Manual QA is time-consuming and inconsistent. Reviewing conversations manually makes it difficult to ensure uniform quality across agents and touchpoints.
Automating QA saves time and improves accuracy. Automation ensures all tickets are reviewed with the same quality, freeing up agent time to create stronger customer connections.
QA helps teams continuously improve. It enables better agent training and brings forth actionable feedback to exceed customer expectations.
Implement QA one step at a time. Begin by setting KPIs, introducing small changes, and investing in automation tools to streamline and measure success effectively.
“A 5-point scale only tells you and your agents so much, and relying on consumers providing feedback further limits what you’re able to look at and learn from,” says Kayla Oberlin, Senior Manager of Customer Experience at amika.
Quality Assurance (QA) is becoming a more crucial component of a customer experience strategy, especially one that prioritizes customer happiness.
We’ll cover the importance of customer service QA, best practices, tools, and tips to implement QA effectively.
In the CX context, QA (Quality Assurance) refers to reviewing customer conversations to improve your support team’s performance and enhance customer satisfaction. QA ensures a consistent and satisfying customer journey across touchpoints, including your website, support channels, and social media.
Common QA pain points for CX teams
Aside from accuracy issues, a manual quality assurance process is:
Time-consuming: Manual conversation reviews are slow and labor-intensive.
Limited visibility: It’s difficult to get a clear, scalable view of team and AI performance.
Inconsistent: Maintaining uniform quality across customer service teams can be tough.
Resource allocation: Difficulty in ensuring the right skills, training, and resources are in place.
CSAT limitations: Negative scores often reflect policies, not agent performance.
The solution isn’t for CX teams to skip the QA process altogether but to automate it.
According to research from McKinsey, “A largely automated QA process could achieve more than 90 percent accuracy — compared to 70 to 80 percent accuracy through manual scoring — and savings of more than 50 percent in QA costs.”
With an automated QA process, brands can:
Save time: Automated quality checks help support agents to focus on the most critical tickets.
Ensure consistency: Both human agents and AI agents are evaluated with a unified, comprehensive QA score.
Boost performance: Agents receive targeted coaching to provide more consistent customer experiences.
Meet customer expectations: Customers benefit from higher-quality support with quicker resolutions and accurate responses.
Why QA is critical for customer experience
According to Statista, 94% of customers are more likely to purchase again after receiving top-notch support. Quality assurance ensures that every customer gets the same experience, and provides agents with the feedback to learn and stay on-brand with each resolution.
Addressing errors early is important, as even small mistakes can harm customer trust and create lasting negative impressions. QA tools can prevent mistakes because of better coaching and training. This can stop misinformation in its tracks –– and from escalating into bigger problems down the line.
Ensure consistency
QA makes sure that all customer touchpoints, like calls, emails, live chat, and even AI responses, are handled with the same level of care. This is especially helpful when training new team members, introducing new products or policies, or during high-traffic periods.
Build trust
Consistent and reliable experiences build customer trust and loyalty. If you were to reach out to a brand and have an amazing experience the first time but a bad experience the next, you’d probably question which experience was the norm.
Top-notch experiences that happen time and time again tell your customers that you’ll always be there to help. This can boost repeat sales and even referrals: According to Statista, 82% of customers recommend a brand after a great experience.
Personalize experiences
Aside from increasing happiness and making customers feel heard and appreciated, personalized support also affects your bottom line. Statista notes that 80% of businesses found that providing personalized customer experiences led to increased spending for consumers.
Aids in better coaching and training
With QA, teams are able to rate and review all tickets instead of spot-checking. This provides them with a:
Quicker turnaround on coaching opportunities
Wider volume of tickets they can review, learn from, and use for training
Better understanding of when a Macro or a process is leading to incomplete or unhelpful conversations
Bigger opportunity for constructive feedback and flow improvements that are based on real responses and not frustrations with brand policies
Continuously improve
Whether it’s lowering resolution times, introducing a knowledge base, or adding an AI agent to your team, making continuous improvements will help you stay ahead of the competition.
Implementing a QA program (especially if you can automate it) is one of those additions that provides you with the refinements you need on a resolution-to-resolution level.
As you set out to integrate a Quality Assurance process into your CX program, first establish benchmarks for various metrics and KPIs. These benchmarks help track and evaluate the performance of QA as you implement it.
💡Tip: If you use Gorgias, you’ll find your current support performance statistics in the Statistics menu. Make sure that you can see back at least six months. Then, compare an equal time frame for post-QA implementation.
Monitor and evaluate regularly
While it might sound a bit “meta” to monitor your quality assurance (which is already monitoring your support responses), it’s still worth noting.
Ensure that your QA process works smoothly, helps your metrics rather than hurts them, and provides actual helpful feedback to your agents.
Implement automation tools
The simplest way to maintain your support quality standards is to use an automated QA tool. Automating the QA process lets CX teams get deeper insights into agent strengths and areas for improvement, and captures deeper insights than a CSAT score could.
Collect customer feedback
Understanding how customers feel will allow you to fine-tune your processes and ensure you’re delivering a consistent and high-quality experience. Here are a few ways to collect feedback:
Surveys and reviews - Post-interaction surveys or direct reviews provide real-time feedback on what customers think of their experience.
Social listening and real-time feedback - Monitoring online reviews, social media mentions, and customer comments offers insight into how your customers are feeling that might not be captured through formal surveys.
Challenges of adding QA
Lack of resources, ineffective training, poor communication between team members, not having the right tools, and doing everything manually are some of the challenges you can encounter when adding a QA process.
Here are a couple of solutions we recommend:
Start with phased rollouts. Rather than rolling out a QA process across your whole team, let more seasoned agents experiment with it first to give you feedback and make tweaks.
Make incremental improvements. Changing an entire CX process at once to include QA can be overwhelming. We recommend making small changes (like starting to send CSAT surveys if you don’t already) one at a time. These changes will allow you to better measure what’s really working.
Invest in better technology. A manual QA process can be more time-consuming than helpful. Look for an automated QA tool that’s already integrated into your helpdesk. It will allow you to measure AI and agent responses equally, while also measuring results from a handy dashboard.
By prioritizing QA, your team can identify potential problems early, reduce errors, and improve overall performance, leading to a smoother, more reliable experience for customers –– and your CX team.
In the long run, brands that focus on QA can gain a competitive edge, building stronger relationships with customers and driving sustainable growth. Book a demo now.
AI Agent reduces workload and prevents burnout for CX teams. It handles routine queries and allows your human agents to focus on providing a higher level of service where it's needed most.
AI Agent is secure and compliant with industry standards. Gorgias uses a zero data retention policy and follows strict security regulations, including SOC 2 Type II certification.
AI Agent delivers personalized, on-brand responses. Custom Guidance and data from sources like Shopify allow AI Agent to maintain brand consistency while providing tailored customer interactions.
Real-world success stories show tangible results with AI Agent. Brands like Psycho Bunny and Baby Gold have seen significant improvements in response times and resolution rates by implementing AI Agent.
AI changes the way CX teams operate. But we firmly believe that it’s a good thing.
It will help you improve your team’s workload, say goodbye to burnout, and create a more consistent and speedy experience for your customers.
Here’s the process we recommend for pitching Gorgias’s AI Agent to your boss, complete with an FAQ section for quick answers.
Gorgias views AI as an extension of CX teams, and that’s how many of our customers see AI Agent as well. Baby Gold calls theirs Michelle, Psycho Bunny calls theirs Lisa.
These autonomous agents allow your human agents to focus on more complex and nuanced issues, providing a higher level of service where your customers need it most.
Here are some other things that make AI Agent a great addition to your team:
⏰ 24/7 availability: AI Agent operates around the clock, ensuring that customer inquiries are addressed promptly at any time, including weekends and holidays.
🏔️ Scalability: AI Agent can handle a high volume of inquiries simultaneously without any decrease in performance. This scalability is particularly valuable during peak times like BFCM.
🚀 Efficiency and speed: AI Agent can process and respond to queries much faster than human agents, leading to quicker resolutions and improved customer satisfaction.
🦎Adaptability: AI Agent can quickly adapt to new information, products, or changes in policies immediately – all you have to do is add them to your knowledge docs and to the Guidance you set.
🦾 Full control: You stay in full control of how AI Agent behaves in specific scenarios. Give AI Agent custom Guidance to ensure that each interaction with your customers reflects your brand’s values, policies and tone.
AI Agent provides consistent, accurate, and on-brand responses based on the information in your Help Center, Shopify order data, Macros, handover instructions, and the actual custom Guidance you set for it.
It might just surprise you with just how specialized it can get.
“Sometimes agents forget personal details to call out when communicating with our customers, like birthdays or weddings,” says Sindi Melgar, the Customer Service Manager at Baby Gold.
“But I noticed on a few different occasions where AI Agent (ours is named Michelle) is highlighting these things and is saying, ‘Congratulations on your wedding!’ Just the tone of voice that Michelle is able to adopt is definitely on brand for us.”
Ensure certain topics are handed over or excluded
When you set up AI Agent, you’ll also let it know the types of topics you’d like it not to answer.
AI Agent automatically hands over tickets to your team whenever it lacks confidence in an answer or detects an angry customer.
But you can also use handover rules to choose how AI Agent behaves when it passes tickets to your human team, and add specific topics that it should always hand over to your team.
AI Agent uses your Shopify order data, Macros, your brand’s webpages, as well as your Help Center to give your customers accurate and on-brand responses. It also prioritizes any Guidance that you set.
We wouldn’t expect you to onboard a new tool without some actual statistics and reviews. Below, browse three success stories and the fantastic metrics that AI Agent helped their teams achieve.
After just one month of implementing AI Agent, the team at VESSEL not only increased the number of emails automated via AI Agent by 20%, but reduced first response time to 58 seconds and saw their resolution time decrease to one minute and six seconds.
WhenBaby Gold implemented AI Agent, they achieved a 49-second first response time, a one-minute and four-second resolution time, and answered 1,361 tickets. They also quadrupled their email automation rate.
Psycho Bunny saw a 99.8% faster first response time, 99.4% faster resolution time, and 26% of tickets resolved by AI Agent.
“Our customer support KPIs are already fantastic: we're already leading in the industry,” said Tosha Moyer, Senior Customer Experience Manager at Psycho Bunny.
“To improve on that, we need AI — it’s not physically or financially possible with human agents alone.”
Set expectations
AI Agent isn’t going to find lost packages, pick up the phone, or fix damaged products. While this might seem obvious, it’s important to understand AI Agent’s core capabilities, as we want this to be an exciting and useful addition to your team.
“AI Agent does a great job of efficiently handling returns and exchanges, and split shipment tracking info,” shares Tosha Moyer. “The overall tone is good and some of its responses are really excellent.”
Below, find the top use cases for AI Agent, as well as the specific actions you can configure for it within Gorgias.
The specific actions you currently can configure for AI Agent include:
Cancel an order in Shopify
Edit a shipping address in Shopify
Send Loop Returns portal deep link
Send return shipping status from Loop Returns
Cancel a subscription in Recharge
With more to come! And to quiet any worries, it’s worth mentioning that AI Agent will not perform any actions without you configuring or activating them first.
Enhance your brand reputation and build trust
Offering fast, accurate, and 24/7 support can significantly enhance your brand reputation and build customer trust, which can translate into higher customer loyalty and increased revenue.
AI Agent adapts to your brand's unique tone of voice. Choose from three default voice options (Friendly, Professional, and Sophisticated), or create countless types of tone with the Custom option.
