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Many customer service guides focus on individual actions: be patient, show empathy, and listen actively. While these customer support tips are valuable, they only scratch the surface. 

The goal of ecommerce customer service isn’t just to please customers. Just like any function of a business, great customer service has to drive revenue — and having positive interactions with customers is just one part of that goal. Excellent customer service can help an online store grow its bottom line revenue through:

• Better customer retention (and more loyal customers)
• Higher average order volume (AOV) from loyal customers
• Better word-of-mouth advertising and referrals from high net promoter score
• More chances to drive sales with new customers through proactive customer service

With that in mind, here are 20 customer support tips for improvements on many levels, from operational changes down to individual agents’ day-to-day.

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Tips for making high-impact changes to your customer experience

For a top-down revamp, focus on high-impact, cost-effective changes that customer support leaders can implement. 

Here are five tips to tackle major customer service challenges and elevate your service experience:

1. Collect and use customer feedback

Customer feedback is the single best resource to improve the overall quality of your product and customer experience. Analyzing customer feedback from support tickets, NPS and CSAT surveys, and face-to-face conversations can surface patterns harming customer satisfaction and opportunities for improvement. 

Consider the following example: if customers frequently ask questions about return policies, you may need to make the policy clearer. Or, if feedback shows frustration with response times, consider implementing real-time support options, such as social media, chat, or SMS. You could also consider using automation and templated responses to resolve common questions quickly.

These direct channels provide immediate answers and reduce wait times for customers who want quick resolutions.

Your customer service team can use feedback to share insights with product, shipping, and other teams—often leading to broader improvements. For example, feedback about shipping issues can guide adjustments in fulfillment, while comments on product quality can drive updates in manufacturing. 

We recommend setting up a system to pass feedback to relevant departments. With Gorgias, you can automatically tag feedback for specific teams, create custom views, and invite team members to access this feedback directly. Plus, with unlimited seats on most Gorgias plans, it’s easy to involve everyone who needs to see it.

2. Automate simple ticket requests such as WISMO to let agents focus on valuable conversations

Automating responses to frequently asked questions, such as “where is my order” (WISMO), has two major benefits. First, it reduces response times by instantly providing answers to common inquiries. Fast, accurate responses to these questions are crucial for reducing customer effort.

Second, automation lets your agents focus on more complex inquiries. Without having to handle repetitive tickets, they can prioritize high-impact conversations that involve troubleshooting or personalized assistance. In practice, this means fewer hours spent on “one-size-fits-all” tickets and more time available to resolve unique customer issues and address inquiries that require customer service skills.

3. Provide self-service options

Most customers prefer to find answers on their own when possible––according to Heretto, customers overwhelmingly prefer self-service solutions as their first point of contact for support.

Options like knowledge bases, detailed FAQ pages, and interactive help centers help customers solve issues independently, without relying on customer service representatives.

Here’s a quick breakdown of effective self-service solutions:

• FAQ pages: Concise answers to frequently asked questions about shipping, return policies, and product details.
• Knowledge bases: Comprehensive guides covering product use, troubleshooting, and company policies.
• Automated chat: Quick responses that guide customers through standard issues, providing an “in-person” feel while freeing up your support team.

Automated chat bridge self-service and hands-on support, offering customers a personalized experience without tying up your team. With Gorgias, you can set up flows in your help center or chat, allowing customers to find answers or track and modify orders—all without waiting for an agent.

Read our complete guide to customer self-service.

4. Train agents to have a strong understanding of your products and processes

Effective customer service skills go beyond soft skills like empathy. Agents need a deep understanding of your product to give accurate advice and solve issues effectively. Similarly, they need to deeply understand customer service techniques and processes (for things like escalation and returns) to give clear, accurate instructions. 

Here’s how you can set your customer service reps up for success:

1. Product knowledge: Agents should have a strong command of product details, features, and common troubleshooting steps. When they know the product inside and out, they can solve customer issues faster and with more confidence.
2. Process knowledge: Every company has unique processes, from returns to issue escalation. Clear instructions help agents navigate these processes smoothly and give customers a streamlined experience.
3. Customer service training: Empathy and positive language are crucial in customer service. An agent who can put themselves in the customer’s shoes, show understanding, and avoid negative language is more likely to resolve issues successfully. For example, phrases like “I understand how this must be frustrating” validate the customer’s experience and demonstrate that the agent is there to help.

When guiding customers—like through checkout—agents must provide accurate information to avoid negative interactions. Macros help standardize responses and reduce human error. 

In training, prioritize product knowledge and create an internal knowledge base for quick reference. It’s also key to train agents on your service tools. Gorgias Academy offers courses and certifications, along with help center documentation for setting up automation and managing accounts. 

Plus, our help center has detailed documentation on how to configure your account, set up new automation, and so much more.

Explore effective ways to organize your customer service team for a more streamlined operation.

5. Track your customer service's impact on your brand's revenue

Exceptional customer service doesn’t just benefit the customer—it can also contribute significantly to revenue. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers, and customer loyalty directly impacts long-term revenue. 

In-depth tracking is a challenge, but you can start by seeing how many customers place an order within five days of a customer service interaction and attribute that revenue to customer service.

If you want more suggestions, check out our list of 25 customer support metrics, which walk through revenue-related metrics like customer churn, revenue backlog, and more. 

Tracking this revenue contribution will help you understand the value of great customer service. With revenue statistics, brands can access detailed metrics and analysis regarding how much revenue their customer service team generates. By using Gorgias to analyze support ticket details and identify sales trends, you'll be able to figure out what works and what doesn't and use data to develop a customer service strategy optimized for revenue generation.​​

Explore more about how to drive customer retention through effective customer service.

4 Tips for driving sales through customer service

Customer service is more than damage control—it’s a chance to boost sales and drive revenue. By empowering your team to focus on increasing customer satisfaction, you can turn each interaction into a sales opportunity.

Here are three tips to help you get started:

6. Enable chat at checkout

Around 70% of all online shopping carts get abandoned. While there are many reasons why shoppers abandon shopping carts, questions or issues arising during the checkout process are some of the most common reasons.

Adding Gorgias chat to your checkout page helps prevent this by allowing customers to request help instantly.

