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Conversational Commerce Strategy
Conversational Commerce Strategy

AI in CX Webinar Recap: Building a Conversational Commerce Strategy that Converts

0 min read . By Gabrielle Policella

TL;DR:

  • Implement quickly and optimize continuously. Cornbread's rollout was three phases: audit knowledge base, launch, then refine. Stacy conducts biweekly audits and provides daily AI feedback to ensure responses are accurate and on-brand.
  • Simplify your knowledge base language. Before BFCM, Stacy rephrased all guidance documentation to be concise and straightforward so Shopping Assistant could deliver information quickly without confusion.
  • Use proactive suggested questions. Most of Cornbread's Shopping Assistant engagement comes from Suggested Product Questions that anticipate customer needs before they even ask.
  • Treat AI as another team member. Make sure the tone and language AI uses match what human agents would say to maintain consistent customer relationships.
  • Free up agents for high-value work. With AI handling straightforward inquiries, Cornbread's CX team expanded into social media support, launched a retail pop-up shop, and has more time for relationship-building phone calls.

Customer education has become a critical factor in converting browsers into buyers. For wellness brands like Cornbread Hemp, where customers need to understand ingredients, dosages, and benefits before making a purchase, education has a direct impact on sales. The challenge is scaling personalized education when support teams are stretched thin, especially during peak sales periods.

Katherine Goodman, Senior Director of Customer Experience, and Stacy Williams, Senior Customer Experience Manager, explain how implementing Gorgias's AI Shopping Assistant transformed their customer education strategy into a conversion powerhouse. 

In our second AI in CX episode, we dive into how Cornbread achieved a 30% conversion rate during BFCM, saving their CX team over four days of manual work.

Top learnings from Cornbread's conversational commerce strategy

1. Customer education drives conversions in wellness

Before diving into tactics, understanding why education matters in the wellness space helps contextualize this approach.

Katherine, Senior Director of Customer Experience at Cornbread Hemp, explains:

"Wellness is a very saturated market right now. Getting to the nitty-gritty and getting to the bottom of what our product actually does for people, making sure they're educated on the differences between products to feel comfortable with what they're putting in their body."

The most common pre-purchase questions Cornbread receives center around three areas: ingredients, dosages, and specific benefits. Customers want to know which product will help with their particular symptoms. They need reassurance that they're making the right choice.

What makes this challenging: These questions require nuanced, personalized responses that consider the customer's specific needs and concerns. Traditionally, this meant every customer had to speak with a human agent, creating a bottleneck that slowed conversions and overwhelmed support teams during peak periods.

2. Shopping Assistant provides education that never sleeps

Stacy, Senior Customer Experience Manager at Cornbread, identified the game-changing impact of Shopping Assistant:

"It's had a major impact, especially during non-operating hours. Shopping Assistant is able to answer questions when our CX agents aren't available, so it continues the customer order process."

A customer lands on your site at 11 PM, has questions about dosage or ingredients, and instead of abandoning their cart or waiting until morning for a response, they get immediate, accurate answers that move them toward purchase.

The real impact happens in how the tool anticipates customer needs. Cornbread uses suggested product questions that pop up as customers browse product pages. Stacy notes:

"Most of our Shopping Assistant engagement comes from those suggested product features. It almost anticipates what the customer is asking or needing to know."

Actionable takeaway: Don't wait for customers to ask questions. Surface the most common concerns proactively. When you anticipate hesitation and address it immediately, you remove friction from the buying journey.

3. Implementation follows a clear three-phase approach

One of the biggest myths about AI is that implementation is complicated. Stacy explains how Cornbread’s rollout was a straightforward three-step process: audit your knowledge base, flip the switch, then optimize.

"It was literally the flip of a switch and just making sure that our data and information in Gorgias was up to date and accurate." 

Here's Cornbread’s three-phase approach:

  1. Preparation. Before launching, Cornbread conducted a comprehensive audit of their knowledge base to ensure accuracy and completeness. This groundwork is critical because your AI is only as good as the information it has access to.
  2. Launch and training. After going live, the team met weekly with their Gorgias representative for three to four weeks. They analyzed engagements, reviewed tickets, and provided extensive AI feedback to teach Shopping Assistant which responses were appropriate and how to pull from the knowledge base effectively.
  3. Ongoing optimization. Now, Stacy conducts audits biweekly and continuously updates the knowledge base with new products, promotions, and internal changes. She also provides daily AI feedback, ensuring responses stay accurate and on-brand.

Actionable takeaway: Block out time for that initial knowledge base audit. Then commit to regular check-ins because your business evolves, and your AI should evolve with it.

Read more: AI in CX Webinar Recap: Turning AI Implementation into Team Alignment

4. Simple, concise language converts better

Here's something most brands miss: the way you write your knowledge base articles directly impacts conversion rates.

Before BFCM, Stacy reviewed all of Cornbread's Guidance and rephrased the language to make it easier for AI Agent to understand. 

"The language in the Guidance had to be simple, concise, very straightforward so that Shopping Assistant could deliver that information without being confused or getting too complicated," Stacy explains. When your AI can quickly parse and deliver information, customers get faster, more accurate answers. And faster answers mean more conversions.

Katherine adds another crucial element: tone consistency.

"We treat AI as another team member. Making sure that the tone and the language that AI used were very similar to the tone and the language that our human agents use was crucial in creating and maintaining a customer relationship."

As a result, customers often don't realize they're talking to AI. Some even leave reviews saying they loved chatting with "Ally" (Cornbread's AI agent name), not realizing Ally isn't human.

Actionable takeaway: Review your knowledge base with fresh eyes. Can you simplify without losing meaning? Does it sound like your brand? Would a customer be satisfied with this interaction? If not, time for a rewrite.

Read more: How to Write Guidance with the “When, If, Then” Framework

5. Black Friday results proved the strategy works under pressure

The real test of any CX strategy is how it performs under pressure. For Cornbread, Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025 proved that their conversational commerce strategy wasn't just working, it was thriving.

Over the peak season, Cornbread saw: 

  • Shopping Assistant conversion rate jumped from a 20% baseline to 30% during BFCM
  • First response time dropped from over two minutes in 2024 to just 21 seconds in 2025
  • Attributed revenue grew by 75%
  • Tickets doubled, but AI handled 400% more tickets compared to the previous year
  • CSAT scores stayed exactly in line with the previous year, despite the massive volume increase

Katherine breaks down what made the difference:

"Shopping Assistant popping up, answering those questions with the correct promo information helps customers get from point A to point B before the deal ends."

During high-stakes sales events, customers are in a hurry. They're comparing options, checking out competitors, and making quick decisions. If you can't answer their questions immediately, they're gone. Shopping Assistant kept customers engaged and moving toward purchase, even when human agents were swamped.

Actionable takeaway: Peak periods require a fail-safe CX strategy. The brands that win are the ones that prepare their AI tools in advance.

6. Strategic work replaces reactive tasks

One of the most transformative impacts of conversational commerce goes beyond conversion rates. What your team can do with their newfound bandwidth matters just as much.

With AI handling straightforward inquiries, Cornbread's CX team has evolved into a strategic problem-solving team. They've expanded into social media support, provided real-time service during a retail pop-up, and have time for the high-value interactions that actually build customer relationships.

Katherine describes phone calls as their highest value touchpoint, where agents can build genuine relationships with customers. “We have an older demographic, especially with CBD. We received a lot of customer calls requesting orders and asking questions. And sometimes we end up just yapping,” Katherine shares. “I was yapping with a customer last week, and we'd been on the call for about 15 minutes. This really helps build those long-term relationships that keep customers coming back."

That's the kind of experience that builds loyalty, and becomes possible only when your team isn't stuck answering repetitive tickets.

Stacy adds that agents now focus on "higher-level tickets or customer issues that they need to resolve. AI handles straightforward things, and our agents now really are more engaged in more complicated, higher-level resolutions."

Actionable takeaway: Stop thinking about AI only as a cost-cutting tool and start seeing it as an impact multiplier. The goal is to free your team to work on conversations that actually move the needle on customer lifetime value.

7. Continuous optimization for January and beyond

Cornbread isn't resting on their BFCM success. They're already optimizing for January, traditionally the biggest month for wellness brands as customers commit to New Year's resolutions.

Their focus areas include optimizing their product quiz to provide better data to both AI and human agents, educating customers on realistic expectations with CBD use, and using Shopping Assistant to spotlight new products launching in Q1.

Build your conversational commerce strategy now

The brands winning at conversational commerce aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the largest teams. They're the ones who understand that customer education drives conversions, and they've built systems to deliver that education at scale.

Cornbread Hemp's success comes down to three core principles: investing time upfront to train AI properly, maintaining consistent optimization, and treating AI as a team member that deserves the same attention to tone and quality as human agents.

As Katherine puts it:

"The more time that you put into training and optimizing AI, the less time you're going to have to babysit it later. Then, it's actually going to give your customers that really amazing experience."

Watch the replay of the whole conversation with Katherine and Stacy to learn how Gorgias’s Shopping Assistant helps them turn browsers into buyers. 

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By Gabrielle Policella

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Featured articles

Conversational Commerce Metrics

Your Support Team Drives More Revenue Than You Think: Conversational Commerce Metrics

Your chat might be closing more sales than your checkout page. Here’s how to measure it.
By Tina Donati
0 min read . By Tina Donati

TL;DR:

  • Support chats can now be directly tied to revenue. Brands are measuring conversations by conversion rate, average order value (AOV), and GMV influenced.
  • AI resolution rate is only valuable if the answers are accurate and helpful. A high resolution rate doesn’t matter if it leads to poor recommendations — the best AI both deflects volume and drives confident purchases.
  • Chat conversion rates often outperform traditional channels. Brands like Arc’teryx saw a 75% lift in conversions (from 4% to 7%) when AI handled high-intent product questions.
  • Shoppers who chat often spend more. Conversations lead to higher AOVs by helping customers understand products, explore upgrades, and discover add-ons — not just through upselling, but smarter guidance.

Conversational commerce finally has a scoreboard.

For years, CX leaders knew support conversations mattered, they just couldn’t prove how much. Conversations lived in that gray area of ecommerce where shoppers got answers, agents did their best, and everyone agreed the channel was “important”… 

But tying those interactions back to actual revenue? Nearly impossible.

Fast forward to today, and everything has changed.

Real-time conversations — whether handled by a human agent or powered by AI — now leave a measurable footprint across the entire customer journey. You can see how many conversations directly influenced a purchase. 

In other words, conversational commerce is finally something CX teams can measure, optimize, and scale with confidence.

Why measuring conversational commerce matters now

If you want to prove the value of your CX strategy to your CFO, your marketing team, or your CEO, you need data, not anecdotes.

Leadership isn’t swayed by “We think conversations help shoppers.” They want to see the receipts. They want to know exactly how interactions influence revenue, which conversations drive conversion, and where AI meaningfully reduces workload without sacrificing quality.

That’s why conversational commerce metrics matter now more than ever. This gives CX leaders a way to:

  • Quantify the revenue influence of conversations
  • Understand where AI improves efficiency — and where humans add the most value
  • Make informed decisions on staffing, automation, and channel investment
  • Turn CX into a profit center instead of a cost center

These metrics let you track impact with clarity and confidence.

And once you can measure it, you can build a stronger case for deeper investment in conversational tools and strategy.

The 4 metric categories that define conversational commerce success

So, what exactly should CX teams be measuring?

While conversational commerce touches every part of the customer journey, the most meaningful insights fall into four core categories: 

  1. Automation performance
  2. Conversion & revenue impact
  3. Engagement quality
  4. Discounting behavior

Let’s dive into each.

