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TL;DR:

• Automation can be customized to fit the language, tone, and voice of your brand.
• Combine automation with ecommerce app integrations to personalize messages at scale.
• Use a customer helpdesk trained on AI to automate personalized customer service.
• Disclose when automated messages are used to maintain customer trust.

While there’s a common concern that automation might alienate customers with responses that miss the mark, it turns out that 73% of customers have higher expectations for personalized experiences when advanced tech is involved.

Not only do customers expect automation and AI in customer service, but they also believe that brands should make the most out of them.

Luckily, helpdesk tools like Gorgias have found the right balance between automation, personalization, and human touch. The only thing left for CX agents to do is to use automation strategically.

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Automation is not AI & other automation myths debunked

Automation and AI are distinct, just like live chat versus chatbots. AI, such as ChatGPT, evolves in real-time from interacting with and learning from input data, while automation follows set rules for routine tasks without understanding natural language.

Automation is highly customizable — it won’t spew out an inappropriate sentence unless you tell it to. If you’re still hesitant about automating your support, here are four automation myths debunked below.

Myth 1: Automation produces robotic language

The tone and style of your automated messages are entirely within your control, thanks to the customizable nature of automation. This flexibility ensures that your brand's unique voice shines through, allowing for a tailored approach that aligns with your ecommerce strategy.

If we’re talking about AI, we’ve also come a long way from generic chatbot responses. In fact, a 2019 Stanford University report found that AI computational power doubled every 3.4 months. The result? Humans are only correct 60% of the time when guessing if they’re talking to AI or a real person.

Myth 2: Automation can’t be personalized

In reality, automation is highly adaptable and can incorporate customer data, brand voice, and plenty of dynamic variables to create powerful communications for personalized customer service.

Learn more: How Manduka used personalized, on-site campaigns and earned $70k

Myth 3: Automation can replace human agents

While automation enhances efficiency, it works best in tandem with human insight rather than as a complete replacement for human agents. Customer service thrives when there is a route back to human support.

Myth 4: Customers prefer human agents

Yes, customers appreciate the ease of connecting to a fellow human, but they also value speed — something automation excels at compared to humans.

Learn more: How Luksusbaby boosted 66% first response time with 45% automation

The balancing act of using automation effectively without sacrificing personalization

A customer-centric helpdesk trained on AI is the most effective way to have rapid and authentic customer interactions. A tool like Gorgias enables you to scale your customer service operations by connecting your ecommerce store. Gorgias learns customer conversations and data and automates simple processes like responding to repetitive tickets and refunding orders.

How to use automation the right way to support your customers

To effectively implement customer service automation, always remember to add a human touch to make customers feel comfortable. More importantly, not all customer interactions are suitable for automated responses so automate strategically.

Here are five ways to implement personalized automation with Gorgias, from automating responses to using website chat and creating a help center.

1) Create auto-responses to answer FAQs

Skip the mental work of reading a frequently asked question and thinking of a response. Auto-responses will do both for you in the background while you complete other high-priority tasks.

How to implement:

• Set up a rule to auto-respond to where is my order? (WISMO) tickets

Note: Manually follow up on complaints or technical issues. Using auto-responses on these sensitive issues may escalate them and cause more customer frustration.

2) Route customers to live chat agents or help center articles

AI is excellent at answering simple inquiries, but sometimes customers will ask questions that need a human’s problem-solving skills. Include a route to a live agent to address this. Allowing AI and agents to work in tandem is an effective way to improve customer satisfaction.

How to implement: 

• Enable live chat support alongside automated, offline chat 
• Include disclaimers and instructions in your automated responses about how customers can speak to a live agent
• Include an option to talk to an agent in your interactive voice response (IVR) system

Note: Don’t trick customers into thinking they’re speaking to an agent when they’re speaking to AI. Customers are more likely to trust you when you set clear expectations from the start.

3) Use enriched customer data to deliver personalized messages

Make personalization a part of the customer journey to create friendly experiences on a large scale. Without tailored communications, you’ll likely frustrate 76% of your customers due to irrelevant recommendations and marketing campaigns.

How to implement:

• Include customers’ names in emails, SMS, chat, social media direct messages, and other notifications with a Shopify integration
• Mention past purchases when providing customers with new recommendations
• Adjust language in automated emails and email marketing based on customer demographic

4) Prioritize VIP customers with automated rules

According to a survey of 3,000 consumers, 56% would repurchase from a retailer that provides personalization. For this reason, create an automated action, also known as a rule, that labels tickets from VIP customers. Prioritizing VIP needs will allow your team to strengthen loyalty and drive repeat purchases.

How to implement: 

• Identify VIP customers by setting a minimum purchase total or total # of orders
• Create a rule that identifies tickets from VIP customers based on their customer profile

5) Build a help center to provide article recommendations

The responsiveness of AI depends on the knowledge you feed it. To accelerate automation’s efficiency, provide it with resources from your knowledge base or help center. In 2020, organizations reported a reduction of up to 70% in call, chat, and email inquiries after implementing a chatbot or virtual customer assistant. 

How to implement:

• Compile a list of customers’ most frequently asked questions using an AI tool or help center statistics
• Create articles answering each question and upload them into a help center

Read more: 9 types of customer self-service

Balance automation and the human touch with Gorgias Automate

Setting up automation without the right tools can detract from personalization efforts. Gorgias Automate remedies this by equipping CX teams with features like Autoresponders, self-service Order Management,  Quick Responses in Chat, and Article Recommendations. Elevate customer experiences and grow your customer relationships by booking a demo with Gorgias today.

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The expansive terminology of customer service is ever-growing. Whether you’re venturing into the world as a new agent or you’re a seasoned support lead, our  comprehensive customer service glossary will provide you with precise definitions and examples to elevate your understanding of customer service.

The glossary is divided into seven categories, starting with basic customer service concepts and ending with technical terms related to metrics and KPIs. 

Start reading below and learn new and old customer service terms.

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The 100+ Most Important Customer Service Terms for Agents and Support Teams

Basic customer service concepts

1. Agent

An agent is a customer service representative who assists customers by addressing questions, inquiries, and fulfilling support requests. 

Interested in being an agent? You can start learning with Gorgias Academy’s Agent Training collection and earn your certification.

2. Abandoned cart

An abandoned cart occurs when a customer adds items to their online shopping cart but leaves the website without completing the purchase. Some causes of abandoned carts are high prices, customers preferring competitor products, and complicated checkout pages.

📚 Related reading: How to reduce cart abandonment in 12 ways

3. Channels

A communication platform through which customers can contact customer service agents for assistance. Examples of channels include email, live chat, SMS, and phone. Offering multiple channels lets customers contact a business more easily.

4. Complaint

A complaint is when a customer expresses dissatisfaction with a product, service, or experience. Support teams should aim to have little to no complaints. However, if you do receive a complaint, make sure to take notes as they can provide powerful insights to how your business can improve your process or products.

5. Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior is the pattern of actions that customers take before, during, and after purchasing a product. Companies can get consumer behavior data by interacting with customers and receiving survey answers.

6. Conversational customer service

Conversational customer service focuses on providing customers a relatable, human experience through conversation. This is achieved through the use of friendly, casual language and minimal use of automated responses.

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7. Crisis management

Crisis management is about effectively managing customer service during times of crisis or emergencies. A customer service team will need proper crisis management during unexpected events like power outages, product recalls, or staff shortages.

8. Customer-centric

Customer-centric refers to an approach that centers and prioritizes the customer’s needs, desires, and behaviors. For example, a customer-centric brand will regularly ask customers for feedback on their processes and decisions.

9. Customer engagement

Customer engagement refers to how involved a customer is with your business. Higher customer engagement leads to more trust, and potentially, more sales. You can increase customer engagement with more customer interactions and eye-catching marketing campaigns.

10. Customer experience

Customer experience is the overall impression a customer has about your company at all stages of the customer journey. An excellent customer experience occurs when customers feel that a business’ service is personalized to their needs and preferences.

11. Customer feedback

Customer feedback is input from customers about their experiences and is used by businesses to improve their customer service processes and products. Some ways to collect customer feedback is by sending email surveys, implementing website pop-up surveys, and adding reviews to product pages.

12. Customer journey

The customer journey is the path a customer takes from initial brand awareness, purchasing consideration, first purchase, retention, and advocacy.

13. Customer needs

Customer needs are things a customer wants, needs, and desires. Customer service teams should pay attention to customer needs to empathize and have successful communications with customers.

14. Customer retention

Customer retention is the process of maintaining relationships with customers to keep them purchasing and engaged with a business. Customer retention is easier and less costly to maintain than engaging new customers.

15. Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation is the process of dividing customers into groups based on common characteristics to provide targeted support.  For example, a clothing apparel company may divide customers by demographics in order to create suitable ad campaigns for each segment.

16. Customer service

Customer service is assistance and support provided to customers before, during, and after a purchase. Customer service is important for companies to invest in to grow their customers and instill trust in both potential and repeat customers.

17. Data privacy

Data privacy refers to protecting confidential customer data and information, such as full names, addresses, billing information, and phone numbers.

18. Feedback loop

Feedback loop is the cycle of collecting, reviewing, and applying customer feedback to improve products and customer services. The most important part of the loop is to apply customer feedback to demonstrate the importance of your customers’ opinions. 

19. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that involves working with social media influencers to advertise a business’ products on their social channels. 

‍📚 Related reading: How Topicals increased sales by 78% through pre-sales customer conversations

20. Netiquette

Netiquette refers to the etiquette and guidelines for respectful communication online. For ecommerce stores, having proper netiquette includes writing messages with proper grammar and punctuation, refraining from sending too many promotional emails, and respecting customers’ privacy.

21. Personalized customer service

Personalized customer service is a type of customer service that focuses on customizing interactions and service based on a customer’s unique preferences. Creating individual experiences for customers allows them to feel understood on a personal level. 

🧠 Learn more: Why you should implement a personalized customer strategy

22. Proactive support

Proactive support is a customer support approach that anticipates customer needs before they raise a concern. Proactive support does not have to involve agent support and can be accomplished passively through self-service options, such as a chat widget or help center. 

23. Rapport

Rapport is the relationship businesses build with customers. Some characteristics that build good rapport are empathy, supportiveness, and honesty.

24. Reactive support

Reactive support refers to a customer support approach where assistance is provided in response to inquiries or issues as they arise, rather than proactively reaching out to customers.

25. Remote support

Remote support is a type of customer service where agents assist customers by using remote access tools, without needing to be physically present at the customer's location.

26. Resolution

Resolution is the successful solution to a customer’s request or inquiry. 

27. Satisfaction

Satisfaction is the level of contentment a customer experiences after interacting with a business, its products or services. Customer satisfaction is important in order to build trust and gain customer loyalty.

28. Service recovery paradox

Service recovery paradox is the phenomenon where a customer is more loyal after experiencing and having their issue resolved than if they had not encountered the issue in the first place.

29. Social media management

Social media management is the process of monitoring and responding to customer inquiries and feedback on social media platforms. Today, most businesses participate in social media management by being present on various social media platforms.

30. Subject matter expert (SME)

Subject matter experts or SMEs are individuals who specialize in or are highly educated in particular topics. In customer service, support teams can benefit from having subject matter experts who specialize in different topics, to serve different types of customers.

31. Touchpoint

A touchpoint is a point of contact or interaction between a customer and a business. For example, the customer journey has multiple touchpoints like the pre-purchase intent, purchasing decision, and post-purchase stage.

32. Voice of the customer (VoC)

The voice of the customer or VoC is a summary of a customer’s opinions, preferences, and dislikes about a company’s product. The VoC is used to inform and improve a company’s practices, products, and services.

Customer service actions

1. Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of comparing a company's performance or practices against industry standards to identify areas for improvement.

2. Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution is the process of finding a solution to a disagreement or dispute. In customer service, conflict resolution is important in order to maintain customer satisfaction and decrease the chance of losing customers. 

