’t just good for improving customer satisfaction scores; it’s also excellent for your bottom line. McKinsey research has shown that improving the customer experience has increased sales revenues by 2-7% and profitability by 1-2%.
Customers at Gorgias often see this kind of success. For example, skincare brand Topicals increased sales by 78% using conversational customer support. Specifically, the brand uses Quick Response Flows to automate answers to common questions, such as:
How should I use the Faded Serum?
Where do you ship?
How do I apply to the Ambassador Program?
How do I find the right products for my skin type?
All of this takes place within a self-service chat. These chat flows also guide shoppers to additional helpful resources in Topicals' Help Center or product pages. If a customer still has unanswered questions, a customer support agent can take over the conversation and chat with them directly.
Cost efficiency through automation
Businesses often avoid personalized support due to perceived cost and time constraints. However, providing personalized service can actually increase customer loyalty and boost revenue.
Automation, intelligent responses, and customer knowledge bases abstract away the tedious, repetitive questions support teams get daily. This frees up their time, allowing them to focus on driving conversions through pre-sales support and building strong customer relationships.
Take Stoov, the Dutch company known for its innovative heating cushions. A conversational approach to customer support helped Stoov achieve 10% in cost savings.
Thankfully, automation has come a long way since its earlier days. (We all remember those generic, one-size-fits-all answers that clearly came from a robot.)
Some helpdesks like Gorgias offer more interactive automation, which provides personalized answers based on customer inputs and key phrases.
Multichannel accessibility
Conversational customer service can be seamlessly deployed across various communication channels, including websites, mobile apps, messaging apps, and social media platforms.
Taking a cross-channel approach means businesses (and their customers) aren’t limited to a single mode of communication. Instead, they can engage with customers across various channels, catering to diverse preferences and enhancing overall convenience.
Again—offering customer support across various channels doesn’t have to be challenging to manage.
Gorgias pulls in customer conversations from channels like email, SMS, Messenger, WhatsApp, and more to view and respond to customers in a single dashboard. Omnichannel communication demonstrates a company’s commitment to being present and responsive wherever their customers may be.
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6 conversational customer service channels
As you know, one size doesn't fit all when it comes to customer service. Every shopper has their preference, so a blend of automated assistance and human touchpoints is necessary for exceptional customer support.
Let’s talk about six key channels to leverage.
1) Live chat
Live chat is like having a helpful assistant available at the click of a button. It involves instant, text-based communication between a customer and a live support agent, accessible through a website or messaging platform.
This approach provides immediate assistance, helps resolve issues promptly, and adds a personalized touch to customer interactions.
One of our favorite examples is from Princess Polly. In its live chat widget, Princess Polly highlights several FAQs upfront. These are based on the most common questions the support team gets and help customers be more self-serve. Plus, it’s easy for the customer to get in touch with a live agent if they still need support.
2) Phone support
Phone support is the classic, tried-and-true method of customer service. Customers can call the business directly to seek assistance, ask questions, or resolve issues. Interaction happens in real-time with live human agents, creating a direct and personal connection.
Did you know an annual study on buyer behavior shows that 59% of consumers prefer the traditional medium of phone calls to reach customer support representatives?
In other words—yes, shoppers still use phone support, and it can be beneficial for you to offer it.
You can also manage phone support with the rest of your channels under one roof using Gorgias. For example, Try The World, a gourmet subscription service, uses live chat, email, and phone support as its three primary support channels.
"Another big time-saver is the fact that chats, emails, and phone calls are united under one customer view. This way, when a customer calls, we immediately see previous conversations with them." - Amanda, Customer Support Manager, Try The World
After switching to Gorgias as its helpdesk to centralize all support queries, the team also integrated the helpdesk with Chargify and Shopify to pull in subscription and order data. All this information is readily available for each support agent — whether they’re providing support via phone or live chat.
This approach transformed Try The World’s efficiency — as a result, the team increased ticket handling from 80 to 120 per day while reducing response time to just one business day.