Automation performance metrics

If you want to understand how well your conversational commerce strategy is working, automation performance is the first place to look. These metrics reveal how effectively AI is resolving shopper needs, reducing ticket volume, and stepping into revenue-driving conversations at scale.

The two most foundational metrics?

1. Resolution rate: Are AI-led conversations actually helpful?

Resolution rate measures how many conversations your AI handles from start to finish without needing a human to take over. On paper, high resolution rates sound like a guaranteed win. It suggests your AI is handling product questions, sizing concerns, shade matching, order guidance, and more — all without adding to your team’s workload.

But a high resolution rate doesn’t automatically mean your AI is performing well.

Yes, the ticket was “resolved,” but was the customer actually helped? Was the answer accurate? Did the shopper leave satisfied or frustrated?

This is where quality assurance becomes essential. Your AI should be resolving tickets accurately and helpfully, not simply checking boxes.

At its best, a strong resolution rate signals that your AI is:

  • Confidently answering product questions
  • Guiding shoppers to the right SKU, variant, shade, size, or style
  • Reducing cart abandonment caused by confusion
  • Helping pre-sale shoppers convert faster

When resolution rate quality goes up, so does revenue influence.

You can see this clearly with beauty brands, where accuracy matters enormously. bareMinerals, for example, used to receive a flood of shade-matching questions. Everything from “Which concealer matches my undertone?” to “This foundation shade was discontinued; what’s the closest match?” 

Before AI, these questions required well-trained agents and often created inconsistencies depending on who answered.

Once they introduced Shopping Assistant, resolution rate suddenly became more meaningful. AI wasn’t just closing tickets; it was giving smarter, more confident recommendations than many agents could deliver at scale, especially after hours. 

BareMinerals' AI Agent recommends a customer a foundation that matches their skin tone

That accuracy paid off. 

AI-influenced purchases at bareMinerals had zero returns in the first 30 days because customers were finally getting the right shade the first time.

That’s the difference between “resolved” and resolved well.

2. Zero-touch tickets: How many tickets never reach a human?

The zero-touch ticket rate measures something slightly different: the percentage of conversations AI manages entirely on its own, without ever being escalated to an agent.

This metric is a direct lens into:

  • Workload reduction
  • Team efficiency
  • Cost savings
  • AI’s ability to own high-volume question types

More importantly, deflection widens the funnel for more revenue-driven conversations.

When AI deflects more inbound questions, your support team can focus on conversations that truly require human expertise, including returns exceptions, escalations, VIP shoppers, and emotionally sensitive interactions.

Brands with strong deflection rates typically see:

  • Shorter wait times
  • Higher CSAT
  • Lower support costs
  • More AI-influenced revenue

Conversion and revenue impact metrics

If automation metrics tell you how well your AI is working, conversion and revenue metrics tell you how well it’s selling.

This category is where conversational commerce really proves its value because it shows the direct financial impact of every human- or AI-led interaction.

1. Chat Conversion Rate (CVR): How often do conversations turn into purchases?

Chat conversion rate measures the percentage of conversations that end in a purchase, and it’s one of the clearest indicators of whether your conversational strategy is influencing shopper decisions.

A strong CVR tells you that conversations are:

  • Building confidence
  • Removing hesitation
  • Guiding shoppers toward the right product

You see this clearly with brands selling technical or performance-driven products. 

Outdoor apparel shoppers, for example, don’t just need “a jacket” — they need to know which jacket will hold up in specific temperatures, conditions, or terrains. A well-trained AI can step into that moment and convert uncertainty into action.

Arc’teryx saw this firsthand. 

Arc'teryx uses Shopping Assistant to enable purchases directly from chat

Once Shopping Assistant started handling their high-intent pre-purchase questions, their chat conversion rate jumped dramatically — from 4% to 7%. A 75% lift. 

That’s what happens when shoppers finally get the expert guidance they’ve been searching for.

2. GMV influenced: The revenue ripple effect of conversations

Not every shopper buys the moment they finish a chat. Some take a few hours. Some need a day or two. Some want to compare specs or read reviews before committing.

GMV influenced captures this “tail effect” by tracking revenue within 1–3 days of a conversation.

It’s especially powerful for:

  • High-consideration purchases (like outdoor gear, home furniture, equipment)
  • Products with many options, specs, or configurations
  • Shoppers who need reassurance before buying

In Arc’teryx’s case, shoppers often take time to confirm they’re choosing the right technical gear.

Yet even with that natural pause in behavior, Shopping Assistant still influenced 3.7% of all revenue, not by forcing instant decisions, but by providing the clarity people needed to make the right one.

3. AOV from conversational commerce: Do conversations lead to bigger carts?

This metric looks at the average order value of shoppers who engage in a conversation versus those who don’t. 

If the conversational AOV is higher, it means your AI or agents are educating customers in ways that naturally expand the cart.

Examples of AOV-lifting conversations include:

  • Recommending complementary gear, tools, or accessories
  • Suggesting upgraded options based on needs
  • Helping shoppers understand the difference between product tiers
  • Explaining why a specific product is worth the investment

When conversations are done well, AOV increases not because shoppers are being upsold, but because they’re being guided. 

4. ROI of AI-powered conversations: The metric your leadership cares most about

ROI compares the revenue generated by conversational AI to the cost of the tool itself — in short, this is the number that turns heads in boardrooms.

Strong ROI shows that your AI:

  • Does the work of multiple agents
  • Drives new revenue, not just ticket deflection
  • Provides accurate answers consistently, at any time
  • Delivers a high-quality experience without expanding headcount

When ROI looks like that, AI stops being a “tool” and starts being an undeniable growth lever.

Related: The hidden power and ROI of automated customer support

Engagement metrics that indicate purchase intent

Not every metric in conversational commerce is a final outcome. Some are early signals that show whether shoppers are interested, paying attention, and moving closer to a purchase.

These engagement metrics are especially valuable because they reveal why conversations convert, not just whether they do. When engagement goes up, conversion usually follows.

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR): Are shoppers acting on the products your AI recommends?

CTR measures the percentage of shoppers who click the product links shared during a conversation. It’s one of the cleanest leading indicators of buyer intent because it reflects a moment where curiosity turns into action.

If CTR is high, it’s a sign that:

  • Your recommendations are relevant
  • The conversation is persuasive
  • The shopper trusts the guidance they’re getting
  • The AI is surfacing the right product at the right time

In other words, CTR tells you which conversations are influencing shopping behavior.

And the connection between CTR and revenue is often tighter than teams expect.

Just look at what happened with Caitlyn Minimalist. When they began comparing the results of human-led conversations versus AI-assisted ones over a 90-day period, CTR became one of the clearest predictors of success. Their Shopping Assistant consistently drove meaningful engagement with its recommendations — an 18% click-through rate on the products it suggested.

That level of engagement translated directly into better outcomes:

  • AI-driven conversations converted at 20%, compared to just 8% for human agents
  • Many of those clicks led to multi-item purchases
  • Overall, the brand experienced a 50% lift in sales from AI-assisted chats compared to human-only ones

When shoppers click, they’re moving deeper into the buying cycle. Strong CTR makes it easier to forecast conversion and understand how well your conversational flows are guiding shoppers toward the right products.

AI Agent recommends a customer with jewelry safe for sensitive skin

Discounting behavior metrics

Discounting can be one of the fastest ways to nudge a shopper toward checkout, but it’s also one of the fastest ways to erode margins. 

That’s why discount-related metrics matter so much in conversational commerce. 

They show not just whether AI is using discounts, but how effectively those discounts are driving conversions.

1. Discounts offered: Are incentives being used strategically or too often?

This metric tracks how many discount codes or promotional offers your AI is sharing during conversations. 

Ideally, discounts should be purposeful — timed to moments when a shopper hesitates or needs an extra nudge — not rolled out as a one-size-fits-all script. When you monitor “discounts offered,” you can ensure that incentives are being used as conversion tools, not crutches.

This visibility becomes particularly important at high-intent touchpoints, such as exit intent or cart recovery interactions, where a small incentive can meaningfully increase conversion if used correctly.

2. Discounts applied: Are those discounts actually influencing the purchase?

Offering a discount is one thing. Seeing whether customers use it is another.

A high “discounts applied” rate suggests:

  • The offer was compelling
  • The timing was right
  • The shopper truly needed that incentive to convert

A low usage rate tells a different story: Your team (or your AI) is discounting unnecessarily.

This metric alone often surprises brands. More often than not, CX teams discover they can discount less without hurting conversion, or that a non-discount incentive (like a relevant product recommendation) performs just as well.

Understanding this relationship helps teams tighten their promotional strategy, protect margins, and use discounts only where they actually drive incremental revenue.

How CX teams use these metrics to make better decisions

Once you know which metrics matter, the next step is building a system that brings them together in one place.

Think of your conversational commerce scorecard as a decision-making engine — something that helps you understand performance at a glance, spot bottlenecks, optimize AI, and guide shoppers more effectively.

In Gorgias, you can customize your analytics dashboard to watch the metrics that matter most to your brand. This becomes the single source of truth for understanding how conversations influence revenue.

Here’s what a powerful dashboard unlocks:

1. You learn where AI performs best (and where humans outperform)

Some parts of the customer journey are perfect for AI: repetitive questions, product education, sizing guidance, shade matching, order status checks. 

Others still benefit from human support, like emotional conversations, complex troubleshooting, multi-item styling, or high-value VIP concerns.

Metrics like resolution rate, zero-touch ticket rate, and chat conversion rate show you exactly which is which.

When you track these consistently, you can:

  • Identify conversation types AI should fully own
  • Spot where AI needs more training
  • Allocate human agents to higher-value conversations
  • Decide when humans should step in to drive stronger outcomes

For example, if AI handles 80% of sizing questions successfully but struggles with multi-item styling advice, that tells you where to invest in improving AI, and where human expertise should remain the default.

2. You uncover what shoppers actually need to convert

Metrics like CTR, CVR, and conversational AOV reveal the inner workings of shopper decision-making. They show which recommendations resonate, which don’t, and which messaging actually moves someone to purchase.

With these insights, CX teams can:

  • Refine product recommendations
  • Improve conversation flows that stall out
  • Adjust the tone or structure of AI messaging
  • Draft stronger scripts for human agents
  • Identify recurring questions that indicate missing PDP information

For instance, if shoppers repeatedly ask clarifying questions about a product’s material or fit, that’s a signal for merchandising or product teams. 

If recommendations with social proof get high engagement, marketing can integrate that insight into on-site messaging. 

Conversations reveal what customers really care about — often before analytics do.

3. You prove that conversations directly drive revenue

This is the moment when the scorecard stops being a CX tool and becomes a business tool.

A clear set of metrics shows how conversations tie to:

  • GMV influenced
  • AOV lift
  • Revenue generated by AI
  • ROI of conversational commerce tools

When a CX leader walks into a meeting and says, “Our AI Assistant influenced 5% of last month’s revenue” or “Conversational shoppers have a 20% higher AOV,” the perception of CX changes instantly.

You’re no longer a support cost. You’re a revenue channel.

And once you have numbers like ROI or revenue influence in hand, it becomes nearly impossible for anyone to argue against further investment in CX automation.

4. You identify where shoppers are dropping off or hesitating

A scorecard doesn’t just show what’s working, it surfaces what’s not.

Metrics make friction obvious:

Metric Signal

What It Means

Low CTR

Recommendations may be irrelevant or poorly timed.