📚 Related reading: 17 ways to respond to an angry customer

3. Cross-selling

Cross-selling is the act of offering customers complementary products or services along with a product they are already considering.

4. Customer journey mapping

Customer journey mapping is a visual strategy that maps out a customer’s entire experience with a company. This strategy points out a customer’s needs and processes at every interaction with a company.

5. Digital transformation

Digital transformation is integrating digital technologies to a company’s customer service processes. For example, a brick-and-mortar store may undergo a digital transformation when they begin offering their products online orders.

6. Escalation

Escalation is the process of transferring a customer’s issue to a higher-level support agent who is more skilled at providing the proper solution. Escalation is necessary to address urgent tickets or high-priority customers. For example, a ticket from a loyal customer with a high lifetime value will likely need a higher-level agent.

7. Follow-up

A follow-up is communication meant for checking up on customers who have had a previous interaction with a company. Follow-ups are typically done when asking for customer feedback and reviews.

8. Service recovery

Service recovery is the process of regaining customer satisfaction after a negative experience. For example, service recovery is when a company provides a 50% off discount code due to delayed shipping.

9. Upselling

Upselling is the act of encouraging customers to purchase additional products or a higher-priced variant of a product, which can help increase your company’s revenue and average order value (AOV).

🧠 Learn more: How to upsell in 11 different ways

Customer service tools, types, and channels

1. Call center

A call center is a department that handles incoming and outgoing customer communications, often via telephone. Companies with large customer bases may outsource part of their customer service to a call center company.

2. Chatbot

A chatbot is an AI-powered, self-service feature that mimics human conversation. Chatbots can help agents from having to deal with repetitive inquiries or tickets. 

🧠 Learn more: What’s the difference between a chatbot and live chat?

3. Contact center

A contact center is a hub that manages customer interactions through various channels like email, phone, chat, and social media. Bigger companies may outsource their customer service to a contact center to address a greater number of customers.

4. Customer loyalty

Customer loyalty refers to how devoted a customer is to a business. Loyal customers are valuable to businesses because they result in more sales, higher customer lifetime value, and the potential for more customers through word–of-mouth marketing.

5. Customer persona

A customer persona, also known as a buyer persona, is a fictional representation of a customer, based on demographics, behaviors, and preferences. A business may create multiple customer personas in order to create suitable messaging and marketing materials. 

6. Customer portal

A customer portal is an online platform where customers can access their account information and support resources. Ecommerce stores benefit from customer portals by providing customers a self-service hub to manage orders and request returns or exchanges, without needing agent involvement.

7. Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management, more commonly called CRM, or a CRM tool, refers to both software and strategies used to manage and analyze customer interactions and data.

8. Customer self-service portal

A customer self-service portal is a web-based platform that allows customers to find information and resolve issues on their own, without the help of an agent.

9. Helpdesk

A helpdesk is a hub for customer inquiries and technical support. Helpdesks manage customer data, orders, and inquiries in one platform. They can be operated by one person or a team of support agents.

🧠 Learn more: What is a helpdesk?

10. Interactive voice response (IVR)

Interactive voice response or IVR is an automated phone system that allows customers to get information from preset voice recordings.

11. Knowledge base

A knowledge base is a centralized database of information to help empower customers to learn about a product, service, or company on their own. Resources like instructional videos, FAQs, articles, and community posts can be found in a knowledge base.

12. Live chat

Live chat is a channel which connects customers with live agents. Live chat is a convenient option for ecommerce businesses with a high-traffic website.

13. Loyalty program

A loyalty program is a program designed to encourage customers to continue shopping with a brand through incentives like discounts, freebies, and exclusive access to products or services. An example of a loyalty program is a points-based reward program in which customers can redeem points in exchange for products.

‍📚 Related reading: How OLIPOP decreased their response time by 88% and resolution time by 91% with 25x ROI

14. Multi-channel support

Multi-channel support involves offering customer support through various channels like phone, email, and live chat.

15. Omnichannel support

Omnichannel support is the process of providing consistent customer support across multiple communication channels with the help of application add-ons. With Gorgias, support teams can integrate email, phone, SMS, live chat, and social media accounts to provide a seamless customer experience.

16. Self-service

Self-service options are customer support options that allow users to find answers or solutions independently, without contacting an agent. Self-service options include chat widgets, chatbots, and knowledge bases.

🧠 Learn more: Raise customer satisfaction with self-service options

17. Social listening

Social listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing social media platforms for mentions and comments about a company.

18. Survey

A survey is a set of questions that aims to collect customer feedback, opinions, and reviews about a company, product, or experience. In customer service, surveys are important to gauge overall customer satisfaction with a product.

19. Ticketing system

A ticketing system is a customer service software tool that manages customer support inquiries and improves agent workflow. Gorgias is a helpdesk with a ticketing system, which allows agents to handle customer inquiries by creating and resolving tickets.

📚 Related reading: Best practices for effective ticket management

20. Virtual assistant (VA)

Virtual assistants, also referred to as VAs, are individuals who work remotely and are contracted to assist a business with administrative and technical support. Companies may choose to hire a virtual assistant to increase efficiency, improve data organization, while reducing hiring costs. 

21. Voice

Voice refers to a support channel that uses telephone or voice messages to communicate. Having a voice channel can be a great way to reach customers who prefer to get support over the phone.

22. Widget

A widget is an interactive element on a website that provides an answer to customer inquiries. Widgets are a form of self-service customer service and can include chatbots and interactive quizzes.

Customer service operations and ticket management

1. Canned response

A canned response is a pre-written message that is used to reply to common inquiries and questions. Using canned responses is one way to increase first response times (FRT) and prevent your support team from doing repetitive work. 

2. Coaching

Coaching is the process of providing guidance, training, and feedback to customer service agents to develop their ability to engage with customers and deliver exceptional customer service.

3. Service-level agreement (SLA)

A service-level agreement or SLA is a contractually agreed-upon level of service, specifying response times and processes for customer support.

4. Macros

Macros are pre-made responses that can include important customer information pulled from ecommerce platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce. On Gorgias, Macros are advanced canned responses. 

5. Backlog

Backlog refers to customer inquiries or tickets that need attention and have yet to be acknowledged and resolved.

6. Business hours

Business hours refer to the designated working hours during which a company operates and provides customer service.

7. Closed tickets

Closed tickets represent customer inquiries that have been resolved or addressed to the customer's satisfaction.

8. Collision detection

Collision detection is a feature in Gorgias that prevents multiple agents from simultaneously working on the same customer ticket to avoid duplicate or conflicting responses.

9. Conversion rate

Conversion rate refers to the ratio between customers who interact or visit a website and customers who purchase a product or subscribe to a service. Conversion rate measures how effective a sales or marketing strategy is. In other words, it is the difference between window shoppers and first-time customers.

10. Customer intent

Customer intent refers to the underlying reason behind a customer's inquiry. Understanding every customer’s intent can give support teams insight into customer behavior and can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a product.

11. Customer sentiment

Customer sentiment is the underlying connotation and overall mood of a support ticket or inquiry. Understanding customer sentiment is helpful to engage with customers in pleasant ways. Failing to match a customer’s sentiment may result in losing them as a customer due to a bad customer experience.

📚 Related reading: 15 customer phrases to use and 5 to avoid

12. Customer ticket lifecycle

The customer ticket lifecycle represents the different stages a customer support ticket goes through, from its creation to resolution.

13. Integration

Integration is the process of connecting different applications to a helpdesk, enabling them to share data and increase the efficiency of customer service operations.

14. Intent detection

Intent detection is a customer experience automation feature in Gorgias that automatically identifies a ticket's intent based on its messaging.

15. Onboarding

Onboarding is the process of guiding and assisting new customers to get acquainted with a product or service.

16. One-touch ticket

One-touch tickets are inquiries that can be resolved in a single interaction without requiring further follow-up.

17. Open tickets

An open ticket is a ticket that has not yet been answered or resolved by a customer service agent.

18. Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the practice of delegating specific tasks to third-party companies. For businesses, this can mean outsourcing some customer service tasks to a call center company.

19. Reassign

Reassigning a ticket means handing over the ownership of a ticket to another agent of the support team. Reassigning tickets is beneficial for balancing the workload or pairing a customer with an agent with more specialized knowledge.

20. Rules

Rules are customizable automations that trigger actions based on pre-set conditions. In Gorgias, Rules offload tedious work by automatically closing, tagging, or assigning tickets to particular agents.

21. Script

A script is a predefined response used by agents during frequent, predictable interactions. Customer service scripts are helpful for answering frequently asked questions, alleviating angry customers, or upselling new products.

22. Shared ownership

Shared ownership is when multiple team members collaborate and take collective responsibility for resolving a customer inquiry or ticket.

23. Ticket routing

Ticket routing is the automated process of transferring support tickets to the most appropriate customer service agent or team based on pre-set Rules.

24. Ticket status

Ticket status refers to the current state of a support ticket, indicating whether it is open, in progress, on hold, or closed.

25. Ticket views

Ticket views in Gorgias are customizable filters that help organize support tickets by certain criteria. For example, one ticket view can display only high-priority tickets, so agents can resolve urgent issues faster.

26. Unassigned ticket

An unassigned ticket is a customer inquiry that has not been assigned to a specific customer service agent for handling.

27. Variables

Variables refer to the elements or properties of a customer support ticket that can store different values or data. Some examples of ticket variables are customer intent, ticket status, and tags.

Gorgias also has a Ticket Fields feature that enables tickets to have custom variables. This allows support teams to label tickets according to their needs.

Customer service soft skills

1. Soft skills

Soft skills are non-technical skills, such as empathy and resourcefulness, that enable effective customer interactions.

2. Active listening

Active listening involves understanding, responding, and remembering what a customer is saying during a conversation.

3. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of customers. Being empathetic is crucial to providing thoughtful customer service that puts the customer first. 

4. Proactive

Being proactive means taking initiative by anticipating potential customer issues, and acting in advance to prevent them from occurring.

5. Resourceful

Being resourceful means having the creativity and inventiveness to find solutions to customer problems. A resourceful agent consults all possible resources, including fellow teammates and team leads, to satisfy customers.

6. Social intelligence

Social intelligence is the capacity to navigate social situations and appropriately participate in interpersonal dynamics based on emotional awareness and empathy.

Metrics and KPIs

1. Key performance indicator (KPI)

Key performance indicators, known as KPIs, are used to evaluate the effectiveness of customer service efforts. KPIs help customer service teams to set goals, establish standards, and maintain excellent service.

2. 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. 

3. Average handle time

Average handle time is the average time it takes for your customer service team to handle a case from start to finish. 

4. Average hold time

Average hold time is the average time a customer spends on hold before connecting with a support agent.

5. Average response time

Average response time, also known as average reply time, is the average time it takes for your customer service team to get back to a customer throughout an entire customer ticket lifecycle.

6. Call abandonment rate 

Call abandonment rate is the percentage of callers who hang up before speaking to a customer service representative.

7. Call monitoring

Call monitoring refers to listening in on calls to ensure company policies are being followed and agents are providing high-quality assistance. Monitoring calls can help teams collectively find better resolutions and can also prepare them for similar interactions in the future.

8. Call volume

Call volume is the total number of incoming customer calls received by a support team. 

9. Churn rate

Churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company over a specific period, such as over a month or year. Churn rate suggests customer dissatisfaction with a company’s product, service, or policies.

10. Customer effort score (CES)

Customer effort score or CES is a metric that assesses how much effort a customer has to put in to resolve their issue. CES is measured by sending customers a one-question survey asking how much effort was required of them to resolve their issue. Answers range from no effort to very high effort. A successful customer service operation will require little to no effort. 

11. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the projected revenue a customer is expected to generate throughout their relationship with a company. Some ways to increase CLV involve improving customer touchpoints, upselling, reaching out to neutral and unsatisfied customers, and creating a loyalty program. 

12. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Customer satisfaction or CSAT measures general customer satisfaction and happiness with your products or service. CSAT can be measured by collecting customer feedback from surveys and reviews.

🧠 Learn more: 9 ways to improve your CSAT score and response rate

13. Customer support metrics

Customer support metrics are measurements used to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of customer service interactions. Customer service teams can use metrics such as first response time, customer satisfaction scores, churn rate, and other indicators to assess the overall support experience.

14. First call resolution (FCR)

First call resolution (FCR), also known as first contact resolution, is a call center metric that measures the rate of resolving a customer inquiry within the first call. An excellent FCR rate indicates that a support team is well-trained to be able to solve issues quickly.

15. First response time (FRT)

First response time (FRT), sometimes called first reply time, is how quickly a customer inquiry is acknowledged. Customers expect their questions to be answered as quickly as possible, and FRT is a good measure of how responsive customer service teams are.

16. Net promoter score (NPS)

Net promoter score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of a customer recommending a company’s products or services to others. A high net promoter score can indicate high customer retention and loyalty. A low net promoter score can be a sign that your product or service is decreasing in quality.

17. Service level expectation (SLE)

A service level expectation (SLE) is an agreed-upon standard for the response or resolution time that a customer anticipates from a customer service team. It serves as a performance metric to ensure timely handling of customer inquiries.

18. Service level goal (SLG)

A service level goal (SLG) is the desired or targeted service level for responding to customer inquiries within a specific timeframe.

Service level objective (SLO)

Service level objectives (SLOs) are targets or thresholds for performance metrics like response times or resolution times. SLOs are used to track a team’s performance and ensure high-quality customer service. For example, a support team may be required to respond to emails in no longer than 24 hours. 

19. Retention rate

Customer retention rate is the percentage of existing customers that continue buying from your brand over a given period of time. It directly reflects a brand's ability to retain existing customers, which is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.

20. Resolution time

Resolution time is the average time a customer spends interacting with a business’s customer support, helpdesk, or customer service team before their issue is solved. Agents should aim to have a low resolution time to secure higher customer satisfaction. 

21. Ticket volume

TIcket volume refers to the total number of tickets a customer service team receives in a specified amount of time, such as a day, week, or month. A high ticket volume may indicate unclear company policies or an uninformative website.

22. Turnaround time

Turnaround time is how long it takes for support teams to resolve a customer issue. Websites that offer support can display the turnaround time for each support channel to make customers aware of the approximate time they can receive an answer.

Level up your customer service with Gorgias

Gorgias offers a powerful solution to kickstart and streamline your customer service team. With the ability to automate repetitive tasks and integrate with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Adobe Commerce, your agents can focus on providing personalized support to customers.

Additionally, Gorgias's real-time insights and advanced reporting tools allow you to track agent performance and identify revenue opportunities to keep your customers coming back.

If you’re ready to level up with Gorgias, the first step is to start agent training with Gorgias Academy. If you can’t wait, go ahead and book a demo.

It's tough to point to a single most important metric in customer service. But if we had to, first response time would be a top contender.

First response time (FRT) is the time between a customer asking a question and your team’s initial response. When your FRT is too long, customers are left wondering whether you even received their question, let alone will get them an answer.

"Of course, the best-case scenario is quickly answering the customer's question (or automating the answer). But even if you can't solve the question right away, letting the customer know you received their inquiry — and that it didn't get sent into the void — is great for customer confidence and satisfaction.” —Bri Christiano, Director of Customer Support at Gorgias

Let’s dive into first response time to understand why it’s so make-or-break for your team. Then, we’ll unpack best practices you can use to lower FRT for your team, plus how to use this KPI alongside other metrics to support your overall customer service strategy. 

Why is first response time important in ecommerce?

A quick first response time is a key way to build customer trust, letting customers know right away that you are taking their inquiry seriously and that you will resolve the issue as fast as possible.

Here are a few reasons a strong FRT improves your customer experience and your support team’s impact on the business:

Meet customer expectations 

According to our research, 90% of U.S. customers say an immediate customer service response is “important” or “very important.” Plus, 60% of people who need support want it in 10 minutes or less. 

In other words, near-instant FRTs are important to 90% of shoppers — and after 10 minutes, you’re disappointing over half of your shoppers. 

Drive conversion rate

First-response time is especially important for pre-sales support questions, like "Will this arrive before Christmas?" or "Which size is right for me?". Any customer reaching out about pre-sales support likely needs their questions answered before they commit to click checkout, or before they hop over to Amazon to buy it.  

A speedy response is just the thing to give the shopper the information they need to make a confident purchase decision and boost their trust in your brand — two factors that can contribute to high conversion rates. 

Increase revenue-related KPIs

First response time also impacts other important support metrics, including ones that impact your revenue:

• Resolution time: A fast response time often leads to a quicker resolution — and a customer who’s more likely to cite a positive shopping experience with your brand. 
• Lower return rate: Give a customer a fast response to their questions, especially in pre-sales moments, and they’ll have the information they need to make a confident purchase decision. This lowers the likelihood that they’ll need to return the item later. 
• Higher conversion rate: If a customer has a question about a product, they need a quick response to convince them to click checkout. Otherwise, they’re just going to go to a competitor. 
• Customer satisfaction: Fast response times go a long way to show a customer they are valued. Offer a quick response to increase brand trust, which leads to improved customer satisfaction. 

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How to calculate and track first response time 

Luckily, you don’t have to be a math wiz to find your brand’s first response time.  

Start by simply looking at your tickets. Compare the time the ticket came in with the time a support agent responded. That time difference is your FRT. 

For example, if a ticket comes in at 8 am Monday, and an agent responds at 8 am Tuesday, your response time is 1 day. 

You can also keep track of first response times across a certain period, or from a certain agent, to understand the average response time. Simply collect response times over a certain period, then, divide that number by the total number of resolved tickets during that same time frame. 

The equation looks like this: 

Total first response times during chosen time period / total # of resolved tickets during chosen time period = Average first response time

Here’s what calculating FRT averages looks like, using real numbers: 85,000 seconds / 900 resolved tickets = 94.4 seconds (average first response time) 

That means that, on average, your agents are able to respond to customer tickets within 94.4 seconds of receiving a request (for that period). 

If math isn’t your thing, don’t sweat it. Most helpdesks these days automatically calculate and report on average first response time for you. 

Gorgias calculates important metrics, like first response time, automatically. Plus, you can slice and dice the information to understand FRT by factors like: 

• Channel (email, SMS, social media, etc.)
• Contact reason (to understand what kind of questions to automate)
• Agent (to inform coaching)
• Time period (to understand if it changed after implementing something)

This way, you’re never left in the dark about how your support strategy is performing.  

First response time benchmarks by support channel 

Customers want the option to get in touch with your customer service team on the channel of their choice. Even more, Salesforce reports that 74% of shoppers want a variety of channels to choose from.   

If you’ve adopted an omnichannel support strategy, keep in mind different channels have varying response times. 

We’ve broken down a few of the most popular channels to give you an idea of what to expect — and what response times Gorgias customers achieve, on average. 

Email 

• Stellar: 1 hour
• Above average: 2 hours
• Average: 1 day
• Unacceptable: More than 24 hours

Gorgias customers see an average email FRT of 7 minutes and 57 seconds.  

Chat

• Stellar: Under 1 minute 
• Above average: Under 5 minutes 
• Average: 10 minutes 
• Unacceptable: Over 1 hour 

Gorgias customers see an average chat FRT of 7 minutes and 54 seconds. 

SMS

• Stellar: Under 1 minute
• Above average: Under 5 minutes 
• Average: 10 minutes 
• Unacceptable: Over 1 hour 

Gorgias customers see an average SMS first response time of 59 seconds.

Social media 

• Stellar: A few minutes
• Above average: Under 2 hours
• Average: 1 day
• Unacceptable: More than 1 day

Gorgias customers see a slightly different average FRT depending on the social media platform. 

• Facebook Messenger: 4 hours and 30 seconds 
• Instagram DM: 7 hours and seven minutes 
• Twitter DM: 7 hours and 58 minutes 

Automation is preferable to offer a quick response to your customers. Either an instant automated answer to their question, or an automation to let them know you’re on the way.  

5 tactics to reduce first response time 

Reducing your FRT is a great way to optimize for customer satisfaction. Luckily, there are a few tactics you can take now to reduce FRT that also reduce the load on your support team. 

1. Automate repetitive questions to reduce ticket volume

Automating responses to repetitive customer questions has a two-fold benefit:

• Automating answers with a helpdesk effectively means achieving one-touch resolutions for your most common customer inquiries.
• It reduces the overall number of tickets reaching your agents, letting them focus on high-impact inquiries that automation can’t handle. 

How this works in Gorgias

Gorgias Automate deflects up to 30% of tickets (meaning 30% of customer issues were resolved without human interaction.) If 30% of your helpdesk is cleared, that means you can get to the leftover tickets faster. 

Two great features in Automate are Flows and Article Recommendations, which provide personalized, automated answers to customer FAQs.

Both features give customers a 0-second first response time, but these interactions don’t impact your measured FRT since no ticket is created.

You can then track how much time and money automation saves your customers in first response time:

Take a look at how skincare brand Topicals implemented Flows to help shoppers navigate their product offerings. So, when a customer asks, “How do I find the right face wash?” Flows will ask a series of questions and offer a personalized recommendation based on the customer’s answers. 

2. Automatically send a message that you’re on your way

Even if you can’t use automation to answer a customer question, it can let customers know their message has been received and that an agent is on their way to help. 

Leaving customers in the dark about when they’ll receive a response is likely to make any customer anxious. An automated response not only lowers your FRT by responding immediately, but it also quells your customers’ fears that their questions will not be answered.

"Offer an automated message to fire almost instantly so customers know their question was received and someone will be looking into it shortly. Fire it off regardless of channel — the only exception being if your human agent happens to be available to respond."

—Bri Christiano, Director of Customer Support at Gorgias

Berkey Filters built a Rule using Gorgias to automatically reply to SMS messages as they came in.  

In their message, Berkey Filters starts by thanking the customer for reaching out. It also sets expectations by sharing customer support’s hours of operation. That way, if a customer messages outside of operating hours, they aren’t left waiting for a response. 

By adding in an "If the message from agent is false" condition, it also protects you from accidentally firing off this response if a live agent has already responded.

This is only one example of how to use Rules, or Gorgias automations, to automatically reply to tickets. With Gorgias, you could set this up for any channel, or set up a Rule so that it only fires outside of your set business hours, on live chat, when your agents are away, and so much more.

3. Assign and prioritize tickets automatically 

Some tickets need a more immediate response than others. Angry or upset customers require ticket escalation to try and salvage the relationship and prevent negative reviews, returns, or customer churn. 

Prioritizing your incoming tickets will help your agents lower FRT on tickets that need the fastest responses. They can respond to high-priority tickets first. Any other tickets that automation can’t cover can wait. 

Instead of manually sorting your tickets day in and day out, Gorgias can automatically prioritize tickets as they come in. 

Gorgias makes use of AI to analyze incoming tickets based on natural language processing (NLP). The platform also lets you create Rules to determine a ticket’s priority level. Then, it processes language on incoming tickets using the Rule you set in order to take an automatic action. 

This is also where Gorgias’s deep integration with Shopify really shines. The integration lets you pull in customer information, like order number and order status, to help prioritize tickets. 

For instance, you can prioritize cancellation requests from customers that placed an order in the last 24 hours, to avoid shipping products with the wrong shipping address. You could also prioritize messages from customers who have spent more than $100 (or any amount) from your store, to make sure your VIP customers are taken care of.

4. Drive support traffic to messaging channels (and away from email)

Email is notoriously one of the slowest customer support channels out there. The good news? This aligns with customer expectations: A customer who sends an email isn’t waiting at the computer for a response, whereas one who sends a live chat message probably is.