3) SMS and WhatsApp
Messaging apps like SMS and WhatsApp have become integral parts of our daily communication. Both of these channels are helpful for brands that want to offer “on-the-go support.”
While these two channels are great for marketing purposes, they’re also perfect support channels. Think about it: SMS always has the highest open rates and is one of the most convenient ways for shoppers to connect with the brands they love.
As a support channel, you can complement your SMS marketing efforts. A good example of this is from Printfresh. The Printfresh team uses SMS often to share updates with customers. Customers can also use the same number to text the brand back and ask any support-related questions.
4) Email support and ticketing systems
While not instant like live chat, email and ticketing systems allow customers to submit inquiries or issues, which support agents address in an organized manner. Automated responses and ticket tracking enhance the efficiency of this method.
You may be wondering, how is email support conversational? First off, conversational support doesn’t always have to be in real-time.
Sometimes, providing well-thought-out, detailed responses via email or tickets can be equally effective, allowing customers to digest information at their own pace.
When you’re pairing these responses with personalized information (perhaps you already know the customer’s size, preferred tastes, or skin type), you’ll be able to respond effectively and guide customers through their decision-making.
Love Your Melon uses this approach with customer service email and social media support. Pulling Shopify variables into Gorgias, the team enables Macros to streamline personalized responses.
Aside from using usual variables in canned responses, such as the requester's name, email, or the support agent’s name, Macros allow users to add information pulled from Shopify. These order-specific variables include the order ID, the tracking URL of the last order, the delivery status, the shipping address, and many others.
With this single strategy, Love Your Melon can answer 25% of tickets automatically, reducing response time from 10 minutes to a few seconds.
5) Social media support
For the most part, social media support is straightforward: it involves engaging with customers through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
You can take this strategy one step further by responding to comments on these channels—all under the same roof that you handle other conversations.
Shinesty uses Gorgias to address their Facebook ad comments. And since they’re using automated responses to answer common questions, the customer support team has more time to get creative with responses to social comments (which has driven more conversions for the brand).
The best part? Your CS team doesn’t all have to share a single login anymore 😉
“The Facebook ad commenting has been very interesting. People have been converting right there, thanks to a simple social interaction.” - Cody Szymanski, Customer Experience Manager, Shinesty
6) Self-serve portals
Customer knowledge bases might not involve direct human interaction, but they provide customers with a conversational interface to find information, troubleshoot problems, or access FAQs independently.
These portals are designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, empowering customers to find solutions on their own.
Tools like Gorgias’ Quick Responses via Gorgias Automate or article recommendations in live chat enhance the conversational aspect, allowing self-service portals to feed into chat interactions and make the experience even more engaging.
BrüMate's Help Center is a good one to get inspiration from. BrüMate addresses two common customer queries at the top of the page: returns policy and product compatibility, ensuring quick answers without scrolling.
In case customers aren’t on the knowledge base, the same FAQs are featured in the brand’s live chat. These direct customers to answers immediately, but they can still reach out to talk to someone directly if they need to.
“We have a great help center that attracts tens of thousands of monthly visitors who are then redirected back to the main site and in this circular motion where we don't want those customers to drop off." —Colin Waters, Director of Customer Experience at The Feed & former Associate Director of Customer Experience at BrüMate
Implement conversational customer service in 7 steps
Now that you know it’s easier to manage conversational customer support with the right tools, here are seven steps to implement this strategy without extra effort from your team.
1) Centralize customer interactions with a helpdesk
Surprisingly, more brands than you realize are handling support by logging in and out of multiple channels. Imagine how much time you would save if you could see every email, phone call, comment, and ticket under one roof.
The first step to conversational customer support is setting up a helpdesk. Centralizing customer interactions allows your team to view message histories across all channels in one unified interface.
With over 65+ integrations across the ecommerce tech stack, Gorgias gives teams a comprehensive view of customer interactions and data, eliminating guesswork and enhancing efficiency.
2) Automate repetitive queries
Save your agents from repetitive typing. Apply automation tools like rules to share templated responses (called Macros in Gorgias) across support channels, speeding up responses and ensuring consistency.