Low CVR

Conversations aren’t persuasive enough to drive a purchase.

High deflection but low revenue

AI is resolving tickets, but not effectively selling.

High discount usage

Shoppers rely on incentives to convert.

Low discount usage

You may be offering discounts unnecessarily and losing margin.

Once you identify these patterns, you can run targeted experiments:

  • Test new scripts or flows
  • Adjust product recommendations
  • Add social proof or benefit framing
  • Reassess discounting strategies
  • Rework messaging on key PDPs

Compounded over time, these moments create major lifts in conversion and revenue.

5. You create a feedback loop across marketing, merchandising, and product

One of the biggest hidden values of conversational data is how it strengthens cross-functional decision-making.

A clear analytics dashboard gives teams visibility into:

  • Unclear or missing product information (from repeated questions)
  • Merchandising opportunities (from your most popular products)
  • Landing page or PDP improvements (from drop-off points)
  • Messaging that resonates with real customers (from AI messages)

Suddenly, CX isn’t just answering questions — it’s informing strategy across the business.

CX drives revenue when you measure what matters

With the right metrics in place, CX leaders can finally quantify the impact of every interaction, and use that data to shape smarter, more profitable customer journeys.

If you're ready to measure — and scale — the impact of your conversations, tools like Gorgias AI Agent and Shopping Assistant give CX teams the visibility, accuracy, and performance needed to turn every interaction into revenue.

Want to see it in action? Book a demo and discover what conversational commerce can do for your bottom line.

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min read.
AI Alignment

AI in CX Webinar Recap: Turning AI Implementation into Team Alignment

By Gabrielle Policella
0 min read . By Gabrielle Policella

TL;DR:

  • Implement quickly and iterate. Rhoback’s initial rollout process took two weeks, right before BFCM. Samantha moved quickly, starting with basic FAQs and then continuously optimizing.  
  • Train AI like a three-year-old. Although it is empathetic, an AI Agent does not inherently know what is right or wrong. Invest in writing clear Guidance, testing responses, and ensuring document accuracy. 
  • Approach your AI’s tone of voice like a character study. Your AI Agent is an extension of your brand, and its personality should reflect that. Rhoback conducted a complete analysis of its agent’s tone, age, energy, and vocabulary. 
  • Embrace AI as a tool to reveal inconsistencies. If your AI Agent is giving inaccurate information, it’s exposing gaps in your knowledge sources. Uses these early test responses to audit product pages, help center content, Guidance, and policies.
  • Check in regularly and keep humans in control. Introduce weekly reviews or QA rituals to refine AI’s accuracy, tone, and efficiency. Communicate AI insights cross-functionally to build trust and work towards shared goals.

When Rhoback introduced an AI Agent to its customer experience team, it did more than automate routine tickets. Implementation revealed an opportunity to improve documentation, collaborate cross-functionally, and establish a clear brand tone of voice. 

Samantha Gagliardi, Associate Director of Customer Experience at Rhoback, explains the entire process in the first episode of our AI in CX webinar series.

Top learnings from Rhoback’s AI rollout  

1. You can start before you “feel ready”

With any new tool, the pre-implementation phase can take some time. Creating proper documentation, training internal teams, and integrating with your tech stack are all important steps that happen before you go live. 

But sometimes it’s okay just to launch a tool and optimize as you go. 

Rhoback launched its AI agent two weeks before BFCM to automate routine tickets during the busy season. 

Why it worked:

  • Samantha had audited all of Rhoback’s SOPs, training materials, and FAQs a few months before implementation. 
  • They started by automating high-volume questions such as returns, exchanges, and order tracking.
  • They followed a structured AI implementation checklist. 

2. Audit your knowledge sources before you automate

Before turning on Rhoback’s AI Agent, Samantha’s team reviewed every FAQ, policy, and help article that human agents are trained on. This helped establish clear CX expectations that they could program into an AI Agent. 

Samantha also reviewed the most frequently asked questions and the ideal responses to each. Which ones needed an empathetic human touch and which ones required fast, accurate information?  

“AI tells you immediately when your data isn’t clean. If a product detail page says one thing and the help center says another, it shows up right away.” 

Rhoback’s pre-implementation audit checklist:

  • Review customer FAQs and the appropriate responses for each. 
  • Update outdated PDPs, Help Centre articles, policies, and other relevant documentation.
  • Establish workflows with Ecommerce and Product teams to align Macros, Guidance, and Help Center articles with product descriptions and website copy. 

Read more: How to Optimize Your Help Center for AI Agent

3. Train your AI Agent in small, clear steps

It’s often said that you should train your AI Agent like a brand-new employee. 

Samantha took it one step further and recommended treating AI like a toddler, with clear, patient, repetitive instructions. 

“The AI does not have a sense of good and bad. It’s going to say whatever you train it, so you need to break it down like you’re talking to a three-year-old that doesn’t know any different. Your directions should be so detailed that there is no room for error.”

Practical tips:

  • Use AI to build your AI Guidance, focusing on clear, detailed, simple instructions. 
  • Test each Guidance before adding new ones.
  • Treat the training process like an ongoing feedback loop, not a one-time upload.

Read more: How to Write Guidance with the “When, If, Then” Framework

4. Prioritize Tone of Voice to make AI feel natural

For Rhoback, an on-brand Tone of Voice was a non-negotiable. Samantha built a character study that shaped Rhoback’s AI Agent’s custom brand voice.

“I built out the character of Rhoback, how it talks, what age it feels like, what its personality is. If it does not sound like us, it is not worth implementing.”

Key questions to shape your AI Agent’s tone of voice:

  • How does the AI Agent speak? Friendly, funny, empathetic, etc…?
  • Does your AI Agent use emojis? How often?
  • Are there any terms or phrases the AI Agent should always or never say?

5. Use AI to surface knowledge gaps or inconsistencies

Once Samantha started testing the AI Agent, it quickly revealed misalignment between Rhoback’s teams. With such an extensive product catalog, AI showed that product details did not always match the Help Center or CX documentation. 

This made a case for stronger collaboration amongst the CX, Product, and Ecommerce teams to work towards their shared goal of prioritizing the customer. 

“It opened up conversations we were not having before. We all want the customer to be happy, from the moment they click on an ad to the moment they purchase to the moment they receive their order. AI Agent allowed us to see the areas we need to improve upon.” 

Tips to improve internal alignment:

  • Create regular syncs between CX, Product, Ecommerce, and Marketing teams.
  • Share AI summaries, QA insights, and trends to highlight recurring customer pain points.
  • Build a collaborative workflow for updating documents that gives each team visibility. 

6. Build trust (with your team and customers) through transparency 

Despite the benefits of AI for CX, there’s still trepidation. Agents are concerned that AI would replace them, while customers worry they won’t be able to reach a human. Both are valid concerns, but clearly communicating internally and externally can mitigate skepticism. 

At Rhoback, Samantha built internal trust by looping in key stakeholders throughout the testing process. “I showed my team that it is not replacing them. It’s meant to be a support that helps them be even more successful with what they’re already doing," Samantha explains.

On the customer side, Samantha trained their AI Agent to tell customers in the first message that it is an AI customer service assistant that will try to help them or pass them along to a human if it can’t. 

How Rhoback built AI confidence:

  • Positioned AI as a personal assistant for agents, not a replacement.
  • Let agents, other departments, and leadership test and shape the AI Agent experience early.
  • Told customers up front when automation was being used and made the path to a human clear and easy.

Read more: How CX Leaders are Actually Using AI: 6 Must-Know Lessons

Putting these into practice: Rhoback’s framework for an aligned AI implementation 

Here is Rhoback’s approach distilled into a simple framework you can apply.

  1. Audit your content: Ensure your FAQs, product data, policies, and all documentation are accurate.
  2. Start small: Automate one repetitive workflow, such as returns or tracking.
  3. Train iteratively: Add Guidance in small, testable batches.
  4. Prioritize tone: Make sure every AI reply sounds like your brand.
  5. Align teams: Use AI data to resolve cross-departmental inconsistencies and establish clearer communication lines.
  6. Be transparent: Tell both agents and customers how AI fits into the process.
  7. Refine regularly: Review, measure, and adjust on an ongoing basis.

Watch the full conversation with Samantha to learn how AI can act as a catalyst for better internal alignment. 

📌 Join us for episode 2 of AI in CX: Building a Conversational Commerce Strategy that Converts with Cornbread Hemp on December 16.

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min read.
Food & Beverage Self-Service

How Food & Beverage Brands Can Level Up Self-Service Before BFCM

Before the BFCM rush begins, we’re serving food & beverage CX teams seven easy self-serve upgrades to keep support tickets off their plate.
By Alexa Hertel
0 min read . By Alexa Hertel

TL;DR:

  • Most food & beverage support tickets during BFCM are predictable. Subscription cancellations, WISMO, and product questions make up the bulk—so prep answers ahead of time.
  • Proactive CX site updates can drastically cut down repetitive tickets. Add ingredient lists, cooking instructions, and clear refund policies to product pages and FAQs.
  • FAQ pages should go deep, not just broad. Answer hyper-specific questions like “Will this break my fast?” to help customers self-serve without hesitation.‍
  • Transparency about stock reduces confusion and cart abandonment. Show inventory levels, set up waitlists, and clearly state cancellation windows.

In 2024, Shopify merchants drove $11.5 billion in sales over Black Friday Cyber Monday. Now, BFCM is quickly approaching, with some brands and major retailers already hosting sales.

If you’re feeling late to prepare for the season or want to maximize the number of sales you’ll make, we’ll cover how food and beverage CX teams can serve up better self-serve resources for this year’s BFCM. 

Learn how to answer and deflect customers’ top questions before they’re escalated to your support team.

💡 Your guide to everything peak season → The Gorgias BFCM Hub

Handling BFCM as a food & beverage brand

During busy seasons like BFCM and beyond, staying on top of routine customer asks can be an extreme challenge. 

“Every founder thinks BFCM is the highest peak feeling of nervousness,” says Ron Shah, CEO and Co-founder of supplement brand Obvi. 

“It’s a tough week. So anything that makes our team’s life easier instantly means we can focus more on things that need the time,” he continues. 

Anticipating contact reasons and preparing methods (like automated responses, macros, and enabling an AI Agent) is something that can help. Below, find the top contact reasons for food and beverage companies in 2025. 

Top contact reasons in the food & beverage industry 

According to Gorgias proprietary data, the top reason customers reach out to brands in the food and beverage industry is to cancel a subscription (13%) followed by order status questions (9.1%).

Contact Reason

% of Tickets

🍽️ Subscription cancellation

13%

🚚 Order status (WISMO)

9.1%

❌ Order cancellation

6.5%

🥫 Product details

5.7%

🧃 Product availability

4.1%

⭐ Positive feedback

3.9%

7 ways to improve your self-serve resources before BFCM

  1. Add informative blurbs on product pages 
  2. Craft additional help center and FAQ articles 
  3. Automate responses with AI or Macros 
  4. Get specific about product availability
  5. Provide order cancellation and refund policies upfront
  6. Add how-to information
  7. Build resources to help with buying decisions 

1) Add informative blurbs on product pages

Because product detail queries represent 5.7% of contact reasons for the food and beverage industry, the more information you provide on your product pages, the better. 

Include things like calorie content, nutritional information, and all ingredients.  

For example, ready-to-heat meal company The Dinner Ladies includes a dropdown menu on each product page for further reading. Categories include serving instructions, a full ingredient list, allergens, nutritional information, and even a handy “size guide” that shows how many people the meal serves. 