With Gorgias, you can also reach out proactively during checkout—offering assistance, reminding customers of free shipping thresholds, or sharing discounts. This approach reduces cart abandonment and boosts average order value through strategic upsells and recommendations.

7. Proactively reach out during the shopping journey

You can boost conversion rates by proactively assisting customers through chat at key points in their journey. For example, if a customer has placed best-selling items in their cart, reaching out with a discount or answering questions could make the difference between a completed purchase and an abandoned cart.

By offering discounts, personalized recommendations, or quick assistance, you can turn an abandoned cart into a completed sale.

With Gorgias, you can automate these interactions through Gorgias Convert. Trigger responses based on customer actions—like adding high-value items or pausing on the checkout page.

Taking proactive approach drives sales and reduces cart abandonment, even when your customer service agents are offline.

3 Tips for boosting agent productivity

Boosting agent productivity speeds up response and resolution times, freeing your team to focus on delivering value. Here are three effective customer service techniques to help eliminate productivity blockers:

8. Encourage regular breaks

Sitting for prolonged periods takes a mental and a physical toll on a person, even if they don't notice it at first. 

Taking brief breaks throughout the day helps agents stay focused and reduces burnout. Something as simple as stepping away for a few minutes or doing light stretches can reset their energy and prepare them to handle the next ticket with a clear mind.

9. Set clear goals

Setting daily and long-term goals provides direction for customer service reps and keeps productivity high.

Setting daily goals keeps agents focused and motivated. These short-term goals might include:

• Resolving unresolved tickets from the previous day
• Addressing urgent requests or flagged issues
• Staying updated on team changes, like new tickets or inventory updates

Setting long-term goals helps reps stay committed to growing and developing their skillset, some goals might include: 

• Building product knowledge and customer service skills
• Providing feedback and support to help the team grow
• Reducing response times for specific inquiries

Encourage agents to discuss any roadblocks openly. By supporting them through challenges, you create a positive environment that helps them achieve their goals without added stress.

10. Prepare your workspace

With remote work becoming the norm––87% of support agents worked from home in 2021 maintaining a clear boundary between work and home life is essential. Creating a dedicated "work corner" helps remote agents stay productive.

Here are some tips to help you set up a workspace optimized for productivity:

• Use natural lighting, a nice comfy chair, and a few decorations to make your workspace more comfortable and inviting.
• Write a task plan for the workday, and then cross out everything you complete. Not only is it satisfying to cross things off the list, but it can motivate you for the day ahead.

3 Tips for avoiding common customer support mistakes

Avoiding common mistakes is just as crucial as following best practices. Here are three frequent support agent pitfalls to watch out for to protect your brand’s reputation and meet customer expectations:

11. Never interrupt customers

One of the most critical rules in customer service is to never interrupt a customer. Your customers may think you don’t want to listen to them and don’t respect them. 

They probably aren't going to be very happy as a result — even if the rep who interrupted does eventually resolve their issue.

12. Use inappropriate language

Words can have a huge impact on people. A customer support team needs to understand the power of words and always use positive language while avoiding phrases that customers could interpret as rude.

Check out our guide to customer service phrases for additional phrases to avoid.

13. Use canned responses strategically

Canned responses speed up replies but can fall flat if overused. The best practice? Personalize each response—adding the customer’s name or tweaking it for the situation can make a big difference.

That way, agents don’t need to recreate the wheel with every response, but it still puts a personal touch on each response; even something as small as including the customer’s name can make a big difference. 

Avoid canned responses if you’re unsure what the customer needs. And if there’s no relevant template, ask a teammate instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all answer.

Check out these 16 email templates to get started. Or, if you use phone support heavily, check out these customer service scripts.

6 Tips for handling angry customers

Handling unhappy customers is one of the toughest but most important parts of support. 

Here are six tips to help your team turn complaints into good customer experiences.

14. Try to always use positive language

Customers may not always have the kindest words for support agents, but it’s essential for your agents to always use positive language themselves — no matter what the customer is saying to them.

For example:

• Instead of “I might be able to help,” say, “I can definitely help with that.”
• Replace “Don’t get angry; I’m going to help you” with “I’m so sorry you’re experiencing this. Let me fix it for you.”

Training agents to use positive language helps build better customer relationships. Creating a library of positive response scripts can also be a valuable resource for your team.

15. Keep your composure

Dealing with angry customers can be challenging, but staying calm is crucial to avoid negative fallout. If emotions take over, customers may share their experience online, potentially deterring future shoppers.

Here are a few tips to keep your cool:

• Address requests from upset customers promptly. Reassure them by involving others if needed.
• Use clear explanations and soft skills. Stay composed to keep the interaction positive.

For more insights, check out our guide to handling angry customer emails.

16. Put yourself in the customer's shoes

Attempting to fully understand a customer's problems first before you try to resolve them can go a long way. 

Empathy is the ability to understand the issue from their perspective. Practicing this often leads to deeper understanding and better solutions.

17. Be transparent about what happened

Brands should take ownership of mistakes rather than cover them up. Be completely transparent about whatever happened, as your customers will likely get agitated if they feel like you're giving them the runaround.

Your customers need to know you’re always going the extra mile to help them resolve whatever issue they’re experiencing. If the problem was from your end, you need to communicate what you’re doing to prevent it from happening again.

18. Practice active listening

No matter the outcome, customers want to feel heard. If agents aren’t truly listening, frustration can grow.

Active listening means fully understanding the customer’s concerns and responding with feedback that shows you’re paying attention. Repeating details of what a customer tells you back to them is one effective way to demonstrate active listening and is sure to help calm a frustrated customer.

19. Thank the customer for bringing this issue to your attention

When an upset customer shares their issue, thank them. Negative feedback is valuable, as it highlights areas for improvement. Showing genuine appreciation reassures customers that you’re committed to solving their problem, which can help diffuse frustration.

With Gorgias and Yotpo, you can track customer reviews to tailor responses or even launch win-back campaigns, like offering a discount. 

Better customer support experience, better customer journey — more revenue generation

Implement a few of these customer support tips and see how much you boost revenue and productivity. Start by giving your customer service reps in-depth product training and automating simple responses that don’t require a human touch. 

