Newsletter Signup

Customers who use chat support are 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who don’t. Despite its proven impact, misconceptions around chat’s limited scope — reducing it to only live interactions — persist, creating a missed opportunity for the online stores that could benefit from it the most. 

The reality is chat is a versatile tool that can adjust to company needs, whether it’s a self-service tool that runs on its own, a channel for providing live support, or both.

For ecommerce businesses on the fence about incorporating chat into their customer service operations, we're here to clear up five of the most common myths about chat’s functions, costs, and benefits. After that, we’ll lay out a five-step guide to efficiently set up chat so you can start delighting customers now. 

{{lead-magnet-1}}

What’s the difference between Live Chat and Chat?

Live chat is real-time communication that allows customers to interact with a customer service representative instantly. It's the digital equivalent of walking into a store and speaking directly with an employee.

On the other hand, chat is more than just live interactions; it includes automated responses that ensure customers receive support, even without agents. This hybrid approach allows businesses to deliver 24/7 customer support.

Chat solutions, like Gorgias Chat, blend live chat's on-demand nature with automation and AI. Chat allows businesses to provide support regardless of time zone and staff availability.

‎Five chat myths debunked

Confusion about what chat can do often discourages businesses from leveraging the powerful customer service tool. Below, we’ll be myth-busting five common misconceptions about chat to reveal its true potential.

Myth 1: Chat is expensive

Contrary to popular belief, chat can be a cost-effective solution to operate customer service. Brands can earn 10x more revenue by implementing chat and, in turn, operate a smaller support team. Support agents can be costly, so using chat to deflect tickets can be a quick way to optimize both time and budget.

Myth 2: Chat is only for big companies

Chat's usefulness transcends business size and breaks down silos in customer service by allowing customers to get answers on their own time. As a customer service tool, any business engaging with customers can benefit greatly from it to tackle pre-sales questions and resolve issues efficiently.

Myth 3: Chat requires staff to operate

As previously mentioned, chat can handle both live and automated interactions, which means no agents are required to manage it. Online stores can set up chat on their websites, allowing it to run 24/7. Businesses can decide whether to enable live chat or keep it fully automated.

Related: Customer service outsourcing: why, when, and how

Myth 4: Chat increases your tickets

Due to automation-based conversations in chat, ticket volume does not necessarily increase when customers use chat. A ticket is only created when a customer converses with a live agent. Unlike using social media as a support channel, chat empowers customers to self-serve and resolve issues on their own.

Myth 5: Chat decreases customer satisfaction

Contrary to popular belief, chat has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Based on Gorgias data, brands experienced a 1% increase in CSAT when using automation, including chat. The improved satisfaction can be attributed to the efficiency of automated answers and the absence of wait times.

Myth 6: Email is just as good as chat

While email remains a staple, chat offers immediate engagement in the shopping flow that can create opportunities for upselling. For example, an on-site campaign toolkit like Gorgias Convert becomes a seamless extension of your sales and support strategy with the ability to recommend products within chat. 

Since chat simplifies the process of reaching out, it is also easier for companies to build trust with their customers. The fewer hurdles customers have to jump over to get an answer, the more readily they will trust your brand.

Read more: You’re doing it wrong: better ways to use email as a customer service channel

The best Chat setup in 4 easy steps

Now that you know chat isn’t expensive and can give you a great return on investment, you can start making the most of it. Here’s the optimal way to set up chat in four, simple steps.

1. Customize your chatbot avatar

A study from the University of Göttingen found that customers value clarity on whether they're conversing with a bot or a human agent. Their satisfaction did not dwindle when issues went unresolved, knowing they were interacting with a chatbot.

You can add “Bot” to your chat name on Gorgias whenever automated messages are sent. Enabling this improves the customer experience by letting them know exactly who they are talking to.

In addition, customizing your chatbot avatar to your company logo instead of leaving it as the default robot avatar adds a personal touch. If live chat is enabled, uploading individual profile photos for your agents will help customers feel more comfortable since they’re able to associate a face with the agent they’re talking to.

2. Set up Quick Responses to answer frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions can quickly dominate your inbox, but with Quick Responses, you can offer fully automated answers. This allows you to provide customer service on an international scale without worrying about increasing agent workload.

Gorgias Automate upgrades your customer experience with an entire automation toolkit that includes Quick Responses in Chat. You can display up to six Quick Responses at a time, providing customers with immediate answers to their questions.

3. Set live chat hours

While many assume live chat needs to be available for extended hours, the truth is that live chat hours can be tailored to what suits your brand best, even if that's just one hour a day. The key is to clearly communicate when an agent will respond to customers outside of these hours. 

Customers prefer live chat because of the lack of wait times, so if you’re offering live chat, be sure your agents meet customer expectations by answering chat conversations in 30 seconds. Strengthening customer relationships is crucial to building trust and, therefore, increasing your ecommerce retention rate. On Gorgias, setting your business hours will directly update how Chat appears to customers.

4. Build a Help Center to provide Article Recommendations in Chat

A help center is a database of articles that range from frequently asked questions and guides to video tutorials and policies. On Gorgias, Chat can use your Help Center articles to enrich automated answers with detailed information. For instance, fashion and apparel stores can create a sizing guide article, which Chat can then reference, guiding customers directly to the information they need. 

Accomplish the work of 3 agents with Gorgias Automate

Gorgias Automate enabled luxury luggage company July to handle the equivalent workload of three extra agents. With tools like Chat, July went from handling repetitive queries to focusing on more significant customer issues. This significant change enhanced their support efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

Want to become a success story? Discover how Gorgias Automate can streamline your support workflow and elevate customer experience. Book a demo today.

I firmly believe everyone should experience working in customer support because, let’s face it, working in support isn't always recognized for the challenging job it is. 

The importance of customer service for brand success has been proven time and again. Yet, customer support continues to get regarded as a necessary cost the business has to bite. It's often under-resourced and under-performs as a result, reinforcing the perception that support brings little value.

I’m on a mission to change that. 

I'm Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, and my journey has taught me that we customer support professionals have to be loud and proud about the importance of our work, since we're repairing a pretty damaged reputation.

In this article, I will share practical tips and firsthand experiences to help you showcase the significant impact of customer support on your bottom line, and make the case for more budget and respect in the organization.

Why is customer service important

A great customer experience is crucial to any business. And at the heart of that experience is good customer service.

Right now, every small business owner is experiencing the frustrations of rising customer acquisition costs. The solution? Leverage the relationships with customers you already have by focusing on repeat purchases and customer lifetime value (LTV). This strategy is much more profitable: Keeping customers costs much less than attracting new ones, and returning customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time shoppers (according to Gorgias data).

Your customer service agents are your brand’s frontline representation. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, great reps have the capacity to enable sales and keep customers coming back. And undertrained or ill-equipped reps have the capacity to drive new customers away and dissolve relationships with current customers. 

Simply put, customer service is important because it has a huge impact on your revenue. Let’s break that truth down into some specifics.

{{lead-magnet-1}} 

7 ways customer service impacts your bottom line

From generating more referrals to increasing your average order value, there are several benefits to offering a great customer service experience. 

1. Excellent service increases conversion rates

The truth is, new customers are often hesitant to trust a company that they’ve never done business with before. 

Studies have found that 18% will abandon their cart if they don’t trust the website with their credit card information. And, even if a customer trusts your business enough to make a purchase, still roughly 70% of all online shopping carts are left abandoned. 

Why? Some of the top reasons are

• A complicated checkout process
• Questions about product pricing
• Problems with payment 

These are all customer problems that live chat support agents can address proactively, which will increase trust and decrease abandoned carts. Adding live chat to your website can boost conversions by 12%.

Tip: Provide pre-sales support

Picture a shopping experience where uncertainty is met with immediate guidance, and questions are answered before they even arise—this is the essence of Love Wellness' commitment to elevating pre-sales support.

On our product description pages, we prominently feature 

• Links to our general FAQ page
• A striking red button on the bottom right corner for customers to reach out and connect with our support team via email. 
• A FAQ block on the product page with answers related to the product being viewed.

In addition to what we do at Love Wellness, you can enable chat campaigns to proactively guide customers through the checkout process or answer common questions that are blockers to purchasing.  

Chat campaigns can trigger when certain conditions are met (like visiting/dwelling on a certain page or being a repeat shopper). You can hit these targeted shoppers with a message, like offering personalized product recommendations or providing a unique discount code. Now that’s an experience worth telling your friends about.

Remember: Customer service involves more than just resolving customer issues post-purchase. Support reps also act as sales agents, answering pre-sales inquiries and offering discounts to encourage orders.

Already using Gorgias? Learn how our platform integrated with referral platforms like Smile.io and LoyaltyLion to combine the forces of your word-of-mouth marketing and customer experience.

2. Personalized customer service drives repeat business

According to a report from Salesforce, 97% of marketers report an improvement in business results due to personalization. Customer service is no exception: including customers' names, avoiding asking for the same information multiple times, and providing customer-specific recommendations all help build customer loyalty.

Your customer support platform should make personalization easy by showing a customer’s order and conversation history with your brand, so reps have the full context when speaking to customers:

And, with a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can build templated Macros, which automatically pull customer data into your messages (names, order numbers, shipping addresses, etc). 

Tip: Offer premium support at key stages of the buyer’s journey 

One way we offer personalized customer support at Love Wellness is our “Shop with a wellness specialist” program. Shoppers can take a short quiz, get matched with an expert, and text that specialist directly to build a personalized wellness routine.

3. Customer service data holds key information

Customer service can be a goldmine of key data that benefits the entire team, serving as a wellspring of insights that drive informed decisions and overall business success. 

How? Customer service acts as a direct line to your customers' thoughts and experiences. By consistently collecting and analyzing feedback, you gain an understanding of pain points, preferences, and trends that can influence product development, marketing strategies, and overall business direction.

Tip: Collect customer feedback often

One word: convenience.

Your customers should be able to share feedback without leaping through hoops. 

And, when you've got a vault of feedback, don't let it gather digital dust. Your team has so much data they can review between channels like email, SMS, chat, and social media—both compliments and complaints. You need to be willing to listen to every customer’s needs. 

We have a channel in Slack dedicated to customer feedback. Dropping in feedback is part of the team’s daily and weekly responsibilities, which helps them get really familiar with all of the content. It also allows our team to dissect them and collaborate on how we can improve. You could also schedule recurring feedback share sessions with the Product or Website teams, or even invite them directly into Gorgias (at no extra cost) and create a dedicated view for product feedback, website feedback, and so on.

4. A great customer service experience drives referrals

Happy customers are much more likely to recommend your brand to others than customers who have a poor customer service experience. 

94% of U.S. shoppers will recommend companies with service they rate as “very good.”

Along with increasing the likelihood of organic referrals, a great customer service experience can earn your more positive reviews.

Considering 95% of customers report reading online reviews before making a purchasing decision, showcasing just how important these reviews can be when it comes to attracting new business. We have a whole page dedicated to this on the Love Wellness website.

There’s also a filter option on every product page review widget so that shoppers can see the most common things people are saying about a product and filter down accordingly. 

Tip: Train everyone on how to have a customer-first mindset

Customer service is one of the main ways we build trust with customers, which is especially important in the personal care and women's health niche. Our aim is to provide a safe space for questions that customers might not even be comfortable asking a doctor.

At Love Wellness, we believe that every single team member plays a vital role in creating a haven of care and understanding. That’s why we created an immersive customer experience training program that involves each and every one of us, including the president of the company and even our office manager!

This program is about truly understanding Love Wellness' purpose, from top to bottom. Whether I'm involved in customer service management, product sourcing, managing our online presence, or crafting compelling copy, I've come to realize that a customer-first mindset is the key. 