And even after responding, you can automate more actions in your workflow. This could be to assign a ticket to an agent, add tags, or even cancel/refund an order right away.
Here’s an example of a Macro being used by the Darn Good Yarn team.
3) Prioritize urgent tickets automatically
Not all customer issues are equal. To solve this, implement rules that automatically prioritize urgent or important tickets. By prioritizing different issues, you enhance customer satisfaction and demonstrate your commitment to resolving the most important concerns promptly.
For example, if you’re in the midst of a busy holiday season, you’ll want to prioritize tickets like address change requests over others.
4) Route tickets based on agent specialization
Do you have a list of VIP customers? Or agents who specialize in certain products or support channels over others?
Prioritizing tickets based on agent specialization is one way to increase efficiency so your agents can use their expertise to help shoppers quickly. This also enhances problem-resolution efficiency.
Consider creating dedicated views that consolidate inquiries so specific agents see only what’s relevant to them.
5) Empower agents with rich customer data
According to Salesforce research, 63% of consumers expect businesses to know their unique needs and expectations.
By equipping your agents with valuable insights into customer history and preferences, your agents can personalize interactions and foster meaningful conversations.
Gorgias pulls in customer information like past order history, support tickets, social media comments, or subscription status. Agents can see all of a customer's past history with a brand in one place when they’re talking with them. This allows support teams to get the full picture of every customer they’re chatting with.
6) Provide proactive pre-sales support and engagement
One way to be conversational in your customer support is to anticipate customer needs and reach out proactively. That means sharing self-service resources like a help center or FAQ page. It also means addressing pre-sales questions that might be blocking them from making a purchase or making the right purchase.
BrüMate accomplishes this by featuring an interactive product finder quiz in its customer knowledge base:
BruMate's help center
7) Make it easy for customers to engage with agents
Remember, offering conversational support is only effective if it's easy for customers to reach out.
You can do this by prominently featuring support CTAs across your site, from product pages to emails and footer links. Every transactional email can subtly highlight how to reach support, ensuring customers know how and when to engage.
Make customer support conversational with Gorgias
Conversational customer service bridges the gap between face-to-face interactions and online transactions. But it’s not just about addressing customer concerns; it's about creating meaningful connections and positive experiences, which are essential for customer retention and brand advocacy.
A key part of a conversational support strategy is simplifying the complexity of handling multiple channels. Every customer interaction and data point needs to live under one roof. Otherwise, it’s too difficult for teams to manage.
This is exactly what Gorgias does. We don’t want brands to have to settle for ordinary customer experiences. Your support is your foundation, and it should be easy to manage.
Customer experience automation (CXA) can enhance revenue and increase customer satisfaction.
CXA platforms convert manual tasks into automatic processes, improving customer service operations.
Implementing CXA improves ROI, resolves issues faster, and delivers personalized experiences at scale.
Real-world examples show how automation can improve customer experience and boost conversions.
The thought of automating repetitive customer service tasks has likely crossed your mind. But often, that consideration is followed by a train of concerns: Will automation eliminate personal touch?Will it reduce the quality of customer service? Will it replace human agents?
In reality, customer service automation (CXA) can enhance your revenue and increase customer satisfaction.
Read on to learn more about CXA and get four easy ways to automate. We'll also share a story of how one company successfully implemented CXA and gained 23% more conversions.
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What is customer experience automation (CXA)?
Customer experience automation (CXA) refers to the process of automating and enhancing the interactions that customers have with a business. It involves using automation tools like a helpdesk, Macros, Rules, and artificial intelligence to automate various aspects of customer engagement, from pre-sales and support to the post-purchase stage.
What is a customer experience automation platform?
A customer experience automation platform is a tool that can convert manual customer experience tasks into automatic processes. CXA platforms aim to alleviate the workload of human customer service agents while optimizing customer service operations.