Find out how Gorgias' industry-leading customer service tools helped Kirby Allison boost conversions by 23% after automating 30% of tickets. 

To learn more about how Gorgias' cutting-edge customer service and automation features can help you improve customer service at every level, book a demo with Gorgias.

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TL;DR:

• 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.”

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

What is Tone of Voice?

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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‎Jordan Brown, Founder of Omnie, recently hosted a workshop at CX Connect in Los Angeles on creating better customer support programs with AI. 

If you weren’t able to attend live, or you just want a refresh, we’ve put together a recap of the workshop.

We'll cover how to get started with building your AI customer support strategy and, once you're up and running, how to measure success and ensure AI is operating properly.

You can also watch Jordan’s full workshop below:

Common AI concerns 

First, Jordan did a bit of “myth busting” and went through everyone’s most top-of-mind concerns for implementing AI. Here’s what they were worried about: 

1) How to measure success quantitatively  

Concern: Unsure which customer service metrics to track and how often to monitor each AI response to ensure it's accurate. 

Jordan’s response: He recommends monitoring customer satisfaction, escalation rate, automation rate, and customer sentiment. 

2) AI will sound too robotic

Concern: How to make everything into your brand voice and not just sound robotic, but personalized.

Jordan’s response: Create brand guidelines and set them up as guidance for your AI chatbot. 

3) My team worries AI will take their jobs 

Concern: How to use AI as a member of my team without freaking out my team that it's going to take over their jobs. What kind of new tools are they talking about, and how will my team's roles evolve with AI?

Jordan’s response: Agents will naturally feel like they're being replaced by AI, but they'll just have a different focus — sales, monitoring AI, supporting it, and training it. Having that conversation with them is a good idea.

4) The time it takes to set up will affect our current requests 

Concern: We’re just a small team, and we’re worried about stopping to invest our time and energy into setting it up, which could potentially affect the service to customers who already reached out to us.

Jordan’s response: That's understandable. Implementing AI will save time in the end, but it's a huge change.

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How to get started with AI 

Here’s what Jordan recommends for weaving AI into your customer experience program: 

• Establish the foundation for your strategy
• Set up AI in phases
• Prioritize empathy & personalization 
• Measure and monitor success

Establish the foundation for your strategy

You've all probably experienced poorly built AI chatbots, especially with massive companies where it's impossible to find their phone number, and you're stuck in chatbot loops.

That situation really benefits the brand because they don't have to talk to customers, saving costs. But you want to benefit both the brand and the customer, so you need to implement AI properly. 

That means setting up AI with a personalized touch, and making sure it's successful so that both brands and customers enjoy the benefits.

Here’s what your top priorities should be: 

• Identify potential risks and best practices to mitigate risks 
• Understand AI's capabilities (since it's not going to find lost packages, pick up the phone, or fix damaged products) 
• Build in your brand tone and voice making the AI feel as human as possible

📚 Further reading: Why having a quality knowledge base is essential to using AI for CX

Set up AI in phases 

Advanced AI tools work off confidence scores. Each AI response has a confidence score, indicating how confident the AI is that its response is accurate. 

At Omnie, Jordan likes to set up AI in phases, where the AI only answers when it's 100% confident. Anything less goes to an agent to avoid risking the customer experience. 

You don't have to turn on AI for everything immediately — you can ramp up slowly. 

Automation and AI also don't need to handle a ticket fully from end to end. 

For example, if a customer wants to return something because they changed their mind, great. But if there’s an issue with the product, send it to someone on the retention team to try and salvage the sale. If it’s for particular reasons, automate the return.

📚 Related: Ecommerce returns: 10 best practices for taking your online store to the next level

Prioritize empathy & personalization 

Empathy and personalization are critical. At Omnie, Jordan and his team weren’t comfortable with automation a year ago because it felt robotic. But with new technology like ChatGPT, you can inject your brand tone and voice. 

You could be funny, concise, chatty — whatever fits your brand. 

They worked with Jason Momoa's water company, where the bot talks like him, making it a unique brand tone. 

When AI is implemented properly, the customer thinks they’re talking to a human, as seen with Frye, a shoe company that’s been around since 1863. Omnie is saving them 240 hours a month of support time, automating nearly 800 tickets, and customers think they’re interacting with a human named Caleb.

To get started, determine your brand tone and voice. If you don’t have a brand book, figure out how you want to talk to your customer so it’s consistent.

📚 Related: New data shows 4 ways automation impacts customer service

Measure and monitor success

As you ramp up, test in the playground before going live, especially for businesses with sensitive information. Monitor the metrics for success: customer satisfaction, escalation rate, automation rate, and customer sentiment. AI isn’t something you set up and walk away from — it requires constant maintenance.

Ramp up with Gorgias AI worry-free

Experience firsthand how Gorgias AI can transform your support strategy and save your team time by automating repetitive tasks and keeping your brand’s voice front and center. Book a demo now.

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TL;DR:

• AI Agent handles a variety of customer inquiries. These include order tracking, returns, cancellations, discounts, account management, feedback, collaboration requests, and complex topics.
• Use Guidance to train AI Agent to handle each type of inquiry. Guidance acts like a built-in training manual, helping AI Agent follow your brand’s guidelines in every interaction.
• Test and refine Guidance to keep responses accurate. Use Test Mode to ensure AI Agent follows instructions, reflects your brand’s tone, and escalates when needed.
• AI Agent can provide 24/7 support. Even when your agents are offline, AI Agent can respond to customers, reducing response times and keeping customers satisfied.

For support teams, sending the right answer at the right time, every time, is the ultimate goal. But with limited resources and operating hours, how can you be there for your customers 24/7? We’ve got an answer.

Designed specifically for ecommerce brands, AI Agent is an autonomous support assistant that steps in where human agents are stretched thin: handling repetitive tickets. AI Agent is trained on your brand’s policies, voice, and instructions, helping you resolve customer inquiries like your agents — but faster.

We’ll cover 10 types of inquiries AI Agent can resolve instantly, complete with template instructions (Guidance) and real-life examples. Plus, keep in mind five best practices to get the most out of your new AI teammate.