Aligning AI with your brand voice builds consistency. A consistent tone in customer interactions helps build trust and brand loyalty.
Specify what AI Agent can and can’t say. Like your human agents, tell AI Agent your brand do’s and don’ts. From going all out with fun and emoji-filled replies to avoiding certain words, use custom instructions to make AI Agent sound distinctly on-brand.
People are only able to identify AI-generated content 46.9% of the time. That’s less than half the time!
In the ecommerce customer service industry, this is just one reason teams are getting more comfortable with using AI.
Better language processing abilities mean AI can be a better extension of CX teams, relieving agents of repetitive questions, like where is my order?, while speaking in a way that’s familiar and delightful to customers.
Upholding a strong brand voice should be one of your top priorities in CX. With Gorgias’s AI Agent, you can choose AI Agent’s exact tone of voice, from sophisticated to fun. Below, check out seven AI Agent brand voice examples from real customer conversations.
“We’ve had customers respond to the AI thinking they were speaking to a real person. That’s how elevated the response was from AI.”
Tone of Voice refers to how AI Agent communicates with your customers. In Gorgias, you can select from three pre-built tone options:
Friendly
Professional
Sophisticated
Or, you can create a custom tone, keeping your brand guidelines, style guide, and target audience in mind.
Note: AI Agent and Tone of Voice are only available to Gorgias Automate subscribers.
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7 Tone of Voice Examples for AI Agent to Match Your Brand's Style
Explore how effectively AI Agent adapts to seven distinct tones in the examples below. First, we’ll show you what a preset AI Agent tone option sounds like, then we’ll move on to six examples using custom instructions.
Feel free to copy and paste our provided instructions to set up your AI Agent with the custom tone of your choice, or, even better, take some inspiration to create your own.
1. Friendly
A friendly AI Agent is the go-to for most CX teams. A Friendly tone of voice is outgoing and welcomes inquiries with enthusiasm. If you were to imagine the model support agent, they would speak like this.
The Friendly tone of voice is available by default in AI Agent’s settings.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a Friendly tone of voice responds to a customer asking for samples and coupons:
2. Direct and brief
Now, we move away from AI Agent’s default Tone of Voice options and toward the vast possibilities of the Custom option.
If you prefer your AI Agent get to the point in as few words as possible, create a Custom tone of voice that breaks up text into separate lines, limits paragraphs to two to three sentences, and keeps responses short.
💡 Tip: Access a custom tone of voice by going to Automate > AI Agent > Settings > Tone of Voice > Custom. A text field will appear where you can write your instructions.
Tone of voice instructions:
Acknowledge the customer's feelings by briefly repeating their initial concern(s). Break text up, don’t send entire paragraphs, and keep responses short and easy to read. Keep interactions brief but filled with empathy. We are not long-winded. Keep an informative tone while remaining professional, clear, and easy for customers to follow. Insert links where needed. Don't use too many adjectives when expressing empathy. Never tell the customer to email support or contact our customer service team.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a direct and brief tone of voice responds to a customer who wants to cancel their order:
3. Fun (with lots of emojis! 🤗)
Who says support agents can’t have personality? Bring some fun into your conversations by creating a custom tone of voice that allows your AI Agent to use emojis and exclamation points.
Tone of voice instructions:
Greet with first name only. Acknowledge the customer's feelings by repeating their initial concern(s). Be concise and provide shorter responses, try to keep your responses to a few sentences. Use a warm, positive, and engaging—like chatting with a helpful, considerate friend. Sign off with "Best Regards". Avoid jokes or comments related to sensitive topics. Make the customer feel like a friend. You can include approved emojis for a personal touch and exclamation points. Approved emojis to use: 💞🫶✨🥰💖🎀💓💘🥳💗💕💯 You should recognize and celebrate personal milestones mentioned by customers, making the interaction feel more personal. After the customer's initial message, there's no need to restate their issue in follow-up responses.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a fun tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
4. Comforting
Customer support often gets a bad rep. Customers anticipate long response times and unpleasant interactions. Flip customer expectations by giving your AI Agent a calming and comforting voice that can instantly fix negative experiences.
💡 Tip: Brands in the wellness and baby industry would do well to use a comforting tone of voice for their AI Agent.
Tone of voice instructions:
Our brand embodies the role of a nurturing parent, promoting happiness, growth, and well-being while creating moments of joy and inspiration. Stay genuine and reflect childlike wonder without being overly sentimental. We maintain a positive and supportive tone, offering a safe, comforting space. Avoid admitting fault or apologizing. Be shorter in replies. Do not offer replacements. Do not give out phone numbers.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a comforting tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
5. Bro-y
Give your AI Agent a laid-back, “we’ve got your back” vibe that feels like chatting with a buddy. This tone keeps things casual, approachable, and like you’re ready to tackle any issue together.
Tone of voice instructions:
Sound like a gym bro. Speak casually and friendly. Be eager to help. However, do not go overboard with puns or stereotypical phrases. You may use the following emojis: 🤙💪🏋️ End responses with "Stay awesome,"
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a bro-y tone of voice responds to a customer asking about glove sizing:
6. Punny
If your brand isn’t afraid to lean into humor and puns, this tone will definitely connect with your audience. Let your AI Agent use wit and clever wordplay to keep conversations lighthearted and customers smiling at their screens.
Tone of voice instructions:
Speak in bee and honey puns and use colorful emojis. Use at least one emoji per message. Keep your messages brief. Sign off with a different pun in every conversation. If a customer is upset or needs urgent help, avoid puns.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a punny tone of voice responds to a customer asking about suit sizes:
7. Bonus: Robotic
In all of our examples, AI Agent responses can easily be mistaken for one of your human agents. But if, for any reason, you want to change that by making your AI Agent sound robotic — it’s possible.
Tone of voice instructions:
Sound like a robot. Make robot sounds and puns. Use short, direct, and easy-to-read sentences.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a robotic tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
Say it how you want with AI Agent
Like a chameleon, AI Agent adapts to your brand voice. Whether it’s friendly, professional, or a custom tone, you can be sure that every interaction aligns with your brand’s identity.
With AI Agent on your side, you have the power to make each conversation feel authentic. Take it from Psycho Bunny’s Senior Customer Experience Manager Tosha Moyer who says, “The overall tone is good, and its responses are really excellent.”
Ready to see AI Agent’s excellence for yourself?Book a demo and discover how AI Agent can be a permanent part of your team.
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To effectively harness TikTok Shop, however, brands with high-volume sales need to understand the specific challenges they will face when launching on the social platform.
Many of these are operational, like maintaining an accurate inventory list between platforms, supporting customers efficiently, and fulfilling a large number of orders.
When used together, AfterShip Feed and Gorgias can help you overcome these operational hurdles and start selling on TikTok Shop sooner.
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Streamline order management & customer support on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is the commerce-enabled side of TikTok, where brands and creators can list their products for sale. Shoppers then make a purchase through shoppable (in-feed) videos, live shopping, or product showcases. The app aims to provide a “frictionless checkout experience,” enabling shoppers to engage with their favorite accounts and add-to-cart in a flash.
While setting up a TikTok Shop is relatively simple, if you already run an ecommerce store that does a high volume of sales, adding TikTok Shop as an additional channel will be a little more complex. Thankfully, tools like AfterShip Feed and Gorgias can help you solve many operational issues and provide the same best-in-class customer experience on TikTok Shop as you do on your other channels..
Here’s a highlight reel on how you can implement both tools to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction, tackling issues like fulfillment or customer support inquiries from the same customers on different channels.
Centralize customer support with Gorgias
800+ Gorgias customers currently use the TikTok Shop integration. It’s quick and easy to connect. With it, you can:
Coordinating customer support across different channels can be a pain. With Gorgias, however, you’ll be able to manage inquiries more efficiently and handle all shoppers’ messages by responding to TikTok Shop inquiries directly from Gorgias using text, images, and videos.
Additionally, you can address order-related issues and manage cancellations, returns, and refunds from TikTok Shop in the same Gorgias dashboard you use for your existing channels.
Automate ticket creation
Leverage Gorgias’s automated ticket creation to reduce First Response Time (FRT) and ensure that you don’t miss a single customer inquiry from TikTok Shop. Save time by handling repetitive tasks (like order status updates) with automation.
Enhance customers’ experience
Enabling the Gorgias TikTok Shop integration will allow you to maintain better control over communication and provide a consistent customer experience. Customers shopping via TikTok Shop will benefit from quicker responses, improving overall satisfaction and boosting brand loyalty.
Simplify operations with AfterShip Feed
AfterShip Feed is a reliable TikTok Shop management tool with 1,800 customers. It auto-syncs products, inventory, and orders between TikTok Shop and ecommerce platforms.
AfterShip Feed makes listing high volumes of products on TikTok Shop easier through bulk uploads and editing, enabling you to update up to 10,000 SKUs at once.
It uses AI to add key product details and keep your product listings accurate and consistent. Tools like category templates and product ID generation make it even easier to list your full catalog.
Safeguard your revenue
AfterShip Feed has several features that will help you avoid lost revenue, especially during busy times like BFCM.
Inventory threshold
Inventory threshold helps you determine the minimum amount of inventory you need to have on hand to avoid selling out or buying too much. You can also set a fixed amount of inventory aside for TikTok Shop.
Price rules
Price rules help you set the ideal prices for each item you sell to protect your profit margins.
Fulfillment hold
A fulfillment hold stops an order at the fulfillment stage to ensure sufficient funds on the customer side, sufficient stock on yours—or to solve another issue behind the scenes. TikTok Shop has a standard 1-hour fulfillment hold, which can cause issues with inventory syncing on your main ecommerce platform.
Streamline order management
AfterShip Feed supports multiple fulfillment methods and integrates with many returns solutions. Sync orders from TikTok Shop with your existing fulfillment systems, ensuring timely and accurate deliveries. You can sync up to 24,000 orders to Shopify per hour.
Other features include order ID, shipping method, and product-SKU mapping.
Which are the top-grossing TikTok Shop industries?
Two industries in particular see massive sales from TikTok Shop: beauty and personal care, and womenswear and underwear. According to a 2024 report from Statista, the beauty category saw over 370 million sales and women’s fashion 284 million sales in 2023.
The beauty category alone has generated almost $2.5 billion in GMV, while the womenswear category has seen $1.39 billion.
If your brand belongs to one of these categories, including Gorgias and AfterShip Feed in your TikTok Shop toolkit could be a great fit for you.
Gorgias and AfterShip create better experiences
Pairing Gorgias and AfterShip Feed will help you deliver a fantastic customer experience and grow your business on TikTok Shop.
Prepare for Black Friday-Cyber Monday with our ultimate BFCM guide for ecommerce brands.
By Halee Sommer
0 min read . By Halee Sommer
Black Friday is the strongest revenue-generating day of the year for retailers, with $9.8 billion in sales reported in 2023, according to a report by Adobe. For online merchants, the revenue potential is even sweeter, with the online shopping period extended into Cyber Monday.
But, it takes a coordinated effort by customer support, sales, and marketing to encourage a shopper to click “checkout.” Without a solid ecommerce strategy, many online retailers will miss out on the Black Friday - Cyber Monday rush.
Whether you’re looking to optimize your existing strategy or starting from scratch, we’ve got you covered. This guide will help you make the most out of your BFCM ecommerce strategy with a clear list of steps (in chronological order) to help you prepare.
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What is Black Friday - Cyber Monday?