The Dinner Ladies product page showing parmesan biscuits with tapenade and mascarpone.
The Dinner Ladies includes a drop down menu full of key information on its product pages. The Dinner Ladies

2) Craft additional Help Center and FAQ articles

FAQ pages make up the information hub of your website. They exist to provide customers with a way to get their questions answered without reaching out to you.   

This includes information like how food should be stored, how long its shelf life is, delivery range, and serving instructions. FAQs can even direct customers toward finding out where their order is and what its status is. 

Graphic listing benefits of FAQ pages including saving time and improving SEO.

In the context of BFCM, FAQs are all about deflecting repetitive questions away from your team and assisting shoppers in finding what they need faster. 

That’s the strategy for German supplement brand mybacs. 

“Our focus is to improve automations to make it easier for customers to self-handle their requests. This goes hand in hand with making our FAQs more comprehensive to give customers all the information they need,” says Alexander Grassmann, its Co-Founder & COO.

As you contemplate what to add to your FAQ page, remember that more information is usually better. That’s the approach Everyday Dose takes, answering even hyper-specific questions like, “Will it break my fast?” or “Do I have to use milk?”

Everyday Dose FAQ page showing product, payments, and subscription question categories.
Everyday Dose has an extensive FAQ page that guides shoppers through top questions and answers. Everyday Dose

While the FAQs you choose to add will be specific to your products, peruse the top-notch food and bev FAQ pages below. 

Time for some FAQ inspo:

3) Automate responses with AI or macros

AI Agents and AI-powered Shopping Assistants are easy to set up and are extremely effective in handling customer interactions––especially during BFCM.  

“I told our team we were going to onboard Gorgias AI Agent for BFCM, so a good portion of tickets would be handled automatically,” says Ron Shah, CEO and Co-founder at Obvi. “There was a huge sigh of relief knowing that customers were going to be taken care of.” 

And, they’re getting smarter. AI Agent’s CSAT is just 0.6 points shy of human agents’ average CSAT score. 

Obvi homepage promoting Black Friday sale with 50% off and chat support window open.
Obvi 

Here are the specific responses and use cases we recommend automating: 

  • WISMO (where is my order) inquiries 
  • Product related questions 
  • Returns 
  • Order issues
  • Cancellations 
  • Discounts, including BFCM related 
  • Customer feedback
  • Account management
  • Collaboration requests 
  • Rerouting complex queries

Get your checklist here: How to prep for peak season: BFCM automation checklist

4) Get specific about product availability

With high price reductions often comes faster-than-usual sell out times. By offering transparency around item quantities, you can avoid frustrated or upset customers. 

For example, you could show how many items are left under a certain threshold (e.g. “Only 10 items left”), or, like Rebel Cheese does, mention whether items have sold out in the past.  

Rebel Cheese product page for Thanksgiving Cheeseboard Classics featuring six vegan cheeses on wood board.
Rebel Cheese warns shoppers that its Thanksgiving cheese board has sold out 3x already. Rebel Cheese  

You could also set up presales, give people the option to add themselves to a waitlist, and provide early access to VIP shoppers. 

5) Provide order cancellation and refund policies upfront 

Give shoppers a heads up whether they’ll be able to cancel an order once placed, and what your refund policies are. 

For example, cookware brand Misen follows its order confirmation email with a “change or cancel within one hour” email that provides a handy link to do so. 

Misen order confirmation email with link to change or cancel within one hour of checkout.
Cookware brand Misen follows up its order confirmation email with the option to edit within one hour. Misen 

Your refund policies and order cancellations should live within an FAQ and in the footer of your website. 

6) Add how-to information 

Include how-to information on your website within your FAQs, on your blog, or as a standalone webpage. That might be sharing how to use a product, how to cook with it, or how to prepare it. This can prevent customers from asking questions like, “how do you use this?” or “how do I cook this?” or “what can I use this with?” etc. 

For example, Purity Coffee created a full brewing guide with illustrations:

Purity Coffee brewing guide showing home drip and commercial batch brewer illustrations.
Purity Coffee has an extensive brewing guide on its website. Purity Coffee

Similarly, for its unique preseasoned carbon steel pan, Misen lists out care instructions: 

Butter melting in a seasoned carbon steel pan on a gas stove.
Misen 

And for those who want to understand the level of prep and cooking time involved, The Dinner Ladies feature cooking instructions on each product page. 

The Dinner Ladies product page featuring duck sausage rolls with cherry and plum dipping sauce.
The Dinner Ladies feature a how to cook section on product pages. The Dinner Ladies 

7) Build resources to help with buying decisions 

Interactive quizzes, buying guides, and gift guides can help ensure shoppers choose the right items for them––without contacting you first. 

For example, Trade Coffee Co created a quiz to help first timers find their perfect coffee match: 

Trade Coffee Co offers an interactive quiz to lead shoppers to their perfect coffee match. Trade Coffee Co

Set your team up for BFCM success with Gorgias 

The more information you can share with customers upfront, the better. That will leave your team time to tackle the heady stuff. 

If you’re looking for an AI-assist this season, check out Gorgias’s suite of products like AI Agent and Shopping Assistant. 

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min read.
Call to action
Create powerful self-service resources
Capture support-generated revenue
Automate repetitive tasks

Further reading

Best Shopify Apps

40+ Best Shopify Apps To Optimize Your Ecommerce Store

By Ryan Baum
31 min read.
0 min read . By Ryan Baum

Shopify comes equipped with everything you need to get your ecommerce store up and running, but if you really want to optimize it for time-saving efficiency and maximized sales, you are going to need to rely on some third-party apps from the Shopify app store. 

From automating your email marketing campaigns to helping you better manage your inventory and much, much more, there is a large number of capabilities offered by the best Shopify apps. To help you decide which of these apps is the best choice for your ecommerce business, we'll take a look at the most important qualities to look for in a Shopify app before diving into the 40+ best Shopify apps available today.

For easy skimming, we've pulled out the top 10 Shopify apps for ecommerce stores below.

  1. Best customer service app: Gorgias
  2. Best email marketing app: Klaviyo
  3. Best SMS app: Attentive
  4. Best sales & conversion app: Recharge
  5. Best checkout app: One Click Upsell
  6. Best inventory management app: ShipBob
  7. Best returns app: Loop Returns
  8. Best social media app: Instafeed
  9. Best SEO app: SEO Manager
  10. Best loyalty and retention app: Yotpo

What to look for in a Shopify app

While the exact features and functions of Shopify apps can vary dramatically from app to app, there are still a few essential qualities that you will want to look for no matter what type of app you are needing. This includes qualities such as:

1) Integrates with your other ecommerce tools and platforms

Like people, Shopify apps work best when they work together. Being able to integrate your email marketing app with your shipment tracking app, for example, means that you'll be able to send automated shipping updates to customers. 

Integrating your customer support platform with your call center app, meanwhile, means that your agents providing phone-based customer support will have a wealth of data on the customers they are speaking with at their fingertips throughout each call. 

These are just two examples of how it can be beneficial to choose apps that can integrate with your other ecommerce tools. Of course, it's also important to choose apps that will integrate with your ecommerce platforms, which is why all of the apps in our list are capable of integrating with Shopify, Shopify Plus, or both.

2) Allows for customizations

Plug-n-play solutions that don't offer much room for customization may seem convenient at first. As your business grows and scales, though, you are likely to find that these solutions no longer meet your needs like they once did. 

While learning how to navigate Shopify apps that offer a wide range of customization options might require a bit of a learning curve, it's almost always worth it in the end.

3) Receives regular updates

Even the most well-polished apps still require regular updates and maintenance to continue functioning correctly. In addition to scheduled updates and maintenance, it is also essential to choose apps whose providers are willing to work with you to quickly correct any bugs or issues that come up while you are using the app. 

This makes great customer support a vital quality to look for in Shopify app providers no matter what type of app you are purchasing.

Best Shopify customer service apps

1) Gorgias

Gorgias is an all-in-one customer support platform (including a helpdesk and live chat support) that provides a centralized help center for your customer support agents to provide great, revenue-generating customer experiences.

Gorgias lets ecommerce brands centralize conversations from every channel, empowered with features including:

If you are looking for a tool that will improve the customer experience on your website while at the same time reducing the burden of your customer support team, then Gorgias for Shopify is an excellent app to consider.

Key features

  • Streamlines and automates the process of creating, organizing, and assigning customer support tickets
  • Live-chat support via a fast-loading chat widget
  • Provides a user-friendly dashboard for customer support agents to work from
  • Detailed analytics and reporting of customer service data

Pricing

  • A Basic plan that costs $60/month and includes 350 tickets/month
  • A Pro plan that costs $300/month and includes 2,000 tickets/month plus revenue statistics and a Magento integration
  • An Advanced plan that costs $750/month and includes 5,000 tickets/month plus a dedicated Success Manager
  • Custom pricing available upon request for companies with larger tickets per month needs and/or the need for custom services

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

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2) Tidio

Tidio for customer service
Source: Tidio

Tidio is an app that provides both live chat and chatbot capabilities for your Shopify store, with AI-powered chatbots that allow you to automate up to 40% of your customer support conversations.

Key features

  • Receive live visitor notifications when someone visits your site
  • The ability to easily share pictures, videos, and other files directly within the chat widget
  • The ability to program chatbots to showcase promotions and discounts to improve your conversion rate and boost sales

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month
  • A Chatbots plan that costs $39/month and includes additional features such as unlimited active chatbots and chatbot templates
  • A Communicator plan that costs $15/month per operator and includes additional features such as live typing and the ability to track viewed pages

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

3) HelpCenter

Help Center is a customer support solution that provides tabs for organizing your product descriptions, live chat software, a HelpDesk ticketing system, and an FAQ builder that allows you to create a comprehensive FAQ page in just a matter of minutes.

Key features

  • The ability to automatically flag and organize tickets based on priority
  • Automated workflows for speeding up time-consuming customer support tasks
  • Customers are able to access live chat support on-site or through Facebook Messenger

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes basic features plus 50 tickets/month
  • An FAQ plan that costs $3.99/month and includes full FAQ set-up, basic Tabs features, and 3,500 tickets/year
  • A Tabs plan that costs $3.99/month and includes unlimited product page tabs, basic FAQ features, and 3,500 tickets/year
  • A HelpDesk plan that costs $9.99/month and includes full HelpDesk setup and features, basic Tabs and FAQ features, and 17,000 tickets/year
  • A Professional plan that costs $14.92/month and includes full HelpDesk, Tabs, and FAQ features plus 17,000 tickets/year

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

Best email marketing and SMS Shopify apps

According to data from the Content Marketing Institute, 31% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are the best way to nurture leads. With these must-have Shopify apps for email marketing, you can automate your email marketing campaigns, create stunning branded emails, better segment your list for improved targeting, and beyond.

4) Automizely Email Marketing

Automizely Email Marketing
Source: Automizely

With Automizely Email Marketing, online store owners are able to create email campaigns that are both personalized and automated in addition to helping them create professional-quality emails using Automizely's drag-and-drop email editor.

Key features

  • The ability to add a broad range of features to your emails such as product recommendations and a countdown timer
  • The option to filter and segment your subscriber list based on a range of customer behaviors and other criteria
  • All email templates are 100% mobile responsive

Pricing

  • Automizely Email Marketing offers flexible pricing depending on the size of your contact list and how many emails you send each month. For more information on Automizely Email Marketing pricing, you can check out the app's pricing calculator.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

5) Omnisend

Omnisend
Source: btw

Omnisend is a highly-popular email marketing tool that provides access to pre-built email and SMS workflows and templates, gives you the ability to segment your subscriber lists based on a wealth of data, and allows you to create automated email marketing campaigns that are sent out based on customer activity triggers.