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10 AI Agent use cases, templates, and examples

Each use case comes with a template for Guidance instructions that acts like a built-in training manual for AI Agent. Then, see how AI Agent uses those templates to respond to real customer tickets.

Note: Guidance are special instructions that tell Gorgias’s AI Agent exactly how to handle customer questions, including when to hand them off to your human agents. This gives you control over AI Agent, so every AI interaction is always aligned with your brand’s protocols.

1. Where is my order? (WISMO) inquiries

90% of shoppers want to be able to track their orders, according to DispatchTrack. Easily fulfill those neverending WISMO requests with one comprehensive Guidance that detects a customer’s current order status to give them the best answer. 

Include these key elements in your where is my order? Guidance instructions:

• Detect if a tracking number is available: If the order has a tracking number, provide the link to the tracking page.
• Provide delivery time: Automatically calculate and share the expected delivery date based on the shipping method.
• Check order status: Inform the customer whether the order is processing, shipped, or delivered.
• Handle delivery delays: If the system detects a delay, apologize and offer an updated delivery estimate.
• Escalate complex issues: If the order is missing or has incorrect tracking info, escalate the ticket to a human agent for further review.

Here’s an example of a where is my order? Guidance setup, available as a template in Gorgias:

Here’s how AI Agent uses that Guidance to assist a customer with their order inquiry:

💡 Pro Tip: Can’t find AI Agent? Double-check that you have an active Gorgias Automate subscription and connect Shopify to Gorgias. To do this, go to Settings > My Apps > Shopify > Update app permissions. You must be an Admin to complete this task.

2. Product-related questions

Shoppers ask product questions to get the clarity they need before buying. These pre-sales questions can make or break their decision to buy your product. Close the gap from browsing to checkout by using AI Agent to deliver quick, accurate answers that help them make confident decisions.

Here’s an example of a product-focused Guidance setup:

Here’s how AI Agent uses that Guidance to assist a customer with their product inquiry:

💡 Pro Tip: AI Agent can also learn information from your web pages. Go to Automate > AI Agent > Public URL sources to sync key web pages like sizing guides, blog posts, and more.

3. Returns

Answering ecommerce return requests can be time-consuming. Requests can range from a simple what is your return policy? question to customers wanting to go through the return process. Regardless, return inquiries can easily be handled by AI and handed off to a human agent if necessary.

Include these key elements in your returns Guidance instructions:

• Determine return eligibility: Check if the order is within the return window based on your policy.
• Identify non-returnable items: Inform customers if their item is non-returnable due to your specific policies.
• Guide through the return process: Provide instructions on how to initiate a return, including steps like entering an order number or using a return portal link.
• Inform about processing times: Share estimated times for processing returns and refunds.
• Escalate complex cases: If the return involves exceptions, like damaged goods or international returns, escalate the ticket to a human agent.

Here’s an example of a returns inquiry Guidance setup, available as a template in Gorgias:

Now, look at how AI Agent uses this Guidance to assist a customer with their return request:

💡 Pro Tip: If you’re using Loop Returns, set up AI Agent to automatically send a returns portal link to customers. This Action fully resolves returns inquiries by directing shoppers straight to their orders.

4. Order issues

Order issue tickets often require back-and-forth. The customer states their problem, you ask for photo verification and check if the customer has tried all the different solutions — the list goes on. Let AI Agent cover the bases for you every time, and if needed, escalate the ticket to your team.

Include these key elements in your order issues Guidance instructions:

• Express empathy for any inconvenience caused: Show that your customer’s happiness and experience are priorities.
• Handle damaged products: Provide instructions for customers to submit photos of damaged goods, then process a replacement or refund based on your policy.
• Correct incorrect shipments: If the wrong item was sent, guide the customer through returning the incorrect item and arrange for the correct product to be shipped.
• Escalate the issue: Route the ticket to a human agent for further handling.

Here’s an example of a Guidance setup for handling order issues, available as a template in Gorgias:

Here’s how AI Agent follows this Guidance to resolve a customer’s order issue:

5. Cancellations

Canceling orders is pretty much a race against order fulfillment and your third-party logistics. The key is to catch these inquiries as soon they hit your inbox. The problem? Tickets can come late at night or outside of your business hours.  However, when you let AI Agent handle them, customers can rest assured that their request will be dealt with.

Include these key elements in your cancellation Guidance instructions:

• Check order status: Determine if the order is eligible for cancellation based on its shipping status.
• Process cancellation: If eligible, guide the customer through the cancellation process and confirm the order has been canceled.
• Handle shipped orders: If the order has already shipped, instruct the customer on how to return the item once received, or escalate the case to a human agent.
• Escalate exceptions: For complex or time-sensitive cancellations, escalate the ticket to a human agent.

Here’s an example of a cancellation Guidance setup, available as a template in Gorgias:

Here’s how AI Agent follows this Guidance to handle a customer’s cancellation request:

💡 Did you know? You can let AI Agent cancel an order when the customer and order meet certain conditions. For example, the Action will only be performed if the fulfillment status is still empty. Go to Automate > AI Agent > Actions > Browse All Actions > Cancel Order in Shopify.

6. Discounts (including BFCM)

Come holiday season, including Black Friday, you’ll be swamped with loads of discount inquiries. Whether it’s customers asking about discount codes not working or if you have any codes available, these repetitive inquiries are best resolved by AI.

Include these key elements in your discount Guidance instructions:

• Provide active discount codes: Provide customers with a list of current discount codes and their eligibility criteria.
• Assist with missed discount codes: Help customers who forgot to add a discount code by offering guidance on how to apply it retroactively or escalate to an agent.
• Troubleshoot code issues: Guide customers through common reasons why a discount code might not be working, like expiry dates, minimum purchase requirements, or product exclusions.
• Upsell by offering alternatives to discounts: If no active code is provided, offer alternative available promotions or direct them to sign up for the latest offers.

Here’s an example of a discount inquiry Guidance setup, available as a template in Gorgias:

Here’s how AI Agent follows this Guidance to handle a customer asking for coupons:

7. Customer feedback

Acknowledging feedback, good and bad, can make customers more willing to keep doing business with you. Maintain an honest rapport with customers by letting them know you’re always listening.