With all the faster options out there, don’t rely on email as your most prominent support channel. Deprioritize email by adding a live chat option, or by making your email address a little harder to find on your website. Consider also adding a robust Help Center and guiding shoppers toward self-service channels. 

You can easily use email as a springboard to push customers to other, faster channels. 

Berkey Filters does this by using an automated response to inform customers about faster options to connect with an agent. Plus, they share a link to the Help Center, so customers can see if they can find a solution to their problems themselves, without needing human interaction. 

Customers were informed right away that they were placed in the email queue, but were offered the option of texting or joining a chat with a live agent to resolve their problem even faster. 

5. Give your agents templates and Macros

One of the most time-saving tools you can give yourself and your team is templated responses, which help your agents avoid typing messages from scratch, or copy/pasting customer information. 

At Gorgias, these templates are called Macros. These are canned responses you can use to populate answers to customer questions. You can also personalize these responses by pulling data from your Shopify account. 

If you can't automate an answer, the Macro gives your agents a headstart so they aren't wasting time remembering what the right policy is, typing out a message from scratch, or manually copying/pasting the customer's information (like name or order number). 

First response time works best when it’s combined with other metrics

First response time isn’t a be-all, end-all KPI — it’s just one metric, best used in concert with others to get a broader understanding of how your team is performing. 

Average Resolution time

Average resolution time (ART) is the amount of time it takes your customer support team to fully solve a customer’s problem and close the ticket.

Gorgias customers have an average resolution time of 1.67 hours.

Read our guide on resolution time to learn best practices to improve this metric for your brand.

How Average Resolution Time works alongside FRT

The initial response time is vitally helpful to understand how quickly your agents can spring into action, but it’s your resolution time that speaks to how helpful your responses are. 

If you have a great first response time but have unhelpful answers, or just go back and forth with a customer, your resolution time is going to suffer. Calculating both helps you make sure you're balancing speed (FRT) with quality answers that lead to a full Resolution (RT)

OLIPOP grew quickly and needed help from Gorgias to keep up with their exceptional customer support. 

Gorgias helped them reduce Response Time by 88% and Resolution Time by 91%, which led to a 1,200% increase in revenue from customer support. 

"We wanted to make sure customers can reach out to us via any platform and we'd have the ability to quickly answer it all in one place." —Eli Weiss, Director of CX, OLIPOP

📚 Related reading: How OLIPOP decreased their response time by 88% and resolution time by 91% with 25x ROI

CSAT

Customer satisfaction score, or CSAT is an important metric to measure your customer base’s level of satisfaction with their shopping experience. 

The more satisfied a customer is, the more likely they are to become a repeat shopper, refer friends, or leave a great review. 

Using Gorgias, you can automatically send customer satisfaction surveys and track your scores over time. Learn more about our satisfaction survey and dashboard: 

How CSAT works alongside FRT

First response time is a metric that goes hand-in-hand with your CSAT. 

If you slow response time, you can expect your CSAT to be similarly low. A customer who has to wait days for an email response, or several minutes on hold during a phone call is likely to have an unsatisfactory experience. 

Decreasing your first reply times will inevitably increase customer satisfaction.

Read our Director of Support's guide to improving CSAT scores for more guidance.

Contact rate

Customer contact rate is a metric to measure the percentage of active customers in contact with your support team over a specified period. 

Generally speaking, you want your customer contact rate to be low. A low rate means most customers are satisfied with their shopping experience and don’t require further support. 

One tactic to lower your contact rate is to offer more self-service options, like a knowledge base or FAQ. That way, your customers can help themselves with frequently asked questions like “Where’s my order?” or “Do you accept returns?” Then, higher-priority tickets can be tackled by your reps. 

How Contact Rate works alongside FRT

While you want your first response time to be low, even better is reducing your contact rate. 

That means your customers are running into fewer issues that would lead them to reach out to customer support in the first place. Or, that they turn to self-service resources when they do have an issue. 

Gorgias: your ecommerce helpdesk for cutting first response times

If your support agents have to answer every question by hand, or toggle between a dozen different tabs to respond to different challenges, your first-response time will always suffer.

A helpdesk like Gorgias has an immediate positive impact on your FRT because it collects messages from every channel, automatically responds to basic questions, and gives agents powerful tools to respond to messages as fast as possible.

Before implementing Gorgias, Timbuk2’s customer service team took, on average, 2 days to respond to customer inquiries. They knew they needed to centralize and automate their customer support — that’s where Gorgias came in. 

Making the leap to Gorgias helped Timbuk2 streamline its support strategy, gaining a 96% faster response time and a nice 35% boost in revenue. 

"Increased customer support should go hand in hand with revenue growth. We want to turn customer experience into a profit center and we have more opportunities to grow with Gorgias." —Joseph Piazza, Senior Customer Experience Manager, Timbuk2

Gorgias helps ecommerce companies improve their first response time, along with other key metrics, to build exceptional customer experiences that drive revenue. 

‍Sign up for Gorgias or book a demo to start tracking and improving your first response time today!

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Let’s be clear: a customer knowledge base is not a landing page full of frequently asked questions.

Sure, FAQs can live in your knowledge base, but they can do so much more than simple Q&A. 

A well-crafted Help Center is a strategic asset, propelling your conversion goals by easily guiding customers through the sales funnel.

We’ll walk you through what a knowledge base is, how it can support your bottom line, and everything you need to know to create yours successfully.

What is a customer knowledge base?

Customers love having the power to solve problems independently and on their schedule. That's precisely what a knowledge base delivers.

Your knowledge base isn’t just a static library of articles — it's an interactive portal connecting your customers to sales and customer service. That means making it easy for them to find answers before purchasing and helping them troubleshoot any possible issues afterward.

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How a knowledge base can transform your customer service (and customer experience) 

Now that we've introduced the concept of a knowledge base, let's dive deeper into how these helpful landing pages can drive revenue by leveling up your customer service game. 

Zero-touch resolutions

90% of consumers worldwide consider issue resolution as their top priority for customer service. And with a knowledge base, you can make their dreams come true with 24/7 self-service support.

Think of a customer knowledge base as your company's information powerhouse that includes helpful articles, FAQs, contact methods, and more ––– all readily available 24/7 for your customers to tap into whenever they need help. 

And the magic word that describes why a knowledge base is so powerful? Self-service.

Nail this experience, and your knowledge base will serve as a revenue-driving machine for acquisition- and retention-based goals. 

No more waiting in line, playing phone tag, or being told the customer support team is “offline until tomorrow.” As long as customers can easily locate the information they’re after (more on this later), they get an immediate response to their questions.

Reduce support burden (and response time as a result)

Your support team deals with a mountain of questions every day: 

• "Where's my order?" 
• "What's your refund policy?" 
• "How long does shipping take?" 

…These are the classics. 

Imagine dramatically cutting down the number of repetitive inquiries your team handles or eliminating them entirely. Your knowledge base can make this happen. By leveraging data to pinpoint the most frequently asked questions, you can create help articles that address these issues and showcase them at the top of your knowledge base.

But how do you identify the most common questions? Two straightforward solutions are already at your fingertips in the Gorgias Helpdesk.

1. Monitor commonly used tags: Tags are labels for categorizing tickets by topic or customer intent. Regularly reviewing tags helps identify common customer inquiries. Generally, the more a tag is used, the greater the need for clarity on that topic. 

On Gorgias, navigate to Statistics > Ticket Insights > Tags to see the frequency of tag usage. This view gives you an overview of popular tags. You can adjust the view by filtering by app integration, channel, and date range. 

2. Review your intent statistics: Intent Statistics provide valuable insights into why customers contact support. You can understand the primary reasons behind customer queries by analyzing these statistics.

On Gorgias, go to Statistics > Ticket Insights > Intents to review the usage frequency of different customer intents.

This feature provides a clear bar graph view of customer concerns frequently mentioned in messages. You can also change the view using channel and date range filters.

The result: Customers don’t have to search through your articles, and your support team frees up time to focus on providing better customer experiences.

Questions answered, problems solved.

Final tip: To streamline the creation of your Help Center, we created 50+ ready-to-use article templates on key topics like shipping, tracking, account setup, and product details. See the templates here.

Turn inquiries into sales

Customers browsing your store often need help deciding between options or understanding how your product works. Don’t let them leave with uncertainty.

A knowledge base isn't just for answering questions about shipping or order tracking — it can also function as a personal shopper, guiding customers toward the perfect fit or style.

With Gorgias Convert, you can engage customers at key moments with personalized, persuasive messaging. Offer exactly what they need while they’re viewing a product, such as a helpful guide from your knowledge base that:

• Clarifies product details
• Increases brand awareness
• Encourages them to explore more of your catalog

Take TUSHY, which highlights an article on their toilet compatibility page when customers show a 30-second delay on their bidet product page.

As another example, if a customer asks, "I have wide feet. Will your shoes fit me?" don’t just respond with a simple "yes." Take it further by sharing helpful links to articles about your shoe size and fit. This approach answers their question and boosts their confidence in purchasing.

Reinforce your brand 

Delivering information in a consistent tone across all customer interactions builds trust and leaves a lasting impression. You can easily do this in your knowledge base by staying in line with your brand's tone and style and communicating your company’s values. 

Let’s run through an example: Let's say you sell organic skincare products, and you want to use your knowledge base to establish your expertise and the brand values you share with like-minded people.

Health-conscious consumers often have specific concerns about product safety, ingredients, and potential side effects. Your knowledge base is the ideal platform to address these concerns transparently. How? 

Explain the benefits of organic ingredients, the absence of harmful chemicals, and how your products contribute to healthier skin. 

Proactively addressing these concerns promotes a lifestyle choice centered around happy skin and well-being. Doing so will set you up to be seen as a trustworthy source of information about safe beauty.

Everything you need to know about creating & managing a customer knowledge base

Next, we’ll walk you through creating and managing your customer-facing knowledge base.

How to set up a knowledge base

These initial steps are the foundation of a successful knowledge base, ensuring long-term success.

1) Identify your customer’s frequently asked questions

To lay the groundwork for your knowledge base, you need to know your customers like the back of your hand. A few ways you can kick off this research: 

Review key questions and phrases from your previous conversations with customers: Dive into your customer support history, whether it’s through email, live chat, or social media. 

Look for recurring questions, common issues, or patterns. For example, those should be high-priority topics if you're constantly fielding inquiries about sizing or return policies. 

You can learn these by looking into the reasons for contact with Gorgias. This AI-powered feature identifies a ticket's contact reason from its message content. Reasons could range from cancellations and refunds to shipment issues and feedback. The Contact Reason is conveniently located at the top of each ticket, as shown in the image below.

Use customer satisfaction surveys to discover what burning questions are on your shoppers’ minds: To view satisfaction scores on Gorgias, navigate to Statistics > Support Performance > Satisfaction. 

This section provides details on surveys sent, response rates, average ratings, and response distribution over three months. Filter for scores of 3 stars or below. Analyzing lower ratings and their accompanying comments will help you pinpoint the topics your Help Center articles should address.

Any customer data you have available becomes your roadmap to creating valuable knowledge base content.

The research step is crucial, and here’s why: In 2022, Deloitte Digital conducted research with Twilio about the business value of trust. The results showed that when companies make it easy to do business with them, 96% of consumers trust the brand more.

When asked how companies can make it easier to do business with them, customers said the following factors are the most important: 

• Making sure issues are resolved quickly
• Being able to easily get in touch with a real person for help (and not getting bounced around from person to person when trying to solve a problem)
• Being able to simply find answers and get information as needed on their own.

Your knowledge base can help with all three factors. As a result, Deloitte’s research found that customers are more likely to reward that trust by making more frequent and higher-value purchases. 

2) Use templates to streamline page creation

Starting a Help Center can be daunting, especially when you're strapped for time already.