Key features

  • Detailed analytics and reporting that you can use to segment your subscriber lists
  • The ability to create a wide range of custom triggers for launching automated email campaigns
  • Excellent 24/7 customer support

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and offers up to 500 emails and 60 SMS messages per month
  • A Standard plan that costs $16/month and offers up to 6,000 emails and 60 SMS messages per month
  • A Pro plan that costs $59/month and offers unlimited emails and up to 3,933 SMS messages per month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Omnisend integrates with Gorgias.

6) Klaviyo

Klaviyo for marketing
Source: Eventbrite

With Klaviyo, you are able to easily segment your email list for personalized targeting before creating automated email campaigns that can be sent out based on a variety of custom triggers.

Key features

  • Automatically send out emails and SMS messages based on triggers such as cart abandonment triggers, price drop triggers, and back-in-stock triggers
  • A centralized analytics dashboard that provides well-organized data regarding all of your SMS and email campaigns
  • An extensive library of pre-built templates and workflows that you can use to speed up your campaign creation process

Pricing

  • Pricing for Klaviyo depends on how many emails/SMS messages you intend to send each month, but you can check out this link for a Klaviyo pricing calculator.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes 

See how Klaviyo integrates with Gorgias.

7) Attentive

Attentive for marketing
Source: Crozdesk

Attentive is an SMS and email marketing solution that makes it easy to build and optimize campaigns while remaining compliant with SMS and email marketing regulations. This platform is designed to help store owners grow their subscriber lists and engage with these lists more effectively with segmentation and targeting functionality to generate high-impact campaigns.

Key features

  • Custom integrations using Attentive's Public APIs and developer resources
  • Rewards management
  • Design editor to create sign-up forms for your website and social media platforms
  • A/B testing
  • Audience manager to target customers with personalized messages
  • Business intelligence to help measure campaign performance

Pricing

See how Attentive integrates with Gorgias.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

Best sales and conversions Shopify apps

Selling more products is the ultimate goal of every Shopify store owner. With these sales and conversions Shopify apps, you can boost your sales with sales enablement tools such as SMS messaging tools, loyalty and referral programs, list segmentation tools, and beyond.

8) Cartloop

Cartloop
Source: Spotted

Marketed as a conversational text marketing ecommerce platform, Cartloop is designed to help ecommerce brands grow their subscriber base and engage with them on a more personal level. With highly targeted campaigns, Cartloop leverages simple text messages to help Shopify store owners increase revenue.  

Key features

  • 24/7 live support 
  • ROI tracking
  • Campaign segmentation for more effective targeting
  • Campaign management and analytics
  • Auto-responders and event-triggered actions
  • Engagement tracking

Pricing

  • A Growth plan that costs $99/month with a 14-day free trial
  • A Pro plan that costs $299/month with a 14-day free trial

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

9) Recharge

Recharge is a Shopify app for store owners who sell subscription-based products or services that makes it easy to set up and manage subscription programs in addition to providing your customers with the ability to manage their subscriptions either via SMS or through a user-friendly customer portal.

Key features

  • Reduces churn by giving customers the option to pause or alter their subscription rather than canceling it
  • Integrates with all popular payment processing solutions to allow subscription-based payments
  • Provides a wide range of actionable insights that you can use to optimize your subscription offerings

Pricing

  • A Standard plan that includes basic features and costs $0/month plus 1% + 10¢/transaction
  • A Pro plan that includes additional features such as a customizable shopper portal and product variants and costs $300/month plus 1% + 19¢/transaction

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

See how Recharge integrates with Gorgias.

10) Postscript

Source: QuickReply.ai

Postscript is an SMS marketing tool that allows you to grow your SMS subscriber list with customizable opt-in tool templates, create hyper-targeted list segments based on your Shopify store data, and easily message customers with both one-on-one and mass messages.

Key features

  • Customizable opt-in popups for generating new leads
  • Allows you to create an unlimited number of "text to join" keywords
  • Allows you to create automated SMS messaging campaigns that are triggered by over 65 different customer events

Pricing

  • Pricing for Postscript is dependent on the number of messages you send each month. Check out this link for a Postscript pricing calculator.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Postscript integrates with Gorgias.

11) Spently

Spently for emails
Source: Spently

With Spently, Shopify store owners are able to turn their standard Shopify post-purchase notification emails into customizable, branded emails complete with product recommendations, discount codes, and other custom features.

Key features

  • Allows you to create automated email campaigns based on triggers such as cart abandonment and back-in-stock alerts
  • Provides a drag-and-drop email designer for customizing all 27 Shopify email notification templates
  • Access ROI-based reporting and analytics from Spently's in-app dashboard

Pricing

  • Pricing for Spently is dependent on the number of orders your store processes each month. Check out this link for a Spently pricing calculator.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

Best development Shopify apps

Shopify provides all of the tools you need to create a basic online store. If you would like to create new features for your store that are not already supported by Shopify, though, you are sure to find these Shopify development apps highly beneficial.

12) Omega Instant Search

Omega instant search
Source: Omega Commerce

Shopify's default product search function can be somewhat limited. With Omega Instant Search, though, you are able to develop a product search function for your store that is much more powerful thanks to features such as spell correction, fallback search, redirects, and synonyms.

Key features

  • The search module requires no preliminary configuration and is ready for your customers to use immediately after it is installed
  • The search module allows for customizable configurations
  • Provides customers with filters for narrowing down their search

Pricing

  • Pricing for Omega Instant Search is only available upon request

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

13) Buddha Mega Menu

Buddha Mega Menu
Source: Buddha Apps

A mega menu is a feature that allows you to display multiple menus from a single dropdown in your store's navigation, making it much easier for customers to find the specific products and collections that they are looking for. With Buddha Mega Menu, you can create an attractive and fully-functional mega menu for your Shopify store in a matter of minutes and cross-sell like a pro.

Key features

  • Easy to configure and install
  • Provides a range of design features such as countdown timers, featured products, and banners to highlight your promotions
  • The ability to create a customizable mega menu for your Shopify store

Pricing

  • Buddha Mega Menu is free to download and use

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

14) Smart Bar

Smart Bar
Source: ShopYo!

Smart Bar is an app that allows you to quickly create promotional bars and banners for your online store and populate these promotion bars and banners with conversion-boosting features such as countdown timers and free shipping bars.

Key features

  • An impressive library of promotional bar and banner templates that are fully-customizable
  • The ability to display multiple promotional bars and banners on one page
  • Analytics tools that record clicks, views, click-through-rate, and heatmap

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month that includes basic features and the ability to create up to three promotional bars
  • A Premium plan that costs $0/month that includes additional features and the ability to create unlimited promotional bars

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

15) Easy Redirects

Easy Redirects
Source: Easy Redirects

404 page errors can potentially cost your store a lot of customers by both encouraging would-be customers to navigate away from your website and harming its SEO. With Easy Redirects, though, you can automatically find and fix all 404 errors on your Shopify store.

Key features

  • One-click install with no coding required
  • Quickly and easily import bulk URL redirects into Shopify from a CSV file
  • Automatic 404 tracking, error reports, and resolution

Pricing

  • A Basic plan that costs $0/month and bulk 301 redirects, group redirects, and statistics and analysis
  • A Premium plan that costs $10/month and includes everything found in the Basic plan as well as redirect patterns to automate redirects, automatic 404 tracking, and 404 page error alerts and reminders

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

16) Hextom

Hextom is a SaaS company that offers a number of different development solutions for Shopify stores, including a bulk image edit solution, a bulk product edit solution, an email collection bar, a payment processing tool for converting foreign currencies, a countdown timer bar, and more.

Key features

  • Offers a total of 13 Shopify store development solutions
  • Easily edit your product descriptions and images with bulk image edit and bulk product edit capabilities
  • The option to pick and choose the specific solutions you need for your Shopify store

Pricing

  • Pricing for Hextom is dependent on the specific solutions that you choose

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

17) Vela

Vela
Source: Vela

Vela is a solution that provides a centralized dashboard for managing multiple Shopify stores as well as the ability to bulk edit every aspect of your product descriptions.

Key features

  • The ability to manage multiple Shopify stores from a single Vela account
  • Bulk edit all product attributes including descriptions, photos, variants, and prices
  • Optimize your product photos with filters, refinements, and cropping

Pricing

  • A Vela Lite plan that costs $5/month and includes basic listing editing features
  • A Vela Pro plan that costs $10/month and includes everything in the Vela Lite plan as well as copy and publish functionality, profiles, a photo library and editor, and early access to new integrations and features.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

Best checkout Shopify apps

According to data from Baymard Institute, 70% of shopping carts are abandoned before the customer completes their checkout. By enabling you to create fast and optimized checkout pages, these checkout Shopify apps can help you lower your abandoned cart rates and ultimately increase sales.

18) One-Click Checkout

One-Click Checkout
Source: SpurIT UAB

One-Click Checkout is an app that enables you to create "Buy Now" buttons for your products that take customers directly to the checkout page as well as create a checkout popup that shows customers the items in their cart each time they add a new item to the cart.

Key features

  • 24/7 customer support via phone, chat, or email
  • Provides an Amazon-like one-click checkout experience
  • Checkout popup and "Buy Now" buttons are both fully-customizable

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes "leads to checkout" functionality for "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons
  • An Unlimited plan that costs $9.95/month and includes "cart summary popup" functionality for "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons plus flexible checkout flow management
  • A Priority Support plan that costs $18.95/month and includes everything in the Unlimited plan plus up to 3 hours/month of customizations, a dedicated manager, setup assistance, and priority queue for customer support

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

19) Klarna

Klarna
Source: Medium

Integrating payment processing app Klarna into your online store provides your customers with the ability to split the cost of their purchase into four interest-free payments while still ensuring that you get paid upfront and in-full.

Key features

  • On-site messaging to let customers know that Klarna financing is available for their purchases
  • Allows you to create "try before you buy" promotions by giving customers an extra 30 days to complete their payment
  • As a credit service, Klarna pays merchants upfront and in-full even if the customer is financing their purchase

Pricing

  • Karina charges a fee of $0.30 per transaction along with a variable fee of up to 5.99% of the purchase total

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

20) Fast Checkout In One Click

Fast Checkout In One Click
Source: Sweet Ecom

Fast Checkout In One Click is an app that allows you to create animated "Buy Now" buttons that direct customers straight to checkout, skipping the cart page and reducing the likelihood of an abandoned cart. Make your sales channels work harder for your brand.

Key features

  • The option to add a cart page popup window that is displayed after a customer clicks "Buy Now"
  • Animated "Buy Now" buttons to capture customers' attention complete with a variety of animation styles to choose from
  • Utilizes native theme style to be compatible with most Shopify store themes but can be customized if needed

Pricing

  • Fast Checkout In One Click costs $4.49/month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

21) Transcy

Transcy for localization
Source: Transcy

Transcy is a language and currency conversion app that will automatically translate both the content and USD prices on your online store into the language and currencies of the customer viewing them, making it one of the best apps for stores that sell to a lot of international customers.