Include these key elements in your feedback Guidance instructions:

• Acknowledge positive feedback: Respond with a thoughtful, genuine thank-you message, reinforcing customer appreciation.
• Request a public-facing review: Encourage customers who leave positive feedback to share their experience further, such as writing a product review or sharing their thoughts on social media.
• Escalate negative feedback: For negative feedback, escalate the ticket to a human agent.

Here’s an example of a customer feedback Guidance setup:

Here’s how AI Agent uses this Guidance to respond to positive feedback:

💡 Pro Tip: Let AI Agent automatically tag feedback tickets for you by going to Automate > AI Agent > AI ticket tagging. This way, your agents can find all customer feedback organized in one place.

8. Account management

Account management tasks like updating details or managing subscriptions are tedious, time-consuming, and often things customers can do themselves. Let AI Agent handle these tasks to speed up resolutions.

Include these key elements in your account management Guidance instructions:

• Provide instructions: Provide clear instructions for updating account details like email, shipping address, or payment methods.
• Verify identity for security: Include steps to verify customer identity before making sensitive changes, like account or subscription modifications.
• Escalate complex issues: For issues like account access problems or billing disputes, escalate to a human agent.

Here’s an example of a Guidance setup for account management, available as a template in Gorgias:

Take a look at how AI Agent uses this Guidance to help a customer with managing their rewards:

💡 Pro Tip: Use Recharge Actions to automate subscription cancellations or skip shipments with AI Agent. Go to Automate > Automate > Actions > Browse All Actions > Cancel subscription in Recharge or Skip next subscription shipment in Recharge.

9. Collaboration requests

Influencer marketing is on the rise as customers look to social proof when deciding what products to buy. With the right Guidance, your AI Agent can easily manage collaboration and marketing partnership inquiries.

Include these key elements in your collaboration requests Guidance instructions:

• Gather social media profiles: Prompt customers to share their social media profiles and relevant platforms for review if they haven’t.
• Request collaboration details: Ask for specifics about the type of collaboration or partnership they’re interested in (e.g., influencer campaigns, sponsorships).
• Provide next steps: Let the customer know their request will be reviewed and what they can expect in terms of timing.
• Escalate complex or high-value inquiries: For more significant partnerships, escalate the request to your marketing or partnerships team.

Here’s an example of a collaboration request Guidance setup:

See how AI Agent uses this Guidance to respond to a collaboration request from a content creator:

10. Complex and sensitive topics

AI Agent isn’t designed to handle all tickets. For highly complex and sensitive topics, instruct AI Agent to reroute them to your human agents who are equipped to handle certain subjects with more caution and context than AI. 

For example, a makeup brand would disable AI Agent from taking on tickets about allergic reactions or health concerns so customers receive safe advice.

Here are other messages you should prevent AI Agent from answering:

• Messages that mention legal actions
• Messages that mention allergic reactions or health issues
• Messages where customers report negative reactions to products
• Messages that mention unsubscribing, stop messages, stop emails or stop texts

Take a look at how AI Agent escalates a ticket about a damaged product:

Note: AI Agent automatically escalates messages with angry language and sentiment to your support team — no Guidance needed.

Keep these 5 Guidance best practices in mind

While AI Agent answers most customer inquiries, you’ll still need to be there to provide it with the barriers to keep its answers on-brand and accurate.

Here are five best practices to keep in mind when creating Guidance instructions.

1. Include Guidance for your top 5 most FAQs

Prime AI Agent with essential brand information by creating Guidance for the top five most common customer questions:

• Order status and tracking
• Returns, exchanges, and refunds
• Order cancellations and edits
• Discounts and promos
• Subscription/account management

You can automate a significant portion of customer support and save time for your team just by letting AI Agent answer these tickets.

2. Use a descriptive Guidance name

Always use clear and descriptive names for your Guidance. AI Agent relies on this information to identify whether the Guidance is relevant to the customer’s question. 

For example, instead of naming it “Shipping,” use something like “Shipping policy – domestic & international” to help AI Agent choose the right response.

3. Include examples in your instructions

It’s important to include detailed examples to help AI Agent detect the intent behind your incoming tickets. Clear examples let AI Agent match customer inquiries with the correct response more reliably.

For instance, instead of just saying, “Answer shipping questions,” give it an example: “For domestic orders, say: ‘Shipping takes 5-7 days. For international orders, it takes 10-15 days.’” This helps AI Agent detect when a question is about shipping timelines and respond appropriately.

4. Review and update your Guidance

Customer needs and products change over time, so it’s important to check back on your Guidance to make sure it’s relevant. AI Agent’s responses should reflect any changes to your policies, products, or processes to provide customers with up-to-date information.

5. Test new and updated Guidance in Test Mode

Before going live with new or updated Guidance, use Test Mode to make sure AI Agent is responding as expected.

Here are key things to check in Test Mode:

• Help Center articles: Verify that AI Agent is pulling from the correct Help Center resources.
• Guidance instructions: Test your updated Guidance to make sure AI Agent follows the protocols you have laid out.
• Excluded topics: Ask AI Agent questions about excluded topics to make sure it escalates the inquiry as needed.
• Tone of voice: Check that AI Agent’s responses are in your brand’s tone.

Lead conversations to faster resolutions with AI Agent

Right out of the box, Gorgias includes Guidance templates to help AI Agent manage your FAQs, like returns inquiries, shipping questions, and more.

Equip your AI Agent with Guidance and watch your support team thrive with more time to nurture your customer relationships and handle complex tasks.

See how AI Agent can transform your support team within minutes by booking a demo today.

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TL;DR:

• AI will handle repetitive customer questions without replacing human agents, allowing them to focus on more strategic and meaningful tasks.
• AI will enable CX teams to focus on revenue-generating duties like upselling and building better customer experiences.
• AI drives strategic insights by allowing your team to analyze trends and share actionable insights with product, marketing, and operations teams.

Your customer experience team is considering investing in AI and automation, but you might be wondering: What will happen to your team after? 

They aren’t going anywhere.

Instead, your team has more time to tackle high-priority work that often gets put on the back burner, like:

• Coaching AI to make it more efficient
• Handling complex issues
• Focusing on revenue opportunities like upselling or cross-selling
• Building better customer experiences
• Analyzing insights and impacting the whole business

We’ve found that automating just 30% of your incoming ticket load can take on the work of three support agents. Overall, AI is a tool that can streamline customer service work and make your agents' lives easier.