Bonus reading: See Gorgias’ tips on customer service training to help improve the quality of support.

Tip: Create self-service resources

Your customer support team can create self-service resources like an FAQ page or Help Center to educate customers about your return policies, shipping practices, and the quality of your materials or ingredients. And by proactively during the pre-purchase process, you can provide first-time customers with the answers they need to make a purchase.

Here’s what ours looks like at Love Wellness, which answers key pre-sales questions about each product, plus frequently-asked questions about payment, shipping, and more.

5. Satisfied customers have higher average order values

By addressing any questions or concerns that may be preventing a customer from making a purchase, proactive customer support can boost your AOV by encouraging customers to purchase additional products they might not have bought otherwise.

The proof is in the pudding: businesses that offer proactive live chat customer support generate a 10%-15% higher AOV than those that do not. 

At Love Wellness we have a proactive outreach program for delivery issues, with the goal of reaching out to the customer to triage before they reach out to us. Since starting this, of our ~250 tickets, 105 have received a CSAT and the score is a solid 5 across the board!

According to Gorgias data, repeat customers make up only 21% of the average brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that brand’s revenue thanks to these higher cart values:

Tip: Find opportunities to sell more

Another effective way that customer support boosts AOV is by providing your sales team with upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

For example, at Love Wellness we make sure to explain to customers how they should use the product on the description page. In this section, we also call out additional products that pair well with what they’re looking at.

6. Good customer service increases customer loyalty

One well-known rule of business is that attracting new customers is always more expensive than marketing to your existing customer base. 

And fun fact: A staggering 95% of U.S. consumers use customer service quality as a factor when determining whether or not to do business with a company. 

My point? By prioritizing customer relationships and positive customer experiences, you can ensure that the customers you attract remain loyal to your brand and offer as much value as possible over the full course of their relationship with your business.

Tip: Fulfill your promises to customers

Promises made, promises kept. Make sure you have the means to follow through on your claims—and the backup available when mistakes happen

My two-fold advice:

• Build trust: If you're advertising 2-day shipping, get the necessary resources and operational capacity to consistently meet this commitment. 
• Tip: during a high volume period, especially over holidays, if there's even a chance that your shipping commitment isn't going to be met 100%, temporarily remove that option to keep expectations realistic.
• Manage customer expectations: Claims like "better taste" are subjective. Highlight provable benefits, such as health advantages, to set realistic expectations.

When customers consistently receive what they expect, they are more likely to become repeat buyers and advocates for your brand.

7. Great customer service reduces marketing spend

Between social media, content, advertising, and SEO, marketing can get very expensive very quickly. For small businesses, these expenses cost thousands of dollars every month. 

I’ve already mentioned how exceptional customer service improves customer retention rate. By investing in your support team, your brand can generate positive word-of-mouth, reviews, and repeat customer service. 

This means you’ll draw more value from your existing customers rather than spending money trying to attract new ones, which is a much more cost-effective and sustainable path to growth.

Tip: Use tools that are well-integrated

In the past, we had a custom tech stack that operated in isolation, causing manual errors and a great deal of confusion. We were practically solving puzzles blindfolded when something went wrong.

After finally having enough, we dismantled our old tech stack and reconstructed it with components that had native integrations already in place. We've learned the hard way that a well-integrated tech stack is the backbone of efficient customer service.

There's no more frustrating tab-switching or tedious copy/pasting to handle tasks like creating discount codes, editing orders, and processing refunds — trust me, it’s saving us from a lot of hair-pulling moments.

One tool that has been a game-changer for us is Gorgias, thanks to its integrations with Shopify (ecommerce), Okendo (reviews), Yotpo (loyalty rewards and referrals), and Recharge (subscriptions). These integrations have streamlined our customer support process by helping agents make changes to those other tools (like refunding an order or updating subscription status) without changing tabs. It also helps our agents offer more personalized support (with less back-and-forth) by giving them the full customer context, right in the ticket view.

Tip: Take an omnichannel approach to customer support

Every customer has a different communication preference. Omnichannel support makes it easy for them to reach you on various channels like text (SMS support), live chat support on your website, and social media support).

Offering omnichannel communication is important and can be effective, but only if it's tailored to the consideration of your customers and business needs.

For example, the bulk of our inbox is subscription management, so tackling those tickets via SMS is not effective for us. The messages are too long, and often include details customers need to hang onto to reference back to, so email is by far the better channel. 

Want more tips? Read our list of customer service best practices.

What happens when customer service isn’t prioritized

We've all been there — waiting endlessly on hold, being bounced around different departments, and feeling the frustration mount. It's not a feeling we relish. 

Take contacting your bank, for instance. The last thing that crosses your mind after that ordeal is calling them again anytime soon. Instead, it's more like, "Phew, glad that's over. Hope I won't have to do that again."

Now, transpose that to an ecommerce scenario. A lousy customer service experience can easily push a shopper to the point of churn, or even talk bad about your brand online or to their friends.

Above, we discussed the impact of great customer service on your bottom line. But the real thing to be aware of is just how damaging bad customer service is — enough to tank a great product, brand, and company. 

The costs of subpar service are staggering, ranging from $75 billion to a jaw-dropping $1.6 trillion annually. Plus, according to Retail Dive, a whopping 73% of customers won’t return to your brand after just a couple of poor customer service expenses. 

There’s a compounding snowball effect beyond losing customers as well: your customer service team gets burnt out and quits, you hire quickly (and not carefully) to replace those reps, and you’re left with an untrained and understaffed team. 

As a result, your company has poor customer service, so execs never get to see the impact that good experiences could have on your bottom line, leading to even fewer resources for customer success. The cycle continues from there.

Thankfully, good customer service can have the opposite effect.

Example: Excellent customer service helped Best Buy overcome bankruptcy

CB Insights shared a story about how, in 2012, Best Buy grappled with a $1.7 billion loss due to rising ecommerce and Amazon's Price Check app. The company turned this around by putting customer service at the forefront by 

• Empowering sales staff with thorough training that focused on being friendly and knowledgeable
• Introducing a bold price-matching guarantee to keep shoppers engaged
• Reviving the employee discount program
• Offering personalized in-home consultation with a technology advisor

This customer-centric approach revitalized the brand. If they hadn’t made these improvements, Best Buy might not be here today.

Transform customer support into your new growth engine with Gorgias

Looking back, I've realized that nailing customer support is all about staying ahead of the game and making smart moves — fast.

Remember, your customer support situation can impact your revenue in ways you might not imagine, and profitability is essential these days. The goal is to ensure your customer support strategy cultivates loyalty rather than driving customers away. That's where Gorgias comes in.

Designed exclusively for ecommerce, Gorgias equips online stores with powerful tools to enhance customer interactions, ultimately driving revenue growth, including:

• A centralized view of support interactions from all your channels
• Live chat support widgets (including proactive chat campaigns)
• Customer self-service tools like Help Centers and self-service order tracking and management
• Deep integrations with Shopify and other ecommerce platforms to quickly cancel, refund, and modify orders
• Rules and Macros for automating tedious customer support tasks
• Detailed and flexible reporting and analytics features

I encourage you to book a short time with the team to learn all about it. Gorgias has been a game-changer for Love Wellness and I’m confident it can be for your brand too.

{{lead-magnet-2}}

Live chat might feel like a big commitment, but the juice is worth the squeeze. (In other words, live chat support is well worth the effort.)

Customers love live chat because they can get ahold of you quickly and casually. They can get a fast answer, and don’t have to go digging for an email address to get ahold of you. In fact, 86% of live chat interactions end with a satisfied customer. 

Your business also benefits from live chat. It leads to fast resolutions, since back-and-forth responses are so rapid. Plus, using live chat for customer engagement during the flow of shopping can be a great way to boost sales.

Below, you’ll learn more about the benefits of live chat for support, including tips to automate live chat to make it a good use of your team’s time. 

{{lead-magnet-1}}

What is live chat support?

Live chat support is form of customer service where your support reps help customers in real time over a chat window on your website. 

It differs from other support methods like phone calls or emails because customers don’t have to open their phone or an email browser and wait for a response from someone at the call center. 

The basic version of live chat support is a widget that simply allows customers to start a chat session with a customer support agent. Here’s what these interactions look like for the agent (left) and the customer (right):

Some live chat software offer many more features, such as self-service menus and the ability to reach out to customers. Here’s an upgraded live chat widget on Sol de Janeiro’s site that gives customers self-service answers to common questions and lets them modify their orders without needing to speak to an agent:

Regardless of your live chat’s sophistication, live chat support makes a meaningful difference for businesses that use it: 79% of businesses say live chat support has a positive impact on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty.

How does live chat support differ from a chatbot?

Live chat and chatbots are both popups on a site that invite the user to type their problem into a box to get an answer.

The difference is that chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to determine customer intent and respond in human-ish ways. Live chat connects actual humans to support customers.

While the two experiences look similar on the customer end, speaking to an unhelpful bot that’s mimicking an agent can be a frustrating experience.

Instead, a better alternative to live chat includes other types of self-service in the chat window, such as the self-service menus like the ones in the video below:

Read our complete guide on live chat vs. chatbots for more information. 

The benefits of live chat for customer support teams and customers

Compared to legacy support methods (including customer service email and phone support), messaging support channels like live chat feel like a breath of fresh air for customers and customer support agents alike.

Here are just a few of the elements that your teams and customers will appreciate when you add live chat as a support option.

Live chat problems generally get solved fast (~42 seconds)

Live chat is a great way for customers to get their problems solved quickly — 42 seconds on average.

42 seconds is not a lot of time, which is great considering 66% of customers expect near-instant responses to questions. Customers who pick up the phone to solve an issue will still be selecting 1 for English or 2 for español when the average live chat customer has gotten their problem solved.

Want to learn more about other instant-messaging channels like social media DMs, SMS texting support, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp? Check out the individual links above or our post on customer support messaging.

Live chat still allows teams to use templates and automation

One of the potential downsides to live chat support is that it seems like it can be resource-intensive. But live chat support doesn’t have to mean that your human agents are manually typing every answer to every question.

Many live chat solutions can use bot-like software to automate responses to common, routine requests “Where is my order?” Even better, some solutions give customers menus to find answers without having to feign conversation with a “smart” bot:

Of course, some conversations will need that human touch no self-service solution can provide. When customers ask for a human agent, your human agents can either spin up a response from scratch or use a canned response as a starting point.

For example, you could create scripts for that same question, “Where is my order?” Something like, “We understand you want to get your items soon! Your order, [title or order number], is on its way to you now. You can expect to receive it within [timeframe].” Your agent will only have to fill in those two fields and send the response.

If you use Gorgias, you can upgrade your canned responses with Macros, which include variables. With variables, your agents don’t need to look for customer information to fill those fields — Gorgias automatically pulls the appropriate information for each customer from your ecommerce platform:

Live chat humanizes and personalizes support interactions

Live chat gives your support agents an opportunity to nurture new and existing customer relationships with a conversational, personalized service experience.

First, live chat by nature is more casual than many other communication channels. Unlike email, which tends to be more formal, the instant back-and-forth offers a more natural forum for emojis, friendly banter, and authentic conversations — of course, all of that is secondary to providing prompt, helpful service.

With the right live chat software, you can also achieve a high degree of personalization in live chat conversations. With Gorgias, which is kind of like a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, agents can see a customer’s entire order and conversation history with your brand in the customer sidebar:

This gives you an opportunity to use the customer’s name, reference past purchases and interactions, avoid asking for information the customer has already given your brand (like order number or shipping address), and understand whether the customer is a superfan or had a frustrating experience. 