Creating a Help Center involves research, brand consistency, copywriting, and page structure. Luckily, platforms like Gorgias provide templates that eliminate the guesswork and lighten the load.

• How to use Help Center article templates
• How to get AI-generated article suggestions

These ready-to-use templates are crafted from successful Help Centers across various industries, giving you a proven framework to structure your own content confidently.

3) Customize the look of your knowledge base

Your knowledge base isn't just a sidekick. It's a key part of your brand's identity. No matter if a new customer lands on your knowledge base through your main site or via a Google search, it should feel like they're interacting with the same business as they jump between the knowledge base and your main site pages.

That’s why you need to ensure your knowledge base’s branding seamlessly matches your website, creating a cohesive experience for your customers. 

A few elements to consider:

• Add your logo to the header
• Match the header design to your main website
• Edit fonts and use your preferred typeface
• Use similar iconography and images as you would on your other website pages

Princess Polly’s customer knowledge base ties in all of these elements well. Even though the knowledge base is on a separate subdomain, it doesn’t feel any different from the brand’s main domain from a user’s perspective.

Princess Polly's knowledge base design matches its main homepage, keeping the user experience cohesive.

Platforms like Gorgias allow you to edit fonts, logos, and headers for your Help Center without any coding required. If you're craving more customization, you can dip into HTML and CSS to tailor specific elements.

4) Make your pages categorizable and searchable

Remember, the goal here is to make things effortless for your customers. If your knowledge base is a maze of articles without clear categorization, it's not user-friendly — it's a Q&A jungle that nobody wants to venture through. 

Organize all your articles with crystal-clear categorization — think "Shipping," "Returns," "Loyalty Program," and "Sizing." Don't forget to add a smart search bar that understands keywords and common phrases to recommend relevant articles.

"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. Two critical aspects drive this success: ensuring accessibility so customers can easily find the answers they need, and providing direct contact options for our team. We don't want you to have to go searching for your answer to the point where you're frustrated and you stop that purchasing experience." —Colin Waters, Leading at The Feed & former Associate Director of Customer Experience at BrüMate

Turn your knowledge base into an interactive Help Center

Once you’ve gone through the foundational steps, you can work on taking your knowledge base to the next level. This will enhance customer satisfaction and engagement.

5) Create automated and interactive FAQs

In a world where 65% of customers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences, proactive customer service is essential. One way you can satisfy this expectation is to use automated and interactive FAQs via chatbot that adjust to customer needs.

For example, with Gorgias Automate, you can use Article Recommendations in Chat to help customers out without live agent help. When they type in the Chat, they'll automatically receive a relevant Help Center article suggestion.

The goal is to answer the customer’s question without having to pull in a support agent.

What if automation doesn’t answer a customers’ question? Glad you asked! At the end of the flow, if the customer still requires help then a ticket is then created for an agent to follow up.

6) Offer self-serve order tracking

Order tracking is a hot topic for customers, so don't be shy about it. Add more than one CTA that customers can click to track their order without having to get in touch with your team.

Feature an order tracking CTA prominently in your knowledge base's header, via chat, and as a main option on the Help Center page. 

See the screenshot from Parade below, for example: This may seem overkill, but we promise it’s not. The data to prove it: merchants who use Gorgias’s automation tools reduce support tickets in their helpdesk by 60%.  

7) Go multimedia

When it comes to crafting a comprehensive knowledge base solution, text alone might not always suffice. Customers often prefer visual cues, and research has shown that visual content can significantly improve understanding and retention of information. 

Think about any time you’ve built a piece of furniture that you bought online. Those manuals are confusing enough as is — even with the images added to every step. Imagine how much head-scratching you’d be doing if you didn’t have the images to accompany you. 

That’s why images, videos, and other iconography are useful to include in your knowledge base, so you can eliminate confusion and boost user confidence.

Check out how Loop uses videos along with written instructions for tutorials: 

8) Make contact forms easily accessible

Yes, one of the key objectives of a knowledge base is to empower customers to find answers and solutions independently. However, there will always be situations where customers require personalized support — like when an order arrives damaged, for example. 

Integrating contact forms directly into your knowledge base provides a straightforward channel for customers to reach out for assistance. But these inquiries can be difficult to keep up with when you have multiple forms living on various parts of your site. 

💡 Tip: Add a “contact us” CTA in your knowledge base. If a customer clicks it, they’re redirected to the main contact page on your website. You can also create a knowledge base form that’s separate to track traffic from the Help Center page alone.

Here’s an example from BrüMate, which features its “contact us” form directly on the Knowledge Base domain:

9) Add flexible communication options

It’d be nice if you could promptly answer every customer’s question, but sometimes, a self-service knowledge base isn't enough. Unique situations will arise, and that's where the human touch comes in. 

A staggering 83% of customers agree that they feel more loyal to brands that respond to and resolve their complaints. So, be prepared to chat live when the need arises.

Concerned about managing live chat support? A few ways to make it easier for strapped CX teams:

• Only implement live chat on specific web pages, so it’s not featured on all pages on your site.
• Set realistic SLAs for when your customer support team is online, so if it’s outside working hours the customer shouldn’t expect an answer until the following day.
• Highlight your most prominent FAQ articles as soon as someone opens the live chat window, so they can find certain answers without contacting your team.

Here’s another knowledge base example from Princess Polly, which features a live chat widget on its knowledge base page and highlights key FAQs.

⚡ Key Takeaway: Every customer has a different preference for how they want to be communicated with. It’s important that you offer various methods to satisfy those preferences.

Keep your knowledge base updated

Your knowledge base is an ongoing initiative. As you expand your product line and discover new information, you’re going to want to adapt your knowledge base to continue meeting the needs of your buyers. 

So lastly, let’s talk about maintaining and evolving your knowledge base to ensure you continue providing a high-quality and effective experience. 

10) Track knowledge base analytics

Your knowledge base is an evolving entity. Using analytics to your advantage will help you continue to improve it over time. 

Here are a few questions to consider:

• Are some queries or questions more popular than others? Use this to improve your content hierarchy by placing the most relevant information upfront. 
• Is one method of communication preferred? Customers naturally scan left to right and top to bottom. Line up your most popular contact options with that in mind. For example, if you’re placing email, live chat, and phone number options left to right, feature email first if you know that’s the most popular contact option.
• What time of day do you see an uptick in engagement on your knowledge base? Trigger a customer service email workflow that shares FAQ pages to send during these times.
• What common questions can you place on other areas of your website? If customers are asking how your products are sustainable, it might be worth just adding that information directly to your homepage, product description pages, or on social media. Plus, you can pass this feedback to other teams like marketing, which can delve deeper to solve these problems at the root.

Gorgias's cloud-based integration with Google Analytics makes tracking engagement a cinch, helping you uncover the most-viewed questions, peak activity times, and top-clicked links.

11) Get feedback from customers

Metrics from your analytics tools is helpful but becomes even stronger when you combine it with qualitative data. This type of information has to be collected directly from customers, which you can do via feedback forms. 

After each support interaction, simply ask customers how you can improve. Some questions you can ask are:

• Did they know your Help Center existed? 
• Was it easy to find? 
• Did they have trouble finding the answer they needed? 

12) Optimize your knowledge base for search

Did you know your knowledge base can be used as an acquisition tool by driving organic traffic to your website? Optimize it for search engines by framing questions as main headings.

For example, article titles can be formatted like, "What is your return policy?" This way, when potential customers search Google for answers, your article will appear.

When building your knowledge base in Gorgias, you can even customize your meta title and description for an extra SEO boost. Check out ALOHAS’ knowledge base as an example. For customers who search “What is Alohas’ return policy?” in Google, this article will show:

The ALOHAS Help Center is the highlighted result on Google thanks to search engine optimization.

13) Regularly audit articles

We all know things won’t stay the same forever. Products change, ingredients shift, and branding gets a makeover.

When information changes, It's essential to shift the information in your knowledge base too. 

What if you decide to change your shipping policy, so it’s only free after a customer spends $50 versus $25? The last thing you want is an irate customer pointing to an old article that mentions the $25 rule.

This is why you must regularly audit and quality check your articles to ensure they're as recent as possible. Failing to do so can impact customer loyalty.

Examples of a full-fledged interactive knowledge base

Now that you have the full scoop on building a successful customer knowledge base, looking at specific examples may help. 

Here are a few businesses that have integrated automation, clear categorization, and user-friendly interfaces to empower customers to find answers and solutions efficiently.

BrüMate

BrüMate's Help Center stands out for its customer-centric approach. Here's what makes it effective:

Directly addresses key questions

Right at the top of the page, BrüMate addresses two of the most common customer queries: the returns policy and compatibility with their products. This ensures that customers can find answers without scrolling.

Directing customers to the right product

BrüMate goes a step further by offering a personalized product finder quiz. This interactive element helps customers discover the perfect BrüMate product that suits their needs without the hassle of extensive research.

“We’ve started pushing people towards resources that are in our Help Center. We're trying to help our customers self-solve.”

—Colin Waters, leading at The Feed & former Associate Director of Customer Experience at BrüMate

Accessible support

The Help Center features easily accessible header links, including options to track packages and return to the main site. The chat bubble is readily available, and if the customer service team is offline, customers can access helpful articles.

ALOHAS

ALOHAS’s Help Center excels in providing quick and convenient access to information. Here's what sets it apart:

Top questions featured

Just like BrüMate, ALOHAS prioritizes customer needs by featuring top questions prominently at the top of the page. This means customers don't have to scroll to find answers.

ALOHAS puts its most frequently asked questions about refunds and shipping at the top of its knowledge base.

Effective use of iconography

ALOHAS uses icons effectively for Call to Action (CTA) buttons related to orders, including tracking, returns, cancellations, and reporting issues.

ALOHAS makes it easier to navigate their knowledge base with icons and emojis.

User friendly categorization

The Help Center is well-organized with clear categorization of articles, making it easy for users to navigate and find relevant information.

Powerful search function

ALOHAS' search function is highly effective, pulling relevant information based on key phrases, further enhancing the user experience.

ALOHAS includes a search bar to allow customers to find their specific questions quickly.

LUNO

LUNO takes a minimalist approach that proves simplicity can be highly effective:

Simplicity

LUNO demonstrates that sometimes less is more. The Help Center is clean and uncluttered, ensuring customers can find what they need without distractions.

LUNO's knowledge base is simple without extra decorative elements like images or icons.

Dedicated product information

Many articles are dedicated to specific product questions, such as compatibility, user manuals, and repair guides. It serves as a virtual manual for customers.

Turn your customer service knowledge base into a conversion machine

88% of customers already search your website for some kind of knowledge base or FAQ. It's your chance to transform those searches into conversions.

All of the knowledge base tools mentioned today are available with Gorgias, which you can try for free for 7 days.

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Black Friday is the strongest revenue-generating day of the year for retailers, with $9.8 billion in sales reported in 2023, according to a report by Adobe. For online merchants, the revenue potential is even sweeter, with the online shopping period extended into Cyber Monday.

But, it takes a coordinated effort by customer support, sales, and marketing to encourage a shopper to click “checkout.” Without a solid ecommerce strategy, many online retailers will miss out on the Black Friday - Cyber Monday rush. 

Whether you’re looking to optimize your existing strategy or starting from scratch, we’ve got you covered. This guide will help you make the most out of your BFCM ecommerce strategy with a clear list of steps (in chronological order) to help you prepare.

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What is Black Friday - Cyber Monday? 

Black Friday - Cyber Monday — also referred to as BFCM — are two back-to-back sales days that bring in a ton of revenue for both in-store and ecommerce retailers in the US. The Black Friday - Cyber Monday shopping window also kick-starts holiday shopping from Thanksgiving day through the new year. 

Why you need to prepare for BFCM now

BFCM isn’t just about one big day of revenue generation. It’s a crucial period for online retailers to capture new customers and convince them to keep shopping through the end of the year and beyond. 

