Rumpl was founded to create durable outdoor blankets offering the comfort of a sleeping bag, using 100% recycled materials. The concept was born after the founders were stuck in subzero temperatures during a road trip. After exceeding their Kickstarter target to create a “sleeping bag blanket”, they introduced the Original Puffy Blanket. Today, Rumpl offers a wide range of products for adventure-ready people, including outdoor and indoor blankets, towels, mats, ponchos, and hats.
The challenge: A lengthy, inefficient manual returns process frustrated customers and support agents alike
Like many ecommerce brands, Rumpl’s busiest season is during Q4, driven by cold weather and holiday gift-giving in the US. Requests for returns and exchanges then peak during January. This spike in demand placed a lot of pressure on Rumpl’s customer support team and often led to delays which eroded customer satisfaction.
Rumpl had been managing returns via a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. The cumbersome, manual returns process involved multiple steps that often took 2–3 business weeks to complete even with their previous helpdesk, Zendesk.
"Our previous return process was messy. We had to do a lot of manual work: matching return labels to orders, checking and following up with our 3PL, warehouse, and customers. We managed everything in shared Excel sheets, which was time-consuming and frustrating for our team."
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
Customers weren’t happy with long wait times for refunds or exchanges, or delays in status updates. Worse, the manual nature of the process increased the likelihood of errors, further complicating customer interactions.
Rumpl needed a more efficient way to handle returns and communicate with customers, including managing expectations around return policies and options.
The goal was clear: streamline the returns process, reduce manual workload, and increase customer satisfaction by providing timely and accurate updates on their return status.
“A key part of my job is ensuring our support team is set up for success. The easier we can handle concerns and issues, the more likely we are to deliver the best possible customer experience.”
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
The solution: Automated, centralized return management via Loop and Gorgias
Rumpl switched to returns management platform Loop. By making return management fast and straightforward, Loop helps ecommerce companies save time and money, retain more revenue, and drive customer loyalty.
Rumpl leveraged the powerful integration between Loop and Gorgias, its current customer support platform, to streamline its returns process and boost customer satisfaction.
Improve resolution times by enabling self-service return management
Rumpl’s customers can now manage their own returns and exchanges through the automated Loop Returns portal within the Gorgias chat widget. This gives customers the speedy, efficient response they want to manage and track their returns while freeing up the customer support team to focus on more complex tickets.
"Tickets that used to take weeks to close can now be resolved immediately. We simply give customers the return link and instructions, then close the ticket, knowing Loop will handle the rest."
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
When exchanging items, 50.7% of customers use Loop’s Instant Exchange feature. This automatically reserves their chosen replacement item, preventing it from going out of stock by the time the return is processed. This popular feature also eliminates the need for manual processing of out-of-stock exchange requests.
Increase support team efficiency by eliminating manual workflows
Customers always have the option to contact the Rumpl support team with queries on returns and exchanges. Thanks to the Loop Returns widget in Gorgias, agents can instantly access return information to resolve these queries fast. Manual, multi-step workflows are eliminated, and the potential for error slashed.
The Rumpl team has customized the information visible in the Loop widget to show only the data they want to see. Customer tickets also contain hyperlinks to return details in Loop, so agents can quickly navigate there if needed.
"The Gorgias/Loop integration has been really useful for us. Being able to view return info in Gorgias, then open that return in Loop with one click, makes it super easy to navigate and resolve any issues the customer might have."
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
Provide clear, timely, and customized returns information
Automating returns information has proved to be a win-win. Customers are pleased to receive the prompt, relevant information they want, and the support team can work more efficiently because manual effort is reduced.
Using Gorgias Macros (templated, customizable responses to common questions) tailored to its return policies, Rumpl can provide clear, consistent, and proactive information to customers based on specific return requests. Combined with Loop’s Shop Now feature — which makes it easy for customers to exchange items within the Loop portal — this has helped increase exchanges and store credit uptake rather than refunds for returned items.
“The integration allows us to provide more tailored, relevant communication to a customer based on the type of return they need. We can proactively explain return fees so they don’t feel blindsided, and encourage exchanges or returns for store credit.”
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
Achieve cost savings by automating return fee recoupment
Alongside the efficiency savings and enhanced customer experience, the Loop/Gorgias integration has had a notable financial impact. Automated return fee recoupment through Loop has offered significant cost savings and efficiency gains. The automated process is tailored to reflect Rumpl’s return policies, such as waiving fees for items under warranty and exchanges.
“Being able to automatically deduct return fees from customer refunds through Loop is incredibly powerful for us and saves us a lot of money."
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
The results: $8,000 in recouped return fees, while 39% faster resolution time helps drive 4.89 CSAT
Rumpl has gained substantial benefits from the Loop and Gorgias integration, significantly improving the efficiency of its returns process while increasing customer satisfaction. The financial impact has been a standout result, from recouping $8,000 of returns fees to converting 6.3% of return-related tickets to new sales. Nearly a third (31.4%) of returned revenue is converted to exchanges or store credit.
“The Loop/Gorgias integration saves us a lot of money in the form of recouped return fees — $8,000 in the past year alone. That’s hugely important for us.”
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
The integration allows Rumpl to provide a more efficient, seamless, and positive returns experience for its customers, resolving tickets 39% faster. During peak season, the average first response time is 2.5 hours. Rumpl’s speedy service and effective issue resolution have boosted CSAT to 4.89 on return-related tickets — higher than its overall CSAT.
"Since implementing Loop and Gorgias, our resolution time is 39% faster and our customer satisfaction rating on return-related tickets has jumped to 4.89."
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl
Overall, the Gorgias/Loop integration has transformed Rumpl's returns management, saving time, reducing costs, and greatly enhancing the customer experience. It has become a vital part of Rumpl’s customer support operations tech stack.
"On a scale of 1–10, the importance of the Loop/Gorgias integration is a 9 or 10 for us. After Shopify, Loop is the integration we rely most on within Gorgias. Neither we nor our customers could go back to the manual returns process we had before.”
— Jacob Cantu, Senior Customer & People Experience Manager at Rumpl