Gorgias, for instance, is a leading example of a CXA platform, offering a wide range of powerful features, such as:
Efficient ticket triage
Automated responses across various channels
Automated order management
Automated emails
Smart Article Recommendations via Chat and email
Powerful integrations with ecommerce platforms
The impact that CXA can have on your customer experience (and bottom line)
Implementing CXA is not just about lightening your team's workload, it's a transformative strategy that greatly influences how customers interact with and perceive your brand. CXA ensures that your team can focus on more intricate interactions, resulting in an improved ROI, increased customer loyalty, and offering personalized experiences at scale.
Improve ROI for your support & experience teams
Customer service agents who have poor impressions of their companies say they don’t have all the tools they need to do their job. Factors like clunky software and insufficient training and processes all contribute to their experience, which, in turn, affects the overall customer experience.
The solution is to equip agents with powerful tools, like CXA, that will make their jobs easier and your customers’ experiences more enjoyable. Automation and an improved customer service ROI go hand in hand, leading to faster and more profitable customer experiences.
Help customers resolve issues faster
One of the immediate benefits of CXA is faster resolution times. With automation handling routine tasks like resolving where is my order (WISMO) requests and answering pre-sales questions, agents have more time to attend to complex support tickets and meet customer expectations with precise answers.
Deliver more personalized experiences at scale
Most automation skeptics fear losing the human touch once you bring automation into the picture. However, the reality is quite the opposite. A comprehensive CXA strategy allows support teams to express their brand voice and personality through adjustable features like pre-written templates or Macros. If your CXA platform restricts you from customizing default responses, you should find a tool that can adapt to you and your customers.
CXA in action: 4 easy ways to use automation to improve the customer experience
Now that we've covered the theory, it's time for your support team to implement CXA. Below are the top four ways to quickly incorporate customer experience automation using Gorgias Automate. We'll provide details on each feature, offer tips to get the most out of them, and showcase examples of how these strategies have worked for actual merchants.
1) Use Quick Responses to give customers instant answers to simple questions
Quick Responses are predefined replies automatically triggered when customers ask specific questions in Chat.
When to use: For teams who receive a daily flow of frequently asked questions that require them to copy and paste the same responses.
Activate Order Management in Chat by going to Automate -> Channels.
Tips:
Quick Responses are best for answering FAQs that have straightforward answers and don’t need elaborate explanations
Infuse your brand messaging and vocabulary into your Quick Responses to maintain natural interactions with shoppers
Always provide a route back to live support channels through email, live chat, phone, SMS, or social media in case customers need more assistance
Real-world results: The stationery company Ohh Deer achieved an impressive average 4.95 CSAT score and generated about $12,500 per quarter after implementing Gorgias Chat alone.
2) Use Tags and Rules to organize and prioritize customer tickets
Take advantage of efficient ticket triage by using Tags and Rules to ensure the most important tickets are addressed and complex tickets are routed to your most knowledgeable agents.
When to use: If urgent tickets (billing issues, product defects, and inquiries from returning customers) are getting buried in your inbox, you have a low retention rate, a high churn rate, or your inbox is disorganized.
This Rule tags tickets from less than two days ago with an “Urgent Order Edit” tag if the message contains the keywords “order/change,” “change,” or “edit.”
Tips:
Create “Urgent” and “Not Urgent” Tags to establish a streamlined prioritization process for agents to follow
Use Rules to direct complex tickets to more experienced agents so you avoid compromising resolution times and customer satisfaction
Create a Rule to remind agents to follow up on customers who have recently contacted your contact center
Real-world results: Drinkware brand BrüMate cut down their first response time from 5 hours to 1 minute and 30 seconds and drove $9M in revenue after they made use of Chat Campaigns and a Help Center (Gorgias’s customer knowledge base).
Colin Waters, BrüMate’s former Associate Director of Customer Experience, highlights that organizing Tags and Macros by their proper names keeps team onboarding running smoothly. He adds, “I'm very steady with naming conventions. I mean, my team must hate it. But anybody could come in and figure out what it all means without having a doctorate in CX."
3) Automate the order management, tracking, and returns process
Order management, including order creation, tracking, returns, and exchanges, is one of the aspects of customer service that is best suited to automation because of its repetitive nature.