In-person BFCM experiences are out, and ecommerce is in 

Shopper sentiment is shifting away from physical experiences. Online transactions are up by 13% year-over-year, according to research from Criteo. So, you probably won’t see consumers camping out in front of physical stores on Black Friday, but those same shoppers still want to find an excellent ecommerce deal. 

Consumers are eager to spend despite concerns about inflation 

After BFCM in 2023, research from Nielsen found the desire for a good deal caused 57% of shoppers to stay on budget and 18% of shoppers to spend more than they planned in the year prior.

Brand familiarity matters

Shoppers, Gen Z in particular, are more likely to make a purchase with a brand they’re familiar with. So, ensure your marketing tactics are firing well before BFCM will help folks get to know you before the holiday sales season starts.

Get proactive rather than reactive

When you make a plan early, you give your business more time to craft a great marketing campaign. Plus, you give your team time to figure out how to manage customer service on Black Friday for these high-traffic days. 

Considering Black Friday - Cyber Monday is the busiest ecommerce sales event of the year, prepare as early as possible to get a leg-up and stay on top of Black Friday trends. 

Related reading: Why proactive customer service is essential for growing your business

Pre-Black Friday preparation: What to do before the holiday

Preparing for Black Friday — and building a strong ecommerce strategy — goes well beyond ironing out a limited-time deal. 

Tactics like updating key policies, building out customer self-service options, and marketing early will help you be successful.

1. Update key policies on your website before BFCM 

Displaying clear-cut and easy-to-find policies on your website makes a huge difference to the customer experience. It sets the customer up for success and cultivates a positive sentiment with your brand. 

To prepare for the best Black Friday-Cyber Monday possible, we recommend updating these key policies (and your Help Center) with BFCM-related information. 

✅ Tip: A tool like Gorgias’s AI Agent learns from your policies to know how to respond to certain topics and escalate tickets. And we know that more automated tickets leads to a lighter workload for your agents. It makes a compelling case for keeping your policies up-to-date.

“The anxiety for customers during BFCM is real,” says Lauren Reams, Customer Experience Manager at VESSEL. “This year, we are planning on leveraging AI Agent to help us get ahead of the most common questions. AI Agent has been so seamless, so we’re confident that it will help us handle the busy season without needing to bring in additional agents.”

Returns and exchanges

BCFM is a popular time for consumers to buy holiday gifts, which means you could see an influx in returns or exchanges. 

✅ Tips: Use return management apps like Loop Returns to provide customers with a self-service return portal to process their returns. Take that idea one step further by using AI Agent Actions to send your Loop Returns link or return shipping status automatically.

Integrate Loop Returns with Gorgias and enable customers to initiate their own returns.

Shipping and fulfillment 

Customers expect purchases, especially if they’re buying gifts for upcoming holidays, to arrive on time and quickly (you’re competing with fast shipping speeds from retail giants like Amazon).

If those gifts don’t arrive in time, you’re going to face a lot of angry customers. 

✅ Tip: Use your shipping and fulfillment policy to be crystal clear about when you ship orders, how long orders typically arrive, and how customers can look up their order status. AI Agent can perform Shopify Actions, such as editing the order's shipping address. Having this automated means agents do not have to do manual work.

Lost packages 

All those Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales equal a ton of packages in transit. You can expect a few to go missing. 

When that happens, your customers need to know what happens next. 

Make sure you’re clear with your team and customers upfront if you are willing to cover damages (either with refunds or credits). This will help your agents handle the process quickly and consistently. Plus, it gives your customers the peace of mind that accidents won’t put them out.

✅ Tip: Include a policy about damaged items in your FAQs so your customers know what to expect in case anything goes wrong with their order. 

Related reading: FAQ Page Template & Tips (+ Free Shopify FAQ Generator)

Automate self-service options

If you’re on Gorgias, Automate includes Flows, Order Management, and Article Recommendations. These different automations can help you deflect up to 30% of tickets, freeing your agents up for higher-value conversations. 

Set up Flows to automatically answer common customer questions specific to Black Friday - Cyber Monday related to: 

• Shipping policy: Will my items arrive by the holidays? 
• Get a gift recommendation: Can you help me find a gift for a friend? 
• Return policy: Can I return a gifted item? 
• BFCM discounts: Do you offer any holiday discounts? 

Related reading: Offer more self-serve options with Flows: 10 use cases & best practices

2. Reduce strain on your customer service team 

It turns out that many customer support inquiries your team receives are repetitive. 

“If you force agents to respond to every question manually — no matter how small — you're only limiting the time they can spend on tickets that actually need human attention,” says Gorgias Director of Support, Bri Christiano.

That’s why we built Automate at Gorgias: It deflects your most repetitive tickets — up to 30% of your overall ticket volume — so you can focus on the tickets that grow your business.

Tech product retailer Nomad leaned into Gorgias’s automation to support customer service interactions. Not only did the online retailer gain a streamlined way to manage customer feedback, they also reduced response time by 70%. 

Customer story: How Nomad uses automation to reduce their response time and resolution time by over 70%

3. Build a marketing campaign to tap into social commerce

Social commerce is on the rise among consumers worldwide. 

Deloitte estimates about one-third of shoppers in the US made a purchase through a social media app in 2021. That number is estimated to be even higher for those who were influenced to buy a product after seeing it on social media. 

You don’t necessarily have to sell directly through Instagram, but you can leverage your social channels to generate brand awareness. 

The need for social-focused customer support is exactly why online retailer MNML turned to Gorgias. The company found that their shoppers turned more and more to social media for answers to their shopping-related questions. 

Ultimately, the company leveled up their customer support on social media to connect with potential buyers. 

Get started with these ideas:

Partner with influencers to generate brand awareness

Don’t partner with influencers for the sake of it. Instead, think about it like building a relationship with someone who fits your brand ideals and can cross-sell your products to their audience. 

To do this, focus less on influencers with millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Instead, look for micro-influencers (or creators with less than 100,000 followers) with audiences that match your brand personas.

Create content that focuses on your store’s Black Friday deals

Once you’ve figured out the Black Friday sales your store will offer, you must ensure people know about them. 

Craft content for your social media channels that highlight your deals. Since social media primarily focuses on visuals, start by collecting photos, videos, or illustrations of your products. Then, draft copy for captions, think through the best hashtags, and hand over creative briefs to your design team to build any assets you might need. 

Put a little money behind your most successful organic social media posts

The weeks or months leading up to BFCM are prime time to talk about your brand’s Black Friday promotions. Use social media analytics to see which published posts are performing best across your channels. 

Turn those high-performing posts into ads on social media by boosting them with a little money. Even with a small budget, you can use social ads to grab even more eyeballs — and potentially bring more people to your website. 

A few other ideas to consider: 

• Prompt your customers to sign up for an SMS reminder or push notification on their smartphones or mobile devices. 
• Give early sale access to email subscribers, incentivizing customers to build a deeper relationship with your brand.
• Pin the sale date and deal information at the top of your social media profiles, especially Instagram.

How to maximize revenue during BFCM in 2 steps

Imagine Black Friday - Cyber Monday is here. Even better, imagine you’ve got a ton of website traffic full of eager browsers. You need a plan to keep those browsers engaged.

One major step you can take to boost your conversion rate and potential revenue is to increase communication touchpoints and focus on recovering abandoned carts.

1. Increase customer touchpoints to keep shoppers engaged   

Throughout any customer’s journey, there are many opportunities to interact with your brand. One moment might be finding out about your BFCM sale on social media, signing up for emails to get early access, or browsing the best deals before heading to checkout. 

The more you interact with customers along the way, the more you can keep them engaged — and personalized interactions increase your chances of converting a first-time shopper into a repeat customer. 

Gorgias’s Convert is a CRO tool that easily personalizes interactions at multiple points throughout a customer journey. Convert offers several ways to increase touchpoints and boost overall engagement: 

• AI-powered cross-sell campaigns to offer product recommendations.
• Up-sell campaigns to showcase higher-priced items.
• Share timely discounts, free shipping, or valuable product insights. 
• Offer 1:1 support with a smooth hand-off to Gorgias Live Chat.
• Leverage Shopify browsing data to offer product recommendations.
• Set up onsite campaigns without any coding.

Another way to build in more touch points is to use automated chat campaigns that pop up and engage with your customers at crucial moments. Chat widgets are a small addition to any homepage, landing page, or product page that immediately lets customers know where to go for help. 

2. Reduce abandoned carts 

Cart abandonment is a major source of lost retail sales for any ecommerce business, considering about 70% of online carts are abandoned. 

You can easily target customers who have opted into an email list or receive SMS messages from your brand. Design emails or text messages designed to trigger if a cart is abandoned.

Include copy that builds a sense of urgency to drive customers back to their shopping carts to “buy now” before the deal is over. 

There’s even a chance to use re-engagement to increase your average order value by upselling once that customer returns to your site.  

How to retain new customers you get during BFCM

Repeat customers are valuable — like, really valuable. 

According to Gorgias research, returning customers make up about 21% of a brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that same brand’s revenue. 

Your brand should re-engage with anyone who shops on your website during the BFCM rush. Those same people could become returning customers who give your shop a revenue boost during the rest of the holiday season. 

1. Offer a discount for next time 

The perfect moment to re-engage a customer starts at checkout. When someone makes a purchase through your online store, offer them an immediate discount that goes toward their next purchase. 

At CX Connect LA 2024, Ron Shah, CEO of Obvi, shared his brand’s strategy for offering discounts to generate revenue. Ron knew implementing AI to support Obvi’s two-person customer support team was necessary to help the brand grow without eliminating the need for his human agents. 

“The time saved by AI handled a lot of the redundant work our agents were doing, which meant we could turn them into part-time sales agents. We also gave them a code to help them prevent a refund from happening or upsell somebody. It created a completely new shift in their mindset. They realized, ‘Oh wow, you're not just taking something away from me (with AI) — you're actually elevating my opportunity.’”

✅ Tip: You can increase the touchpoints to re-engage with an existing customer by building a reminder email that triggers one week after their initial transaction. That way, you not only stay at the top of their inbox, you also stay top of mind. 

2. Invite customers to join a loyalty program 

Loyalty programs are a tried-and-true method to build engaged, returning customers.

In a recent survey, Yotpo found that over half of surveyed consumers agreed a loyalty program would encourage them to purchase more from a brand. 

If you already offer a loyalty program, make sure new customers know about how to get the VIP experience with your store. Build awareness touchpoints into your loyalty program marketing strategy. You can also prompt buyers to become loyal customers after they make their first purchase.

3. Continue to improve your customer experience strategy 

A successful, positive, and repeatable customer experience doesn’t end after midnight on Cyber Monday. It’s a road rather than a destination. 

Consumer habits are always changing, and your support teams must be prepared to handle customer requests.

One way to anticipate your customer’s pain points is to look at customer feedback. 

Reviews and social media activity is a great place to start. You might also consider putting a more formal customer sentiment strategy in place, with a CSAT survey to collect direct feedback from customers.  

This feedback helps your team prioritize what needs to improve so you’re not left reaching in the dark.

Give your ecommerce strategy a boost this holiday shopping season

The name of the game this Black Friday - Cyber Monday isn’t just to get a ton of online sales; it’s to set up your ecommerce site for a successful holiday shopping season. 

Success could look like: 

• A reduction in BFCM returns or exchanges 
• Having the perfect amount of inventory 
• Seeing higher-than-average sustained engagement on your social channels 

If you want to move the meter, focus on a strong Black Friday marketing strategy that starts now.

Gorgias is designed with ecommerce merchants in mind. Find out how Gorgias’s time-saving automations and convenient platform can help you create successful customer experiences.

Claim your demo today, or sign up to try Gorgias.

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Strategies for handling difficult customers can sometimes feel like vague, generalized advice. If you’re dealing with these types of customer interactions daily, you need specifics.