Black Friday - Cyber Monday — also referred to as BFCM — are two back-to-back sales days that bring in a ton of revenue for both in-store and ecommerce retailers in the US. The Black Friday - Cyber Monday shopping window also kick-starts holiday shopping from Thanksgiving day through the new year.
Why you need to prepare for BFCM now
BFCM isn’t just about one big day of revenue generation. It’s a crucial period for online retailers to capture new customers and convince them to keep shopping through the end of the year and beyond.
In-person BFCM experiences are out, and ecommerce is in
Shopper sentiment is shifting away from physical experiences. Online transactions are up by 13% year-over-year, according to research from Criteo. So, you probably won’t see consumers camping out in front of physical stores on Black Friday, but those same shoppers still want to find an excellent ecommerce deal.
Consumers are eager to spend despite concerns about inflation
After BFCM in 2023, research from Nielsen found the desire for a good deal caused 57% of shoppers to stay on budget and 18% of shoppers to spend more than they planned in the year prior.
Brand familiarity matters
Shoppers, Gen Z in particular, are more likely to make a purchase with a brand they’re familiar with. So, ensure your marketing tactics are firing well before BFCM will help folks get to know you before the holiday sales season starts.
Get proactive rather than reactive
When you make a plan early, you give your business more time to craft a great marketing campaign. Plus, you give your team time to figure out how to manage customer service on Black Friday for these high-traffic days.
Considering Black Friday - Cyber Monday is the busiest ecommerce sales event of the year, prepare as early as possible to get a leg-up and stay on top of Black Friday trends.
Pre-Black Friday preparation: What to do before the holiday
Preparing for Black Friday — and building a strong ecommerce strategy — goes well beyond ironing out a limited-time deal.
Tactics like updating key policies, building out customer self-service options, and marketing early will help you be successful.
1. Update key policies on your website before BFCM
Displaying clear-cut and easy-to-find policies on your website makes a huge difference to the customer experience. It sets the customer up for success and cultivates a positive sentiment with your brand.
To prepare for the best Black Friday-Cyber Monday possible, we recommend updating these key policies (and your Help Center) with BFCM-related information.
✅ Tip: A tool like Gorgias’s AI Agent learns from your policies to know how to respond to certain topics and escalate tickets. And we know that more automated tickets leads to a lighter workload for your agents. It makes a compelling case for keeping your policies up-to-date.
“The anxiety for customers during BFCM is real,” says Lauren Reams, Customer Experience Manager at VESSEL. “This year, we are planning on leveraging AI Agent to help us get ahead of the most common questions. AI Agent has been so seamless, so we’re confident that it will help us handle the busy season without needing to bring in additional agents.”
Returns and exchanges
BCFM is a popular time for consumers to buy holiday gifts, which means you could see an influx in returns or exchanges.
✅ Tips: Use return management apps like Loop Returns to provide customers with a self-service return portal to process their returns. Take that idea one step further by using AI Agent Actions to send your Loop Returns link or return shipping status automatically.
Integrate Loop Returns with Gorgias and enable customers to initiate their own returns.
Shipping and fulfillment
Customers expect purchases, especially if they’re buying gifts for upcoming holidays, to arrive on time and quickly (you’re competing with fast shipping speeds from retail giants like Amazon).
If those gifts don’t arrive in time, you’re going to face a lot of angry customers.
✅ Tip: Use your shipping and fulfillment policy to be crystal clear about when you ship orders, how long orders typically arrive, and how customers can look up their order status. AI Agent can perform Shopify Actions, such as editing the order's shipping address. Having this automated means agents do not have to do manual work.
Lost packages
All those Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales equal a ton of packages in transit. You can expect a few to go missing.
Make sure you’re clear with your team and customers upfront if you are willing to cover damages (either with refunds or credits). This will help your agents handle the process quickly and consistently. Plus, it gives your customers the peace of mind that accidents won’t put them out.
✅ Tip: Include a policy about damaged items in your FAQs so your customers know what to expect in case anything goes wrong with their order.
If you’re on Gorgias, Automate includes Flows, Order Management, and Article Recommendations. These different automations can help you deflect up to 30% of tickets, freeing your agents up for higher-value conversations.
Set up Flows to automatically answer common customer questions specific to Black Friday - Cyber Monday related to:
Shipping policy: Will my items arrive by the holidays?
Get a gift recommendation: Can you help me find a gift for a friend?
Return policy: Can I return a gifted item?
BFCM discounts: Do you offer any holiday discounts?
It turns out that many customer support inquiries your team receives are repetitive.
“If you force agents to respond to every question manually — no matter how small — you're only limiting the time they can spend on tickets that actually need human attention,” says Gorgias Director of Support, Bri Christiano.
That’s why we built Automate at Gorgias: It deflects your most repetitive tickets — up to 30% of your overall ticket volume — so you can focus on the tickets that grow your business.
Tech product retailer Nomad leaned into Gorgias’s automation to support customer service interactions. Not only did the online retailer gain a streamlined way to manage customer feedback, they also reduced response time by 70%.
Deloitte estimates about one-third of shoppers in the US made a purchase through a social media app in 2021. That number is estimated to be even higher for those who were influenced to buy a product after seeing it on social media.
You don’t necessarily have to sell directly through Instagram, but you can leverage your social channels to generate brand awareness.
The need for social-focused customer support is exactly why online retailer MNML turned to Gorgias. The company found that their shoppers turned more and more to social media for answers to their shopping-related questions.
Ultimately, the company leveled up their customer support on social media to connect with potential buyers.
Get started with these ideas:
Partner with influencers to generate brand awareness
Don’t partner with influencers for the sake of it. Instead, think about it like building a relationship with someone who fits your brand ideals and can cross-sell your products to their audience.
To do this, focus less on influencers with millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Instead, look for micro-influencers (or creators with less than 100,000 followers) with audiences that match your brand personas.
Create content that focuses on your store’s Black Friday deals
Once you’ve figured out the Black Friday sales your store will offer, you must ensure people know about them.
Craft content for your social media channels that highlight your deals. Since social media primarily focuses on visuals, start by collecting photos, videos, or illustrations of your products. Then, draft copy for captions, think through the best hashtags, and hand over creative briefs to your design team to build any assets you might need.
Put a little money behind your most successful organic social media posts
The weeks or months leading up to BFCM are prime time to talk about your brand’s Black Friday promotions. Use social media analytics to see which published posts are performing best across your channels.
Turn those high-performing posts into ads on social media by boosting them with a little money. Even with a small budget, you can use social ads to grab even more eyeballs — and potentially bring more people to your website.
A few other ideas to consider:
Prompt your customers to sign up for an SMS reminder or push notification on their smartphones or mobile devices.
Give early sale access to email subscribers, incentivizing customers to build a deeper relationship with your brand.
Pin the sale date and deal information at the top of your social media profiles, especially Instagram.
How to maximize revenue during BFCM in 2 steps
Imagine Black Friday - Cyber Monday is here. Even better, imagine you’ve got a ton of website traffic full of eager browsers. You need a plan to keep those browsers engaged.
One major step you can take to boost your conversion rate and potential revenue is to increase communication touchpoints and focus on recovering abandoned carts.
1. Increase customer touchpoints to keep shoppers engaged
Throughout any customer’s journey, there are many opportunities to interact with your brand. One moment might be finding out about your BFCM sale on social media, signing up for emails to get early access, or browsing the best deals before heading to checkout.
The more you interact with customers along the way, the more you can keep them engaged — and personalized interactions increase your chances of converting a first-time shopper into a repeat customer.
Gorgias’s Convert is a CRO tool that easily personalizes interactions at multiple points throughout a customer journey. Convert offers several ways to increase touchpoints and boost overall engagement:
AI-powered cross-sell campaigns to offer product recommendations.
Up-sell campaigns to showcase higher-priced items.
Share timely discounts, free shipping, or valuable product insights.
Offer 1:1 support with a smooth hand-off to Gorgias Live Chat.
Leverage Shopify browsing data to offer product recommendations.
Set up onsite campaigns without any coding.
Another way to build in more touch points is to use automated chat campaigns that pop up and engage with your customers at crucial moments. Chat widgets are a small addition to any homepage, landing page, or product page that immediately lets customers know where to go for help.
2. Reduce abandoned carts
Cart abandonment is a major source of lost retail sales for any ecommerce business, considering about 70% of online carts are abandoned.
You can easily target customers who have opted into an email list or receive SMS messages from your brand. Design emails or text messages designed to trigger if a cart is abandoned.
Include copy that builds a sense of urgency to drive customers back to their shopping carts to “buy now” before the deal is over.
There’s even a chance to use re-engagement to increase your average order value by upselling once that customer returns to your site.
How to retain new customers you get during BFCM
Repeat customers are valuable — like, really valuable.
According to Gorgias research, returning customers make up about 21% of a brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that same brand’s revenue.
Your brand should re-engage with anyone who shops on your website during the BFCM rush. Those same people could become returning customers who give your shop a revenue boost during the rest of the holiday season.
1. Offer a discount for next time
The perfect moment to re-engage a customer starts at checkout. When someone makes a purchase through your online store, offer them an immediate discount that goes toward their next purchase.
At CX Connect LA 2024, Ron Shah, CEO of Obvi, shared his brand’s strategy for offering discounts to generate revenue. Ron knew implementing AI to support Obvi’s two-person customer support team was necessary to help the brand grow without eliminating the need for his human agents.
“The time saved by AI handled a lot of the redundant work our agents were doing, which meant we could turn them into part-time sales agents. We also gave them a code to help them prevent a refund from happening or upsell somebody. It created a completely new shift in their mindset. They realized, ‘Oh wow, you're not just taking something away from me (with AI) — you're actually elevating my opportunity.’”
✅ Tip: You can increase the touchpoints to re-engage with an existing customer by building a reminder email that triggers one week after their initial transaction. That way, you not only stay at the top of their inbox, you also stay top of mind.
2. Invite customers to join a loyalty program
Loyalty programs are a tried-and-true method to build engaged, returning customers.
In a recent survey, Yotpo found that over half of surveyed consumers agreed a loyalty program would encourage them to purchase more from a brand.
If you already offer a loyalty program, make sure new customers know about how to get the VIP experience with your store. Build awareness touchpoints into your loyalty program marketing strategy. You can also prompt buyers to become loyal customers after they make their first purchase.
3. Continue to improve your customer experience strategy
A successful, positive, and repeatable customer experience doesn’t end after midnight on Cyber Monday. It’s a road rather than a destination.
Consumer habits are always changing, and your support teams must be prepared to handle customer requests.
One way to anticipate your customer’s pain points is to look at customer feedback.
Reviews and social media activity is a great place to start. You might also consider putting a more formal customer sentiment strategy in place, with a CSAT survey to collect direct feedback from customers.
This feedback helps your team prioritize what needs to improve so you’re not left reaching in the dark.
Give your ecommerce strategy a boost this holiday shopping season
The name of the game this Black Friday - Cyber Monday isn’t just to get a ton of online sales; it’s to set up your ecommerce site for a successful holiday shopping season.
Gorgias is designed with ecommerce merchants in mind. Find out how Gorgias’s time-saving automations and convenient platform can help you create successful customer experiences.
Let's talk about something that often gets overlooked in ecommerce: what happens after someone hits that "Place Order" button. You might think the hard part's over once you've made the sale, but here's the thing the post-purchase experience can make or break your relationship with customers.
In today's competitive online marketplace, those relationships are everything — especially considering that loyal customers spend an average of 67% more per purchase than new customers.