Live chat is an effective way to drive sales

Your primary goal as an ecommerce business is to sell more products to more people, and live chat can help you do just that. Live chat has been shown to increase conversion rate (visitors to sales) by 12% on average and website visitors who interact with your live chat widget become 2.8 times more likely to buy than those who don’t. 

Why exactly is this the case? Say a prospect has a question about a product. They add it to their shopping cart, but are still negotiating the purchase in their head:

• Did I select the right size?
• Will the item arrive in time for the holiday?
• Will I be able to return the item if I don’t like it?
• Is the item compatible with other products I own?
• Did I select the best product for my needs?

Without a convenient support channel, customers may just abandon the purchase. But when you give them the ability to open a convenient chat window and get an instant answer, you reduce friction and lower cart abandonment.

With Gorgias, you can take this a step further and proactively reach out to customers who display certain behaviors with chat campaigns. For example, you can set up a live chat campaign to automatically trigger when a customer adds a product to their cart but lingers on the checkout page.

Likewise, you automatically reach out to customers on certain pages, to proactively ask if they need support and, if the moment is right, upsell them:

Plus, if you use Gorgias, you can easily include product cards in your customer service responses within the platform, giving your customers an visual and easy link to product pages within the live chat:

Still not convinced? Read our deeper post on how to use live chat to boost sales.

Live chat resonates better with bigger spenders

If the main goal of any ecommerce store is to sell more products to more people, a close second is selling more (or more expensive) products within individual transactions — or raising average order value (AOV), a metric your customer support team has a surprising impact on.

One survey found that among those who consistently spend more online per month (between $250 and $500), 63% have increased loyalty to brands and companies offering live chat support experiences.

This makes sense: As you spend more, your pre-sales questions become more important. If you’re unsure about the product, shipping times, or refund policy, you won’t have the confidence to make a large purchase. The ability to contact support right before a sale is incredibly important for this reason. 

Live chat could also help with enormous wholesale purchases, too. CROSSNET, a merchant using Gorgias, won a $450,000 sale because they promptly responded to a live chat conversation.

Check out CROSSNET’s customer story to learn how they did it.

Live chat best practices

If you’re operating an ecommerce business, implementing live chat support is a strategic move that can catalyze growth and increase your sales (just like all support channels). But like anything new, you want to be sure to implement your live chat experience properly.

First, learn how to add live chat to your Shopify store (or Magento store) and read our guide to getting live chat up and running within two weeks. Then, follow these best practices if you’re just getting started — and if you’re already using live chat to a degree, use these as a check-up to evaluate the health of your live chat efforts.

Best practices for agents and handling conversations

The following best practices are for support agents to make live chat interactions effective.

1) Promptly respond to messages, but don’t rush

People value knowing they’ll be interacting with a real person, not a bot. So they don’t expect instantaneous responses — but they don’t want to be kept waiting, either. It’s always important to be prompt (and the definition of “prompt” varies depending on your industry’s expectations), but support agents should take enough time to be sure they fully understand the question or complaint so they can respond appropriately.

In other words, customers who get their problems solved correctly the first time are happy to wait slightly longer. Prompt and accurate is better than rushed and incomplete.

Related: 11 live chat support mistakes you should definitely avoid

2) Be transparent and honest

Not every problem can be solved instantly, and that’s OK. Customers come to live chat because they can’t solve their issues with self-service resources, and that means live chat support often gets more complex questions.

It’s important to have an open dialog with customers, especially skeptical customers. It’s 100% OK to let a customer know that you need a little time to look into something. Telling them is certainly far better than appearing to ghost them or trying to trot out a pat answer that won’t satisfy them.

Similarly, there will be situations where an agent doesn’t have the resources or approval to move forward with an issue and needs to push the concern to another agent or supervisor or even to your other support channels.

Agents should be transparent, clear, and honest when this happens: People appreciate honesty and follow-ups — and they despise overconfident wrong answers or a lack of clarity about next steps.

3) Keep the conversation focused

One of the disadvantages of text-based conversations is that you can’t control the clarity of the other party. They might be wildly unclear about their problem or they might start branching off into multiple topics within a single thread or encounter.

Support agents need to keep conversations focused on a single problem at a time and may need to guide customers along to this end. Once the first problem is resolved, then it’s great to tackle the next one. But letting things devolve into a confusing mishmash is a quick way to end up harming customer satisfaction.

4) Keep responses concise, and ask questions

Encourage your live chat agents to keep responses brief yet friendly. The longer and more complex the messages you send, the greater the chance of confusion or missed points. The customer could respond to just half the message, and then the agent has to awkwardly repeat the unanswered half.

Most of the time, you want to make sure that any individual message has just one thing to do or respond to in it. Falling into a call and response sort of pattern, where the customer responds to each prompt, is a good way to keep things streamlined.

5) Follow through until you resolve the issue

Follow-through is key as well during live support interactions. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve completed the interaction and moving on to another task or customer only to realize that you’ve left the customer hanging, still waiting on some crucial piece of information.

Be sure your agents aren’t unintentionally walking away too soon. The best way to do this is to proactively check with the customer to make sure they agree that everything is resolved.

And if you use Gorgias, you can automatically send the customer a satisfaction survey to gauge the success of the interaction:

6) Share helpful resources when possible

Sometimes, the customer’s comments reveal that they need something more complex than what will fit in a little chat box. Maybe they’re struggling with how to use some core functionality in your device or your mobile app or they have a technical question about a product that’s answered in some technical documentation already on your website.

When customers need more education or detailed instructions, leverage your existing self-service resources, like knowledge base articles, tech specs, or even product pages. Your agents should feel free to offer links to your team’s content assets, allowing customers to solve their own problems.

Of course, invite them to contact your company again if they still can’t figure it out. And if you can give them clear routing instructions, such as a specific phone number to call that lets them skip the IVR phone tree, it makes sense to do so at this point.

Best practices for operations and management

These best practices are for customer support leaders to set up live chat effectively.

1) Create an automated initial prompt

As great as your live chat customer support team is, it’s not realistic to expect them to be able to respond to every customer in real time. One strategy that gives them a little more buffer is to create an automated initial prompt that boosts your first-response times.

This way, when a website visitor sends a message in your live chat widget, they get an immediate response that stops them from navigating away from your site. This also buys your team members a few seconds to pull up the chat request and respond.

We actually do this at Gorgias — here’s the message we send, and the Rule that automatically fires the message. 

It immediately lets the website visitor know an agent is going to handle their issue, and it buys the agent 10 or 15 seconds to wrap up and get ready.

2) Have specific live chat support hours

Your business might not have a 24-hour customer support team in place and may never need to, depending on your market and your competition. If you aren’t offering 24-hour support, then set and advertise a specific set of hours that your team will be available for customers.

If you use Gorgias, you can set your live chat to automatically turn on and off with offline mode, which still lets shoppers find automated answers and submit offline form.

You can use a chatbot or self-service to take on the after-hours work, solving simple queries and pushing more complex ones to the next-morning queue for your human agents. This can be a good strategy; just make sure your customers know that that’s what you’re doing.

3) Adjust Macros (or templates) for live chat

It’s a best practice to modify your Macros and other customer service scripts to fit the format. The length and line breaks that make sense for an email may not look right in the live chat window. 

Likewise, depending on your brand’s tone of voice, you might lean a little more casual on live chat than other, long-form channels. Of course, your templates should all be clear and fully answer the question, regardless of channel. 

4) Prioritize live chat conversations

Customers using live chat are actively on your site — potentially with an item in their cart, and a question they need answered to click “Buy now.” 

On the other hand, the customer that emailed you isn’t actively waiting on a response. They’ve probably already gone to work or soccer practice, and won’t even check their email inbox for a few hours. 

For that reason, it’s important to set up automations that bump live chat tickets to the top of your inbox. If you use Gorgias, here’s a Rule you can use to tag live chat tickets as Urgent and assign it to your chat team:

Choosing live chat support software for ecommerce companies

Of course, integrating live chat support into your website (and into your customer service and support workflows) requires some form of live chat support software. That’s a whole discussion in itself, but the most crucial factors are feature sets and integrations.

You certainly need software that accommodates everything you want to do with live chat. Beyond that, ask these three crucial questions for any software you’re considering:

1. Does this integrate with my ecommerce platform?
2. Does the live chat tool come bundled with a larger helpdesk?
3. Does this integrate with my other customer service channels?
4. Does the tool’s pricing make sense for my business?
5. How easy is it to install?

And good news: We have answers for you. Read about the best live chat apps for a variety of use cases:

• Best live chat apps for Shopify
• Best live chat apps for BigCommerce
• Best live chat apps for Magento 2 Stores
• Best live chat apps for overall ecommerce
• Best live chat apps (industry agnostic)

How Gorgias makes live chat support low-effort, high-impact

One concern about adding live chat support is that you’ll get a flurry of messages from customers who expect an instant response and, like many brands, you don’t have the staffing bandwidth to keep up. The right live chat platform offers features to help smaller businesses reap the benefits of a live chat, even if they can’t staff it 24/7.

Here are a few Gorgias features that make live chat manageable for small teams:

Order Management Flows for self-service order management and tracking

Order Management Flows are a type of customer self-service that lets customers track, cancel, or return an order within the live chat widget — no agent needed. This is a great way to reduce the number of tickets that actually make it to your agents. Plus, 88% of customers expect this kind of self-service functionality on your website.

You can customize which self-service options your customers can access within the live chat, too:

Flows and article recommendations in chat

Order Management Flows are great for order management, but other customer questions that would still turn into tickets for your agents: Questions like “What’s your refund policy?” or “Where do you ship?” Gorgias’ live chat also includes Flows, which you can set up to give personalized answers to common customer questions with a single click.

On top of Quick Responses, Gorgias live chat can also use natural language processing (NLP) to understand a customer’s query and recommend relevant articles in your Help Center: Gorgias’ version of a knowledge base, or a super-powered FAQ.

Contact Forms

Even with all of these self-service options, some customers will want to talk to an agent. And for stores that can’t staff live chat, this means you may get live chat questions that go unanswered. With Gorgias, you can include a field that asks customers for their email addresses so you can answer their questions when you come back online.

Contact Forms aren’t just good for following up if you missed an incoming message. You can also enroll customers who submit their email in email marketing sequences to drive sales, just like Bokksu:

“The email capture feature on Gorgias live chat allows us to collect new email addresses on a daily basis! This is highly convenient and helps us drive sales!”

– Danny Taing, Founder & CEO, Bokksu

Set business hours for chat availability

Finally, if your team can only cover live chat during certain times of the day, you can also set up business hours in Gorgias to either completely remove chat from your website or change the chat’s setting when you’re offline.

Install Gorgias live chat in a couple of clicks

Gorgias is a leading all-in-one ecommerce customer support and helpdesk platform that’s laser-focused on the needs of ecommerce businesses like yours. Our live chat feature is flexible and powerful thanks to numerous automation features, plus it can be enabled in just a few clicks.

Gorgias’s proactive chat tools can help you meet your customers’ needs, improve your conversion rates, and consistently improve the customer experience. And your agents can use Gorgias live chat on desktop, iOS, and Android. 

Ready to take the plunge and start reaping the benefits of live chat support? See more of what life is like with Gorgias live chat. Or, book a demo to chat with our team.

TL;DR: 

• Shipping status, refunds, and damaged orders were the top customer concerns of 2023
• The average first response time was 7.6 hours, a resolution time of 18.6 hours, and a CSAT score of 4.5/5
• On average, 15% of interactions were resolved with automation
• Experts predict that 2024 will focus on strategic planning, optimized AI use, more real-time communication, and amplifying the voice of CX within companies

This year, we witnessed customer service teams from 16,140 brands support over 77 million shoppers and millions of tickets with Gorgias. 