Just as a helpdesk unifies all customer messages and removes the part of the process where agents have to jump between inboxes, AI eliminates the grunt work of reading and resolving repetitive tickets and more.

Automating tickets opens a world of opportunity for your support agents. Let’s break down how your CX team will evolve once AI joins the party.

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AI frees your team from repetitive questions, turning them into AI coaches

One of the biggest benefits of incorporating AI within your ecommerce CX strategy is encouraging your team to become AI coaches. 

When you automate “traditional” CX tasks, like answering incoming tickets, your team gains back time to provide feedback to continuously improve your AI and create more effective processes.

‎Empowering your human agents to become AI coaches could happen in multiple scenarios, such as:

• Providing feedback on AI interactions to improve AI’s responses, align with your brand guidelines, and boost first contact resolution rates.
• Updating your Help Center and internal knowledge base so AI can learn from your content to provide on-brand customer experiences. Agents should continuously document workflows and relay instructions from customer interactions, such as product information and customer sentiment.
• Integrating third-party tools to let AI perform actions. AI shouldn’t only be a tool for communication, it should also resolve issues. Connect 100+ apps and integrate your entire ecommerce tech stack to let AI carry out actions like canceling orders, changing addresses, and sending unique discount codes.

How Psycho Bunny trains their AI

Psycho Bunny uses Gorgias’s conversational AI tool, AI Agent, to automate 26% of customer tickets, providing empathetic and personalized responses to customer questions rather than generic auto-replies.

An incoming customer inquiry may occasionally require an agent to refer to internal, non-public information. At Psycho Bunny, AI Agent uses Guidance to leverage internal information and prompts to properly resolve or escalate issues as needed.

“The Guidance feature is so important because we have a lot of processes that we definitely don't want described in a customer-facing article, but we want AI Agent to be able to access that information and manage tickets accordingly,” says Tosha Moyer, Senior Customer Experience Manager at Psycho Bunny. 

AI lets your team drive revenue

AI lets your team upsell and cross-sell 

AI can handle most of your incoming repetitive questions, like “Where’s my order?” or “What’s my size?” but where it falls short is tackling high-priority issues, like a question asked shortly after a purchase is made. 

When it comes to ticket prioritization, we recommend using AI to handle low-priority tickets to free up your team to solely take care of the most pressing customer issues. Low-priority tickets are not time-sensitive or tied to generating a sale, making them perfect candidates for automation.

With AI handling easy-to-resolve issues, your team can focus on high-priority and revenue-related requests. High-priority tickets include those tied to revenue, such as VIP or returning customer inquiries, escalated cases like potential bad reviews, and conversations needing immediate responses via SMS or live chat.

AI lets your team run revenue-generating tactics

Every conversation with a customer is an opportunity to drive a sale. 

Your support team is on the frontline of customer interactions. No one knows your brand's customers and their pain points better. 

When you allow AI to manage ticket loads, the nature of your team changes from simply managing grunt work to becoming more like sales associates. 

This is an opportunity for agents to think beyond answering tickets and to become cross-functional partners across the brand, providing more value to the business overall by:

• Generating unique discount codes: Create unique discount codes using Convert campaigns. This helps incentivize purchases and track the effectiveness of your campaigns. For example, supplement brand Obvi positions their CX team as sales associates and support agents, helping to triple sales while resolving issues.
• Proactively engage shoppers to lift revenue by 13%. Mimic the in-store shopping journey by letting AI engage with customers on chat as they shop. Chat is an efficient way to upsell without disrupting the shopping experience.
• Integrating more revenue-generating tools: Make the most of customer experiences by connecting app integrations specializing in customer loyalty like Loyoly, rewards like Toki, and personalized messaging like Yotpo.
• Monitoring revenue statistics: Utilize Gorgias's Revenue Statistics to keep track of customer behavior and sales trends. Your team can use these insights to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

How Manduka increased conversions

Manduka implemented Gorgias Convert, an ecommerce marketing tool designed to turn first-time shoppers into repeat customers. Using onsite campaigns, Convert leverages audience segmentation to provide proactive and personalized interactions to increase conversions and boost average order value.

For instance, when an online shopper looks likely to leave Manduka’s website and meets certain conditions, a discount code campaign is triggered if customers sign up for email or SMS marketing messages.

Between April and August 2023, Manduka’s on-site Convert campaign saw:

• Total campaign revenue: $32,349.46
• Impressions: 62,690
• Clicks conversion rate: 25.28%

“Gorgias Convert is amazing, we highly recommend it,” says Jessica Botello, Customer Service Manager at Manduka. “Gorgias Convert is almost a one-to-one translation of the in-person retail experience to the online retail experience where that wasn't available before.”

(For anyone considering implementing Convert, we also offer a Convert Bootcamp to get CX teams up and running in just a few weeks.)

AI allows your team to build new customer experiences

When AI can automatically handle the bulk of incoming customer inquiries, you can put your human team on channels that push conversations and higher lifetime value (LTV).

Here are some ways to enhance your customer experiences:

• Offer consultations through live chat: Encourage one-on-one support through personalized, conversational customer service. Real-time assistance helps build customer trust and increases product education and customer satisfaction.
• Expand support channels to Voice and SMS: According to Salesforce, 79% of customers expect consistent communication across different channels. Widen your reach by offering support on phone and SMS to provide immediate support, accessibility, and more sales.
• Develop interactive product quizzes: With Gorgias Automate's Flows feature, agents can create custom multi-step paths to answer shoppers' questions based on their preferences. Matching shoppers to your most suitable product helps them get familiar with your offerings and builds interest in purchasing.
• Improve product descriptions to reduce return rates: Meet customer expectations by crafting clear, detailed descriptions. Comprehensive descriptions help shoppers understand what product they’ll receive, leading to fewer returns and better customer satisfaction. See how Love Wellness optimizes their product pages here.

How JAXXON uses their extra time to create new customer relationships and sales

Caela Castillo, Director of CX at JAXXON, notes that automation is not a total replacement for agents but a tool that provides instant information to shoppers while allowing agents to focus on more critical, revenue-generating tickets.