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The importance of post-purchase support and automation in ecommerce
Providing an excellent post-purchase customer experience can turn one-time customers into loyal advocates who are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others.
It's all about the customer experience
When someone buys from your store, they're not just getting a product — they're starting a relationship with your brand.
A great post-purchase experience shows customers you actually care about their satisfaction beyond just making the sale. 90% of U.S. customers say that an immediate customer service response is "important" or "very important.”
When you nail this part, something magical happens: one-time shoppers transform into passionate advocates who not only come back for more but can't help telling others about their amazing experience with your brand.
Having accessible support and an efficient and easy returns process may make the difference between a happy customer and an unsatisfied one.
Building trust that lasts
Trust is everything in online shopping. When customers feel supported after making a purchase, they're much more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong down the line.
It's like building a friendship: every positive interaction adds another layer of trust. And that trust translates directly into repeat business and glowing recommendations.
The post-purchase support experience makes a huge difference in building that trust. In fact, 96% of customers say excellent customer service builds trust.
Keeping your return rates down
Great post-purchase support can actually help reduce your return rates. By addressing concerns quickly and providing clear information upfront, you can prevent many returns before they happen.
This can save you money on shipping and restocking and create a smoother experience that keeps customers happy and your business healthy.
Making processes more efficient
Automation eliminates manual tasks, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic initiatives. By automating repetitive tasks, you can improve efficiency and productivity, allowing your team to focus on more value-added activities.
You can automate everything from customer support to returns and exchanges to your order tracking and more. Besides meeting customers' straightforward needs, automation allows you to focus your team's energy on solving bigger problems and strengthening customer relationships.
Accuracy, guaranteed
Automation helps ensure consistency across all your post-purchase processes.
When customers know they can count on a reliable experience every time they shop with you, it builds confidence in your brand.
Plus, fewer mistakes mean happier customers and less time spent fixing problems.
Creating better customer experiences
Speed matters in today's world, and automation helps you deliver faster, more personalized responses to customer needs.
Whether it's instant order updates or quick responses to questions, automation helps you meet and exceed customer expectations. The result? More satisfied customers who feel valued and understood.
How to automate the post-purchase experience for better loyalty
Here are some ways to automate the post-purchase experience:
Automate your returns and exchanges process
Streamline the returns process with automated return labels, tracking, and updates. Use ReturnGO to automate this process, saving time and reducing manual errors. With automated returns, you can provide a hassle-free experience for customers, encouraging them to return to your store in the future.
Automated returns can help to improve the customer experience by making the returns process easier and more convenient. 65% of customers say the speed and ease of refunds affect where they choose to shop.
By automating tasks such as generating return labels and tracking packages, you can reduce the time and effort required for customers to return items.
Think about it from their perspective — if returning an item is hassle-free, they'll feel more confident buying from you in the future. It's like having a safety net that makes customers more comfortable taking chances on new products.
Centralize customer support
In today's fast-paced world, customers expect quick and efficient support. Using a customer experience platform like Gorgias, you can manage all your customer support tickets in one place, making it easier to provide fast, accurate help when people need it.
By centralizing your post-purchase support, you can manage support tickets more efficiently, respond to customer inquiries quickly, and provide the most up-to-date information. This centralized approach can hugely improve response times.
Keep customers in the loop
Nobody likes being left in the dark about their order. Automated post-purchase notifications keep your customers informed every step of the way - from order confirmation to delivery and returns. Using tools like ReturnGO, you can send personalized updates that make customers feel looked after. This is essential for building customer loyalty.
Keeping customers informed about their orders can help reduce customer anxiety. When customers know what to expect, they’re less likely to worry about their purchase and are more likely to keep buying from you again and again.
Create an integrated workflow
To truly streamline your post-purchase customer service, if you connect your returns management system with your customer support system, you really bring all of the pieces of a puzzle together.
When these two systems are in sync, you can create a smooth workflow that makes things easier for both your team and your customers.
By automating tasks like creating support tickets and processing returns, you can save time and create a more reliable, efficient system that helps you serve customers better. No more jumping back and forth between systems to check on a return when a customer reaches out about it.
The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes this happen seamlessly, with features like:
Automatic ticket generation: When a customer requests a return, a support ticket is automatically created on Gorgias, saving you time and preventing errors.
Real-time updates: Return request information is automatically updated from ReturnGO to Gorgias, so your team always has the latest details right there.
Centralized system: No more digging through multiple systems. This means your support agents always have access to the most up-to-date information and respond quickly and efficiently to customers.
Smart widget: The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration includes a widget embedded in your Gorgias dashboard, for managing RMAs directly from within Gorgias. This widget enables your team to:
View RMA information: See all the relevant details about a return, including the customer's information, the items being returned, and the reason for the return.
Take actions on the RMA: Easily approve or reject a return request directly from Gorgias.
The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes it easy for your team to manage returns and communicate with customers without having to jump between systems to hunt for information.
The path to lasting customer loyalty
So, there you have it! In the world of online shopping, how you handle the after-purchase experience can be just as important as making the sale in the first place.
By automating your post-purchase process, you can create a seamless and satisfying customer experience.
Tools like ReturnGO and Gorgias can help you create the kind of experience that builds customer loyalty.
Live chat has a positive impact on customer loyalty, sales, and revenue.
Predefined responses save time and ensure consistent quality.
Templates for greetings, handling angry customers, managing returns, boosting sales, and ending chats positively.
Leveraging automation through chatbots can enhance efficiency.
Balance personalization and efficiency when using live chat templates and scripts.
79% of companies say that live chat has had a positive impact on customer loyalty, sales, and revenue. However, delivering consistently high-quality live chat experiences can be a challenge, especially when live chat agents repeatedly encounter the same questions and inquiries.
By using a set of predefined responses, you’ll enable your customer service team to save time, ensure consistent quality, and offer a smoother customer experience.
Whether you’re just starting to build out your live chat support strategy or looking to streamline your existing processes, here are some live chat response examples for the most common scenarios your support team will encounter.
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Live chat templates that greet customers
Getting the initial interaction right sets a positive tone and builds rapport with customers. First impressions count! Here are some templates to help your agents start the conversation on the right foot.
Template 1) “Hi there! Thanks for reaching out to [business name]. My name is [agent name] and I’m here to help. What can I support you with?”
Template 2) “Hey and welcome to [business name]! I’m [agent name]. What brings you here?”
Template 3) “Hello! This is [agent name] from [business name]. Thank you for reaching out. How can I help?”
Template 4) “Hi! Thanks for reaching out to us. I'm [agent name]. If you have any questions about [business name] and our [products/services], let me know!"
Personalized, templated greetings like these help live chat agents balance a consistent brand tone with efficiency.
Live chat scripts to address angry customers with care
Dealing with angry customers can be challenging, but having the right scripts on hand can make a big difference by speeding up resolution times and improving customer satisfaction. Here are samples of canned responses for de-escalating tense situations:
Template 5) “I really appreciate you reaching out to us to let us know this happened, [customer name] – I’m going to help resolve this for you right away. In order to get this sorted out, can you please share [photo, more information, etc] with me?”
Template 6) “I am so sorry for the inconvenience that you’ve experienced. That’s not the customer experience we strive for at [company name]. Let me look into this further and see what I can do to make this right. If necessary I can talk with my team to see what else we can do.”
Template 7) “[Customer name], I so apologize for the error on our end. I’m going to look into this for you right away. It should only take a couple of minutes. Thanks for your patience!”
Template 8) “I’m sorry to hear that you’ve experienced this issue and I apologize for the trouble. Let’s work together to find a solution that you're happy with.”
By acknowledging the customer’s frustrations and demonstrating a genuine desire to help, your live chat agents can turn a potentially negative situation into a positive one. That's something that Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Director of Customer Experience at bidet brand TUSHY, feels strongly about:
“We’re fervent believers that even the worst customer experiences are actually opportunities ripe for the Poo-Rus to convert into meaningful customer interactions, experiences where we can show a customer that we’re truly listening and have heard their concerns.
We can’t always solve every problem, but our customers knowing that they have a real live pooping human supporting them through their woes has been invaluable in building lifelong product and brand relationships.”
Templates to streamline returns, cancellations, or exchanges
Handling returns, cancellations, exchanges, and other routine customer requests can be tricky, but having the right scripts can help ensure a smooth process. The following live chat examples can guide your agents through the necessary steps while providing a consistent high-quality experience for your customers.
💡 Tip: Gorgias's integration with Shopify means all customer context, like their contact information, past orders, order numbers, and shipping status are available for each agent, right in the customer sidebar. No switching tabs or asking customers for simple details again!
Template 9) “I can definitely assist you in returning or exchanging that item. In order to get the process started, can you send over your [order number, email, etc.]?”
Template 10) “I understand you’d like to cancel your order. Let me review the status and see what I can do. Can you provide me with [cancellation reason, order number, etc]?”
Template 11) “[Customer name], Confirming that I've canceled your order [number of last order] and issued a refund. As a reminder, the refund can take [# of days] to process. We refunded the original amount to the same credit card you used to make the purchase.”
Template 12) “No problem, we can certainly process an exchange for you. Could you let me know the item you’d like to exchange and the new item you’d prefer? ... Ok, I’ve swapped out [item name] for the [item name] you originally selected. Can you please confirm that the following [billing information, address, etc] on file is correct? … Is there anything else I can help with?”
Gorgias has empowered clients like Marine Layer, a clothing retailer known for its fun, vibey brand and high-quality clothes, with numerous retail locations and a strong online presence to excel by using templates.
Emphasizing customer-centric experiences, Marine Layer has harnessed chat scripts to streamline and harmonize communication and reduce first response time, resulting in a 68% decrease in resolution times. This approach, featuring clear, brand-aligned messaging, has significantly boosted online successes, enhancing customer support efficiency, customer satisfaction, and increasing online orders.
Discount coupon templates
Who doesn't love a good discount code? Letting shoppers know that you're running a promotion can help take them from browse to checkout.
💡 Tip: Gorgias Convert can automatically trigger coupon codes based on different behaviors. For example, yoga brand Manduka shares a discount code in chat when a shopper looks like they're about to exit the website.
Template 13) “Hey there [customer name]! Good news: [company name] is offering a discount on [promotional item or discount amount]. Questions? Let me know!”
Template 14) “I noticed you’ve been browsing our [product department name/category] collection. I wanted to let you know that we have a special bundle deal that includes [detail the deal]. Let me know if you want to learn more!”
Template 15) “I have some great news - we’re currently offering [discount percentage] off your entire order. Would you like me to apply that discount to your cart? “
Template 16) “Just to say thanks for being awesome, I’d like to offer you an exclusive [discount percentage] off coupon code to use on your next purchase.”
By adapting their approach, agents can elevate a simple sales pitch into a valuable, personalized experience. Through chat scripts, agents are equipped to inform website visitors about general information and perks such as qualifying for free shipping or securing a discount, serving as effective conversation starters that incentivize visitors to make a purchase before leaving a website.
Templates for managing out-of-stock items
Handling out-of-stock situations in response to customer requests can be a delicate balancing act. On one hand, you have disappointed customers who were eager to make a purchase, on the other, you have the realities of inventory management. With the right chat scripts, agents can maintain a positive experience. Try:
Template 17) “Oh shucks! [product name] isn't available right now. But, it will be back soon. Would you like me to put you on a waitlist so you’re the first to know when it’s back in stock?”