When to use: If you get an influx of WISMO tickets and/or return-related inquiries in your inbox or need to streamline your order workflow.
With Gorgias Automate, customers can track, return, and cancel their orders within Chat.
Tips:
Enable tracking, returning, and canceling in Chat to allow customers to quickly check their orders
Automate order status notification emails to trigger after hitting milestones in the entire customer journey, such as order confirmations, order delivery, and post-purchase customer feedback requests
Integrate Loop Returns with Gorgias to automate your returns process and create a returns portal
Real-world results:Jaxxon includes their Return Policy in Chat via Quick Responses and maintains an easily accessible Return Portal. By maximizing their self-service resources, they brought in a staggering 46% more in revenue.
Jaxxon makes their return policy easy to find by adding a Quick Response for it in Chat.
4) Use AI to recommend Help Center articles
Your articles shouldn’t only be found in your Help Center; make the most out of your resources by sharing them on multiple channels like Chat and email. Making your articles widespread gains you two benefits: an educated customer base and faster resolution times.
When to use: If you have a high return rate and negative customer reviews or sense a lack of understanding from your customers about your product.
You can create Chat Campaigns to educate browsing shoppers and direct them to a product quiz or Help Center articles.
Tips:
Insert Help Center articles into customer communications to build anticipation and proactively address issues
Create Chat Campaigns to automate the customer education process, offering targeted information and support
Scenarios where you can use chat campaigns: holidays and limited-time offers, for customers browsing high-value products, at checkout to reduce cart abandonment
Real-world results: After creating Chat Campaigns that displayed welcome discounts and toilet compatibility checkers to shoppers, TUSHY achieved an impressive 25% increase in revenue and improved customer satisfaction. They also brought their bounce rate down by 37%.
Success story: How Kirby Allison boosted conversions by 23% with CXA
If the previous real-world examples weren’t enough to convince you about automation’s integral role in CX, here’s another success story.
Kirby Allison, a luxury garment care business, struggled to handle a growing volume of repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Surviving on a minuscule two-person customer support team, they were drowning in tickets outside business hours.
Once they enlisted the help of Automate, it was a weight off their shoulders. Gorgias’s multifunctional Chat provided 24/7 support with Quick Responses, self-service Order Management, and Article Recommendations.
Immediately, Kirby Allison saw a 46% increase in sales, a 23% increase in conversions, and drastically reduced response times.
If you want to make huge successes easy wins — take the first step towards transforming your customer service and book a Gorgias Automate demo today.
It’s true that a great customer experience is key to winning happy customers — but to keep a pulse on customer satisfaction, you need to dig a little deeper.
To understand the quality of a customer’s experience with your brand, you need to track Customer Effort Score (CES). This metric lets you evaluate your customer service efforts by tracking the level of effort a shopper must exert to fix an issue with your customer support team.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to track and monitor CES, as well as how to optimize your support strategy to minimize customer effort as much as possible.
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What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a way ecommerce brands can accurately measure how much effort a customer has to exert in order to interact with your support resources.
This metric is relevant to any interaction a shopper might have that touches your customer support strategy, like:
Talking with a rep through Live Chat
Navigating a return
Answering tricky product questions
Canceling an order in progress
The easiest way to measure customer effort score is by sending customers a survey after their interaction with customer success ends. In this survey, ask them to rate their service experience on a 1-10 point scale.
We’ll dive into the details behind how to create a survey to measure the amount of effort your customers take shortly.
Why customer effort is the key to customer loyalty
No shopper wants a high-effort experience. According to The Effortless Experience, 96% of high-effort customer experiences drive a customer to be disloyal to your brand — making retention nearly impossible.
Clearly, it's worth the effort to make life a little easier for your customers — doing so will convince many of them to shop with your brand again.
When you calculate your customer effort score, you’re able to keep a pulse on exactly what it takes to create seamless experiences that lead to increased loyalty. The metric is a strong predictor of customer retention and can help identify pain points in your customer support strategy.
A quick-start guide to measuring CES with surveys
As we mentioned earlier, you can measure customer effort by sending customers a customer effort survey.