While Automate automatically resolves 37% of their tickets, JAXXON agents have more time to attend to higher-impact conversations, such as escalations and particular product-related questions. In addition, they can spend more time in the back end of their helpdesk by creating engaging chat campaigns and improving their self-service resources.

AI lets your team provide strategic insights

AI makes agents' jobs more strategic. 

With a bulk of tickets automatically managed, your team can spend less time putting out small fires. Agents can identify trends in customer interactions and make better-informed decisions that affect more than the CX team.

The key is to share insights and collaborate with other teams to improve the business as a whole. 

Here are specific insights to share with certain teams: 

• Product Team: Report on which products are causing the most tickets to identify and address issues.
• Marketing Team: Analyze which campaigns may have been misleading by tracking customer complaints and dissatisfaction to improve future promotions.
• Operations Team: Identify big spikes in lost or delayed packages to streamline order fulfillment logistics and improve delivery processes.
• Sales Team: Provide insights on customer feedback related to pricing and product preferences to refine sales strategies.
• Customer Success Team: Share trends in customer satisfaction and common issues to improve your onboarding program.

How Topicals reduced returns using customer satisfaction insights

Topicals wanted to reduce the high number of returned products by providing more helpful information to shoppers before they went to the checkout, so they leveraged Gorgias Automate to handle 69% of incoming tickets. 

With Automate, Topicals’ return rate dropped significantly, and sales from customer support increased by 78%. Agents also gained free time to think more strategically about the customer experience overall. Thanks to improved pre-sales conversations, customer satisfaction scores are now at 4.8/5.

As a result, the Topicals team now better understands what types of customer experience generate more sales and higher satisfaction scores. Best of all, they can leverage these insights to continuously fine-tune the experience.

“Being able to track customer satisfaction scores in Gorgias is a really big help to us. Before, we didn't know if we were doing well or not, but now we can see people like the service we provide. And we use the KPI tracking data for internal monthly meetings to review performance and see where we can improve.”

— Deja Jefferson, Customer Experience Manager at Topicals

Empower the evolution from support agent to AI coach

There’s a lot of fear around AI. We get it — change is hard (and scary). 

It’s important to choose a tool you can trust. At Gorgias, AI and automation aren’t new trends. From Automate to AI Agent, Gorgias has led the revolution in AI-driven customer support solutions for 15,000 ecommerce brands.

Sign up for free to kickstart your journey in automating CX with the power of AI.

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TikTok Shop generated 68.1% of gross market value sales across all social media platforms in 2024 and $3.8 billion in sales in 2023. Clearly, it’s becoming a massive channel with abundant opportunities for sellers.  

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: 

• Manage all customer interactions in one place
• Automate ticket creation
• Enhance customers’ experience

Manage all customer interactions in one place

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. 

Partner AfterShip Feed with TikTok Shop to: 

• List on TikTok Shop more efficiently
• Safeguard your revenue
• Streamline order management

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List on TikTok Shop more efficiently

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. 

Get started →

TL;DR:

• 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. 

Jump to a section:

• Start with the benefits
• Outline the data & security safeguards in place
• Highlight its brand accuracy and personalization
• Share success stories
• Set expectations

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Start with the benefits 

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.

📚 Further reading: Our AI Approach: Onboard, Automate, Observe, and Coach

Outline the data & security safeguards in place 

Rest assured that AI Agent and Gorgias operate under a zero data retention (ZDR) policy. Once data is used, it isn’t stored. 

We’re SOC 2 Type II Certified and follow strict regulations in regards to data security.   

You can view the terms that cover the data we collect and how we use Artificial Intelligence by reading Our Master Service Agreement (MSA) and Data Processing Agreement (DPA). 

🎯 Resource: How AI Agent works & gathers data

Highlight its brand accuracy and personalization 

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.

🎯 Resource: Customize how AI Agent behaves

Provide feedback on responses

Don’t like something AI Agent said? Or, did you love an answer it gave? 

It’s easy to let AI Agent know by telling it you liked the response, saying it should have pulled from a different resource, or reporting an issue. 

🎯 Resource: How to coach AI Agent and give feedback

Prioritize your team’s docs

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.  

🎯 Resource: Why having a quality knowledge base is essential to using AI for CX

Share success stories 

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.

When Baby 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.  

AI Agent use cases

These are the top AI Agent use cases that we recommend: 

• Where is my order? (WISMO) inquiries
• Product-related questions
• Returns
• Order issues
• Cancellations
• Discounts (including BFCM)
• Customer feedback
• Account management
• Collaboration requests

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.

Get started with AI Agent →

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TL;DR:

• No data is stored. AI Agent follows a zero data retention policy and complies with regulations like GDPR and CPRA.
• Learns from your store’s data to provide personalized support. AI Agent pulls from sources like Shopify, your Help Center, and internal documents to respond with relevant, on-brand answers. The use of internal knowledge rather than public databases helps to avoid generic answers.
• Constructs sentences using a mix of different large language models (LLMs). AI Agent uses OpenAI, Anthropic, and other models to form natural-sounding responses.
• Feedback helps improve AI Agent’s performance. Support teams can review AI Agent’s responses, while Gorgias also monitors feedback from thousands of brands to optimize back-end prompts.

AI Agent is an autonomous AI support assistant designed specifically for ecommerce brands. Trained on your store’s Shopify data, policies, and brand guidelines, AI Agent responds to customer interactions with personalized, high-quality answers.

But is it the good type of AI?

As AI emerges more and more as a necessity for CX teams, there are a few common concerns among leaders. Worries that it will steal customer data, use data to enhance OpenAI’s LLM, or leverage shopper data for things outside of its scope are just a few.

To quell those concerns, we’ll go into the specifics of how AI Agent actually collects and uses data.

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Jump to an answer: 

• How does AI Agent collect data?
• Does AI Agent store data?
• Is AI Agent trustworthy?
• How accurate are the support responses?
• Do you have to legally disclose that you’re using AI?

‎How does AI Agent collect data? 

Gorgias’s AI Agent uses merchants’ unique data, including orders, ticket information, product catalogs, and store content, and then uses a blend of state-of-the-art LLMs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, to help it construct natural, human-like responses.