Key features

  • Detects the customer's location then auto-translates your store into the customer's native currency and language with support for all major currencies and 111 different languages
  • Currency exchange rates are updated daily and can be adjusted manually
  • Allows you to display separate images for different languages to better target your store to specific demographics

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes translation for one additional language and two additional currencies
  • An Economy plan that costs $9.90/month and includes translation for two additional languages and all major currencies as well as additional features such as multilingual SEO
  • A Starter plan that costs $19.90/month and includes translation for 111 additional languages and all major currencies as well as additional features such as image replacement options
  • An Essential plan that costs $39.90/month and includes translation for 111 additional languages and all major currencies as well as additional features such as a dedicated customer success manager

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

22) Buy Me Button

Buy Me Button for checkout
Source: MakeProSimp

Buy Me Button is a Shopify checkout solution that offers features such as "Buy Me" buttons that take customers straight to checkout, a cart preview popup that appears when customers add a new item to their cart, and "Quick Buy" buttons that allow customers to purchase products from any page or listing on your website.

Key features

  • "Quick Buy" buttons allow customers to purchase products directly from any product listing pages
  • All buttons automatically inherit the design of the Shopify store where they are installed and can be further customized upon installation
  • Shareable links allow customers to share products on social media

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month for up to 50 "add to carts" per month
  • A Small plan that costs $2.95/month for up to 250 "add to carts" per month
  • A Medium plan that costs $4.95/month for up to 750 "add to carts" per month
  • A Large plan that costs $6.95/month for unlimited "add to carts"

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

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23) One Click Upsell

One Click Upsell
Source: Zipify

One Click Upsell is a Shopify app designed to help store owners increase their average order value by presenting customers with upsell opportunities at checkout. With One Click Upsell, you can create one-click upsell options that are shown to customers either before or after checkout that allow them to add additions to their purchase with just a single, convenient click.

Key features

  • Upsell offer page templates that have been tested by high-volume Shopify stores
  • The option to choose different upsell options for various products, product variants, and collections
  • Built-in split testing

Pricing

  • A Tier 1 plan that costs $24.99/month for up to $200 in total monthly upsell revenue
  • A Tier 2 plan that costs $49.99/month for up to $400 in total monthly upsell revenue
  • A Tier 3 plan that costs $59.99/month for up to $500 in total monthly upsell revenue
  • A Tier 4 plan that costs $79.99/month for $500+ in total monthly upsell revenue

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

Best inventory management and returns Shopify apps

Keeping track of your inventory and ensuring that you always have the appropriate amount of products in stock to meet customer demand can sometimes be a time-consuming challenge. 

With these inventory management Shopify apps, though, you can streamline and automate your various inventory management processes, freeing you up to focus on bringing in new customers and growing your store's revenue.

24) Katana Manufacturing ERP

Katana Manufacturing
Source: Katana Manufacturing ERP

Katana Manufacturing ERP is an inventory management solution that allows you to optimize inventory movements by setting up reorder points and prioritizing your sales orders.

Key features

  • Manage production, scheduling, and resources from one location
  • Omnichannel order management
  • End-to-end traceability for tracking batches, materials, expiration dates, and beyond

Pricing

  • An Essential plan that supports up to three warehouses and costs $99/month
  • A Pro plan that supports unlimited warehouses and costs $299/month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

25) Stock Sync

Stock Sync
Source: Stock Sync

With Stock Sync, store owners are able to set up automatic inventory updates, update existing products via over 80 different connection methods, and set quantity rules to avoid overselling.

Key features

  • Provides a centralized and easy-to-understand overview of your inventory levels
  • Capable of integrating with up to 80 different channels, including Amazon S3, QuickBooks, eBay, Google Drive, Etsy, and OneDrive
  • Capable of reading all file formats

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and supports up to 2,000 SKUs
  • A Basic plan that costs $5/month and supports up to 2,000 SKUs and 1 update feed/supplier
  • A Pro plan that costs $10/month and supports up to 10,000 SKUs and 2 update feeds/suppliers
  • An Enterprise plan that costs $49/month and supports 35,000 SKUs and 5+ update feeds/suppliers

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

26) QuickBooks Commerce

QuickBooks Commerce
Source: Quickbooks Commerce

One of the most well-known inventory management solutions, QuickBooks Commerce is a platform that allows you to manage your product listings across multiple channels, track products from inventory to fulfillment, automatically update your inventory levels, and much more.

Key features

  • Automatically adjust stock levels for new products, damage, shrinkage, returns, or promotions
  • Detailed stock history for all products
  • Barcode scanning capabilities for searching for products by barcode and entering product information into sales and purchase orders

Pricing

  • QuickBooks Commerce costs $50/month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

27) Stocky

Stocky
Source: Shopify

Stocky is an inventory management solution offered by Shopify that enables Shopify store owners to achieve complete visibility over their inventory through detailed inventory analytics and insights such as demand forecasting. Stocky also makes it easy to create and manage purchase orders from one place.

Key features

  • Provides inventory management recommendations based on profitability and rate of sales
  • Enables staff to use a barcode scanner to receive and place inventory quickly and accurately
  • Provides a user-friendly dashboard for creating and tracking purchase orders

Pricing

  • Stocky is free to install with a Shopify POS Pro subscription

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

28) ShipBob 

ShipBob for order fulfillment
Source: ShipBob

More of a logistics service provider than an application, ShipBob is a service that allows ecommerce store owners to ship their products in bulk to ShipBob warehouses across the country. Once you've delivered your products, ShipBob then takes over all inventory management and order fulfillment responsibilities on behalf of your online store — picking, packing, and shipping products to customers as they're ordered. 

ShipBob is a common alternative to Shopify Fulfillment Network. 

Key features

  • ShipBob completely eliminates the burden of order fulfillment, including managing product returns 
  • Strategically located warehouses allow you to offer faster shipping to locations across the country
  • Includes built-in reports and analytics that provide a window into product performance 
  • Offers a comprehensive help center that will help you master the platform and resolve any issues that you might experience 

Pricing

  • ShopBob is free to install and bills for orders shipped, receiving inventory, warehouse storage, and custom projects. 
  • Request pricing for a custom quote or use the U.S. to U.S. shipping calculator to get started. 

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how ShipBob integrates with Gorgias. 

29) AfterShip Returns Center

AfterShip Returns Center
Source: Aftership

AfterShip Returns Center is a solution for managing customer returns that allows store owners to create a branded and interactive self-service returns page, provide customers with automated real-time updates regarding the status of their orders and returns, and set up smart routing rules to ensure that items are sent back to the right place at minimal cost.

Key features

  • Detailed analytics on returned products that you can use to improve both your returns process and your product offerings
  • Tools for encouraging customers to exchange their items rather than returning them for a refund
  • Offers customers flexible return options such as in-store dropoff or the ability to print prepaid shipping labels

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and offers up to three returns per month
  • An Essentials plan that costs $9/month and offers up to 20 returns per month
  • A Pro plan that costs $199/month and offers up to 1,000 returns per month
  • An Enterprise plan with custom pricing that offers 3,000+ returns per month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Aftership integrates with Gorgias.

30) Loop Returns 

Loop Returns
Source: Loop Returns

Encouraging exchanges for returned products rather than refunds is a great way to reduce the often substantial impact that product returns have on a store's bottom line. With Loop Returns, Shopify store owners can let customers take control of their returns and exchanges and free up their team. 

Key features

  • Customizable product return portals allow customers to manage returns themselves and reduce your support team's workload 
  • Meaningful metrics provide insight into your returns and refunds and identify supply chain, positioning, and other issues 
  • Enables customers to automatically apply the value of their return to any order using the "Shop Now" feature
  • Allows you to apply variable bonus credits to customers who choose to exchange their returned product

Pricing

  • A Starter plan that costs $59/month and supports up to 1,000 returns/year 
  • An Essential plan that costs $200/month and includes automatic return approval, cross-border shipping, and more 
  • An Advanced plan that costs $415/month and has unlimited destinations, unlimited return policies, and more 

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes 

See how Loop integreates with Gorgias. 

Best social media marketing Shopify apps

According to a report from eMarketer, the number of US customers who purchased products directly from social media platforms grew to 80.1 million in 2020 and is expected to increase to 96.1 million in 2022. With these social media marketing Shopify apps, you can ensure that you are leveraging the advantages of social media marketing to their full potential.

31) Outfy

Outfy
Source: Ecwid

With Outfy, Shopify store owners are able to automate the process of promoting their products on social media by creating and scheduling product promotion posts that can be automatically posted across multiple social media channels at once. Outfy also makes it easy to create collages, videos, and GIFs that you can use to make promotional posts really stand out.

Key features

  • Capable of auto-generating and publishing product promotion posts that are created based on a range of predefined settings
  • Enables you to turn your product pictures into GIFs, videos, and collages
  • Provides a variety of promotional post templates to choose from

Pricing

  • A Starter plan that costs $15/month and includes basic features and support for one account on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter for a total of five social media accounts
  • A Pro plan that costs $30/month and includes additional features such as video posts and support for one account on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter for a total of five social media accounts
  • An Ultimate plan that costs $60/month and includes everything in the Pro plan plus support for two accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter for a total of ten social media accounts
  • An Enterprise plan that costs $100/month and includes everything in the Pro plan plus support for five accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter for a total of 25 social media accounts

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

32) Zotabox

Zotabox
Source: Zotabox

Zotabox is an all-in-one ecommerce marketing platform that offers over twenty different marketing tools in one package, including tools such as a landing page builder, a Facebook reviews integration, Facebook live chat, and a promo popup.

Key features

  • Exit intent tools for reducing your cart abandonment and bounce rates
  • Promote customer testimonials with Facebook/Google integration
  • Advanced display options available for all tools

Pricing

  • A Starter plan that costs $12.99/month for websites with up to 5,000 visits per month
  • An Express plan that costs $29.99/month for websites with up to 25,000 visits per month
  • A Platinum plan that costs $79.99/month for websites with up to 150,000 visits per month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

33) Instafeed

Instafeed
Source: ArenaCommerce

With Instafeed, Shopify store owners are able to display content from their Instagram profile on their Shopify store in order to create social proof and expand the reach of their Instagram content.

Key features

  • Image and video support
  • Fully-customizable Instagram feed that allows you to choose the feed title, the number of rows and columns, and the space between posts
  • Tag products in your posts to create shoppable Instagram feeds

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes basic features and one Instagram feed
  • A Pro plan that costs $4.99/month and includes additional features such as product tagging and the ability to display likes plus support for up to three Instagram feeds
  • A Plus plan that costs $19.99/month and includes the option to filter your posts by hashtag plus support for unlimited Instagram feeds

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

34) Facebook Channel

Facebook Channel
Source: Shopify

Facebook Channel is a tool that allows you to sell your Shopify products directly on Instagram and Facebook by making it easy to set up Facebook and Instagram shops.

Key features

  • Automatically syncs products from your Shopify store to Facebook and Instagram shops
  • Provides free and paid marketing tools such as audience builder Facebook ads and retargeting ads that you can use to promote your products on social media and grow your audience
  • Allows you to easily manage all of your Facebook and Instagram stores within the app

Pricing

  • Facebook Channel is free to install

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

Best SEO Shopify apps

If a Shopify store has great products but no one ever visits it, does it make a profit? Unlike the well-known "tree falling in a forest" puzzle, there's a simple answer to this question, and the answer is "no.” By utilizing these search engine optimization (SEO) Shopify apps, you can ensure that Google lists your store snippets as high as possible in the results for relevant searches and boost the number of potential customers who find your site.

35) Plug In SEO

Plug In SEO
Source: Taptimize

Plug In SEO is an app for Shopify stores that automates the tedious SEO process by automatically detecting and resolving a wide range of SEO issues such as broken links and missing metadata.