As we turn to a new chapter, we want to spotlight how six of the top-performing industries delivered customer service in 2023. 

From food to fashion, we’ll see how quickly agents answered questions, then discover what customers were asking, and learn from experts about what customer experience trends to expect in the new year.

{{lead-magnet-1}}

Support teams resolved tickets in 2.5 business days

Step into the ecommerce world, where you’ll find a vibrant population of merchants, each with their own niche and groups of loyal customers. Together, they generated $1.45 billion in revenue in 2023. 

Of course, this would not have been possible without the grit of customer service teams and their dedication to customer satisfaction. 

Support teams across 20 industries answered customer inquiries within one business day and solved them in two and a half, resulting in very satisfied shoppers. Impressively, 15% of interactions were fully automated and resolved on average.

Here are the average industry support stats:

• First response time: 7.6 hours
• Resolution time: 18.6 hours
• CSAT score: 4.5/5

From food to fashion: a cross-industry glance at support statistics

The most popular ecommerce industries — Apparel and Fashion, Health, Wellness, and Fitness, Cosmetics, Food and Beverage, Consumer Goods, and Luxury Goods and Jewelry — were the top performers. 

Using exclusive Gorgias data, we’ll look at how support teams from these industries handled tickets. Then, we’ll gain expert insight into the ecommerce experience in 2023, and how experts predict it will change in the coming year.

Apparel and Fashion strutted with a 4.5/5 CSAT score

Our first stop is the bustling market of Apparel and Fashion. We’re all familiar with how tricky online clothes shopping can be. Most likely due to issues with sizing and style, support teams mainly dealt with inquiries about:

• Shipping status
• Returns
• Refunds

Yet, despite receiving the highest number of customer tickets among the six industries, Apparel and Fashion brands kept customers happy. They responded within one business day and resolved issues within two, with 15% of interactions being resolved with automation.

Here are their stats compared to the overall industry average:

• First response time: 8 hours (+0.4 hours)
• Resolution time: 17 hours (-1.6 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.5/5

According to Loop, over 50% of their merchants now charge for certain returns, including fees for exchanges and returns for store credit. This change aligns with consumer preferences, as their report shows 70% of shoppers are willing to pay for premium, convenient experiences, a trend already embraced by half of these customers.

Cancellations and returns were Health, Wellness, and Fitness’ biggest hurdles

The next stop on our tour is the thriving Health, Wellness, and Fitness industry.

Unfortunately, brands in this sector had a challenging year keeping up with unpleasant tickets about:

• Shipping status
• Subscription cancellations
• Refunds

Perhaps support teams could have automated more than 15% of interactions to handle these repetitive tickets better. But despite their slower-than-average first response time, customers were still pleased with the support experience:

• First response time: 9 hours (+1.4 hours)
• Resolution time: 18.3 hours (-0.3 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.5/5

Expert Insights: Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at women’s wellness brand Love Wellness, highlights that personalized customer service has been a key trend of 2023. She’s observed that customers now expect to receive personal recommendations during their shopping journeys.

Cosmetics enhanced support with 18% automation

Now, take a peek at the fast-growing Cosmetics industry, and you’ll see how eager customers were to check out the hype around both small businesses and celebrity brands.

Given the boom of influencer marketing for these highly personal products, customers often inquired about:

• Shipping status
• Feedback
• Damaged orders

To solve these tickets, support teams automated 18% of interactions and attained faster times than average:

• First response time: 7 hours (-0.6 hours)
• Resolution time: 15.8 hours (-2.8 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.5/5

Food and Beverage served it fresh with a 5-hour first response time

Getting hungry? This year, the growing appetite for Food and Beverage in the ecommerce world was unmistakable. Beef jerky or freshly squeezed fruit juice, customers savored their snacks. But it also didn’t stop them from being tough critics. 

The main issues raised to Food and Beverage support teams revolved around: 

• Shipping status
• Feedback
• Damaged products

Luckily, they cut down their first response time by automating 15% of interactions — nearly three hours faster than average:

• First response time: 5 hours (-2.6 hours)
• Resolution time: 17.2 hours (-1.4 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.5/5

Expert insights: Zoe Kahn, former Manager of CX & Retention at Chomps and now Owner of Inevitable Agency, saw inventory issues as a major challenge of 2023. The complexity of inventory logistics is difficult for consumers to understand, leading to higher outreach from customers wondering when items would be back in stock. "Quieting those concerns is really difficult," Zoe notes. However, after witnessing inventory issues over the last few years, Zoe realized that "it's inevitable that inventory problems will happen because of how challenging the logistics of selling a product are."

‍

Consumer Goods has CSAT down pat with a 4.6/5

There’s a lot to explore in the all-encompassing Consumer Goods industry. You’ll find brands that sell everything from sustainable water bottles and furniture to everything else in between, like dog toys and mystery subscription boxes.

While Consumer Goods brands only automated 14% of interactions, their resolution time was two hours faster than the industry average, resulting in the happiest customers among the six industries:

• First response time: 8 hours (+0.4 hours)
• Resolution time: 16.4 hours (-2.2 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.6/5 (+0.6)

The top tickets Consumer Goods brands received were about:

• Shipping status
• Damaged orders
• Customer feedback

Expert Insights: Ren Fuller-Wasserman, the Director of Experience at TUSHY, notes that the impact of the macroeconomic climate was among the top challenges faced in 2023. “As there's talk of recession and inflation, people are really looking for products that provide added value,” she says.

Our partner Okendo, a growth marketing platform that has worked with well-known brands like SKIMS and Rhode, notes that tech stack consolidation has been the top priority in 2023. They saw that merchants who used a multifaceted product with app integrations resulted in a 15x return on investment. 

Luxury Goods and Jewelry polished interactions with 28% automation

Our final stop is at the small gem of an industry, Luxury Goods and Jewelry. Making sure their pricey wares arrived to customers safely was the top priority. That’s why the top questions support teams received were in regard to:

• Shipping status
• Discount requests
• Damaged orders

Out of all the industries, Luxury Goods and Jewelry brands automated the most interactions at 28%, which certainly helped to shorten response and resolution times:

• First response time: 6 hours (-1.6 hours)
• Resolution time: 17.1 hours (-1.5 hours)
• CSAT score: 4.4/5 (-0.1)

Expert Insights: Caela Castillo, Director of CX at Jaxxon, advises preparing early for BFCM but being flexible to change. She notes, “Sometimes you need a different perspective,” acknowledging that agents are valuable resources to gain customer insights, especially when it comes to planning new customer service strategies.

How to prepare for ecommerce in 2024 (according to experts)

It’s been a fruitful year of expediting the traditionally slow support process. However, with greater strides made in AI technology, ecommerce has only scratched the surface of providing accelerated service. 

We interviewed ecommerce experts who saw the rise and fall of trends in 2023 and are ready to use their learnings to make the new year better. 

Here are the top four actions ecommerce companies should take in 2024. 

1) Identify business goals to adapt to new tech

We’re constantly fed an endless stream of new technology, which can be a distraction to business goals. That’s why the CTO of ecommerce agency Novatize, Pierre-Olivier Brassard, highly recommends planning a robust strategy first. Clear business goals will help teams pick the best tools — not the other way around.

2) Maximize the use of AI to streamline support

Customer service management platform TalentPop saw AI as the top CX trend of 2023. They foresee late adopters using AI next year, while early adopters will focus on optimization. To get ahead of the game, TalentPop recommends that support teams research all AI options since CX will only become more saturated with AI tools.

Brandon Amoroso, Founder & President at Electriq and Co-founder at SCALIS observed similar trends. In 2023, many CX teams implemented more self-service options for customers. Going into 2024, Brandon notes that a “continual integration of AI into the entire customer experience” is likely.

3) Offer real-time communication options

As social shopping gains traction, marketing platform Yotpo predicts customers are going to look for more real-time communication with brands. In fact, HubSpot reports a 45% year-over-year surge in using social media DMs for customer service. Therefore, using tools that enable interactions through DMs or text, like Yotpo SMS, will be a crucial strategy in the upcoming year.

4) Amplify the voice of the customer

Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, advises CX leaders to ensure their contributions are recognized. Kwasniewicz notes that support teams often know the business better than any other department. "Beat the CX drum loudly. If you're not in the room, find a way in the room," she stresses.

We’ve all heard that customer experience is the new battleground for businesses. Between the rising costs of customer acquisition and the huge benefits of loyal customers, your ability to quickly satisfy customers is key to customer retention and long-term growth; this is what makes customer service so important.

Some small businesses manage customer service requests directly on whichever support channel customers use. But this approach doesn’t support growth because you’ll lose hours each week shuffling between email, Facebook, and Instagram (or wherever your customers contact you) and copy/pasting information between platforms. Plus, you won’t have access to time-saving automation features and highly requested self-service options — more on those below. 

In this article, we’ll explain the top benefits of using a helpdesk and provide tips to help you use this tool effectively to improve customer experience — which will help you retain more customers. Keep reading to find out why it pays to become part of the 58% of businesses that actively use a helpdesk.

What is a helpdesk?

A helpdesk is commonly known as a place where customers go to get answers to their questions. In the ecommerce world, businesses use helpdesk software to help their customers with issues and questions surrounding products and orders.

Helpdesk software tools allow teams to collaborate on managing, organizing, responding to, and reporting on customer requests (or tickets). This is particularly important since there are several key metrics to track relating to customer tickets, such as first response time (FRT), average resolution time, unresolved tickets, and customer satisfaction (among others). These metrics can help you better understand how your customer service team is performing and gives you solid data — versus relying solely on customer feedback. 

It’s important to note that not all helpdesks are created equal. Helpdesks are a broad category that can range from simple ticketing systems to all-in-one customer service platforms that offer help centers, self-service options, automation workflows, and robust reporting. Some helpdesks, like Gorgias, are built for specific industries — our helpdesk is for ecommerce merchants:

Types of helpdesks 

Helpdesk ticketing systems are crucial for simplifying service management. It becomes very chaotic to manage increasing support tickets as your business grows without a centralized helpdesk ticketing system in your ecommerce tech stack.

But a customer support team needs a very different type of helpdesk than an IT department. 

Here are the main categories of helpdesks:

Digital or cloud-based helpdesks

Digital helpdesk providers host your helpdesk on their server and you pay them either a monthly or annual fee to use it. This option is ideal for small- and medium-sized businesses that don’t have an in-house IT team to build software from scratch. You avoid the hassle (and expense) of hosting and maintaining the helpdesk software yourself. 

If you’re looking for a way to provide better customer support, you’ll probably want this kind of helpdesk.

On-site helpdesks

This is the DIY option for helpdesks. Your company could purchase the software license for a helpdesk software tool and then host the software on your servers. The greatest benefit of this type of helpdesk is that you have complete control over data and security. That said, most cloud-based helpdesks are actually safer thanks to advanced security features.

As the world moves increasingly to the cloud, on-site helpdesks are fading into the past. Most organizations that keep on-site helpdesks are government offices or law firms that don’t trust external servers with sensitive data — and have IT infrastructure to protect the data themselves.

Enterprise or large organization helpdesks

Enterprise helpdesks can either be digital or on-site, but what distinguishes them from other types of helpdesks is that they are specifically built for large organizations. Usually, they are far more customized than an out-of-the-box solution and come with much more dedicated support (and higher pricing).

Unless you know you need enterprise software, this type of helpdesk is probably not for you.

Open-source helpdesks

An open-source helpdesk allows developers to freely access the source code without having to pay for proprietary software. This type of helpdesk is often free, but you’ll need an IT team to build and customize the software to suit your company’s needs. It’s also important to note that this type of helpdesk is more susceptible to customer data breaches and outages. Plus, open-source helpdesks don’t get the same level of dedicated support as an option you purchase.