Template 18) “I apologize, but it looks like the [product name] you’re interested in is currently out of stock. We’re expecting a new shipment in the next [number range] business days. Why don’t you provide me with your email address or phone number and I can notify you by email or text as soon as it’s back in stock?”
Template 19) “Unfortunately, the [product name] is sold out at the moment. However, I’d be happy to suggest some similar items that are available if you’d like?”
Live chat templates to help boost sales
When customers are actively browsing your site and adding items to their cart, using proactive customer service messages in your chat scripts can provide valuable guidance and encouragement to help seal the deal.
Template 20) “The [product name] is one of our best sellers! Other shoppers love it for its [key feature] and [key feature].”
Template 21) “I noticed you’ve been looking at the [product name]. What questions about it can I help answer?”
Template 22) “Based on the items you’ve been exploring, I think you might really like our [product/service] line. It has [key features/benefits] that are designed for [features]. Does this sound like it could be a good fit?.”
The key is to strike the right balance between guiding the customer and empowering informed decisions. As Shinesty – a rapidly growing, innovative apparel brand known for its distinctive, themed underwear and custom-branded collections – gets it right. “We got a lot of praise from our customers, and they talk highly of our CX team after 1:1 interactions.” – Molly Kerrigan, Senior Director of Retention at Shinesty.
By leveraging these sales-boosting live chat scripts, your customer service team can provide the high-touch service customers appreciate in real time and drive more conversions.
Tactful cross-selling and upselling chat scripts
Offering upgraded products can be a great way to increase your agents’ average order value. These templates can help your live agents navigate the cross-sell and upsell process with finesse.
Template 23) “Since you’re interested in the [product name], I wanted to let you know that we also offer a [upgraded product name] with [additional feature] and [additional feature]. Want to learn more?”
Template 24) “I noticed you had [product name] in your cart. [Product name] is the perfect compliment. Together, they [benefit] and [benefit].”
Template 25) “Great choice on the [product name]! While you’re here, I wanted to mention our [bundled product name] – it includes the [original product name] plus [additional item] and [additional item] for a discounted price. Let me know if you have any questions!”
By focusing on the customer’s needs and offering genuine value, live chat agents can turn these interactions into a win-win for both shoppers and your business.
Templates for ending chats on a positive note
Just as important as starting the conversation on the right foot, wrapping up the live chat conversation with a positive tone can leave a lasting impression. Here are some live chat templates to help agents gracefully conclude the conversation:
Template 26) “Is there anything else I can assist you with today? I’m happy to help. … If there is nothing else, feel free to reach out at any time with any more questions. Have a great day!”
Template 27) “I’m so glad we could resolve your issue today! If you need anything else, just send us a message any time. We're online during [hours] if you need a speedy response. Take care!”
Template 28) “Thanks for reaching out! Don't hesitate to shoot us a note if you have any other questions in the future. ”
Template 29) “Thanks for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us! Have a wonderful rest of your day.”
Template 30) “Thanks so much for your order! I hope you love your new purchase!”
By leaving customers feeling valued and supported, agents are setting the stage for future positive interactions. The idea is to ensure the customer is happy. In fact, 91% of customers say good service is essential and makes them more likely to purchase from the company again.
Leverage automation for efficiency
While live chat templates and chat support scripts can significantly improve the quality and consistency of your customer support, automation takes things to the next level.
Gorgias Automate can handle routine, high-volume inquiries, provide a seamless customer experience, improve efficiency, resolution times and save you money. By combining the power of live chat templates and the efficiency of Automate, you can empower your live chat agents and support team to focus on more complex issues that require a human touch, enhancing the customer experience.
Consumers are increasingly multi-screen and multi-channel. From desktop to mobile to tablet, they interact with businesses through Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, emails, support chat, and even phone calls.
Though omnichannel customer service lays a valuable foundation, communicating effectively as a brand involves weaving marketing, sales, and customer service into a cohesive omnichannel communication strategy.
An omnichannel communication approach makes it easier to talk to customers in a personal way, helping drive sales and keep customers loyal.
This article explores how centralizing communications offers your team — from marketing and sales reps to support staff — the tools and insights they need for a consistent customer experience.
By doing so, you don’t just react to customer needs; you anticipate them, opening avenues for proactive engagements that positively impact both relationships and revenue.
Omnichannel communication: an overview
Omnichannel communication is a customer-centric approach that integrates different methods of communication and business channels into a unified, seamless experience for prospective and existing customers.
Omnichannel communication goes beyond just offering multiple avenues for customer interaction; it creates a seamless and integrated experience across all touchpoints.
How omnichannel works
Omnichannel communication focuses on three key facets—data unification, fluidity of customer interactions, and data-driven insights. By focusing on these key tenets, omnichannel communication moves beyond being a buzzword to a strategic approach that places the customer at the center of your business operations. This strategy allows retailers to deliver an experience that is consistent, contextually relevant, and highly personalized.
Data unification
Centralizing customer data from various digital channels like email, social media, and in-store interactions enables a more consistent and personalized experience. Also, it serves as the foundation for customer profiles. These profiles are critical for delivering targeted offers, rewards, and personalized service to shoppers.
Fluidity of customer interactions
Customers don’t experience channels; they experience your brand. They want to transition effortlessly between online chats, phone calls, and physical visits and have a conversation pick up right where it left off. This seamlessness is particularly beneficial for ecommerce retailers, who can use these channels to provide real-time updates such as stock availability or order status, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing friction.
Data-driven insights
Turn data into actionable insights. By analyzing integrated data across platforms, you can discern valuable patterns in customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to continuously refine your marketing strategies and improve the overall shopping experience.
Omnichannel communication moves beyond being a buzzword to a strategic approach that places the customer at the center of your business operations.
Omnichannel communication in action
While the concept sounds promising, how does it manifest for a single brand?
Graza excels at omnichannel communication, offering its customers a seamless and enriched experience across various touchpoints.
Using Gorgias Live Chat, they provide real-time customer support, resolving queries when customer service reps are online. As an alternative, their customer service email channel serves as both a satisfaction tool and a means for personalized marketing, sending targeted offers.
On social media platforms — like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — they respond to customer inquiries and engage the community with educational content about their single-origin olive oils.
This multi-layered approach ensures that every interaction is not just a transaction but an opportunity to deepen the relationship. The outcome is higher customer satisfaction and increased brand loyalty, leading to repeat purchases and a more robust bottom line.
Omnichannel communication vs. multichannel communication
We’re in a platform renaissance: retailers now have many ways to connect with customers.
However, not all channel strategies are created equal. Understanding the differences between omnichannel and multichannel approaches is critical to developing a communication plan that meets customer expectations.
Data integration sets omnichannel apart
Both omnichannel and multichannel strategies use multiple channels for customer engagement. Omnichannel takes it a step further by integrating data across these platforms. This provides cohesive and personalized customer experiences, rather than fragmented interactions that are often the result of multichannel approaches.
Customer continuity is a hallmark of omnichannel
An omnichannel strategy focuses on offering a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints, whereas multichannel often treats each channel as an isolated silo. This can result in a disjointed and less satisfying journey for customers who hop from one channel to another, asking the same question to different customer service reps.
Instant communication and real-time interaction
Omnichannel doesn’t just collect data; it leverages real-time analytics. This level of insight can drive data-driven decision-making, which is generally absent in multichannel strategies. This makes multichannel less effective for optimizing customer engagement and marketing efforts.
More tech setup for better communication
To make an omnichannel strategy work, you need strong tech systems that bring together data and tasks from different channels. While this may cost more at first compared to simpler multichannel setups, the benefit is happier customers and smoother day-to-day running of your business.
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Different channels to focus on
In the retail landscape, multiple channels connect your brand and your customers. To harness the full power of an omnichannel strategy, you need to focus on integrating different types of customer service and specific channels that offer different advantages for customer engagement.
Selecting the right mix of channels allows you to meet your customers where they are and offer them a consistent and seamless brand experience. Keep in mind that different communication channels have different customer expectations. According to data collected by Gorgias from over 12,000 ecommerce brands, here are the average response times for different communication channels:
Email
Below average: 1 day
Average:12 - 24 hours
Above average: Under 4 hours
Stellar: Under 1 hour
Social media
Below average: 1 day
Average:12 - 24 hours
Above average: Under 4 hours
Stellar: Under 15 minutes
SMS
Below average: 1 hour
Average: 10 minutes
Above average: Under 5 minutes
Stellar: Under 1 minute
Live chat
Below average: 1 hour
Average: 10 minutes
Above average: Under 5 minutes
Stellar: Under 1 minute
With that in mind, here are some channels to consider including in your own omnichannel communications strategy:
Email
Email remains a powerful tool for businesses to speak to customers, allowing for targeted marketing campaigns tailored to specific customer segments. Personalized follow-up emails are also critical for nurturing long-term customer relationships and encouraging repeat purchases.
SMS
SMS is an increasingly effective channel for businesses, offering real-time customer engagement. Targeted SMS campaigns can reach specific customer groups with timely offers and updates, while personalized follow-up messages help sustain long-term relationships and promote repeat business.
Social media
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram facilitate immediate customer engagement and provide a wealth of data on customer preferences and behavior. This data can be integrated into your larger omnichannel strategy to refine marketing campaigns and product offerings.
Live chat
Live chat offers real-time, on-site customer support, which can drastically improve conversion rates. Resolving customer queries and concerns in real time removes barriers to purchase and enhances customer satisfaction.
Mobile app
A dedicated mobile app can be a hub for personalized promotions and a streamlined shopping experience. A well-designed app can significantly boost customer engagement, build loyalty, and even integrate with your in-store experiences.
In-store experience
Physical stores are not just about sales; they offer tactile and immediate experiences that are challenging to replicate online. They also provide opportunities for cross-promotion with online channels, making a thoughtful in-store experience a vital part of a cohesive omnichannel strategy.
Phone support
Even in the digital age, phone support retains its value. According to a report, 43% of consumers favor non-digital customer service methods, such as in-person consultations or phone calls. Many customers prefer the immediacy and personal touch of voice support, especially for resolving complex queries or deciding about high-ticket items.
The impact that an omnichannel strategy can have on your company
Implementing an omnichannel strategy has far-reaching implications for your business, affecting everything from customer engagement to your bottom line. Here, we delve into how this integrated approach can drive revenue, increase customer loyalty, and offer other pivotal advantages for your ecommerce business.
Boost brand awareness and reach
A solid omnichannel strategy amplifies brand awareness by offering unified messaging across all customer touchpoints, whether social media, email, or in-store interactions.
This consistency strengthens brand recognition and facilitates customer engagement as they know what to expect from your brand. This multi-pronged strategy, leveraging both digital and traditional channels, ensures you’re where your customers are.
Parade, an undergarment brand committed to comfort and inclusivity, maintains a solid social media presence that includes customer support on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Using Gorgias tools, Parade offers customers a seamless omnichannel communication experience.
Drive more revenue
Omnichannel communication isn’t just about convenience — it’s a revenue multiplier. Customers who feel understood and valued across all touchpoints are more likely to become repeat buyers. This is achieved by harnessing data for personalization and ensuring consistent, real-time communication. Here’s how:
Personalized offers. Tailoring offers to individual customer behavior increases both engagement and spending.
Seamless interaction. Providing consistent and timely responses across channels boosts customer trust and satisfaction, further fueling revenue growth.
Earning customer loyalty is about creating brand advocates through consistently exceeding expectations. Exceeding expectations across all channels fosters a sense of reliability and trust in your brand. Here’s how:
Brand credibility. By delivering a consistent and high-quality experience across all touchpoints, your brand becomes a trusted name that customers gravitate back to.
