ALOHAS is a Barcelona-based brand on the cutting edge of sustainable fashion. Their mission is to bring the latest trends to shoppers without harming the planet. With their bi-weekly on-demand collections, they only produce what customers pre-order to prevent overproduction — a complex problem in retail.

The ALOHAS on-demand collections offer customers luscious discounts (15-30% off) to order items 6 weeks in advance. This bold program disrupts “I want it now!” culture in retail, offering quality, sustainable fashion that has turned them into an iconic brand in Europe and across the world.

But how exactly could ALOHAS challenge this “I want it now!” thinking to a large customer base without growing the team or sacrificing the customer experience? Continue reading to learn how they used self-service features to:

• Meet customers where they’re at
• Educate customers and change expectations
• Spark more conversations with shoppers
• And as a result, generate double the revenue from chat interactions

Challenge: Educating customers and managing high chat volume

As the on demand program grew, so did the volume of questions: “Our customers often reach out using chat or social media with any questions on the biweekly on-demand collection, the discount, or the wait time” says Annalisa Micalizzi who leads the team of 15 customer care specialists.

The biggest struggle is our most powerful weapon: the on-demand model. Educating customers to wait for their purchase has been crucial for our success.

— Annalisa Micalizzi, Head of Customer Care at ALOHAS

The ALOHAS team received a high volume (around 10,000 - 15,000 per month) of inquiries, including tons of shipping times, return policies, and sizing questions — all of which become more complex because of their unique business model. Here’s an example of the how a common retail question about shipping turns into a deeper conversation about the on-demand model:

These questions are valuable — customers need this information to get invested in ALOHAS and make a confident purchase. The ALOHAS team understands the value of meeting customers where they are, especially when it comes to educating customers about the unique on-demand program.

So, the ALOHAS team looked for a way to offer a more informative, convenient, and efficient customer experience.

Solution: Anticipate customer questions, provide instant answers, and spark more meaningful conversations

The ALOHAS team partnered with Gorgias and implemented features in the Automation Add-on to provide instant, high-quality support to more customers.

Quick response flows to offer instant answers and spark pre-purchase conversations

Quick response flows enrich ALOHAS chat widget with buttons containing some of their customers’ most common questions.

When customers click on one of the top buttons (in the left-most image), they get a helpful response — no wait time or agent involved. If the customer is still confused or has follow-up questions, they can click “No, I need more help” at the bottom of the message to connect with a live customer care specialist.

Here’s an example of the Quick answer for “What is the ALOHAS shipping policy?”:

In other words, ALOHAS is:

• Sharing important information with more customers
• Deflecting a high ratio of tickets with quick response flows (83%!)
• Inviting deeper follow-up conversations (which their agents are more energized to have thanks to the high deflection rate)

Self-service flows to deflect hundreds of tickets and let customers manage orders without a hassle

Like quick response flows, order management flows enrich the chat widget with buttons to get self-service support, only for post-sales inquiries about order status, returns, cancellations, and other concerns.

Customers can select one of these flows — the Track and order flow is pictured below — to conveniently learn the status of their order without having to wait for an agent or pull that agent away from more complex, VIP, or escalated conversations with customers.

The results: 50% faster responses and 250% more revenue from chat interactions

Together, quick response flows and self-service flows initiate up to 70-80% of chat interactions on a given day, providing a faster customer experience and making more time for conversations that build stronger relationships and generate revenue.

As an example, 7% of chat interactions are customers looking up their order status with self-service flows. Customers don’t have to wait for a response, and the team’s helpdesk is 7% less cluttered.

Since we started to fully leverage Automation Add-on, we’ve seen days where 78% of chat volume would be handled by Quick Response Flows. Overall, 56% of chat tickets are handled by self-service.

— Annalisa Micalizzi, Manager of Global Customer Service at ALOHAS

50% faster FRT and resolution time with self-service

Now that some of the most common, basic questions are handled by self-service, the ALOHAS team can jump on other questions much faster. Before, the team took around 7 minutes to respond to chat tickets. Now, their average first-response time is 3 minutes and 30 seconds — a 50% improvement.

To recap, nearly double the customers now use chat and self-service features to learn more about ALOHAS. And, since so many of those interactions are self-service, the team can respond twice as fast to questions that actually become tickets.

83% automation rate translates to better CX that converts

Quick response flows don’t just deflect common inquiries — they’re a prologue to develop more meaningful chat conversations and often lead to a purchase.

Since launching Automation Add-on (quick response flows) three months ago, we have doubled the revenue from customer support and we’re on our way to triple the revenue we get from chat.

— Annalisa Micalizzi, Manager of Global Customer Service at ALOHAS

Customers would often click on self-service to learn more about discounts or exchange policy, then carry on to have a conversation with an agent that would lead to a purchase. ALOHAS customer service team feels more energized carrying on with these conversations as they already have all the information they need to kick off a relationship building dialogue. Since launching quick response flows in self-service, ALOHAS increased conversion rate following chat interactions by 12% — in other words, the self-service questions in chat (and follow-up conversations with agents) became a powerful catalyst to the shopping experience.

On top of all these great features, ALOHAS is thrilled by constant improvement. As Annalisa puts it, "Gorgias is a company that grows as you grow, welcomes feedback, shares news, and takes into account customers' requests to improve services. That's what sets Gorgias apart from others."