In this survey, customers are asked to rate their experience with customer support on a Likert scale from “less effort” to “a lot of effort”.
Let’s walk step-by-step through how to build a CES survey and how to send them to your customers. Then, we’ll look at how to interpret results once you’ve compiled enough data.
When to send a CES survey
You can send a CES survey immediately after any customer interaction, like post-purchase.
To zoom in even more on customer effort, consider only sending a CES survey once a shopper has a service interaction with your support strategy, like chatting with a live agent, visiting a self-service portal, or clicking through an interactive FAQ page.
This way, you’re able to get an accurate idea of how easy, or how frustrating, your support touchpoints are.
How to create a CES survey
A CES survey typically has one simple question that asks, “How easy was it to solve your problem today?”
Every brand tracks responses a little differently, using a scaled system. Here’s a few examples of different kinds of scales you can choose from:
Word-based scale
A word-based scale lets respondents share their experience by choosing a word or phrase ranging from “very easy” to “very difficult.”
Sentiment scale
A sentiment scale gives customers the option to share their experience using angry, happy, or sad faces to depict the emotion they felt while seeking support from your brand.
Numerical scale
A numerical scale lets customers share their experience using a scale of 1 to any number of your choosing. Some brands like a scale of 1 to 10, while others prefer scales of 1 to 5.
No matter what thresholds you set, 1 should always be the lowest, meaning the worst, and your end number should be the highest, meaning the best.
It's important to note that no option is better than another. The survey type you choose all depends on your shop’s needs.
Some brands might also ask an open-ended question as a follow-up so customers can share specific details about their experience.
You can send a CES survey question through email, SMS, or a similar channel to customers who recently reached out to your support team.
Of course, you can send a customer effort score question manually, but it takes precious time away from your reps who are busy handling active tickets. Automating the process means your agents can focus on more meaningful work, like following up with disgruntled shoppers.
Gorgias integrates with Delighted to provide easy-to-use survey templates to automatically distribute customer surveys, including for CES. Once a customer makes a purchase, it triggers Gorgias to automatically send a customer effort score survey to that customer.
How to calculate your CES score
Like many other customer service metrics, you want to calculate your average CES in order to get a snapshot view of how most customers perceive their experience with your support resources.
If you want to calculate customer effort manually, start by tracking response data from your CES surveys over a given period of time.
The timeframe all depends on your goals. You can look at a month, quarter, half-year, etc. Ultimately, it's more important to be consistent with the timeframes you measure. That way, you can accurately track how your CES changes over time.
Once you’ve collected enough data, plug it into this simple formula:
Divide the number of customers who agree the interaction was easy by the total number of responses.
To put it in actual numbers, if 100 people responded to your CES survey, and the total sum of their scores amounts to 800, that means your CES score is 8 (out of 10).
What drives a high CES?
Like most other customer service metrics, there is no such thing as a standardized “perfect” benchmark for customer effort.
That’s because it all goes back to your brand and its goals. What makes sense for your customer effort might not translate to another ecommerce shop.
As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to CES you want your score to be as high as possible.
A high CES shows that your support strategy is clear cut and that customers have to exert minimal effort to have their problems resolved. Conversely, a low CES means customers find their experiences with your support resources arduous — putting your brand at risk of a high churn rate.
The best way to drive a high CES is to provide a painless and straightforward experience. If your CES isn’t quite as high as you’d like it to be, start by asking yourself these questions:
How many touchpoints did the customer have before their issue was resolved?
How long did it take for an agent to respond to a customer ticket?
Are all your links up-to-date for important self-service options like a knowledge base, forum, or FAQ?
Do you agents have access to the resources they need to make well-informed decisions?
From there, you can look into ways to optimize your support strategy to boost your customer effort score.
How to improve your Customer Effort Score
To improve your customer effort score, you need to build pathways to make it as easy as possible for customers to find the answers they’re looking for. That means decreasing the number of steps it takes for a customer to complete a task and optimizing your first response time.
Clearly, it’s worth the effort to optimize your customer experience.