Immediate support. Real-time support minimizes customer wait times and leads to higher satisfaction and positive reviews.
Enhanced loyalty programs. Managing loyalty programs with unified data allows tailored rewards based on individual customer behavior, increasing lifetime value.
Bychari boosts brand trust through omnichannel communication
BYCHARI is a luxury jewelry brand established in 2012, known for its unique and modern handmade pieces designed for women who desire luxury while appreciating simplicity. The brand excels in omnichannel communication, offering a variety of customer touchpoints, including a contact form, live chat powered by Gorgias, calls, and emails.
To empower customers 24/7, especially when live support is unavailable, BYCHARI also provides self-service options like comprehensive FAQs, and uses Gorgias Flows to automate tasks such as order tracking and management.
Optimize marketing efficiency
Centralized data and analytics make your marketing campaigns smarter and more efficient. When you understand your customers’ behaviors and preference across channels, your targeting becomes dynamic and your messaging more personalized. Here’s how:
Clearer ROI tracking. Aggregating data from multiple channels into one dashboard sharpens your view of ROI, enabling quicker strategy adjustments.
Channel-specific insights. Detailed analytics help pinpoint which channels are driving customer conversion and engagement more effectively.
Efficient personalization. Using cross-channel data, both customer service and marketing teams can tailor their interactions, saving time while boosting customer engagement.
Enhance customer data analysis
A holistic view of customer data from multiple touchpoints uncovers insights that can drive quick, informed decisions. This rich data not only refines marketing efforts but also helps product teams tailor their offerings. Here’s how:
Actionable insights. Integrated analytics convert behavioral patterns into actionable tactics for sales and marketing adjustments.
Improved customer segmentation. Comprehensive data allows for more precise customer categorization, enabling highly targeted campaigns.
Maximized impact. This granular level of data enhances the effectiveness of each customer interaction, contributing to long-term business success.
How to create an omnichannel communication strategy
An omnichannel communication strategy can transform customer engagement and drive meaningful business results. This section will guide you through the essential steps for crafting a practical omnichannel approach that aligns with your retail goals.
1) Measure engagement across channels
Understanding your customer’s journey begins with measuring engagement across multiple channels. Use analytics tools to capture key metrics such as click-through rates and time spent on various pages, providing a quantitative foundation for your omnichannel communication strategy. By comparing these performance metrics, you gain insights into which channels are most effective in capturing and holding customer attention.
While these analytics can offer a comprehensive view of customer activity on marketing platforms, don’t overlook support channels. Platforms like Gorgias can measure engagement metrics within customer support, supplementing your overall data collection. Gorgias Support Performance serves as a control center for tracking key metrics such as ticket volume and agent activity, offering actionable insights to improve customer experience and measure engagement across various platforms.
Combining this support data with your broader analytics will provide a fuller understanding of customer engagement, equipping you to refine your omnichannel strategy.
2) Focus on brand voice and values in employee training
Employee training ensures that your omnichannel communication strategy reflects your brand’s voice and values. Developing a robust employee training program can instill these crucial elements in all customer-facing personnel, setting the stage for consistent brand representation. Real-life scenarios can serve as effective teaching tools, guiding employees on maintaining branding consistency during interactions, whether via email, social media, or SMS.
Given that companies evolve, your training materials must keep pace with any shifts in brand messaging or objectives. Regular updates to these resources can help your support team adapt to changes and continue to offer an aligned and cohesive customer experience across all touch points.
Don’t miss our article on customer service training, which provides 15 valuable activities your team can try to improve customer interactions.
3) Centralize customer data
When creating an effective omnichannel communication strategy, the importance of centralizing customer data can’t be overstated. A CRM system aggregating customer information from various touch points into one database is invaluable. It brings together disparate data and provides an integrated view of customer interactions, helping your team make data-driven decisions.
To realize the full potential of this centralized approach, ensure your CRM seamlessly integrates with all communication channels your company uses, enabling real-time data updates. Data from customer support platforms like Gorgias can then be merged with the information in your CRM, enhancing the quality and depth of the customer profiles that drive your omnichannel strategy.
4) Foster interdepartmental collaboration
Effective omnichannel communication necessitates collaboration that extends beyond the confines of individual departments. One approach is to conduct regular cross-departmental meetings where teams can share and discuss customer data insights. This guarantees everyone is on the same page about customer behaviors and needs, contributing to a holistic customer engagement strategy.
All departments should be aligned to respond more cohesively to customer needs. Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, ensures that her team collaborates broadly by having an internal communication channel for discussing customer concerns.
“We have a channel in Slack dedicated to customer feedback,” she says. “Dropping in feedback is part of the team’s daily and weekly responsibilities, which helps them get familiar with the content. It also allows our team to dissect them and collaborate on how we can improve.”
Establish a feedback loop, particularly with customer service, to continually share frequently encountered customer issues and trends. This feedback can catalyze improving products, services, and customer communication strategies.
5) Deliver personalized messages on customers’ channels of choice
Elevate your omnichannel strategy by tailoring your communications to the specific channels your customers prefer. Leveraging your centralized customer data, identify which channels—email, social media, or in-app notifications—are most effective for reaching your audience. Then, craft personalized messages that are not generic but informed by customer behavior and past interactions.
Continuously monitor how well personalized customer service resonates with your customers by tracking engagement metrics such as click-through and open rates. Equally important is collecting and analyzing customer feedback to understand the qualitative impact of your efforts. Based on these insights, make necessary adjustments to your messaging strategy, ensuring it remains aligned with customer preferences and behavior.
6) Harness automation to interact with customers 24/7
According to a report from Statista, 88% of consumers anticipate that brands will offer self-service support options. Automation is vital for maintaining a 24/7 connection with your customers. Implement chatbots on your website and social media channels to answer frequently asked questions immediately, enhancing user experience and satisfaction through proactive customer service.
Employ customer experience automation tools like Gorgias Automate to configure automated Flows for common customer queries. Fable, a brand dedicated to elevating dining experiences with premium dinnerware, utilizes Automate to provide round-the-clock customer service. Their automated flows are designed to swiftly answer common customer queries, such as active discounts and return procedures, ensuring customers can always find the information they need.
Create an omnichannel customer experience with Gorgias
Despite the benefits of a unified approach to customer communication, a 2022 report found that only 12% of digital platforms are “highly integrated.” Gorgias can be your key partner in achieving an omnichannel communication strategy, offering core helpdesk capabilities designed to seamlessly integrate customer interactions across multiple channels. Gorgias ensures that you meet and exceed customer expectations while driving revenue.
Data enrichment for agents communicating with customers
Gorgias equips agents with enriched customer profiles, pooling data from different channels — including social media, voice, and SMS — to provide context during interactions. This feature allows for quicker, more accurate support, as agents don’t have to switch between each communication platform to gather customer history.
A centralized hub to manage customer interactions
Gorgias is a one-stop hub, consolidating communications from email, chat, social media, and more, enabling easier management and response. The centralized system facilitates proactive support, which can directly impact sales by addressing customer concerns before they abandon their shopping carts.
Tools to customize branding in different channels
Gorgias allows you to maintain consistent branding by customizing the look and feel of your customer support channels. This ensures that no matter the channel, customers always have a uniform omnichannel experience that reinforces brand identity and trust.
Cupcakes and Cashmere, founded by Emily Schuman in 2017, has gained a devoted following for its curated jewelry, loungewear, and home goods. To extend this trust and cohesiveness into customer support, the brand uses Gorgias, its chat widget color-matched to the brand’s palette, ensuring a visually seamless and engaging user experience across its website.
Explore Gorgias for omnichannel communication solutions
If you’re focused on streamlining customer interactions across various channels, consider exploring what Gorgias offers. With features that centralize communication, enrich agent information, and ensure brand consistency, Gorgias aims to make the omnichannel communication strategy more manageable and effective for ecommerce retailers.
Take a closer look to see how these capabilities could fit into your existing operations and customer engagement efforts. To learn more about Gorgias, book your demo today.
Your customer service is the lifeblood of your business. And, live chat is a central communication channel for your online shoppers. Live chat can make or break your business. When leveraged properly, Shopify live chat can have a tremendous positive impact on sales. You just need to make sure you’re not turning prospects away.
This article covers a few points.
Why live chat is crucial for your online revenue
Shopify live chat support mistakes you need to avoid at all costs
Actionable advice to solve these common issues
Now, learn why your growth depends on your live chat processes.
Why is using live chat on your Shopify store important?
If you don’t yet have live chat or you haven’t experienced the potential of optimizing your communication processes on this channel, you may wonder what the big deal is. Yeah, your customers want to talk to you at all hours, but is it really that important?
Let’s look at a few facts about live chat so you can think about it.
38% of online consumers are more likely to make a purchase if a retailer offers live chat support (Crazy Egg).
Site visitors who engage with your live chat are worth 4.5X more than those who do not (ICMI).
Live chat has the highest satisfaction level of any other customer support communication channel at 92% (Inc).
Now, here’s what might happen if you leave your shoppers dissatisfied.
It can take 12 satisfying customer experiences to make up for a single dissatisfying one (Invesp).
95% of customers tell others about their poor experiences with a brand and 87% share positive experiences (Customer Thermometer).
Are you convinced? If so, it’s time to make sure you get it right. Avoid these live chat mistakes and ensure that you’re getting the most out of one of the most powerful communication channels for online stores.
Avoid these live chat mistakes on your Shopify store
Now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. Here are the mistakes you need to avoid when implementing live chat on your Shopify store. And, below each problem is a simple and actionable fix.
1. No automation
When you don’t implement automation, you’re forced to have multiple support agents online at all times or miss the point of live chat altogether. Your customers prefer this communication channel because they want the convenience of self-service. And, without some level of automation, customers might as well send an email because it will take just as long to receive a response.
The quick fix: Learn your chat platform’s macros or automation processes
Live chat platforms are designed to enhance the workload of your support team. So, naturally, the brand you work with will have a knowledge base with detailed instructions about platform use. Make sure your support agents learn how to implement macros or automations.
2. Too much automation
Before you get too excited and try to automate your entire live chat workflow, stop and think for a moment. It is possible to fully-automate your live chat communications. However, with automation, you can’t always get the answers right. Irrelevant responses to customer queries can trigger immediate dissatisfaction.
The quick fix: Refer to the Pareto principle
In marketing, sales, writing, and even customer service, the Pareto principle, better known as the 80/20 rule can come in handy. This principle states that 80% of the effects for many actions come from 20% of the effort. Spin this just a bit for an easy solution.
Find out where most of your effort is being spent (maybe 20% of the customer support workload) and use live chat macros to answer the most common customer questions first. Then, the rest of your support agents’ work time to reply to the unique and personal queries (perhaps about 80% of the customer support workload).
While it may not always be possible, especially from the perspective of a brand, up to 79% of consumers want immediate responses and expect answers within 10 minutes. If you’re making your shoppers wait longer than this, you may be losing sales.
One of the biggest benefits of live chat for customer support is its speed .You need to find a solution to accelerate your responses.
The quick fix: Enlist assistance from other departments
Much of the time, excessive wait times are due to the fact that customer support staff must reach out to external departments and wait for answers before replying to the customer. Try what Nomad did to decrease first-response time by 78% and implement an all-hands support strategy.
Require each department to directly respond to a number of tickets every day. And, there’s no need to go overboard -- just a few tickets a day from sales, marketing, and/or product teams can have a dramatic positive impact on response and resolution times.