Internal IT helpdesks

Some companies, usually larger enterprises like hospitals and universities, set up an internal IT helpdesk to help employees solve technical issues. Instead of conducting service management through email, an IT services team might set up a portal with self-service information (like troubleshooting guides) and an easy way to submit support requests to get extra help from an IT support member. 

Just like your customer support team, a helpdesk organizes support requests and saves time for the point of contact by collecting incoming requests and deflecting avoidable ones with self-service.

{{lead-magnet-1}}

Benefits of using helpdesk software

Above all else, helpdesk software helps you improve customer satisfaction and leads to more happy customers for your brand. Below, we’ll explore five of the most significant benefits of incorporating helpdesk software within your organization.

1) Better customer support helps your bottom line

Customer experience solutions have been proven to produce a 633% ROI increase over three years. Although helpdesks weren’t singled out in this Forrester study, the fact that they play a role in improving customer satisfaction means they also yield a positive ROI as part of the customer support function. 

As a reference point, the average merchant using Gorgias’s helpdesk sees about 5% higher revenue than before they used the tool.

If you want to learn more about the impact of helpdesks on your revenue, check out our guide to customer service ROI. Alternatively, see how Gorgias’ helpdesk resulted in over $9 million in revenue for BrüMate’s exclusively from the support team:

Customer Story: Brümate's CX Team Generating Millions Taking Care of Their Brücrew

2) Quick response times

66% of customers expect an immediate response whenever they reach out to a business. Helpdesk solutions organize customer queries in a way that makes it easier to prioritize these tickets, use automation to deflect repetitive and low-impact tickets, use templates to give customer service representatives a head start, and so much more to reduce customer wait time.  

See how our customer, Emuaid, used Gorgias’ automation functions to drastically reduce their first response time to 48 seconds (an 8% decrease). Since using Gorgias, their tickets are now centralized in one place, their customer support process is streamlined and supported by automation, and their agents are more productive than ever. Best of all? Customers spend far less time waiting for responses.

3) No missed or lost tickets

Things get messy when a company doesn‘t use helpdesk software — there‘s an unclear chain of support ticket handling. This frustrates customers because they have to repeat themselves to each new support agent they speak to. A helpdesk support tool organizes all your customer conversations from multiple channels into one dashboard and includes clear notifications about the number of open tickets, ensuring you never miss or lose any.

With Gorgias’s live statistics dashboard, you can even see which agents have open tickets in their queue, how many tickets they’ve closed this shift, and more:

For example, Milligram was able to use Gorgias to integrate into their full tech stack to condense their customer service tickets into a single platform. The result was a 33% reduction in response time and an uptick in ticket volume. 

4) Comprehensive customer information in one ticket view

While not all helpdesks offer this functionality, seeing information about customers within the helpdesk is a game-changer for companies trying to offer fast, personalized support. 

For example, Gorgias shows all historical order information and every conversation and transaction a customer has had with your brand — including on social media. This context allows you to understand the customer’s past interactions with your brand (whether positive or negative), leading to a quicker, more productive conversation. You can also avoid asking customers to repeat information they’ve already told your brand. 

You can even bring in customer information from other ecommerce apps like Klaviyo and Yotpo in the ticket’s sidebar view.

5) Combined power from integrating your favorite apps

Your apps are stronger together. With the right helpdesk, you can install integrations that keep agents from having to switch between apps and copy/paste customer information. All the customer information they need is accessible from the helpdesk.

Check out Gorgias’ app store to learn about our integrations, which include many top ecommerce apps you probably already use.

6) Enhanced agent productivity and collaboration

HubSpot research finds that 86% of teams using a helpdesk report greater productivity. This isn’t surprising since helpdesk software:

• Improves communication within a customer support team, because agents can privately comment on tickets
• Allows your team to prioritize requests so that the most urgent and time-sensitive queries can be addressed first through a triage strategy
• Enables your customer service team members to create an escalation plan so that urgent queries are given to the right teams

For instance, Death Wish Coffee Co. used Gorgias’ helpdesk tool to win back lost time for their support team. They had an ambitious goal of hitting a 200% growth target and saving 10 to 15 minutes helped them achieve the focus necessary to make that happen.

7) More consistency in your customer experience

Most helpdesk software allows you to turn your best messaging into templates for your whole team to use. This speeds up your helpdesk process, leading to a more reliable first response time, bringing consistency to your organization's CX, and helping your whole team (even the newer members) make a bigger impact by having the right words every time.

With Gorgias, templates are called Macros and include variables that personalize the message for every customer. Variables are like blanks that automatically pull customer information from your ecommerce platform, using customer support phrases that fit your brand. Personalized information without any copy/pasting:

8) Improved business operations

Helpdesk software helps you create more efficient business processes. All of your customer support metrics are brought into one system for better reporting, there’s a central dashboard that makes it easy to track customer issues, and all of this data can be used to better inform business decisions and optimize your support process. 

You’re also better able to meet your service level agreements (SLAs) thanks to the accountability of clear reporting dashboards.

Check out how Gorgias’ revenue statistics board helps brands quickly understand and communicate their impact on the company’s revenue:

9) Reclaimed agent time 

Automate repetitive requests, use templated responses to respond faster, and keep your agents from burning out so they can spend more time on the tickets that actually move your business forward. 

Princess Polly was able to do just that. Since using Gorgias, Princess Polly increased their customer service efficiency by 40%, lowered resolution time by 80% and first response time by 95%, and improved one-touch tickets by 15%. 

Trying to level up your customer service? Read our guide to essential customer service best practices.

Essential helpdesk features: What makes for a good helpdesk?

A good helpdesk app must have six key features to make technical support easy for both your customers and your helpdesk team. Let’s look more closely at why these features are important.

1) Multichannel communication

Google, in partnership with Forrester research, conducted research on what businesses need to know about communicating with customers. They discovered that customers prefer asynchronous communication such as text, social media, third-party messaging, and chat through a mobile app when trying to communicate with a brand. The businesses that do well are those that provide multichannel communication (whether asynchronous or in real time). In fact, these businesses do so well that they are 3.4 times more likely to experience revenue growth, according to the study.

A good helpdesk app pulls all customer queries and interactions from multiple sources into one platform, including social media interactions. There‘s no need to make futile attempts at keeping tabs on communication across all these channels. So, your customers can communicate with you on the channels they‘re most comfortable with rather than being forced to submit support tickets.

Features to note:

• Supports all the channels where your customers might show up, including email, live chat, phone, SMS, messaging apps (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger), and social media
• Aggregates all of those channels in one ticket view per customer
• Allows agents to like and reply to comments on social media

Related reading: 8 customer service trends for the coming year

2) Ticket management

It‘s important to note that your helpdesk must offer you the capabilities to effectively organize and monitor customer tickets at any point of the day. 

Features to note:

• Creating, closing, re-opening, submitting, and resolving tickets
• Assigning and reassigning helpdesk tickets 
• Automated ticket routing, categories, and tags 
• Public and private actions on tickets 
• Canned responses, rule-based automated messages 
• Comprehensive ticket views that show historical customer interactions

3) Self-service features

It might surprise you just how badly customers want self-service options: 88% of respondents to a recent Microsoft survey report that they expect businesses to have online self-service support portals like helpdesks. But with this being the case, it’s pretty bleak that only 42% of teams are using self-service helpdesks to resolve customer issues. 

For example, an FAQ page (or better yet, a fully built-out knowledge base) can give customers an easy way to find detailed answers to their questions — no need to reach out to customer support and wait for agents.

Here’s an example of a Help Center built with Gorgias, which is free with all plans:

You can take self-service a step further by integrating self-service order management and quick, automated responses to your live chat widget to give customers instant answers and lessen the load on your agents:

Features to note:

• Knowledge base articles
• Community forums
• Self-service options in the live chat widget
• Customization options 

4) Automation capabilities

Helpdesks allow you to automate much of ticket communication. For instance, if a lot of customers need immediate help with issues already covered in your knowledge base, an automated response can direct them to the relevant resource — reducing the time spent on tickets. Even better, it can give them a personalized answer and take action based on the request — like updating their shipping address.

These automation capabilities will also help you resolve simple customer issues faster and free your agents to work on higher-impact tickets. Here’s an example. Loop earplugs used Gorgias’ Automate and integrations to decrease response and resolution times, and reduce “where is my order?” queries from 17% to 5%.

A mix of automation and self-service can deflect up to a third of your incoming tickets, according to Gorgias data, freeing your agents up for the tickets that matter to your business.

Features to note:

• Automatically tag and assign tickets based on the ticket’s contents or channel
• Automatically respond to certain tickets with pre-written Macros
• Trigger actions automatically, like canceling an order or updating a credit card number
• Provide automated answers in your live chat widget

5) Reporting functionalities

A helpdesk should have reporting tools that allow you to measure, analyze, and track your customer experience and helpdesk agents’ performance. They should bring your metrics into a single, interactive dashboard you can use to make real decisions and improve your bottom line. 

Gorgias has dashboards for individual agent performance, impact on revenue, customer satisfaction, and other important metrics like first-response time and resolution time.

Features to note: 

• Ticket-related metrics like tickets created, replied, closed, sent, resolution time, response time, etc. 
• Customer satisfaction like the percentage of how many surveys were responded to, the average rating, and rating distribution 
• Reporting on most commonly used tags and intents to understand what types of tickets are making up the bulk of your ticket volume
• View of most common product issues being brought to the customer support team so you can make improvements

6) Third-party integrations

Is your chosen helpdesk easy to connect with other tools or pre-built integrations? How many integrations are available? How many integrations do you actually need? Do you have to pay for those integrations? These are the questions you should keep in mind when looking for a helpdesk tool. 

For example, if you want an ecommerce helpdesk, you should choose the software that integrates well with the ecommerce platforms and apps you use, like Klaviyo, Recharge, and Yotpo — making Gorgias a top contender.

Meanwhile, if you have a large IT team, you may want to consider helpdesk software like Jira Service Desk because it provides many IT-focused third-party integrations. 

Features to note:

• Seamless integration of different apps with your helpdesk, bringing all of the customer data into one view
• Deep integration with the functionality of those apps for multi-app workflows (e.g. building segments in Klaviyo from Gorgias attributes, like a win-back campaign)

‍

Is a helpdesk the same as a CRM?

No, a helpdesk isn’t the same as a CRM.

CRM stands for customer relationship management and is a system for managing relationships with customers. It’s one central place that helps organize all the details about your leads and customers. Using this system, you can get a full picture of every customer and understand the status of every customer relationship. 

A CRM typically doesn’t have functionalities for ticket management because its primary focus is on data from sales and accounts. But ticket management is a fundamental component of a helpdesk — hence the difference between both software solutions. Platforms such as Salesforce are sometimes confused as helpdesk tools, but their focus is primarily CRM, not helpdesk management.

Strong helpdesk platforms like Gorgias do have some features of CRMs, like aggregating all interactions with a given customer in one location alongside loyalty data, marketing campaign responses, etc.

Is a helpdesk the same as a live chat?

No, but some helpdesks also include live chat software. 

Live chat tools are typically hosted on websites and allow website visitors to communicate with a brand in real time. Helpdesk software pulls customer requests from multiple places such as email, phone, and social media. Live chat is a component of more robust helpdesk software, but not vice versa.

Here’s an example: Gorgias is a helpdesk that includes live chat functionality, meaning all Gorgias users can install a live chat widget to their website in just a few clicks. Once installed, live chat becomes a channel within the helpdesk, so you can answer live chat messages, emails, social media DMs, and more without leaving the Gorgias helpdesk platform:

Related: Our list of the best live chat apps on the market.