Key features

  • A keyword tool that provides keyword suggestions for your site's content
  • Offers templates for adding meta titles and meta descriptions in-bulk, for better search snippets
  • Periodic SEO audit reports delivered to your inbox

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes basic features such as SEO checks and broken link checks
  • A Plus plan that costs $20/month and includes additional features such as automatic SEO improvements and SEO reports
  • A Pro plan that costs $29.99/month and includes additional features such as a homepage speed report and premium support/training videos

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

36) SEO Manager

SEO manager
Source: Swanky

SEO Manager is an app that provides a range of features for boosting your website's SEO, including features such as detecting and automatically fixing broken links, JSON-LD data support, automated title, description, and image alt text templating, Google sitemap submission, and much more.

Key features

  • 404 error logging and real-time 404 repairs
  • A keyword suggestion tool
  • Reconfigures your website with SEO-boosting JSON-LD data

Pricing

  • SEO Manager costs $20/month

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

37) TinyIMG SEO & Image Optimizer

TinyIMG SEO and Image Optimizer
Source: TinyIMG

If the images in your Shopify store are not optimized, they could slow down your loading speeds and thus harm your site's SEO. With TinyIMG SEO & Image Optimizer, you can automatically compress all of your site's images without reducing their quality, speeding up your loading times and boosting your SEO. TinyIMG SEO & Image Optimizer also provides a range of other SEO features such as broken link detection and redirect and metadata optimization.

Key features

  • Provides the option to optimize images automatically or manually
  • Provides SEO and page speed audits
  • Provides automatic JSON-LD microdata and metadata optimization

Pricing

  • A Pay As You Go plan that costs $0/month for up to 50 free image optimizations per month. Additional image optimizations cost 3¢/image.
  • A 24 Months plan that costs $47.76/year for up to 5,000 free image optimizations every two years. Additional image optimizations cost 1¢/image.
  • A Monthly plan that costs $9.99/month for up to 1,000 free image optimizations per month. Additional image optimizations cost 2¢/image.
  • A Special Offer plan that costs $19.99/month for up to 3,000 free image optimizations per month. Additional image optimizations cost 1¢/image.

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

Best loyalty and retention Shopify apps

38) Yotpo

Yotpo
Source: MyBrandJourney

Yotpo is a review app that lets you stay engaged with customers, using email or SMS and a variety of customizable opt-in tools. Segment your lists based on detailed customer analytics, whether new or returning. The most unique selling point of Yotpo, however, is its tool set for encouraging customer reviews and dynamically displaying those reviews on your website.

Key features

  • Provides customers with the ability to include photos and videos in their product reviews
  • A powerful SMS flow builder
  • Customizable on-site opt-in solutions

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month
  • A Growth plan that costs $19/month
  • A Prime plan that costs $59 a month
  • Premium and Enterprise plans with custom pricing

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Yotpo integrates with Gorgias.

39) Retention Rocket

Retention Rocket is an SMS marketing platform that allows you to grow your SMS subscriber list and encourage long-term loyalty with TCPA compliant opt-in templates. Message individual customers or entire subscriber lists directly from the app, and create automated SMS messaging campaigns that can be triggered by a wide range of customer events.

Key features

  • Allows you to create automated SMS flows and series such as an abandoned cart flow, a customer win-back series, a welcome series, and more
  • Provides TCPA compliant opt-in methods such as "text to join" keywords, opt-in landing pages, and opt-in popups
  • Provides the option to send customer browser push notifications

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes up to $5 in free SMS messages per month
  • A Bronze plan that costs $10/month and includes up to 333 free SMS messages per month
  • A Sliver plan that costs $49/month and includes up to 2,450 free SMS messages per month
  • A Gold plan that costs $199/month and includes up to 19,900 free SMS messages per month
  • An Enterprise plan with custom features and pricing

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • No

40) Smile.io

Smile.io
Source: Smile.io

Smile.io is an app designed to help you improve your customer retention and increase your lifetime customer value by making it easy for you to create and manage loyalty and referral programs for your Shopify store.

Key features

  • Allows you to create points programs that reward customers for desirable actions such as repeat purchases and referrals
  • On-site nudges that remind customers when they have points available to spend
  • Allows you to search for customers by name in order to adjust their points manually

Pricing

  • A Free plan that costs $0/month and includes basic features such as options for creating points and referral programs
  • A Starter plan that costs $49/month and includes additional features such as program branding and rewards emails
  • A Growth plan that costs $199/month and includes additional features such as on-site nudges and points expiry
  • A Pro plan that costs $599/month and includes additional features such as a VIP program and unlimited integrations
  • An Enterprise plan that starts at $1,000/month and includes additional features such as API access and custom reporting

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Gorgias integrates with Smile.io.

41) LoyaltyLion

LoyaltyLion
Source: Command C

With LoyaltyLion, Shopify store owners can retain more loyal customers and increase repeat purchases with customized loyalty programs. This platform simplifies the management of your customer loyalty program and offers a number of promotional marketing tools that help you promote your program to new and existing customers.

Key features

  • Notifications that alert customers that they have reward points available for incentives
  • CRM
  • Loyalty features that you can embed on product and post-purchase pages
  • Referral tracking
  • Point statements for customers 
  • Rewards management
  • Loyalty tiers

Pricing

  • A Classic plan that costs $399/month and includes 2,000 monthly orders
  • An Advanced plan that costs $699/month and includes 4,000 monthly orders (with the option to add more)
  • A Plus plan that costs $1,500/month and includes 10,000 monthly orders (and scales as your business grows)

Available on Shopify Plus?

  • Yes

See how Gorgias integrates with LoyaltyLion.

Find out why companies use Gorgias for Shopify customer service

Tthe right Shopify apps can provide you with a broad range of revenue-boosting capabilities, from tools to grow your subscriber lists to tools for improving the quality and efficiency of your customer support (and everything in between).

At Gorgias, we are dedicated to helping Shopify store owners grow by providing their customers with the best possible experience as efficiently as possible.

If you would like to see for yourself the many benefits that Gorgias provides to Shopify store owners, see how Gorgias works with Shopify and sign up for Gorgias today.

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Apps and Integrations
Shopify
Angry Customer Email

Templates and Tips to Respond to Frustrated Customer Emails

By Jordan Miller
25 min read.
0 min read . By Jordan Miller

If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know that unhappy customers are unavoidable. Customer satisfaction has plummeted since 2018, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. 

Customer satisfaction has dropped since 2018.

         

That’s why top brands don’t wait until angry customer emails arrive to decide how to respond. By setting up processes and templates ahead of time, your customer support team doesn’t need to craft responses from scratch. Especially while emotions are running high and angry customers are waiting for responses. 

Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to process and respond to angry customer emails, considerations for handling angry or rude customers without making the situation worse, and tips to prevent angry customers by improving your customer experience (CX). We'll also share templates and sample emails for how to respond to:

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Is it worth it to deal with angry customers? 

When customers aren’t happy with your product, service, or customer support, the stakes are high. You could lose them as a repeat customer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Angry customers also go and tell their friends and family, either by word-of-mouth, on social media, or via a Google review. 

What are the consequences of angry customers? Lost sales and loyalty, bad word-of-mouth, negative reviews and social posts, and agent burnout and quitting.

         

The Effortless Experience found that 96% of disgruntled customers who had a high-effort or bad experience with a brand feel disloyal to that brand afterward. In other words, a frustrating, high-effort experience will irreversibly damage your brand's reputation for almost any customer, whether they’re first-time or regular shoppers. That spells trouble for your bottom line.  

96% of customers who have high-effort experiences feel disloyal to those companies afterward.
The Effortless Experience
         

Also, your customer service team doesn’t want to respond to nasty emails all day long. Customer service can already be an emotionally challenging role, and spending all day dealing with angry customers is a quick path toward burnout and quitting.

📚 Related reading: Read our guide to hiring A+ customer service agents, written in partnership with customer service agency Helpflow.com.

8 steps to take when responding to frustrated customer emails

Respond to angry customer emails by acknowledging the customer's frustration, owning any mistakes, gathering additional context, confirming you understand the entire situation, and fully resolving the issue.

These messages are high-stakes: When someone writes to your organization with an angry message, they’re angry enough to sit at their keyboard and express their anger. You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media. 

You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media.

It’s imperative to respond to every single angry customer email — ideally with fast response times.

0) Set up automated responses if you can’t quickly respond

If you have a small team or are only online for certain parts of the day, consider setting up a standard automated reply to confirm receipt of their email. We listed this as step 0 because it’s not a catch-all solution: You should not send this kind of email if you’re able to provide a human response within an hour or two. Nobody likes an extra, unnecessary email.

If you do choose to activate this kind of response, it should:

  • Confirm that you received the customer’s email so they don’t have to wonder if it went through
  • Tell the customers when they can expect to receive an email response from a human agent
  • Thank the customer for writing in

Here’s a mockup of how to create this kind of automated response with Gorgias Rules:

An example of a rule to automatically let customers know you

         

📚 Recommended reading: Get more tips and tricks to improve your response times.

1) Read the email first

This may seem obvious, but unless you address every point the customer makes, you’re only prolonging the correspondence and further irritating them. 

It’s easy to overlook something the customer says, particularly if the email’s pretty emotive or raises several points. So, try to summarize what they’re complaining about in a separate text document or as a note on the ticket in your helpdesk. 

Internal notes.

         

Consider bullet-pointing each issue to ensure you answer every aspect of their message, as shown in the internal note above. 

2) Do your research to understand the problem and context

Before responding, consider if there’s any research you can do on your end to resolve the issue faster. For example, if a customer asks whether an item will come back in stock, you may look up similar items currently available if that customer is in a time crunch (like for the holidays). 

You’ll also want to ensure you have all of the context you need to provide a full resolution for that customer. 

For example, if a customer is trying to track down a lost package, take a look at the package history and order date to better understand why they’re upset and whether you’ll need to re-send the item or reach out to the carrier on their behalf. 

Ideally, your helpdesk has integrations with shipping software (like AfterShip) so you can see this information right next to the customer’s message (rather than having to navigate to a new tool).

Customer information in the Gorgias sidebar so you can provide detailed answers without switching tabs.

         

3) Escalate if necessary (based on policy)

Some requests, whether from a VIP customer, the urgency of the issue, or its scale, need to be escalated right away. Based on the policy you’ve set out for your support team members, encourage them to forward major concerns to the correct team quickly. 

Prioritize VIP customers to reduce lost loyalty.

         

📚 Recommended reading: Read our Director of Support’s guide to prioritizing customer service requests.

4) Thank them for writing

Yes, you've already done this in your automated message – but it doesn't hurt to do it again. So, always say thank you at the start of your email. You must acknowledge their complaint and show you care about their feedback.  

For instance, if a customer has written to complain, you could start with something along the lines of:

Thank you for contacting [your company name] and letting us know about your experiences with our [insert name of the product/situation]. We appreciate you contacting us to let us know. We value customer feedback so that we can work to provide you with gold-plated customer service.’

5) Use their name and take a personalized approach

If you're not already, it's time to take a personalized approach to customer service. While this means taking a more holistic approach to the service process in general, the first step is to take note of small details, like using a customer’s name in correspondence. 

Consumers crave a personalized experience; they want to be treated as individuals, not as just another support ticket. That means avoiding asking them for information they’ve already given you again. It also means using a customer support tool that provides all of their historical account information in one place. Your helpdesk should show all past orders, correspondence with support, shipping address information, and even marketing emails they’ve received and clicked on. 

For example, Gorgias’ Customer Sidebar provides customer information right next to the ticket that can help you personalize the message.

Customer sidebear.