4. Ineffective language use
Do your agents sound like robots? Are your chat communications overly-formal? If so, you run the risk of turning people away. Consumers appreciate AI, but if they can have better conversations with Siri or Alexa that they do your customer support team, your conversations could use some work.
The quick fix: Parrot your customers
Compile some data from your chat sessions and look for patterns. Do you see any recurring words or phrases in your customer communications? If so, add them to your macros and your agents’ vocabulary. When you speak the same language with shoppers, they’re more likely to trust you.
5. Unskilled or untrained support agents
Customer service agents never get as much credit as they deserve. Without a small army of satisfaction soldiers, you will lose the eCommerce war. So, the work needs to be taken seriously. If you hire low-skilled agents who can’t answer your shoppers’ questions, you will end up with low-quality support operations. Eventually, this mistake can kill your business.
The quick fix: hire and train well
Unfortunately, for this problem, there isn’t a “quick” fix. However, if you put in significant energy in the beginning, you may be able to kick up your heels later. Onboard well.
Once in a while, if you throw an emoji out there in a live chat conversation with a customer, it can be fun. Emojis can help adjust the mood and keep a message lighthearted. Forbes says that emojis can be worth 1,000 words. But, don’t go overboard. Too many smiley faces and penguins will come across annoying and unprofessional.
The quick fix: Just stop 🛑
If it seems like your agents may be on emoji overdrive, just ask them to stop. Remove the use of smileys and strong arms from your operations entirely. It’s better to have no emojis at all than to have too many. Now, if this hasn’t become a problem internally, then don’t worry about it. Skilled agents typically know what’s appropriate and what’s not.
7. Extreme focus on quantity
In eCommerce and business in general, decision-makers spend end a lot of time looking at numbers. In customer service, you strive for the fastest first-response and resolution times. While this is best practice, don’t let quantity overshadow quality. Some teams become so focused on their numbers that they lose sight of their actual customer satisfaction. Don’t let this be your team.
The quick fix: Audit your operations
Instead of playing a numbers game and obsessing about the clock, focus on quality. Customer satisfaction should be the number one goal of every support team and every business, for that matter. Periodically, run an audit on your operations and make sure your satisfaction levels are balanced with your speed.
8. No data collection
A few weeks ago, I called out to online store owners on Twitter to ask for their experience using live chat to increase sales. I wanted to level the playing field and reach beyond our internal data to find others who had the same experience. And, while each respondent knew that live chat had a positive impact on their Shopify sales, they couldn’t provide real numbers. Instead, they shared anecdotes and vague descriptions and stories. There are two key problems with no data collection for live chat.
When you have no performance data and statistics, you can’t determine the exact areas where you need to improve your processes.
A lack of customer data leads to a decrease in customer satisfaction.
90% of consumers value when an agent knows their account history and current activity within a company.
The quick fix: Use a full-featured live chat plaform
If your live chat platform is designed to collect data from your agents and your customers, you can get all of the information you need to collect helpful internal statistics.
Keep track of tickets created, replied, closed, messages, time to resolution. Sort your data by agent or event. Use real numbers from your internal processes to power your customer support strategy.
With the right reporting system, you can inform your future decisions about hiring, automation, processes, and more.
9. Missing optimal chat times
Do you know when your website traffic spends most of their time on your website? And, are you making certain that your agents are online during peak times? If not, you will naturally see low response and resolution times. Plus, the people who reach out when nobody is online may never return to your site.
The quick fix: discover your peak times & make sure you’re staffed
Use a tool like Google Analytics to generate hour of day and day of week reports. When you have determined the most active times for your website visitors, check to make sure you’re staffed during these times. And, if you see that there are active traffic times that you don’t have anyone available, make adjustments to your staff schedules.
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10. Ignoring sales opportunities
Customer support is an avenue for your team to keep shoppers happy. And, happy shoppers evolve into satisfied, long-term customers. But, you may be missing opportunities to upsell your website traffic on current promotions and increase sales even more.
The quick fix: Share your current promotions with shoppers
When you’re running a promotion, contest, or sale, make sure your support agents are aware. At the beginning or end of every live chat conversation (you’ll have to test to see what works best for your audience), give customers a link to a page with the information or briefly tell them about the promotion.
11. Disconnected processes
A major problem for many support agents that can kill satisfaction is processes that are disconnected. Your staff can be forced to open multiple tabs to keep a conversation going -- email, social media, live chat, web store. This can take up precious time and also give customers the feeling that your company doesn’t know who they are or what their status is.
The quick fix: Make sure your live chat is integrated with Shopify and your other communication channels
Gorgias's live chat platform connects with your Shopify data so that you can streamline the resolution on orders, shipping, tracking, and return tickets. Furthermore, it integrates with your email, phone, and social media messaging platforms so that you have access to all customer data, no matter which channel they reach out on.
Final thoughts
Now you know exactly what not to do and how to fix what you’re doing wrong with live chat on your Shopify store. Apply this advice today and watch your support team nurture more satisfaction with shoppers. If you need a Shopify full-featured live chat platform that provides the data you need to scale your customer support operations and the integrations that can streamline your operations, find out what we have to offer.
As ecommerce grew this year, we continued to work toward a decentralized vision of commerce — a model where merchants take back their customer relationships from colossal marketplaces and connect one-to-one with the people who buy their products.
Our merchants had a record-breaking number of these personal interactions in 2021 and that’s worth celebrating. So we’ve collected all the firsts, upgrades and proudest moments to share with you.
Since January 2021 feels like 10 years ago (and also 10 minutes ago, somehow), let’s take a walk down memory lane.
This year, we helped 8,000 brands support over 290 million shoppers, bringing in customers like Bidabo, Biketart, Lillie's Q and Livinguard.
All together, our customers generated $1.1 billion from their customer support functions in 2021.
Those companies varied in size, from single entrepreneurs still proving their products to enterprise companies scaling beyond their wildest dreams. Differences aside, they united in prioritizing customer experience to grow their businesses.
Some industries came up again and again on our roster, including:
And because Gorgias powered growth across 110 industries, our customers’ customers were purchasing everything from medical supplies to maritime essentials.
75 million chances to improve customer experience
Every minute of 2021, Gorgias customers closed out an average of 179 tickets. In more relatable terms, they helped more than 10,000 shoppers in the time it took to watch a new episode of Shark Tank.
At the peak of support volume — the five-day period from Thanksgiving and Black Friday through Cyber Monday (BFCM) — our merchants answered 2.5 million tickets. Their support teams drove $25.6 million in sales during that time.
The impact didn’t stop there. On average, our merchants received a 4/5 satisfaction rating from their customers in 2021. The 75 million tickets they answered reinforced their brands, one loyal customer at a time.
After all, when your team has a million fires to extinguish, the only flames in customer support should be the emoji reactions to your five-star ratings.
And that’s exactly what you’ll be chasing as your performance metrics approach those from our top quartile of merchants. The top-performing teams clocked first-response times under two hours and resolution times under 8 hours, on average.
Our merchants met shoppers wherever they were
As ecommerce becomes more decentralized, so do the channels that provide your customer feedback.
Still, it’s no surprise that email remains the most popular support channel, used by 92% of our brands. Together, they answered 64 million emails in 2021 (85% of all tickets).
This next stat may be more of a revelation: 78% of our brands have brought Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter interactions into their Gorgias workspace. They answered 3.7 million comments across those three channels, with almost two-thirds coming from Facebook.
These social channels were used even more than our live chat, phone, and SMS integrations. And Gorgias helped merchants meet their customers in all of the above, without ever leaving their dashboard.
Assembling the ecommerce A-Team
2021 also saw the launch of our long-awaited Gorgias App Store. This hub features 75 apps to extend the power of our helpdesk and centralize the information support agents rely on.
62% of our merchants are using at least one of our partner apps, and we’re exploring new partnerships all the time to continue streamlining the customer support process.
This allows us, and all of our partners, to stay focused on being the absolute best at what we do.
Some of our merchants’ favorite integrations include:
Klaviyo: An email and SMS marketing automation platform
Recharge: For subscriptions and recurring payments
Attentive: A comprehensive text message marketing solution
Postscript: SMS marketing for growing ecommerce stores
Yotpo: For customer reviews, loyalty, referrals, and more
So go ahead and close those 20 tabs out — you won’t need them where we’re headed.
Customer feedback drove our product roadmap
We released 91 features this year, 42 of which were led by your requests on our public roadmap.
Our most requested features (that are all available today!) were:
Managing phone calls in Gorgias, with both new and existing phone numbers
The quick adoption of our 2021 social media updates made it clear these channels were critical to our merchants’ success this year. We expect that to continue into 2022. (TikTok, anyone? Give it an upvote here!)
And while voice support didn’t see the same volume of requests as the social channels, we knew it was essential for certain brands. To better serve these merchants, we built a native phone integration that’s easily set up for new and existing numbers.
Merchants responded by taking more than 4,000 calls from shoppers this year. As a result, resolution times were up to 34% faster than others who left phone service out of their strategies.
And while we want to give our merchants a variety of tools to provide help, sometimes it's best to empower shoppers to help themselves.
Our new Help Center feature provides FAQ hubs on merchant websites, to work toward this goal. The first 100 Help Centers that went live attracted over 100,000 views, answering inquiries before they could turn into tickets.
Another contribution is perhaps our most exciting release: Our Automate product allows for customization of self-service flows and deflects even more tickets to boost team efficiency.
Hundreds of merchants used the add-on in 2021 to automate their tickets, increasing efficiency across their support teams.
Our self-service portal alone deflected up to another 33% of tickets specific to shoppers (like order status). This freed up agent time to provide a more personal touch to important conversations.
Gorgias grew alongside our merchants
We tripled the size of our team in 2021 to continue building the best possible helpdesk for the specific needs of ecommerce brands. There are now 185 employees who work in16 countries around the globe and speak 18 different languages.
That means there’s more Gorgians building out integrations, furthering the product roadmap, and contributing to our merchants’ success.
And our customers have let us know how much these improvements impacted their businesses. We currently hold top marks among the helpdesk categories on G2, Capterra and the Shopify app store.
Looking ahead to 2022
2021 was a year to remember for the Gorgias team and our customers, but 2022 is shaping up to be even better. It might even be the year people learn to pronounce our name. (470 people asked how during this year’s demos; think “gorgeous.”)
Fingers crossed.
Either way, we have some key new features on the roadmap and several surprises up our sleeves. We’ll continue building and optimizing channels so you can meet your customers where they are (including a much-requested Whatsapp integration). We’re also going to renew our focus on automation tools to increase efficiency across your team.
Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, below, to beam all of our updates directly to your inbox.
As for the rest of the ecommerce industry, we have high hopes for 2022 (and plenty of predictions). We’re expecting continued shift of support tickets to social channels, a bigger emphasis on self-service options and a sharper focus on app integrations across the ecommerce ecosystem.
Often, a support team answers the same questions over and over…
Or issues returns repeatedly for reasons that could be addressed internally…
Maybe the sizing isn’t well represented, the fulfillment house has mixed up SKUs, or your product images aren’t clear or detailed enough.
If you can lighten the load for your customer support team, you can save significant time and costs, while at the same time improving the buying experience for your customers.
The goals here are to:
Reduce repeat inquiries
Shorten first response times
Speed up problem resolution time
Lower overall customer care costs
The key is to address your customers questions and issues before they ask your support team. Here's how you do that:
A Better FAQ Page
91% of shoppers would gladly try to answer their own questions first using an online knowledge base or FAQ page before reaching out to a customer service team, according to a survey by Coleman Parkes for Amdocs.
