Optimize Your CX and Deflect Empty-Calorie Tickets (4 Tactics)

Common questions include:

• Where is my order? (WISMO)
• How can I cancel/replace an item/edit my order?
• A discount code is not working
• My item arrived late or was damaged
• My credit card is not working

Take the ticket volume between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, for example. In 2021, Gorgias customers saw a 20% increase in ticket volume between Black Friday and Cyber Monday — mostly empty calorie tickets like WISMO. Ecommerce holiday sales overall are expected to increase by 12% in 2022, according to a report by eMarketer, so you don’t want to get buried under these low-impact tickets.

Seasonal upswings aside, when your ticket volume is too high, your agents can’t surface the high-value or high-priority tickets because they’re too busy responding to every empty-calorie ticket that comes in.

Tactic 1) Send confirmation emails that answer common questions

You already send confirmation emails thanking the customer for their order and assuring them that the product is on its way.

You can include a prominent button to your Help Center (with self-service order tracking) so your shoppers can track their orders as much as they like, with fewer clicks. Take this confirmation from Princess Polly, for example:

While this email is great, the prominent #US4935642 link will send customers to another site — in this case, USPS’s website — to track their order. Plus if the customer wants to track it again (which most customers do an average of four or five times per order), they’ll have to dig up this order number again. 

Instead, replace this raw tracking number with a link to your Help Center. Why is this better?

• The customer stays on your website (rather than your carrier’s), keeping them in your brand’s ecosystem.
• The customer lands in your help center where they can also answer common follow-up questions about returns and product set-up.
• The customer doesn’t have to remember a tracking number, they only need an email or phone number to track their order.

Tactic 2) Link to your Help Center in your support emails

Give your customers every opportunity to access your Help Center for self-service options by including a link in every support email. Whether you’re changing the customer’s shipping address or supporting them on a completely unrelated issue, always give them a link to your Help Center so they can answer common questions, track an order, request a return, and more. 

This tactic is particularly helpful for deflecting inquiries before they form. Each time a customer clicks a link, you’re deflecting an empty-calorie ticket that would otherwise clutter your helpdesk. Plus, customers don’t want to wait for an agent's response for simple questions like this — they’d much rather have an instant answer. 

Even if the customer’s inquiry today needs to be handled by an agent, by including a link to your Help Center in your email signature, you’re deflecting future empty-calorie tickets by making the customer aware of self-service options. 

Set this up in Gorgias:

To update your email signature, you’ll want to create a new Macro. To start, click on Settings within your Gorgias account. 

• Under Automation, click Macros.
• Click Create Macro in the top-right corner.
• Name the Macro something like Link To HC Tracking and write a one-line message. Remember, you’ll likely tack this on to other support messages, so no need to introduce yourself in this Macro. 

Tactic 3) Activate self-service flows in chat

Of course, when customers want to track their orders, they may not always check their emails (the backbone of the two tactics above). That’s why it’s important to give shoppers the ability to track orders in multiple ways, meeting them wherever they are. Including your website! 

If customers are browsing your site and want to check the status of a past order, they should be able to do so without having to leave the page. That’s where self-service in chat comes in:

When customers open up your chat widget to track an order, they likely plan to send a message to an agent. They’ll be pleasantly surprised that they can find the information without any wait time by clicking the Track Order button you see above. 

Just like self-service order tracking in the Help Center, this gives the shopper instant information about their order’s status without having to leave your website.

Set this up in Gorgias:

If you have the Automation Add-on, you can decide which buttons (Track, Return, Cancel, and Report an issue) to include:

• Click Settings in your Gorgias account.
• Under Automation, click Self-service.
• Select your store.
• Select the Order Management Flows and toggle options as you see fit.

To deflect additional tickets, you can also use chat to set up Quick Response Flows, such as frequently asked questions. 

• Follow the instructions above, but click the Quick Response Flows tab.
• Toggle the suggestions On or click Add Flow to create automated answers to your most frequently asked questions.
• Read our post on deflecting tickets with Quick Response Flows for more guidance.

Tactic 4) Activate the Track Order Autoresponder

If you’ve followed the tactics above, you’ve given customers three clear paths to track orders on their own:

• A prominent link in your order confirmation email
• A link at the bottom of every support email
• On your website, in the chat widget

The goal here is to improve the customer experience by empowering customers to find information on their own, while also saving agent time for more important interactions. 

Nevertheless, customers may sometimes reach out to your support team with empty calorie questions like WISMO. In this case, we have one more tactic to provide an instant response without agent intervention: Autoresponders.

With an Autoresponder, Gorgias can automatically detect the intent of questions like WISMO and send a personalized response. Here’s what the rule looks like, with a preview of the email customers received outlined in the coral box:

Set this up in Gorgias:

To enable this Autoresponder, click on Settings within your Gorgias account.

• Under Automation, click on Rules.
• Click on Create Rule.
• Under Autoresponders, click Send tracking information email.

This rule leverages AI to detect if shoppers' incoming emails are related to tracking or WISMO requests. The rule automatically replies with the tracking link for the last three orders and closes the ticket. 

You can customize the language of the email, and if the customer replies, the ticket will be reopened for your agents. Here’s what the rule looks like — all the text is customizable. 

And here’s a preview of the email your customers will receive:

Free up time for revenue-generating conversations

If your agents aren’t bogged down by empty calorie tickets, they can focus more on meaningful customer conversations. Those conversations can often lead to additional revenue. 

Personalized interactions build loyalty and can transform customers into enthusiastic shoppers and brand advocates. That’s where you want your agents to focus their energy. 

Need some inspiration? Here are three ways to drive new sales through your customer service channels:

• PS Macros: Add a simple email post-script that shows off your most exciting products and promotions
• Chat Campaigns: Promote a sale, offer discounts, or help customers find the right product
• Welcome DMs: Send your new Instagram followers a message with a link to a discount code

Deflecting empty-calorie tickets is good for CX

Empty calorie questions are so common and simple that customers shouldn’t need to reach out. And if agents are answering these manually, the conversations are typically short and sweet.

You don’t need to obsess over a “human” interaction because these aren’t the conversations that will build relationships. The customer wants an answer, and then quickly moves on without additional interaction.

A combination of proactively providing information and self-service options can give customers the info they need without writing in. And automated ticket deflection in Gorgias can handle the empty-calorie questions that do end up in your customer service inbox.

The following four tactics improve your CX by deflecting empty-calorie tickets and leaving your team more time for more valuable conversations.