Let’s look at some of the easiest ways ecommerce brands can lower their CES using functions commonly found in helpdesks.
1) Build out a thorough knowledge base
A knowledge base is a portal, of sorts. It connects your shoppers to both sales and customer service so they can make an empowered purchasing decision.
The beauty of a knowledge base is that is goes way beyond just a static library of articles.
BrüMate's Help Center is a learning environment where customers can go to in-depth knowledge about their products.
2) Lean on self-service
Customers might not reach out to your agents immediately.
Offering more self-service options also means you can deflect low-priority tickets so your agents can focus on solving more challenging customer issues.
We’ve already discussed a popular self-service option: knowledge bases. Here are some other examples of what customer self-service might look like:
FAQ page: Answer your customers’ most frequently asked questions with key information like operating hours, product availability, pricing, return policy, basic troubleshooting, and more.
Forums: Build community among your shoppers and encourage them to talk to each other about their experiences so that they can empower themselves to resolve low-effort problems.
On-demand webinars: Educate your customers with step-by-step tutorials about your brand’s products. Record webinars so that you can publish them as evergreen content on your website for customers to access anytime.
In-product tutorials: Give customers step-by-step instructions in the moment its needed. In-product tutorials are effective at helping customers get value out of your product quickly.
3) Harness automation
Many of the tickets your agents handle are repetitive.
Sure, tracking a customer’s order is important, but automation can handle these kinds of straightforward questions for your team.
In customer service, automation likely won’t replace your hardworking support reps. Rather, automation can work with your teams to improve workflows and optimize communication with your customers by tackling redundant manual work.
4) Auto-prioritize tickets to reduce response times
Assigning ticket priorities is a best practice to empower your team to become more efficient. But you could spend all day on this task alone.
Ticket prioritization is another useful form of automation, assigning low-, medium-, and high-value to every incoming request. This way, your team can handle the higher-priority issues first.
Macros are another form of automation that optimize a customer support team’s workflow.
Macros are pre-written, automatic responses to incoming customer requests.
Gorgias Macros automatically pull customer data into your messages, like name, order number, and shipping addresses. This makes for a more efficient conversation and helps customers get to a resolution with minimal effort for both the customer and the agent.
Other important customer experience metrics to consider
Customer effort is a big slice of the pie when it comes to monitoring your customer experience, but it can’t show the whole picture on its own.
We recommend bolstering your CES efforts with additional metrics in order to add helpful context to your customer support strategy.
Plus, it gives you a better look into the customer’s journey, so you can see how shoppers experience your brand — and give you ideas for how to boost satisfaction and drive loyalty.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric to measure your customer base’s level of satisfaction with their experience.
The metric is one of the most important measurements your support team can track. Satisfied customers are the key to unlock loyalty, reviews, and referrals, along with returning customers that boost revenue for your brand.
With Gorgias, you can automatically send a customer satisfaction survey after each interaction with customer support:
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a commonly tracked metric that lets you learn how likely your customers are to recommend your brand to their friends and family.
This metric likely correlates closely with your CES. A customer who has had a great experience is likely to want to hype you up to their networks, versus a customer who had to put in a ton of effort to resolve an issue.
If you optimize your NPS, there’s a good chance your CES will also improve — which can lead to more repeat customers and a boost in customer loyalty.
Ecommerce Churn Rate
Ecommerce churn rate is the percentage of lost customers your business sees over a given period of time.
This metric is similar to Customer Churn Rate (CCR), which is typically measured by SaaS or subscription-based B2B companies. These companies can easily see when a customer cancels their subscription, making this data easy to monitor.
Ecommerce, or online stores, can measure churn rate by looking at negative customer feedback, like a high CES, in order to identify customers at risk for churn.
Gorgias: Your ecommerce helpdesk to lower Customer Effort Score
A helpdesk like Gorgias has the power to immediately optimize your customer service team — which, as we’ve learned, directly impacts the effort a customer has to exert with your brand.
Because Gorgias has purpose-built automation features like Chat, Macros, and ticket prioritization, it can empower your customers to find a resolution to their problems as fast as possible.