Is a helpdesk the same as a service desk?

Most organizations don’t need to distinguish between a service desk and a helpdesk. They’re often used interchangeably to describe a tool used to centralize service management and improve the end user’s support experience. And, very few companies have both. 

Technically, a service desk is a bit broader than a helpdesk. While a helpdesk’s core feature is to help you quickly collect and respond to quick-fix customer support issues, a service desk could also include more account management features and feature requests. However, with today’s helpdesks, you can also achieve many of those same goals. 

If you’re looking for a tool to help organize and streamline your customer service efforts, we recommend sticking with the word helpdesk. Or you can call it a customer service platform, which better represents the breadth of features you can expect from modern-day tools.  

Key helpdesk statistics 

If you’re still not quite sold on the value of helpdesk services, let’s take a look at some numbers. Here are some eye-opening statistics that show just how crucial helpdesks are in helping your business provide the best possible customer service experience.

The helpdesk market size is projected to reach $11 billion by 2023

This statistic comes from research published by Transparency Market Research. In 2020, the online helpdesk market size was $8.9 million and is projected to increase to nearly $20 million by 2028. Therefore, not only will helpdesks continue to increase in popularity, but online helpdesks will take a bigger piece of the pie as time progresses.

90% of consumers regard resolution as their most important customer service issue

A helpdesk is useless if customers still aren’t getting their issues resolved, as this statistic by KPMG supports. A helpdesk can’t be used as a bandaid to hide other customer service issues that may exist within your company. Make speedy issue resolution a priority and if that isn’t happening, dig a bit deeper to discover underlying issues.

84% of shoppers are willing to spend more on products/services to get better customer service

This statistic comes from research by Gladly. As mentioned earlier, good customer service improves your bottom line. People will spend more money and become repeat customers if you offer the right support.

Experiences that don’t meet expectations cost businesses up to $4.7 trillion annually

Qualtrics finds that many customers are dissatisfied with the service they receive from brands, and that dissatisfaction costs a pretty penny.

One of the things you can do to make customers happier is providing an omnichannel experience where they can voice their concerns via their choice of online platform (social media, live chat on your website, etc.). The trick is to respond to them as quickly as possible and work swiftly to resolve their issue to provide an excellent customer service experience — poor experiences will cause your company to lose money.

How to choose the best helpdesk software for your business

Each company’s needs are slightly different, so we encourage signing up for a few demos and trials while shopping for a helpdesk. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind while reviewing your options:

• Pricing: Does the tool fit into your budget and does it offer multiple pricing plans?
• Ticket organization: Does the platform have an intuitive, visual way of sharing which tickets need attention, and from which agent?
• Automation: Does the platform feature time-saving automation features for your team and customers?
• Omnichannel support: Does the platform work with all the channels you use, from texting to social media?
• Integrations: Does the platform connect to tools you already (or plan to) use?

Shopping for a helpdesk? Check out these articles to guide your shopping:

• The best Shopify helpdesk apps
• The best software for customer service
• 150+ top tools for ecommerce

{{lead-magnet-2}}

Final thoughts: Helpdesks are CX must-haves that keep you ahead of the competition

The research is there: Helpdesks are an easy way to boost your bottom line, improve your response time, offer self-service resources, automate repetitive tasks, and free up time for your agents to handle more complex tickets. Getting into the heart of the customer journey and creating a solid customer experience can help you retain existing customers, and draw in new ones. 

Not satisfied with your current helpdesk solution or don’t know where to start? Gorgias has a cloud-based helpdesk system that integrates with leading ecommerce store providers such as Shopify, Magneto, and BigCommerce.

‍Book a demo to learn more about the results Gorgias can help you achieve.

TJ’s Top Advice: 

• As a leader, foster openness and creativity by encouraging team members to regularly share their ideas.
• Tell your customers when you update a product. Including them in the conversation can build trust and bring about valuable feedback.
• Treat your customers as your stakeholders. They are the driving force behind your brand and deserve to have their voices heard.
• Leadership entails continuous learning from your team, customers, and the industry at large.

Everybody wants to skip to the answers, but for TJ Balo, there is more joy to be found in the learning. Since 2014, TJ has been the Head of Customer Relations and Marketing at Andrea Iyamah, a fashion line founded in 2011 by Nigerian designer Andrea Dumebi Iyamah. From Toronto, TJ leads a group of customer service reps from around the world, including New York and Nigeria, teaching them the ins and outs of customer service operations, logistics, and lingo.

Encouraging out-of-the-box ideas

Brainstorming is one of the most exciting parts of the job for TJ, who’s always finding ways to improve the customer experience. When his team gets together, there is no wrong answer. TJ encourages his staff to think outside the box. Whether it’s a bold social media marketing play or a never-before-done collection, he wants to hear it all.

“I always want them to bring new concepts and ideas to the table. I think that for success, it's not about the implementation. It's about what you’re thinking,” he says. 

The vulnerability to share out-of-the-box ideas allows his team to create a playground where creativity is the only goal. It’s where every idea has a chance to shine when the time is right, whether it’s in a month or in the next year. All TJ asks is for every person to be fearless and confident: “Let your presence be known. The minute I can identify you, that's when I know that you're doing something right and I'm doing something right.”

Including customers in the conversation

Online businesses, especially fashion brands, are no strangers to the challenge of meeting customer expectations. Sometimes colors don’t appear the same way on a screen as they do in person. Other times, sizes may run a smidge too loose or snug. Regardless of the issue, “it’s about consistent communication first,” TJ says. 

How can you show up for the customer and show them they matter? For TJ’s team, customer satisfaction is their guiding light. They always remember to throw in an incentive for customers, whether it’s a refund, discount, or replacement.  

‎TJ pays the same heed to internal feedback. His team’s opinion takes precedence before a product is released. They answer questions like, “What’s missing?” “Does it translate well to different body types?” People naturally gravitate towards good products, and TJ wants to hit that mark as closely as possible the first time around.

When mishaps occur, broadcasting the solution to their customer base is imperative. “I think that that's one step a lot of fashion and retail brands miss. They take the feedback in, and they come out with a new or better product, but the customer doesn't know because they don't communicate that message to them to say, ‘We took this in from you, we have this new version out, come and try it again,” he says. 

Treating customers as stakeholders

Peruse Andrea Iyamah’s Pinterest and their inspirations draw from a cornucopia of African cultures, stories, and experiences. Traditional details can be found in every piece, from a modern sleeveless dress in the recognizable silhouette of a Kaftan to jumpsuits adorned with sculptural pleats similar to those found on a Gele. The room to innovate is boundless, especially with their Treasures.

Treasures, the term of endearment for their customers, are the backbone of Andrea Iyamah. Without the support and feedback of their Treasures, the brand would not have crossed international borders, dressing icons like Michelle Obama, Gabrielle Union, Ciara, and Kate Hudson.

‎“We treat our customers as our stakeholders. We believe they’re the driving force of the brand and its vision, hence our goal to make them feel valued and appreciated,” TJ emphasizes.

On Instagram, they spotlight their Treasures’ voices with Instagram carousels of rave reviews on Twitter. One Treasure confidently states, “Andrea Iyamah never misses… I swear.”

“You have to take in every single detail. That is where the brand meets the stakeholder. That's where they both come together. I never give credit to just either or. They both come together to create and to curate this amazing masterpiece.” —TJ Balo on handling custom orders

Continuous learning is vital to leadership

For a business that’s been operating for over a decade, you could say Andrea Iyamah has accomplished everything. But for TJ, the learning never stops. “Research and ensuring that you're actually taking in that research is the genesis of staying on the cutting edge.” 

He recognizes that they aren’t the first to do it in their industry, that there are countless other companies making great strides. Nonetheless, he wants to be the best to do it. “As we grow, as a business, as a brand, as a company, even just as a team generally, I want to be a reflection of what I would like from my team. You can never know it all. Continuous learning is also leadership.”

{{lead-magnet-1}}

TL;DR:

• The benefits of automating chat include reduced workload, round-the-clock support availability, multi-language support, FAQ resolutions, and a convenient customer self-service channel
• Use Gorgias Automate’s Quick Responses, Flows, Order Management feature, and Article Recommendations to provide a complete automatic chat experience
• Automated chat uses answers pre-set by you which means it cannot produce answers without your approval

Live chat users wait an average of 30 seconds before they get an answer. However, large language models like ChatGPT have flipped customer expectations with unbeatable rapid responses. 

Thirty-second replies may be possible for customer service teams who handle one chat conversation at a time — assuming they have deep product knowledge — but agents who handle multiple chats will be hard-pressed to beat that average.

Chat automation is the best way to offer instant support without an agent. Automating chat means customers get support 24/7 in multiple languages and relevant answers in seconds. More importantly, agents can provide more meaningful customer experiences because they don’t have to monitor chat.

Below, learn how to turn live chat into an automated channel in four steps with Gorgias Automate. Then, we’ll go over how three ecommerce brands overcame some of the most common chat challenges.

{{lead-magnet-1}}

The benefits of automating chat

Automating live chat support results in a win-win situation for agents and customers. These are the five instant benefits you get when automating chat. 

Benefit 1) Reduces agent workload 

Automated chat responses mean team members don’t need to operate chat unless customers specifically ask for human support. 

Using automation as your first line of defense means fewer repetitive tickets and more time for agents to take care of urgent, customer-specific inquiries.

Benefit 2) Empowers customers to resolve issues on their own

According to Tidio, around 73% of customers prefer to find answers on their own as opposed to getting them from a support rep. Automated chat provides easy-to-receive answers and is a simple way to let customers self-serve without the wait time. 

Listen to how shoe brand Merry People uses Gorgias Automate’s chat-based automation features called Flows to cut response time down by 60%:

‎Benefit 3) Delivers support 24/7

Having a live chat widget may be an excellent way to expand customer support, but its functionality is also limited by your business hours and agent availability. 

With automated chat, these concerns disappear since chat can remain active even when your agents are off the clock.

Read more: There’s more to chat than you think: debunking 5 chat myths

Benefit 4) Speaks in multiple languages

According to a survey by CSA Research, 40% of customers will not buy from websites in other languages. 

With multi-language automated chat, you don’t have to worry about losing prospective customers. Rather, it’ll be easier for you to turn website visitors into repeat shoppers.

Gorgias Chat is a multi-language chat solution that can serve shoppers from anywhere. Languages include English (US and UK), French (France and Canada), Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Czech, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Finnish.

Benefit 5) Resolves frequently asked questions

Chances are, customers on chat will ask one of these questions: 

• Where’s my order?
• Do you take returns? 
• Do you ship internationally?
• What size should I get? 

If you’re used to manually responding to these questions, know that there’s a faster way. Once you’ve identified your brand’s most asked questions, you can automate the answers to them, eliminating the need to type out replies on chat.

How to automate chat in 4 quick steps

If you have chat on your website, you’re halfway there. The next step is automating it to start reaping the benefits. Here’s how to use Gorgias Automate to automate chat in four steps.

{{lead-magnet-2}}

Step 1) Resolve FAQs with Quick Responses

Automated chat’s main ability is to answer frequently asked questions. You probably know that tickets with FAQs can pile up extremely quickly, causing your agents to miss the important questions.

To automate FAQs, use Quick Responses. These are one-click Q&A scenarios displayed on chat for customers to quickly get the answers they need. You can activate up to six responses and may toggle questions on and off to save them for later.

💡 Pro Tip: Gorgias Chat is multi-language and automatically detects a shopper’s default language based on their browser settings. This way, you can provide global support without hiring additional agents.

Step 2) Simplify order management

A third of online purchases are returned which means agents ultimately spend time processing refunds. The most effective solution is to automate order management through chat so that agents can instead use the extra time upselling.