At CX Connect 2024 in LA, four leaders in the ecommerce and customer experience space shared their tips for managing demanding customers with empathy, strategy, and a dash of creativity.

In this panel recap, learn how leaders at Princess Polly, Obvi, Glamnetic, and Jaxxon navigate complex customer interactions while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

Watch the full panel discussion:

‎Start from a place of empathy

Customer experience agents: The baseline is empathy, says Alexandria Collis, Senior Director of Operations at fashion brand Princess Polly. Having a reset point — empathy and understanding — can be valuable for agents to remember, especially in the middle of heated exchanges.

In particular, Alexandria points out that significant life events can be tricky because customers expect a high level of service. These milestones are often sentimental, coming with more emotional investment from the customer’s end than your run of the mill WISMO requests.

Alexandria on empathetic customer experiences:

For example, if a customer receives a damaged graduation dress, Alexandria understands it would be best to replace their item as soon as possible. “Figuring out how to integrate empathetic responses into understanding the actual customer is so important,” Alexandria emphasizes. 

Bearing in mind the circumstances and emotions around a customer’s issue, mainly when the stakes are high, is the key to finding a sound resolution.

Don’t fight until you have to fight

Ronak Shah, CEO and co-founder of collagen supplement brand Obvi, advocates for a measured approach when dealing with difficult customers. His philosophy is simple: choose your battles wisely. Obvi’s CX team aims to avoid unnecessary conflict, especially when it comes to returns.

"We don’t make people ship the product back. Instead, we say, 'Hey, you can keep the product. We’ll give you the refund,'" Ron explains. This method defuses potential tension and turns a refund into the potential for better customer lifetime value.

Ron on returns:

Ron acknowledges that not all businesses have the budget to approach returns in this way, so they add a bonus: customers can receive a $10 discount if they share the product with a family member or friend.

However, there’s a limit. "When you have abuse, that’s where you have to fight," Ron adds. His team draws the line when repeat offenders try to exploit the system, ensuring fairness for all customers.

Trust your agents, give them autonomy

Kevin Gould, co-founder of beauty brand Glamnetic, believes in empowering his customer experience team with the freedom to make decisions. He understands that micromanaging can lead to inefficiencies, so he trusts his agents to delight customers in their own ways. 

"We try to be very lenient. We give our CX team lots of autonomy to operate because you need to give [them] a lot of leeway, or else everything just gets escalated up to the head of customer experience,” Kevin says. His approach ensures that issues are resolved quickly and effectively.

Kevin on trusting his support team:

For example, Glamnetic often resolves lost package issues by sending out new products or adding an extra "just because" item. They don’t view these as unnecessary expenses. Rather, they’re a way to build trust and improve overall customer satisfaction.

This strategy has paid off, especially in situations where offering a little extra can turn a negative experience into a positive one. Kevin’s trust in his team has proven to be a key component of Glamnetic’s customer service success.

Ask, ‘What did we do wrong?’

When facing unhappy customers, it’s easy to get defensive. But instead of pushing back, Jaxxon’s Director of Customer Experience, Caela Castillo, suggests a different approach: self-reflection. Her advice to the team is to always ask customers, “What did we do wrong?”

“There are customers who aren’t going to be happy with anything,” Caela says. “I try to ask, was there something we could have done that would have made this a better experience?” This basic question shifts the focus from blame to understanding, helping to diffuse tension.

In one case, a customer complained to Jaxxon’s support team because they missed a key detail on the website. Rather than dismissing the complaint, Caela’s team asked how they could make the information more visible. Listening may be a minor solve, but it shows customers that their input matters, which can often guide the interaction toward a peaceful outcome.

Caela on defusing angry customers by asking the right questions:

Turn their frown upside down with AI Agent

Every business faces the challenge of dealing with tough customers, but the strategies shared by these industry leaders offer clear paths for handling those thorny situations. Leading with empathy, picking your battles, trusting your team to make decisions, and reflecting on what could have been done better all lead to stronger customer relationships.

It’s time to level up your customer experience strategy. Explore how Gorgias’s AI Agent can help your team deliver exceptional service. Book a demo today to see the difference it can make to your support.

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TL;DR:

• Launch onsite campaigns at the right time to meet customer needs. For example, start a campaign when customers look at a sizing guide. 
• Avoid using chat campaigns without a goal. Invite dialogue while addressing specific customer concerns.
• Educational campaigns help customers make better choices. When done at the right time, they can increase sales by 31%.
• Offering premium options on entry-level product pages can help engage customers and drive upgrades.

Without strategic planning, campaigns become nothing more than annoying pop-ups. But done right, onsite campaigns can energize customers to checkout and click the ‘order’ button.

At CX Connect 2024, TUSHY’s Senior Director of Customer Experience, Ren Fuller-Wasserman, and Connor O'Malley from Gorgias shared how vital timing was in creating successful Gorgias Convert campaigns.

You can also watch the full Why Education Matters for Conversions panel discussion below: 

‎How campaign timing impacts customer engagement

Launching a message too early or too late can end in two ways: engaging a potential customer or losing them entirely. Timed perfectly to align with your target audience, you have a better chance of converting them. 

Essentially, you want to be in the right place at the right time.

Connor O’Malley, a Gorgias customer success manager who helps brands optimize their Convert campaigns, said that it’s effective to solve a pre-sales friction point at the right time. “If we're going to have a campaign on the website and we want people to actually read it and feel compelled to engage with it, timing is everything.”

So, how do you resolve presale friction points with campaigns, all while getting the timing right? There are a few ways:

• Engage new customers with educational campaigns.
• Address customer concerns by initiating chat campaigns.
• Upsell to the appropriate customers based on customer behavior.
• Analyze your ticket history and metrics.

Now, let’s look at how you can launch these campaigns effectively:

1. Capture new customers with educational campaigns on product pages

Customers navigating your store might need help determining which option to choose or how your product works.

Don’t let them leave with unanswered questions. 

Instead, offer them exactly what they need while they view a product, like a video tutorial, compatibility guide, or even an invitation to chat with one of your agents.

It’s about giving them the clarity they need to:

• Learn about your product
• Increase brand awareness
• Motivate them to explore the rest of your offerings

“The engagement rate on our education campaigns was much higher than any other campaigns we've seen, even upsell or exit intent campaigns,” Ren said. More impressively, their educational campaigns led to a conversion rate of 31%.

2. Answer customer concerns with chat campaigns

Brands miss the mark when they only use onsite campaigns as a bridge to their live chat channel. 

You might even be one of them with one of these conversational campaigns on your website right now:

• “Let us know if you have any questions!”
• “Need help? Talk to an agent now!” 

While there’s nothing wrong with using campaigns to get one-on-one time with shoppers, it casts too wide a net to truly capture customers’ attention. 

“We were just asking, "Let us know if you have any questions. Here's the chat," and that’s not really compelling people to ask their questions, even if they did have some,” Connor said.

The fix? Use customer concerns to guide your chat campaigns and bake them right into your campaign messaging. 

Here are pages that could benefit from chat campaigns: 

• Compatibility/quiz page: Accelerate decision-making and alleviate concerns by activating a campaign on pages where customers are exploring product compatibility, taking a quiz, or checking sizing guides.
• Product comparison page: Trigger a chat campaign when customers are comparing similar products to help them understand differences and guide them toward the best choice.
• Checkout page hesitation: Engage customers who linger at checkout with a chat offering to clarify any last-minute concerns, such as shipping details or return policies, to help push them over the finish line.

💡 Pro Tip: Offer real-time support during peak traffic hours to catch customers when they’re most available.

“People fall in love with TUSHY through these real-time conversations. We talk to everyone like our best friend, and that is what drives people to consider making this life switch.”

—Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Senior Director of Customer Experience at TUSHY

3. Upsell items on entry-level product pages

Upselling to new customers can be effortless if you present your higher-ticket items as better options, as Ren does.

TUSHY has multiple bidet models, ranging from a basic model called Classic to one with a temperature-controlled seat. Ren uses their entry-level bidet product page to launch an upsell campaign aiming to educate and upsell simultaneously. 

“We want customers to have the insertion at the right moment. They’re on our Classic page. Great, did you know you could get hot water? We pop the campaign up for our Spa 3.0.”

4. Find the perfect timing by analyzing your metrics

We’ve given you general recommendations on when to deploy your onsite campaigns, but your campaigns should go beyond these general campaigns. 

The best information for finding your perfect timing? Your tickets. 

Tickets are a record of customer sentiment — your cheat sheet to find out what customers want to know and their exact concerns.

“If you can look at your analytics, you can target what the average site traffic spend is on a particular page. That’s the sweet spot you want to shoot for,” Connor said.

On Convert, you can tailor campaigns to display only when customers meet certain conditions. Some conditions you can customize are current URL, time spent on a page, products in cart, number of visits, total spent, and more.

💡 Pro Tip: Analyze traffic for each of your webpages and think about the reasons behind the metrics. Why are website visitors spending more time on one product page than another? Why do visitors drop off after viewing certain pages? Understanding these patterns allows you to alter your campaigns to address specific concerns.

Get your timing right with Gorgias Convert

Effective campaigns depend on delivering the right message at the right time. Focusing on presale friction points, carefully timing your outreach, engaging in valuable conversations, and providing educational and upselling content when it’s most relevant can help you reach your conversion goals.

Ready to see how Gorgias Convert optimizes your campaign timing? Book a demo today and flip customer interactions into brand advocacy.

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You went back to check your store and noticed an error in the checkout page settings, preventing customers from making payments on your store. 

Do you think you would experience the moment of dread in that situation? 

I bet you would. 

When you’re launching an online store, there are many details to remember—and those details can make or break your business's success.  

However, by having a rock-solid ecommerce launch checklist in place, you can eliminate errors and rid yourself of “dread” moments forever. 

The following checklist will help you figure out the key things you need to get ready when launching your online store. Think of it as a quality-assurance check for your ecommerce launch. 

Let’s jump in. 

The 15 step ecommerce launch checklist

1. Get the core pages of your online store set up
2. Design listing pages
3. Create product pages
4. Make a shopping cart page
5. Put together a checkout page
6. Check on your ecommerce SEO
7. Optimize your website for conversions
8. Add essential apps to your store
9. Install an ecommerce helpdesk
10. Set up email marketing
11. Connect your sales channels
12. Set up analytics
13. Develop an ecommerce marketing plan
14. Integrate payment methods
15. Run ecommerce testing

1. Get the core pages of your online store set up 

Your ecommerce website is where customers will visit to learn more about what you’re offering. It’s also where shopping activities happen. 

‎Hence, ensure your website includes these most recommended standard pages:

• Home page: This is arguably the most important page on your website. A well-designed homepage should tell what your business is all about and your unique value proposition. It should also include links to product pages and category pages on your store. 
• About page: This is where customers learn about the people behind your products. A good About page should tell your brand story and what you stand for. It should also include trust elements to prove your store is real and credible.
• Contact page: Ensure you display your phone number, email, and real physical address (if any) on the Contact page. Make it clear about how customers can get in touch with you to showcase your authenticity. 
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page: Customers might have a lot of questions before deciding to buy from you. Having an effective FAQ page will help you offer a self-service solution to customers and avoid answering the same questions repeatedly. 
• Terms of service: This page covers your legal base, what’s included, and what’s not in your services. 
• Privacy: As concerns about data breaches are increasing, it’s highly recommended that you work with a lawyer to draft a clear privacy policy for your ecommerce business. 
• Shipping, return and refund: Nearly half of the consumers check an online store’s return policy before making a purchase. That’s why having a dedicated shipping, return, and refund page on your website is crucial. Doing that is also an excellent way to build trust with your potential customers. 

A worthy note is that your ecommerce website doesn’t have to include a blog page. It depends on your marketing strategy, product types, and target audience (more on that later). 