AI Agent uses the following as data sources: 

• Custom Guidance
• Shopify order data
• Your Help Center
• Public webpages
• Macros
• Handover instructions and excluded topics

How AI Agent handles Shopify order data 

The information AI Agent has access to is approximately the same data as the one presented in the Shopify widget in the Gorgias helpdesk. We push this same information to AI Agent to compute the next step for the customer.

Some of the data permissions that AI Agent has when integrated with Shopify include access to all orders, all draft orders, order edits, fulfilments, products, customers, themes, discounts, scripts, and content.

How AI Agent chooses data between different data sources

AI Agent processes the information from the ticket to understand where to pull the relevant data from, such as correlating information from the account associated with the interaction as well as the intent of the message. Here’s how it works.

🎟️ Ticket analysis

AI Agent first analyzes the content of the ticket to identify the key information and intent behind the customer's inquiry.

📊 Data correlation

It correlates this information with the available data sources, such as Guidance your team sets up (which takes precedence over other knowledge sources), Help Center articles, Macros, and any other integrated knowledge bases.

🤔 Context understanding 

AI Agent understands the context of the message and retrieves relevant data. If there are multiple sources of information, it determines which source is most pertinent to the query.

💬 Clarifying questions

If the ticket has vague or insufficient information, AI Agent will ask clarifying questions to ensure it pulls the correct information.

✅ Internal QA process

Before sending the response, AI Agent undergoes an internal QA process where it verifies the information and creates an internal note for the merchant. This note includes information on what knowledge and Shopify data was used, and shows "reasoning" for the event if the QA failed.

🗣️ Feedback loop

Merchants or admins can provide feedback on whether the resolution was good or bad, and AI Agent uses this feedback to improve future responses.

Does AI Agent store data?

Gorgias and AI Agent do not store shopper or customer data. 

AI Agent operates under a zero data retention (ZDR) policy, meaning that once the request is processed, the data is not stored.

📚 Further reading: Our Master Service Agreement (MSA) and Data Processing Agreement (DPA) govern the use of all Gorgias services, including AI Agent. If you’d like to learn more, these terms detail the data we collect and how we use Artificial Intelligence.

AI Agent prioritizes data security

Data privacy and security are top priorities for us, and our systems are designed to handle data in a secure manner without retaining personal or sensitive information. 

AI Agent uses language models developed by OpenAI. OpenAI does not use customer data to train their models, and there is a zero data retention policy. Any data sent through the API is not stored beyond the duration needed to serve the request pulled.

Gorgias is SOC 2 Type II compliant and adheres to strict regulations and standards to ensure the privacy, security, and proper handling of sensitive data. 

AI Agent does not use shopper data to enhance its LLM

AI Agent and Gorgias comply with stringent data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), ensuring that shopper data is handled securely and responsibly without being used for model enhancement.

This approach ensures that shopper data remains private and is not utilized beyond the scope of providing immediate customer support​​.

“We were initially nervous about using AI, but it has quickly proven its worth. Our community members have even mistaken the AI Agent for a real person, which speaks volumes about how well it aligns with our brand voice.”

—Zoe Cranney, Community Experience Expert, LSKD

Is AI Agent trustworthy?

Yes! AI Agent was built not only to provide instant and accurate responses, but also with transparency in mind. For every interaction that AI Agent has, it provides you with an internal note that covers:

• The Guidance/Articles/Macros it used
• The source of the account information it pulled
• A prompt for your feedback to improve future responses

How accurate are the support responses?

While no AI tool is capable of perfect accuracy 100% of the time, we put several safeguards in place to keep AI Agent from sending inaccurate information.

Trained on your knowledge — not generic information 

When AI Agent responds to a customer, it pulls from your team’s specific documents. Aside from the Guidance you set, which it prioritizes, AI Agent uses your Shopify order data, Macros, your brand’s webpages, as well as your Help Center.

Using AI Agent is unlike only relying on ChatGPT for answers, which uses broad information. AI Agent draws from your data only, making its responses highly accurate and personalized to your brand.

We use multiple LLMs for natural language processing

LLMs like OpenAI and Anthropic’s main role in AI Agent is to recognize and form natural-flowing responses. It can speak in different languages and tones to align with your brand voice. This, combined with your own internal knowledge sources, helps add that human touch that sets it apart from automated emails and bots.

Topics can be excluded or handed over

As another layer of control, we let you define topics that AI Agent should completely ignore and hand over to your team.

For example, some topics — such as medical questions or legal threats — are too sensitive to handle with AI. You can add these to your Exclusion or Handover topics to ensure AI Agent does not respond to them.

Teams can provide feedback on resolutions

You can improve AI Agent’s responses by providing feedback on how it handled tickets. You can either approve of its behavior or suggest adjustments to improve future interactions.

For example, when an influencer reached out to hip toddler carrier brand Wildride and said, “I really love you guys,” AI Agent replied, “Love you too ❤️❤️”. 

Amber van den Berg, Head of Customer Experience, found this really funny, as it was exactly the type of response the team would have given. But if that response wasn’t quite right, or wasn’t on brand, they could have given AI Agent that feedback.

Do you have to legally disclose that you’re using AI?

You have the choice of whether or not to disclose your use of AI in response generated by AI Agent.

However, for maximum legal protection, we recommend using your email signature to indicate that the message your customers receive has been created with AI. 

• In email: Use the Email Signature setting to disclose your use of AI.
• In chat: Use the Privacy Policy feature to disclose your use of AI.

Note: Some laws, such as the California Bolstering Online Transparency Act, prohibit misleading consumers about the use of automated artificial identities.

Give better support to your CX team & your customers 

"I saw how well AI Agent was replying to customers and really started to think about how we could optimize it to work for us even more,” said Amber van den Berg, Head of Customer Experience at Wildride.

“Within one month, AI Agent was answering 33% of emails, which is quite impressive." This was essential for Wildride’s CX team after viral social media content bumped 1000 tickets per month to 1000 tickets per week. 

Now, the team is freed up to focus on more complex issues, and AI Agent can fill in the rest.

Book a demo to see how AI Agent can work for you.

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