With Gorgias, you can provide a self-service returns portal through integrations like Loop. This allows customers to process returns on their own, making their shopping journey straightforward and strengthening their trust in your brand.

💡 Pro Tip: Always encourage exchanges by recommending products in a different size or variant or a product of a similar value. This way, customers can still experience what you have to offer without requesting a refund.

Check it out: Return policy template generator

Step 3) Provide personalized support with Flows

Flows are more dynamic than Quick Responses and let you create personalized and interactive conversations. The resulting answer or action of these Flows all depends on the customer’s input, enabling you to deliver answers for every type of shopper.

As the name suggests, Flows are based on a flowchart structure and are best used for questions that have multiple answers. Here are some ways you can use Flows:

• Product matching quizzes 
• Sizing guides
• Filing warranty claims 
• Scheduling services 

Step 4) Deliver detailed answers with AI-powered Article Recommendations

For more comprehensive answers, turn to Article Recommendations. When customers ask a question on chat, Gorgias AI finds the most relevant article to send. These articles are pulled right from your Help Center or customer-facing knowledge base.

To get Article Recommendations on chat, you’ll need to first populate your Help Center with articles your customers care about.

Here are some Help Center articles to get you started:

• Do you offer free shipping?
• How much does shipping cost?
• Do you ship internationally?
• What is your return/exchange policy?
• What do I do if I receive the wrong item in my order?
• How do I cancel my membership/subscription?

Related: How to optimize your Help Center for AI Agent

How 3 brands debunk automated chat myths

If you still have some hesitation about automating chat, it’s time to clear them up. Let’s take a look at real use cases and how three ecommerce brands have cleared up misconceptions about automated chat myths with Gorgias Automate.

Myth 1) Automated chat is complicated to set up

Solution: No coding or special add-ons are required to set up automated chat. 

With Gorgias Automate, you can set up Quick Responses, Flows, Order Management, and Article Recommendations in a matter of minutes. Each feature can be toggled on or off, helping you shorten setup time and offer support in whatever way is best for your brand.

Collagen supplement brand Obvi found Automate’s user experience to be intuitive, setting up chat just a few weeks before Black Friday–Cyber Monday. They were able to increase conversion rates (CRO) and earn $10,000 in revenue just by activating automated chat.

Here’s how Obvi’s CEO, Ronak Shah, benefited from using Gorgias Automate:

Myth 2) Automated chat increases your tickets

Solution: Automated responses deliver instant resolutions, which keep ticket volumes low. 

Tickets are only created when customers talk to live agents. This allows customers to solve issues on their own, unlike when using social media for support.

Underwear brand Shinesty uses Flows to address a variety of inquiries, from account registration to order tracking. Their Flows are so effective that 90% of the time, inquiries are completely resolved by automation. 

Here’s how Shinesty’s four-person team increases customer satisfaction scores with Automate:

‎Myth 3) Automated chat gives inaccurate answers 

Solution: Automation is customizable and acts on parameters set by you. 

Unlike AI chatbots or generative AI which produces responses through machine learning, automated chat uses responses defined by you. 

In Gorgias, you can customize Quick Responses and Flows with your brand voice in mind. This guarantees that customer messaging is always relevant, on-brand, and accurate. Chat cannot compose brand-new answers on its own. 

According to Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July, Flows helped their support team accomplish the work of three agents. They were still able to provide a human touch, resulting in 450 tickets deflected.

‎Support and sell more with Gorgias Automate

If the success stories of these brands have inspired you to upgrade your customer experience, it’s time to see what Gorgias Automate can do for you. 

Setup is straightforward — no coding needed — and you can start seeing improvements in your customer agents’ workflow and your customers’ satisfaction straight away.

Book a demo with Gorgias today and discover how chat automation can streamline your operations and increase customer engagement.

If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know that unhappy customers are unavoidable. Customer satisfaction has plummeted since 2018, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. 

That’s why top brands don’t wait until angry customer emails arrive to decide how to respond. By setting up processes and templates ahead of time, your customer support team doesn’t need to craft responses from scratch. Especially while emotions are running high and angry customers are waiting for responses. 

Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to process and respond to angry customer emails, considerations for handling angry or rude customers without making the situation worse, and tips to prevent angry customers by improving your customer experience (CX). We'll also share templates and sample emails for how to respond to:

• Customers who are having product issues
• Customers with shipping and delivery problems
• Customers with missing or late orders
• Customers who got the wrong product
• Customers who have a cancellation request (purchase or subscription)
• Customers who want a refund or exchange
• Customers who had a bad support experience
• Customers with no clear reason to be upset

{{lead-magnet-1}}

Is it worth it to deal with angry customers? 

When customers aren’t happy with your product, service, or customer support, the stakes are high. You could lose them as a repeat customer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Angry customers also go and tell their friends and family, either by word-of-mouth, on social media, or via a Google review. 

The Effortless Experience found that 96% of disgruntled customers who had a high-effort or bad experience with a brand feel disloyal to that brand afterward. In other words, a frustrating, high-effort experience will irreversibly damage your brand's reputation for almost any customer, whether they’re first-time or regular shoppers. That spells trouble for your bottom line.  

Also, your customer service team doesn’t want to respond to nasty emails all day long. Customer service can already be an emotionally challenging role, and spending all day dealing with angry customers is a quick path toward burnout and quitting.

📚 Related reading: Read our guide to hiring A+ customer service agents, written in partnership with customer service agency Helpflow.com.

8 steps to take when responding to frustrated customer emails

Respond to angry customer emails by acknowledging the customer's frustration, owning any mistakes, gathering additional context, confirming you understand the entire situation, and fully resolving the issue.

These messages are high-stakes: When someone writes to your organization with an angry message, they’re angry enough to sit at their keyboard and express their anger. You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media. 

You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media.

It’s imperative to respond to every single angry customer email — ideally with fast response times.

0) Set up automated responses if you can’t quickly respond

If you have a small team or are only online for certain parts of the day, consider setting up a standard automated reply to confirm receipt of their email. We listed this as step 0 because it’s not a catch-all solution: You should not send this kind of email if you’re able to provide a human response within an hour or two. Nobody likes an extra, unnecessary email.

If you do choose to activate this kind of response, it should:

• Confirm that you received the customer’s email so they don’t have to wonder if it went through
• Tell the customers when they can expect to receive an email response from a human agent
• Thank the customer for writing in

Here’s a mockup of how to create this kind of automated response with Gorgias Rules:

📚 Recommended reading: Get more tips and tricks to improve your response times.

1) Read the email first

This may seem obvious, but unless you address every point the customer makes, you’re only prolonging the correspondence and further irritating them. 

It’s easy to overlook something the customer says, particularly if the email’s pretty emotive or raises several points. So, try to summarize what they’re complaining about in a separate text document or as a note on the ticket in your helpdesk. 

Consider bullet-pointing each issue to ensure you answer every aspect of their message, as shown in the internal note above. 

2) Do your research to understand the problem and context

Before responding, consider if there’s any research you can do on your end to resolve the issue faster. For example, if a customer asks whether an item will come back in stock, you may look up similar items currently available if that customer is in a time crunch (like for the holidays). 

You’ll also want to ensure you have all of the context you need to provide a full resolution for that customer. 

For example, if a customer is trying to track down a lost package, take a look at the package history and order date to better understand why they’re upset and whether you’ll need to re-send the item or reach out to the carrier on their behalf. 

Ideally, your helpdesk has integrations with shipping software (like AfterShip) so you can see this information right next to the customer’s message (rather than having to navigate to a new tool).

3) Escalate if necessary (based on policy)

Some requests, whether from a VIP customer, the urgency of the issue, or its scale, need to be escalated right away. Based on the policy you’ve set out for your support team members, encourage them to forward major concerns to the correct team quickly. 

📚 Recommended reading: Read our Director of Support’s guide to prioritizing customer service requests.

4) Thank them for writing

Yes, you've already done this in your automated message – but it doesn't hurt to do it again. So, always say thank you at the start of your email. You must acknowledge their complaint and show you care about their feedback.  

For instance, if a customer has written to complain, you could start with something along the lines of:

Thank you for contacting [your company name] and letting us know about your experiences with our [insert name of the product/situation]. We appreciate you contacting us to let us know. We value customer feedback so that we can work to provide you with gold-plated customer service.’

5) Use their name and take a personalized approach

If you're not already, it's time to take a personalized approach to customer service. While this means taking a more holistic approach to the service process in general, the first step is to take note of small details, like using a customer’s name in correspondence. 

Consumers crave a personalized experience; they want to be treated as individuals, not as just another support ticket. That means avoiding asking them for information they’ve already given you again. It also means using a customer support tool that provides all of their historical account information in one place. Your helpdesk should show all past orders, correspondence with support, shipping address information, and even marketing emails they’ve received and clicked on. 

For example, Gorgias’ Customer Sidebar provides customer information right next to the ticket that can help you personalize the message.

6) Acknowledge their problem

If your customer has taken the time to bring an issue to your attention, it’s polite and good practice to acknowledge that. So, in your response, reflect on what they’ve told you. 

For example, you could write something like this:

‘I can see that you’re frustrated [insert a suitable empathic summary of the customer’s feelings] about your experiences with our product/customer service. We can see how, on this occasion, we didn’t reach our normally high standards of delivery.’

7) Provide a solution

Always focus on solving the customer’s problem. Find a solution and clearly explain the resolution to the customer’s complaint.

For example, if they’re upset about a product’s quality or performance, you need to refer them to your returns and replacements policy. On some occasions, it may be necessary to escalate a complaint if it’s not within your power to resolve. In which case, again, follow the protocol your company has to handle the specific issue so that it complements your current chain of command. 

According to a research study conducted by Gartner and later coined The Effortless Experience, 45% of customers who have a positive support experience tell less than three people. In contrast, 48% of customers with a negative experience shared it with over ten people. 

While a positive, low-effort solution is a short-term expense for you, it could keep the customer on your side, netting future purchases or at least minimizing negative word of mouth and reviews.

8) Avoid offering the same solution twice 

If a customer is still upset after you’ve already offered a solution, chances are it wasn’t the right one. Ensure that you’re able to give the customer a few different options for a resolution in case the original one didn’t work for them (or wasn’t the result they hoped for). 

Of course, this should only go as far as your support policy states. If possible, tag in a customer service lead to see if you can make an exception to your policy. In a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can tag specific agents or an escalated team.

‍

Considerations when writing responses to angry customer emails

Above, we covered the steps to follow when responding to angry emails. Below, we’ll share some high-level considerations to keep in mind when crafting responses.

Check your language and tone

Use clear language and show empathy. Always consider your audience. Remember, your audience doesn’t know your organization's internal workings or technical aspects. 

Interestingly, 65% of online shoppers prefer casual over a formal tone in their customer service interactions. That said, if the customer isn’t happy with your response or solution, 78% said that an overly casual style would elicit an adverse reaction from them. 

Why? Because it sounds like you're not taking their problem seriously.  

Also, consider the words you use. For example, remove any uses of the “but” from your responses. By eliminating negative terms like this, you’ll exude more of a positive tone, which works wonders for altering perception. 

For example:

“Thank you for contacting us, but we don’t provide that service.”

Vs.

“Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, we're unable to provide that service. We do, however, provide the following….”

See the difference?

Through practice and experience, you’ll be better positioned to sense your customer’s tone. For example, if the customer’s frustration radiates through their message, show empathy by offering reassurance and the right level of apology. 

Check your grammar and spelling

There’s nothing worse than grammatical and spelling errors. Re-read your response and run it through a spelling and grammar checker. If in doubt, ask a colleague to double-check it for you. 