This means that your FAQ page is a huge opportunity to answer your customers’ most common questions and issues so they don’t need to reach out to customer support.
FAQ information typically falls into one of two distinct buckets: product-specific and buying process.
Product Specific: Common questions about individual products may be better off addressed on the product pages rather than in a broad FAQ page. You may need to provide clearer or more comprehensive product descriptions, or consider more or better photography to clear up common product questions.
Buying Process: Questions about shipping, returns, policies, and other operational topics are best addressed in a single easy-to-find page like an FAQ.
When is the last time you cross-checked the content of your FAQ page with the data from your customer support team?
There are many customer support tools like Gorgias that will make it easy for you to track the reasons behind why users submit a ticket.
Once you begin tracking the topic, or tag, of your questions, you can easily identify the questions that top the list, and permanently add the responses to the FAQ.
Bonus points: Prioritize the FAQ page based on the frequency of each customer service inquiry so that the most relevant answers are closer to the top.
Your next step is to set up a monthly meeting with your head of customer service to review the feedback coming in from your customers and ask yourself:
What are the most frequent topics of support inquiries?
What issues take up the majority of your support team’s time and resources?
What issues are emerging or could emerge do to seasonality or new initiatives within our company?
Remember, an FAQ page is:
Easy to find
If shoppers can’t find it quickly and easily, they won’t use it and all your work answering all of their questions will go to waste. If you have an answer on your FAQ page, yet people are still inquiring, they might be having trouble finding the page.
Searchable
Include a search bar so that shoppers can easily find the answers for their specific problem without having to read through everything else.
Easy to read
Use simple, conversational language. Technical slang gives most of us a headache, and leaves most people reaching for the closest live human to explain it in terms they understand.
Now that you have your FAQ page squared away, be sure to track visitors to the page and note any changes in volume, and look for changes in your support ticket volume around those related questions.
Remember: You should never answer a support ticket only by referencing your FAQ page. Always include the information they are asking for directly within your response. After that, let the customer know that there is an FAQ page for more information, to avoid future tickets.
See Where Your Customers Get Tripped Up
Have you watched actual customers explore your online store to see where they stumble?
Customer behavior tools like Hotjar make it easy to review how customers navigate your website. One way that customer behavior analysis tools can help you understand exactly how your customers are using your site is with heat maps.
A heat map is a visual representation of the most popular (hot) and unpopular (cold) elements of a website page. They can give you an at-a-glance understanding of how people interact with individual website pages. Elements that get the most views and interaction are shown in red, so you can immediately spot what your users are clicking on. Those that most people tend to ignore appear in blue.
Once you know which parts of your website are most (and least) useful to shoppers, you can tweak those elements to make the on-site experience easier to use.
Customer behavior data can inform on-site improvements, such as:
Identifying any “dead” pages so you can remove them
Recognizing “deep” content that requires too many clicks for customers to reach, and making it more visible or accessible
Ensuring that customers can easily see and access main links, buttons, and CTAs
Making sure that important elements are getting the attention they deserve
Checking whether any static elements are getting clicked too often, and adjusting them to clarify that they aren’t a linked object
It may require some A/B testing to ensure your changes deliver results.
Learn from Returns
According to a recent Shopify post, during the holiday season, Ecommerce returns surge to 30 percent (or as high as 50 percent for “expensive” products).
Return deliveries are estimated to exceed $550 billion by 2020 in the U.S. alone.
Many of those returns are probably associated with a customer support ticket - whether customers are asking questions about the product they received, or need help processing their return.
Anything you can do to reduce the number of returns - and the number of customer support requests associated with them - can mean a huge boost for your bottom line.
So, what causes returns?
Returns can often be traced back to a disconnect between customer expectations and the reality of the product once they receive it. It may be that:
It doesn’t fit the way they expected
It doesn’t look or feel like they thought it would
Delivery came later than they expected (or not at all)
All of these problems (and more) can be prevented in advance with improvements to your website content.
Sizing Issues
While fit can be a difficult factor to get right online, including detailed dimensions is a big step in the right direction. Some apparel merchants are taking sizing one step further with interactive fit guides, like the one above Nudie Jeans, which uses an app integration called Virtusize:.
Appearance Issues
Poor quality or not enough product images can make it difficult for customers to accurately understand what your product will look like when it arrives at their home.
You can easily reduce your return rate by making sure your product photography is clear and high-quality, and illustrates all of the primary parts of each product. More complicated or detailed products can also benefit from a video or 360-view.
Detailed product descriptions can also help address confusion about product appearance and feel. Sol de Janeiro does this with a multi-tab product content area that defaults to a brief product highlight, with additional tabs to provide more details.
Fulfillment Issues
Are orders not being fulfilled to the right customers?
Are deliveries taking longer than they should?
Analyzing your fulfillment data and using that information to make adjustments to your website content - such as average delivery times - can help eliminate a source of customer support calls.
For example, maybe you want to be able to deliver every order within two days, but your current fulfillment resources simply can’t make that happen consistently. Being up-front and clear about realistic delivery times (like The Black Dog does in their Shipping FAQ page, above) will help set customers’ expectations appropriately.
Bonus: To get setup on two day shipping, consider our partners at ShipBob.
Final Thoughts
Continue to study your on-site data using Google Analytics or Shopify’s native analytics and look for high exit % pages. These may be pages where prospects or customers are running into a dead end and being forced to turn to support.
You can also create a goal in Google Analytics that corresponds to contacting support, then reverse the user path to determine which pages lead to them submitting a ticket / hitting that “contact” or “support” button.
Chances are, there are a few areas of “low hanging fruit” that can make significant improvements to your customer support load once you find them and address the root concerns. And with those small fixes, you could see a big impact on your bottom line, and a better on-site experience for your customers.
Read more about customer support on our trusted partner’s site, Growth Spark:
Aircall is a cloud-based call center software made for support teams. With Aircall, support agents can track everything from A-Z, on any device, with zero hardware to manage. The right tool to increase agent efficiency and customer satisfaction!
Aircall Makes the Gorgias Helpdesk Complete
After listening to early customer feedback, we quickly realized we needed to find a phone integration that empowered users to manage voice calls as easily as emails or chats.
Traditional helpdesk integrations simply log calls as tickets. We wanted to go one step further and associate the phone call with the right customer. This way, agents can see the full conversation history between the brand and the customer.
By building Aircall’s cloud-based phone into the Gorgias platform, agents can also quickly edit orders while on the phone based on the case history they see. After a call has ended, all notes will be added to the correct customer’s profile along with a link to the full call recording.
Why Aircall was the Right Choice
Looking back, the partnership has been mutually beneficial and seamlessly implemented.
Aircall has a well-documented API that our dev team could easily use. We were able to build a working and robust phone integration with Aircall in just a few hours. Four days later, after QA testing, the new solutions were fully functional and ready to use.
Since Gorgias and Aircall both seek to provide the best customer experience possible, cross-company visibility has become a valuable source of new leads and sales. Furthermore, we conduct regular catch-up meetings and share a Slack channel to make sure both teams work hand-in-hand to create the best integration and the best results. The partnership with Aircall is super valuable for both our customers and our respective companies and we strongly recommend each others.
If you're already a Gorgias customer, head to your account and go to Integrations to connect Aircall. If not, you can create an account here and get started in a few minutes.
You spoke and we listened. We’re excited to tell you that, we are ready to launch out of beta. Now, you can connect your Magento 2 store with your Gorgias account. Access your Gorgias and Magento data from one dashboard.
The simplistic interface will enable you to display customers, orders, shipments, and credit memo data from your Magento eCommerce store next to your Gorgias support tickets. Learn more about the features you can take advantage of.
Magento 2 users can leverage the benefits of Gorgias
Magento users now have access to the fundamental and performance-boosting advantages of the Gorgias help desk platform.
Display Magento customer profiles next to your support tickets.
View orders, shipments, and credit memos for each customer.
Centralize all customer communications like email, live chat, and social messaging and comments in one place.
Connect to Magento store and other third-party extensions to empower your support agents to reply to tickets quickly and within context.
Leverage key automation features like phrase prediction or intent detection to create productive and revenue-generating conversations.
Save up to 50% of your time spent managing support requests across all support communication channels.
Insert Magento 2 variables like the last order’s tracking URL, into macros.
Use Magento 2 data as a filter for rules. For example, to add conditions on the price of the last order of a customer.
Soon, we will add actions like ‘refund’ or ‘cancel order’ to the dashboard as well.
Note: The Gorgias Extension is Compatible with Magento 2.3
Our extension was created for compatibility with the updated Magento 2 platform. So, Magento 2.2 users may need to upgrade to version 2.3 to properly access all of Gorgias’ help desk features.
How to Install the Extension to Your Magento 2 Store
By integrating with Magento 2, we are excited to serve a new rank of online sellers. We hope to recreate the satisfaction we’ve given our existing users. Here’s what you can do now.
Gorgias connects to over 70 leading ecommerce applications, giving you the power to centralize customer data in your helpdesk, perform support actions from a single place, and streamline your store’s toolkit.
This month, we launched 7 new integrations:
LoyaltyLion
Twitter (No longer supported in 2023)
Call Hippo
Shipup
Tolstoy
Autopilot
Sentisum
Yotpo (updates to our existing integration)
Read on to learn how you can use these tools to help manage your store, and visit the Gorgias App Store to activate them today!
LoyaltyLion is a digital loyalty framework that gives ecommerce stores innovative ways to engage and retain customers. If you're using LoyaltyLion for your loyalty program, you can connect it to Gorgias to display information next to support tickets, and reward loyalty points using Macros.
Note: Gorgias no longer supports Twitter. You can still use Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in Gorgias.
Give your support team the power to provide customer service to shoppers on Twitter, without having to log into another platform or share credentials with your social media manager. View past Twitter conversations, gain cross-channel message context, and customize your replies to provide exceptional customer support.
Note: This integration is currently only available for Enterprise plans. View pricing here.
CallHippo allows startups and businesses to buy instant local support numbers from over 50+ countries around the world. With this integration, you can create tickets in Gorgias for phone calls and SMS conversations via Call Hippo.
Shipup follows your packages in real-time to create a seamless, transparent, and branded delivery experience. With the Gorgias integration, you can easily share shipping information with your support team, immediately notify them with a ticket in Gorgias when an incident occurs, and find customer information right next to conversations.
Tolstoy is an interactive video platform, helping users create meaningful and personal conversations at scale. With this integration, Gorgias users can sync their Tolstoy videos and monitor every viewer interaction as a ticket, empowering support agents to engage without ever leaving the help desk.
Autopilot is a data and customer journey marketing platform designed for businesses who sell online. With this integration, you can now combine your Shopify and Gorgias data together seamlessly in Autopilot. You’ll not only have a single view of your customer, but you’ll be able to deliver a more personalized marketing experience and get glowing reviews from satisfied customers.
SentiSum is an automated ticket tagging engine powered by natural language processing technology. With this integration, SentiSum tags can auto-fill form fields directly in Gorgias. From there, you can implement additional automation that saves agent time and improves customer outcomes.
You can now receive Yotpo product reviews right in Gorgias and reply to them as tickets! This gives your agents visibility into how shoppers feel about your product and allows them to address concerns without ever leaving the helpdesk. Each ticket will include the review details (like score and product) and allow you to either reply publicly or privately, so you can customize the support experience.
To add these integrations and discover more, go to the Gorgias App Store.