2. Design listing pages

A listing page or a category page is where customers discover your products associated with a specific category. It’s useful for keeping your website coherent and helping customers find what they’re looking for quickly. You can take listing pages to a whole new level by using them to increase conversions and enhance your overall SEO.

‎Ensure you include the following elements in your listing pages:

• A short introduction to your category. 
• Filtering and sorting functions
• Best sellers and reviews. 
• Stock availability. 
• Product quick view. 
• Internal linking among categories and sub-categories.

3. Design product pages

Product pages are where the buy buttons show up. But they’re also where many other things can go wrong: lack of trust, unclear information about products, etc. That’s why each product page must be optimized as much as possible. 

‎Keep in mind the following:

• Display the add to cart button prominently. Above the fold is an ideal place because it’s at customers’ reach at all times. Also, make it stand out by using contrast colors. 
• Use high-quality, professionally crafted pictures from different angles. Enable product image zoom and 360-degree view features in your theme. 
• Write a solid product description. Focus on the benefits of your products, not just features. In other words, how your products make customers’ lives easier and better. 
• Check product-related components, including styles, sizes, colors, inventory tracking numbers, tax rates, currency, product weights, etc. 
• Establish trust with customers by displaying trust badges, reviews and testimonials, or other social proof types.  

4. Design shopping cart page

The shopping cart is where shoppers review their selected items and make the purchasing decision. The goal of this page is to lead shoppers to the checkout page. 

Follow these tips to create an effective shopping cart:

• Display product details, including product names, images, sizes, colors, and prices clearly. This helps shoppers remember their selected products and why they want to have them. 
• Use a clear, attention-grabbing call-to-action (CTA) button, for example, “Proceed to Checkout” or “Go to Checkout.”
• Make the cart easily editable, like removing items, changing size/color/quantity, etc. 
• Display social proof to maintain trust with shoppers and avoid unexpected shipping costs/taxes/hidden costs. 
• Add a mini cart widget. It’s a good idea because shoppers can add products to their cart without leaving the page they’re on. 

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5. Design checkout page

The checkout page is where cart abandonment often happens. So ensure you review it carefully as much as possible. 

Remember these to build a high-converting checkout page:

• Offer various popular payment options like credit cards, master cards, PayPal, Amazon Payments.
• Keep it simple. Don’t include too many steps or fields—the goal should be to help customers finish the payment process faster. 
• Include an option to check out as a guest. 
• Display a progress bar at the top of the page to tell shoppers how many more steps are left to complete the purchase. 
• Include a live chat throughout the checkout process to quickly support customers.
• Show order confirmation after purchase. The best practice is to create a Thank You landing page to confirm the order and give them special offers for the next purchases.  

6. Check ecommerce SEO

Many ecommerce websites rely on social media or paid advertising to drive conversions. They ignore entirely or put together with little consideration of search engine optimization (SEO).

But ecommerce SEO is worth investing in because 44% of people start their online shopping journey with a Google search. Also, 37.5% of all traffic to ecommerce sites comes from search engines. 

Keep in mind the following:

• Do keyword research and find the most relevant keywords to your niche. 
• Use selected keywords to optimize meta titles, descriptions, H1’s, URLs.
• Insert selected keywords into product descriptions and category descriptions. 
• Add schema markup to get rich snippets displayed in Google, which can increase CTR by up to 30%. 
• Remove or fix duplicate content. 
• Link to high-priority pages like product pages and category pages. 
• Create and submit a sitemap. 
• Optimize website loading speed by upgrading your hosting, investing in a CDN, and optimizing image file size with compression. 

Recommended reading: SEO for ecommerce, Dominate Google in 10 Easy Steps.

7. Optimize website for conversions

On an ecommerce website, conversions are critical. Check out the following to make sure your store is optimized for high conversion rates:

• Use videos to demonstrate your products.
• Show live chat to address shoppers’ concerns and answer their questions faster. 
• Make your website user-friendly and fully responsive on mobile devices. 
• Display countdown timers and/or stock countdowns to give shoppers a little push to take action.
• Optimize menu navigation. Make it super easy for shoppers to find whatever they need. 
• Ensure site search works well, not just product information but also related products, delivery times, return policies, and more.
• Make information about your products and services easily findable and visible. 
• Use a “sticky” buy button so shoppers can easily proceed to checkout whenever they’re ready to place an order. 
• Enable the Pin It button so shoppers can share your products on their Pinterest wishlists. 

8. Install essential apps for your store

Every ecommerce platform offers an app store filled with amazing apps to extend your commerce store’s functionality and grow your business. That’s why you should find the most essential apps and install them into your store:

Here are some app types you should consider: 

• Apps for marketing and promotion.
• App for increasing sales and conversions.
• Apps for sales channels.
• Apps for SEO and site optimization.
• Apps for finding products and managing inventory.
• App for customer service (more on that later).

9. Set up an ecommerce helpdesk

Good customer service means better customer retention and more sales. That’s why choosing the right helpdesk is crucial for your online business. It’ll not only help you provide the best customer support, increase engagement, and convert more sales in the process but also seamlessly integrate with your current ecommerce platform.

For ecommerce businesses, Gorgias is an ideal solution as it’s an ecommerce-dedicated ticketing system and has tight integration with Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento.

‎Here is what Gorgias offers:

• Update orders directly from your helpdesk and work faster with smart automation.
• Manage customer requests for multiple storefronts, either on desktop or mobile apps.
• Use Shopify and BigCommerce variables to auto-respond order-related tickets.
• Integrate with third-party apps like ShipStation, Slack, and Recharge.
• Use macros to automate tasks and perform actions like adding tags, bulk action.
• Provide instant support by setting rules based on customer intents.
• Deliver omnichannel customer service, e.g., SMS messaging and social media.
• Easy to use, no learning curve involved, no feature overload.
• Impartial customer support for all merchants, regardless of the plans you’re using.

10. Set up email marketing 

Using email marketing is one of the best ways to develop and maintain a good relationship with customers. If your ecommerce business hasn’t taken the time to adopt email marketing, you’re likely leaving money on the table.

Here are the eight most important emails for ecommerce:

• Welcome emails: Thank shoppers for joining your email list, set expectations for what’s to come.
• Thank you emails: Thank shoppers for buying from you and reassuring them they’ll receive the order on time. 
• Survey emails: Send customers an email to ask for their feedback on shopping experience and their experience with your products. 
• Card abandonment email: Encourage customers to complete their purchase if they leave items in their carts.
• Order confirmation emails: Confirm with customers the order they just made in your store. 
• Upsell and cross-sell emails: Sell customers additional products to increase your store’s average order value. 
• Promotional offer emails: Tell your customers about your site-wide discounts, holiday offers, free gifts, etc.
• Customer loyalty and re-engagement emails: Send emails to existing customers or customers who haven’t purchased from your store in a specific timeframe. 

11. Connect with sales channels

The U.S. now has over 230 million active social media users, with nearly 7 million added in 2019. That doesn’t mention the fact that ecommerce sales are heavily influenced by social media. Since your customers are very likely already on some social platforms, you might want to go where they are. 

Keep the following in mind:

• Create a blog page and regularly share content relevant to your products. 
• Establish your presence on social media like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.
• Follow influencers in your niche, read their followers’ comments to see what people are interested in and how you can integrate it into your products. 
• Build a list of branded and non-branded hashtags to use in your social media posts. 
• Get your products and brand features on price comparison websites, review websites, relevant forums, communities, Quora, etc. 
• Display your website on handmade and crafts marketplace, on-demand production marketplace, niche marketplace, classified listings website, daily deals sites, Yellow Pages, etc. 

Recommended reading: Master Social Media Marketing for Ecommerce in 10 Easy Steps

12. Set up analytics 

It’s essential to set up analytics tracking and monitoring from day one because doing that will give you valuable insights into your visitors and customers.

‎Your ecommerce platform has its own set of analytics reporting built-in, but you may also want to consider trying these tips:

• Set up your Google Analytics in Google Tag Manager.
• Register and verify your site with Google Search Console.
• Verify checkout tracking. 
• Customize tracking campaigns using URL Query String Tags. 
• Filter bots and spiders.
• Set up Facebook Analytics.

Also, be sure you understand the importance of the following ecommerce metrics:

• Sales conversion rate 
• Email opt-ins 
• Customer lifetime value
• Customer acquisition cost
• Revenue by traffic cost
• Average order value 
• Shopping cart abandonment rate 
• Net Promoter Score

13. Develop an ecommerce marketing plan  

The secret to ecommerce success isn’t just to get your products out there and see how they perform. You need a marketing plan to bring your products to potential customers and convince them to buy. 

Without a marketing plan, you might miss out on the fact that “More and more brands are competing for the same eyes. Facebook’s algorithm rewards video and motion-based creative that are more likely to hook your audience quickly. And customers are also more demanding, impatient and curious than ever before,” as Scott Ginsberg, Head of Content, Metric Digital says.

Ensure your marketing plan includes:

• SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals and objectives. 
• Target customers, personas, and markets. You have to have a clear understanding of who you’re targeting, what characteristics define them, and where they’re located. Also, be sure you know their purchasing power and behaviors.
• Channels, tactics, tools to execute your plan. Pay-per-click advertising, SEO, content marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing, or email marketing—list out everything you’ll do to achieve your goals in detail.
• A holiday marketing calendar that shows important holidays and events of the year. It’s also much better if you have a holiday marketing plan in place—the sooner, the better. 

14. Integrate payment methods

One of the best ways to reduce abandoned carts is by providing as many payment methods as possible since everyone has different preferences. 

Consider integrating these payment options:

• Credit and debit cards, bank transfers, prepaid cards. 
• Digital wallets like PayPal, ApplePay, Google Pay. If you’re selling to China, WeChat should be considered. 
• Buy now, pay later. It’s a growing trend, especially among millennials and Generation Z. 
• ACH (Automated Clearing House). This method gives you greater control over payments and increases payment accuracy. Your customers also receive their purchases faster since ACH payments are processed quickly. 

Regarding credit cards, you need to set up payment authorization to capture payment from your customers. You can do this by accessing your ecommerce platform admin. For example, in Shopify, you can set up automatic or manual capture of credit card payments. Shopify Payments provides an authorization period of 7 days.  

15. Run ecommerce testing 

To avoid errors and remove common online shopping hassles, you need to carefully test your ecommerce website before launching it. Also, run continuous A/B testing to identify what makes your customers happy and what brings conversions to your store. 

Ensure you do the following tests:

• A/B test everything about your CTA buttons.
• Test multiple CTAs per page against one CTA per page.
• Test ecommerce apps’ functionalities and social media integrations. 
• Test payment method functionalities.
• Check compatibility with web browsers.
• Test mobile responsiveness.
• Check performance and SEO-related things. 
• Test websites, including homepage hero images, search button, all pages, pop-up forms, account pages, site loading speed, site security, and more. 
• Test email marketing sequences.
• Test orders on mobile and desktops.

Use this ecommerce launch checklist to get your store ready!

This ecommerce launch checklist represents a roadmap for online merchants looking to start their business from scratch. Mastering the basics, and you’ll avoid all the hassles along the way.

Let’s wrap up:

• Prepare standard pages
• Design listing pages, product pages, shopping cart page, checkout pages
• Check ecommerce SEO
• Optimize website for conversion
• Install essential ecommerce apps
• Set up an ecommerce helpdesk 
• Set up email marketing
• Connect with sales channels
• Set up analytics
• Develop an ecommerce marketing plan
• Integrate payment methods
• Run ecommerce tests 

And once your store is up and running, check out these 13 ecommerce growth tactics to take your store to the next level.

Looking for a customer support app for your ecommerce store? Sign up for a Gorgias account and enjoy all the premium features for free in 7 days. Gorgias is an ecommerce-focused helpdesk solution that will help you create the best experience for your customers, improve your support team’s performance, and eventually drive sales.

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