About Dr. Bronner’s

Dr. Bronner's is a family business known for its transparency and commitment to social and environmental responsibility. They are committed to making socially and environmentally responsible products of the highest quality, from soap to chocolate, while dedicating their profits to help make a better world. 

Their approach is rooted in fair-trade and organic practices and a spirit of intentionally influencing everything from the entire supply chain to support messages sent by the CX team.

“Our CX team is small which is why leaning into automation was so crucial for us. We were really at a turning point at the beginning of the year and we knew that we had to make a change. We had to make our tools work for us, not against us. Gorgias was a huge opportunity and we decided to jump in head first. Within the first 30 days, we were able to automate 30% of customer interactions and are now up to 45%.”

—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

The Challenge: Keeping up with demand of a growing brand

Dr. Bronner’s was expanding rapidly, and the need for a more robust customer service infrastructure was becoming increasingly clear.

“When I joined Dr. Bronner’s, we had no CRM in place. We were logging calls and emails in Excel, which wasn’t scalable.”

—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

Over time, Emily built a small but effective team of 5 full-time agents, collaborating with departments like quality assurance and PR to create a more cohesive customer service operation. However, as Dr. Bronner’s grew, so did their customer inquiries, pushing the team to seek a more efficient system.

When the time came to evaluate their tools, Emily and her team decided to switch from Salesforce to Gorgias. Although Salesforce had served them well in the early days, it became clear that it wasn’t built with CX in mind, and they relied heavily on external developers to maintain workflows. 

“We were spending a lot of time and money on development. The customizable platform was just too taxing on a small team,” Emily explains. 

Initially, there was some hesitation about the aggressive goal of automating 45%+ of customer interactions within 30 days using Gorgias. However, the hands-on support provided by Gorgias during the transition made the process smooth and manageable. 

The Solution: A tool for CX, made by CX 

The key to the efficiency Emily sought for her team was a tool built around the day-to-day tasks of her team: answering product and policy FAQs, updating orders, managing return requests, and keeping everything synced across the brand’s tool stack.

Customer education is at the heart of Dr. Bronner’s mission. Their customers often ask detailed questions about product ingredients, packaging, and certifications. With Gorgias, Emily and her team were able to build a robust Help Center that helped to By providing readily available information on their website, customers could educate themselves without having to wait for a human response.

“We wanted our customers to feel empowered by having access to the same information we use internally,” Emily says. The integration of automated flows, a dynamic Help Center, and contact form automation allowed Dr. Bronner’s to handle routine inquiries—such as order statuses—quickly and efficiently. This freed up time for the CX team to focus on more meaningful customer interactions.

Automating repetitive questions with AI Agent

Dr. Bronner’s partnered with Gorgias for 30-in-30, a hands-on onboarding program aiming to resolve 30% of their support volume with automation, within 30 days.

At first, the Dr. Bronner’s team was unsure if AI could maintain the personal touch their customers expected. But AI Agent quickly proved its worth, efficiently handling both transactional and personalized inquiries with the same care as a human agent.

“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.”
‍
—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

The AI provided quick, efficient responses, particularly for transactional queries, and seamlessly handed off more complex issues to human agents when needed. Customers responded positively to the interactions, praising the accuracy and personalization of the AI.

Here’s an example of AI Agent helping match a customer to the right product, based on their unique goals and lifestyle:

And here’s an example of AI Agent explaining how one of Dr. Bronner’s products works on color-treated hair, including step-by-step instructions: 

The positive impact of automation on the CX team

The introduction of automation had a transformative effect on the CX team. With tasks like order status updates and common inquiries automated, agents now had more time to engage in meaningful conversations with customers, focusing on building loyalty and addressing more complex issues.

“Our agents can now focus on backend operations, process improvements, and engaging in deeper conversations with our customers,” Emily explains. 

This shift not only improved the customer experience but also increased job satisfaction for the CX team, giving them more opportunities to work on projects that contribute to the business’s long-term goals.

Realizing cost-savings and evaluating impact on the business 

The switch from Salesforce to Gorgias resulted in a substantial cost savings of $100,000 in the first year. 

Then, by automating 45%+ of the support volume, the team’s savings grew even more impressive, thanks to the cost-efficiency of automation compared to the cost of staff answering every question — no matter how repetitive.

In the past month, Dr. Bronner’s has saved $5,248 (the equivalent of 4 days worth of work for their team) by automating 48% of inquiries.

Beyond the financial savings, the time saved through automation allowed Dr. Bronner’s to expand into new services, such as SMS and subscription offerings. By automating routine tasks, the team could focus on supporting these ecommerce initiatives, driving additional growth and customer engagement.

A connected tech stack with robust integrations 

One of the key differences between Salesforce and Gorgias was the ease of integration with Shopify and other tools.

"We used to use Salesforce but Gorgias integrates much better with Shopify and other ecommerce tools. While Salesforce needed heavy development, Gorgias connected to our entire stack with just a few clicks. Our team can now manage workflows without needing custom development — we save $100k/year by switching."

—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

In addition to Shopify, Dr. Bronner’s integrated tools like Loop Returns for returns and exchanges automation. Integrations are a game-changer because the team can access all the data they need in Gorgias and push updates directly from there — further streamlining the customer experience, allowing the team to handle complex processes like returns with ease. 

No more shuffling between Gorgias, Aircall, Shopify, and Loop — everything’s in one tab, making the team more efficient and allowing them to focus on personalized service.

Dr. Bronner’s also implemented Aircall for voice communication, which integrated smoothly with Gorgias. The team is excited about the potential for future voice automation through Gorgias Voice, which will further enhance their ability to manage high call volumes.

The Results: Increased Automation, Significant Cost Savings, and Improved CX Efficiency

• 45% of all customer service inquiries automated after only 2 months
• 4 days per month in team time-savings by handling routine inquiries efficiently, allowing the team to focus on personalized and complex customer engagements.
• $100,000 saved per year by switching from Salesforce to Gorgias, reducing licensing and development costs.
• Seamless integration with Shopify, Aircall, and Loop, eliminating the need to switch between multiple platforms.
• Increased efficiency enabled the team to reduce errors and streamline operations.
• 11% improved customer satisfaction score by freeing up time for more loyalty-building conversations and personalized interactions.

These results had a profound impact on the overall business, allowing Dr. Bronner’s to scale customer support without adding significant overhead. By automating routine tasks, the team could focus on higher-value activities, driving customer loyalty and supporting continued growth.

Looking Forward: Automating CX and enhancing engagement

Looking ahead, Dr. Bronner’s is excited about Gorgias’s ongoing improvements and updates. “The Gorgias team is constantly listening to their customers and improving the platform. We’re always seeing new features that enhance our workflows,” Emily says.

The future looks bright for Dr. Bronner’s as they continue to leverage Gorgias’s automation and AI capabilities to deliver exceptional customer experiences while scaling their operations efficiently.

“The ability to automate routine inquiries has been a game-changer for us. We can now focus on delivering the personal connection our brand is known for while growing our business.”

— Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s

Ready to see how Gorgias can help your brand automate customer interactions, reduce costs, and improve CX?