Some reputable online spell checkers include Grammarly, Reverso, and Language Tool. Your organization may already have a subscription for marketing or other purposes, so check what’s available. 

Decide whether they are frustrated or truly irate 

The key to understanding whether a customer is truly angry is empathy and context. 

Use empathy to dissect the tone and language a customer uses in their correspondence with you. Then, use the context they've given you and that you have about their order history to piece together their entire situation. 

For example, a customer might write in about a lost or delayed package. Based on the language they’re using, and the fact that they paid to upgrade shipping to get it in time for a friend’s birthday, tells you that this customer is angry and in need of a fast resolution. 

You should strive to provide top-notch support no matter if a customer is merely frustrated versus angry. But, your communication, time to resolution, and the solution you offer need to be even more considerate when dealing with someone who is truly irate. 

Deal with profanity in a professional manner

Sometimes, angry or frustrated customers will use profanity when complaining about an issue. The best responses to rude customers involve focusing on what the problem is to help get them to a solution. 

Some customer service phrases to use include: 

• “I understand why you’re upset – I would be upset as well in this situation. We will figure out a solution that makes you happy and that fully resolves this issue for you.”
• “I understand how frustrating this must be, especially since it sounds like we really missed the mark here.” 
• “I understand how disappointed you are. What kind of solution do you feel would make this right for you?”  

17 email templates you can use to respond to different customer issues

You may already have a series of customer service email templates you and your team use to handle various customer complaints. However, it’s always worth doing a little housekeeping to ensure they reflect your commitment to great customer service.

This is especially true if your customer service software comes with a set of templates already in existence. Don't make the mistake of just using these as they are. Instead, personalize them to reflect your own brand’s voice and tone. 

With that in mind, we’ve put together a summary version of some of the examples above to illustrate how to respond to an upset customer:

Dear [insert customer name],

Thank you for contacting us. I'm very sorry to hear you experienced poor customer service from the [insert your brand name] team.  

It’s important to us that our customers are happy, so we're sorry we could not provide our usual high service standards to you.

Possible paragraph:

Having investigated your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. I'm happy to tell you; we can offer you the following solution [insert an explanation of the answer]. 

Alternative paragraph:

We're currently investigating your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. Because your complaint involves several departments/strands/suppliers, it will take us a couple of days to get to the bottom of why, on this occasion, you received less than a gold standard of service from us. Thank you for your patience while we investigate this matter. I'll get in contact with you in two days to update you on our progress. 

Once the complaint is resolved, you could offer a discount to reduce the number of returns, which are more expensive to your business than exchanges:

We’d like to prove just how important you are to us by offering you a discount of [x%] on your next purchase.  

Sign off:

Thank you for bringing this negative experience to our attention. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused. 

If there's anything else I can help you with or you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Best wishes,

[Name and contact details]

If you use Gorgias, a helpdesk that deeply integrates with your entire ecommerce tech stack (including Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce), feel free to use the copy above as a Macro (which is what we call templated responses).

Your agents can use the template as a starting point and tweak it to meet each customer's unique needs.

Below, we’ve put together a series of templates that you can implement for different angry customer situations. 

Customers who are having product issues

1) General frustration with the product or experience

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again. 

In addition, I've {{Insert policy: refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right. 

We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with shipping and delivery problems

1) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Not shipped

Hello {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out! Your order {{Number of last order}} has been received and we are working on getting it shipped out. Our processing time to ship an order is 3-5 business days, excluding weekends. 

We will email you a confirmation once it ships, which will include your tracking information as well. 

If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Thanks, 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order not shipped because the item is out of stock

Hi {{Customer first name}},

We wanted to let you know that your most recent order {{Number of last order}} is currently out of stock. We’re doing everything we can to get more in stock soon and we apologize for the delay!

The good news is that our next shipment should arrive by {{Date of availability}}, and you should receive your order within {{Number of business days}} once the item(s) gets to our warehouse.

Thanks for your patience! We’ll get you taken care of as soon as possible.

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Item arrived damaged 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. As we try our best to provide exceptional service, some factors like shipping and handling are out of our control and issues like this can happen.  

Please send us a photo of the broken/damaged item(s) you received and we’ll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible. 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with missing or late orders

1) Order is lost 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

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

I have two options to offer: we can ship a replacement to you or issue a full refund for the order instead. If you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We look forward to receiving your reply.

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Delivered, not received

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received your order yet. It does appear to be in a delivered status. Sometimes this can be due to an incorrect scan by the carrier. If the package doesn't show up in the next {{Insert the number of days according to your policy}} please reach back out and we will {{insert internal policy}}. 

In the meantime, I've contacted the carrier and will be investigating on my end. 

Please reach out if I can help with anything else and I will keep an eye out for your email regarding the package.

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Order is late 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

We regret to inform you that your order {{order number}} has been delayed.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding. The reason for the delay is {{reason for the delay}}.

You can track the status of your order using this tracking link {{Link to tracking portal}}.

If you’d like to return or exchange your order, you can do so here {{Link to return/exchange portal}}.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any questions or can provide further assistance. 

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who got the wrong product

1) Wrong item delivered

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for letting us know we sent you the wrong product. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are sending you the correct product, the {{correct product name}} and it will be shipped by {{estimated shipping date}}. 

We sent it using expedited shipping, so you should receive it {{estimated delivery date}}. Please return {{old product}} in the original shipping box and packaging using the attached shipping label and instructions. Please contact us with any additional questions. 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who have a cancellation request (purchase or subscription)

1) Order already shipped 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out to us! 

Unfortunately, it looks like your order {{Number of last order}} has already been shipped from our warehouse. Therefore, I’m unable to make any changes to it at this time. 

If possible, refuse the package at delivery. If that’s not possible, please let me know and I will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can send the order back to us. Once we receive the order back at our warehouse, I will send a {{Replacement or refund}} to you right away. 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order change/cancel before the item ships 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Absolutely! I’ve swapped out {{Item name}} for the {{Item name}} you originally selected for order {{Number of last order}}. 

If you need anything else, just say the word. 

Best, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who want a refund or exchange

1) Item is eligible 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out! For your order that was delivered on {{Shipping date of last order}}, we’d be happy to process a refund for you. 

To get the return process started, please go to our {{Link to returns portal}} and follow the steps. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Item not eligible 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

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

I apologize for any inconvenience that you’ve experienced because of this. 

If there is anything else I can help you with, feel free to reply to this email or visit {{Link to help center}} at any time. 

Thank you again,

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Exchange request after the order arrives

Hey there {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I see that you are interested in a product exchange. We do allow exchanges, and I’m happy to help you with this right away. 

{{Exchange policy and instructions}}

Once you have {{Required action(s)}}, I can process your exchange and get a new {{Product name}} shipped out to you right away. 

Thanks again, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who had a bad support experience

1) Non-escalation 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your service experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again. 

In addition, I've {{Insert policy: coupon, refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right. 

We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Escalate to technical support 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.

I have CC’d {{Technical/Lead agent first name}} on this email. They will be able to figure out what happened here and will follow up to ensure that we resolve this for you. 

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Customer hasn’t received a response or resolution to their problem

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for following up with us. 

We sincerely apologize that we didn’t get back to you — we’ve been overloaded with requests lately and yours slipped through the cracks. This is not the type of support experience we strive to provide. 

To answer your original question {{Provide context and a resolution to the original issue or request}}. 

I hope this helps! 

All the best, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with no clear reason to be upset

1) General, sincere apology 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Concern or issue they had with the brand or their experience}}.

We strive to provide an amazing experience for all of our customers, and sometimes we fall short of doing that. We sincerely apologize for the experience you’ve had with our brand. 

As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to offer you {{Discount code, free gift, free shipping on next order; whatever aligns with your policy}}. 

Have a great day, 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Reply to a bad customer review 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Customer survey, review site, etc.}}.

I wanted to check in and get a little more information from you about your experience. This will help our team improve future experiences for you and other shoppers. If you’re open to it, you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts.

Thanks for your time, 

{{Current agent first name}}

How to identify an angry customer (with examples)

Angry customers use harsh language and accusatory words, and often make demands to your company or service team. 

Some examples of phrases and words to look out for include:

• I’m very frustrated 
• I’m upset because… 
• I needed this for an {{important event}} and it’s not here
• You need to fix this right away 
• This is all your fault 
• I’ll never shop with you again 
• This is ridiculous 

Additionally, keep an eye out for any language that includes profanity.  

As your team grows, you can also use a helpdesk with Intent and Sentiment Detection, which automatically scans tickets to tell you what a customer’s looking for and how they’re feeling. The main benefit is that you can send different automatic responses depending on the customer’s intent and sentiment. 

How a frictionless customer experience can prevent angry customers

While every brand deals with angry customers from time to time, the best ones design a customer experience that, hopefully, doesn't produce so much frustration. Customer experience is a broad term, but there are a few areas of opportunity to mitigate customer frustration more proactively. 

Build customer self-service resources 

Customer self-service resources is a type of customer experience automation (CXA) that allows customers to quickly solve their own problems. They include:

• Help centers
• Forums
• Order status portals
• FAQ sections
• Quick answers in chat

Being able to self-serve information gets them an immediate resolution and saves them the time and hassle of reaching out to you. You might be surprised how many angry emails you avoid by: 

• Making your shipping policy easily accessible
• Creating a simple returns process
• Offering real-time order tracking
• Providing visual product troubleshooting guides in your help center

Create a seamless post-purchase experience

A positive post-purchase experience sets the customer up for success from the very beginning, starting with quick order confirmation emails to fast order fulfillment and going all the way to returns. 

A great post-purchase experience involves: 

• Figuring out the touchpoints on your customers’ journey where you need to be in contact with them 
• Setting up email campaigns like welcome emails, order confirmation details, shipping and tracking information, an order tracking page, and notifications when an item gets delivered
• Providing a fun and exciting unboxing experience
• Sharing links to your help center and to how-to content for assembling and using your products
• Creating a simple returns and exchanges portal via a tool like Loop Returns 
• Share information about rewards and loyalty programs 
• Ask for feedback, both positive and negative, and implement it 
• Involve new customers in your brand community
• Provide omnichannel support to meet new customers where they are 

Introduce faster support channels 

If customers need to reach out to you to ask a question, either pre or post-purchase, your best bet is to make it quick and easy to do so. Channels like live chat support, social media support, and SMS messaging support are more immediate channels where customers can see fast responses. 

Live chat and social media, for example, can help you make more sales by answering product questions to quell any objections before a customer makes a purchase. Water filter brand Berkey Filters even advertises their faster channels (live chat and SMS) on the website to steer customers to those fast channels:

The quicker and more seamless you make getting support for your customers, the more likely they are to reach out to you when they have a problem, rather than simply not purchasing from you again. 

In addition, some customers look at what support options are available before they make a purchase. Having these options available can help shoppers feel more comfortable and confident that if they have an issue, you’ll be there quickly to help them resolve it. 

📚Recommended reading: Check out our CX-Driven Growth Playbook for a more robust list of tactics to improve your customer experience, reduce customer anger, and boost revenue by up to 40%.

Are you ready to improve your customer service copy?

You’re now fully prepped to polish your customer support email copy, so even the most unhappy customers walk away happy. Exceptional copywriting isn’t rocket science; it's a skill you can certainly nurture over time, so keep practicing and paying attention to customer responses.

And when you pair great customer service copy with the right customer service automations, you can delight customers at scale. How? You can respond to low-impact tickets (like, "Where is my order?") with helpful, dynamic responses so you have more human time to deal with high-impact tickets like angry customer complaints.

And you don’t need us to tell you that happy customer relationships lead to higher profits. Check out our guide to customer service ROI to learn how to translate your customer service into meaningful business results. 

{{lead-magnet-2}}