         

6) Acknowledge their problem

If your customer has taken the time to bring an issue to your attention, it’s polite and good practice to acknowledge that. So, in your response, reflect on what they’ve told you. 

For example, you could write something like this:

‘I can see that you’re frustrated [insert a suitable empathic summary of the customer’s feelings] about your experiences with our product/customer service. We can see how, on this occasion, we didn’t reach our normally high standards of delivery.’

7) Provide a solution

Always focus on solving the customer’s problem. Find a solution and clearly explain the resolution to the customer’s complaint.

For example, if they’re upset about a product’s quality or performance, you need to refer them to your returns and replacements policy. On some occasions, it may be necessary to escalate a complaint if it’s not within your power to resolve. In which case, again, follow the protocol your company has to handle the specific issue so that it complements your current chain of command. 

According to a research study conducted by Gartner and later coined The Effortless Experience, 45% of customers who have a positive support experience tell less than three people. In contrast, 48% of customers with a negative experience shared it with over ten people. 

One bad experience leads to ten negative opinions.

         

While a positive, low-effort solution is a short-term expense for you, it could keep the customer on your side, netting future purchases or at least minimizing negative word of mouth and reviews.

8) Avoid offering the same solution twice 

If a customer is still upset after you’ve already offered a solution, chances are it wasn’t the right one. Ensure that you’re able to give the customer a few different options for a resolution in case the original one didn’t work for them (or wasn’t the result they hoped for). 

Of course, this should only go as far as your support policy states. If possible, tag in a customer service lead to see if you can make an exception to your policy. In a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can tag specific agents or an escalated team.

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image

         

Considerations when writing responses to angry customer emails

Above, we covered the steps to follow when responding to angry emails. Below, we’ll share some high-level considerations to keep in mind when crafting responses.

Check your language and tone

Use clear language and show empathy. Always consider your audience. Remember, your audience doesn’t know your organization's internal workings or technical aspects. 

Interestingly, 65% of online shoppers prefer casual over a formal tone in their customer service interactions. That said, if the customer isn’t happy with your response or solution, 78% said that an overly casual style would elicit an adverse reaction from them. 

Why? Because it sounds like you're not taking their problem seriously.  

Also, consider the words you use. For example, remove any uses of the “but” from your responses. By eliminating negative terms like this, you’ll exude more of a positive tone, which works wonders for altering perception. 

For example:

“Thank you for contacting us, but we don’t provide that service.”

Vs.

“Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, we're unable to provide that service. We do, however, provide the following….”

See the difference?

Through practice and experience, you’ll be better positioned to sense your customer’s tone. For example, if the customer’s frustration radiates through their message, show empathy by offering reassurance and the right level of apology. 

Check your grammar and spelling

There’s nothing worse than grammatical and spelling errors. Re-read your response and run it through a spelling and grammar checker. If in doubt, ask a colleague to double-check it for you. 

Some reputable online spell checkers include Grammarly, Reverso, and Language Tool. Your organization may already have a subscription for marketing or other purposes, so check what’s available. 

Decide whether they are frustrated or truly irate 

The key to understanding whether a customer is truly angry is empathy and context. 

Use empathy to dissect the tone and language a customer uses in their correspondence with you. Then, use the context they've given you and that you have about their order history to piece together their entire situation. 

For example, a customer might write in about a lost or delayed package. Based on the language they’re using, and the fact that they paid to upgrade shipping to get it in time for a friend’s birthday, tells you that this customer is angry and in need of a fast resolution. 

You should strive to provide top-notch support no matter if a customer is merely frustrated versus angry. But, your communication, time to resolution, and the solution you offer need to be even more considerate when dealing with someone who is truly irate. 

Deal with profanity in a professional manner

Sometimes, angry or frustrated customers will use profanity when complaining about an issue. The best responses to rude customers involve focusing on what the problem is to help get them to a solution. 

Some customer service phrases to use include: 

  • “I understand why you’re upset – I would be upset as well in this situation. We will figure out a solution that makes you happy and that fully resolves this issue for you.”
  • “I understand how frustrating this must be, especially since it sounds like we really missed the mark here.” 
  • “I understand how disappointed you are. What kind of solution do you feel would make this right for you?”  

17 email templates you can use to respond to different customer issues

You may already have a series of customer service email templates you and your team use to handle various customer complaints. However, it’s always worth doing a little housekeeping to ensure they reflect your commitment to great customer service.

This is especially true if your customer service software comes with a set of templates already in existence. Don't make the mistake of just using these as they are. Instead, personalize them to reflect your own brand’s voice and tone. 

With that in mind, we’ve put together a summary version of some of the examples above to illustrate how to respond to an upset customer:

Dear [insert customer name],

Thank you for contacting us. I'm very sorry to hear you experienced poor customer service from the [insert your brand name] team.  

It’s important to us that our customers are happy, so we're sorry we could not provide our usual high service standards to you.

Possible paragraph:

Having investigated your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. I'm happy to tell you; we can offer you the following solution [insert an explanation of the answer]. 

Alternative paragraph:

We're currently investigating your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. Because your complaint involves several departments/strands/suppliers, it will take us a couple of days to get to the bottom of why, on this occasion, you received less than a gold standard of service from us. Thank you for your patience while we investigate this matter. I'll get in contact with you in two days to update you on our progress. 

Once the complaint is resolved, you could offer a discount to reduce the number of returns, which are more expensive to your business than exchanges:

We’d like to prove just how important you are to us by offering you a discount of [x%] on your next purchase.  

Sign off:

Thank you for bringing this negative experience to our attention. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused. 

If there's anything else I can help you with or you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Best wishes,

[Name and contact details]

If you use Gorgias, a helpdesk that deeply integrates with your entire ecommerce tech stack (including Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce), feel free to use the copy above as a Macro (which is what we call templated responses).

Your agents can use the template as a starting point and tweak it to meet each customer's unique needs.

Below, we’ve put together a series of templates that you can implement for different angry customer situations. 

Customers who are having product issues

1) General frustration with the product or experience

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again. 

In addition, I've {{Insert policy: refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right. 

We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with shipping and delivery problems

1) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Not shipped

Hello {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out! Your order {{Number of last order}} has been received and we are working on getting it shipped out. Our processing time to ship an order is 3-5 business days, excluding weekends. 

We will email you a confirmation once it ships, which will include your tracking information as well. 

If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Thanks, 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order not shipped because the item is out of stock

Hi {{Customer first name}},

We wanted to let you know that your most recent order {{Number of last order}} is currently out of stock. We’re doing everything we can to get more in stock soon and we apologize for the delay!

The good news is that our next shipment should arrive by {{Date of availability}}, and you should receive your order within {{Number of business days}} once the item(s) gets to our warehouse.

Thanks for your patience! We’ll get you taken care of as soon as possible.

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Item arrived damaged 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. As we try our best to provide exceptional service, some factors like shipping and handling are out of our control and issues like this can happen.  

Please send us a photo of the broken/damaged item(s) you received and we’ll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible. 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with missing or late orders

1) Order is lost 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for reaching out! I’m so sorry to hear that you were unable to locate the missing package. Rest assured we will remedy this situation for you. 

I have two options to offer: we can ship a replacement to you or issue a full refund for the order instead. If you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We look forward to receiving your reply.

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Delivered, not received

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received your order yet. It does appear to be in a delivered status. Sometimes this can be due to an incorrect scan by the carrier. If the package doesn't show up in the next {{Insert the number of days according to your policy}} please reach back out and we will {{insert internal policy}}. 

In the meantime, I've contacted the carrier and will be investigating on my end. 

Please reach out if I can help with anything else and I will keep an eye out for your email regarding the package.

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Order is late 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

We regret to inform you that your order {{order number}} has been delayed.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding. The reason for the delay is {{reason for the delay}}.

You can track the status of your order using this tracking link {{Link to tracking portal}}.

If you’d like to return or exchange your order, you can do so here {{Link to return/exchange portal}}.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any questions or can provide further assistance. 

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who got the wrong product

1) Wrong item delivered

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for letting us know we sent you the wrong product. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are sending you the correct product, the {{correct product name}} and it will be shipped by {{estimated shipping date}}. 

We sent it using expedited shipping, so you should receive it {{estimated delivery date}}. Please return {{old product}} in the original shipping box and packaging using the attached shipping label and instructions. Please contact us with any additional questions. 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who have a cancellation request (purchase or subscription)

1) Order already shipped 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out to us! 

Unfortunately, it looks like your order {{Number of last order}} has already been shipped from our warehouse. Therefore, I’m unable to make any changes to it at this time. 

If possible, refuse the package at delivery. If that’s not possible, please let me know and I will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can send the order back to us. Once we receive the order back at our warehouse, I will send a {{Replacement or refund}} to you right away. 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Order change/cancel before the item ships 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Absolutely! I’ve swapped out {{Item name}} for the {{Item name}} you originally selected for order {{Number of last order}}. 

If you need anything else, just say the word. 

Best, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who want a refund or exchange

1) Item is eligible 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out! For your order that was delivered on {{Shipping date of last order}}, we’d be happy to process a refund for you. 

To get the return process started, please go to our {{Link to returns portal}} and follow the steps. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Item not eligible 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, your order {{Number of last order}} is unable to be returned because it is outside of the time window (30 days) outlined in our return policy.

I apologize for any inconvenience that you’ve experienced because of this. 

If there is anything else I can help you with, feel free to reply to this email or visit {{Link to help center}} at any time. 

Thank you again,

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Exchange request after the order arrives

Hey there {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I see that you are interested in a product exchange. We do allow exchanges, and I’m happy to help you with this right away. 

{{Exchange policy and instructions}}

Once you have {{Required action(s)}}, I can process your exchange and get a new {{Product name}} shipped out to you right away. 

Thanks again, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers who had a bad support experience

1) Non-escalation 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your service experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again. 

In addition, I've {{Insert policy: coupon, refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right. 

We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Escalate to technical support 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.

I have CC’d {{Technical/Lead agent first name}} on this email. They will be able to figure out what happened here and will follow up to ensure that we resolve this for you. 

{{Current agent first name}}

3) Customer hasn’t received a response or resolution to their problem

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for following up with us. 

We sincerely apologize that we didn’t get back to you — we’ve been overloaded with requests lately and yours slipped through the cracks. This is not the type of support experience we strive to provide. 

To answer your original question {{Provide context and a resolution to the original issue or request}}. 

I hope this helps! 

All the best, 

{{Current agent first name}}

Customers with no clear reason to be upset

1) General, sincere apology 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Concern or issue they had with the brand or their experience}}.

We strive to provide an amazing experience for all of our customers, and sometimes we fall short of doing that. We sincerely apologize for the experience you’ve had with our brand. 

As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to offer you {{Discount code, free gift, free shipping on next order; whatever aligns with your policy}}. 

Have a great day, 

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Reply to a bad customer review 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Customer survey, review site, etc.}}.

I wanted to check in and get a little more information from you about your experience. This will help our team improve future experiences for you and other shoppers. If you’re open to it, you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts.

Thanks for your time, 

{{Current agent first name}}

How to identify an angry customer (with examples)

Angry customers use harsh language and accusatory words, and often make demands to your company or service team. 

Some examples of phrases and words to look out for include:

  • I’m very frustrated 
  • I’m upset because… 
  • I needed this for an {{important event}} and it’s not here
  • You need to fix this right away 
  • This is all your fault 
  • I’ll never shop with you again 
  • This is ridiculous 

Additionally, keep an eye out for any language that includes profanity.  

As your team grows, you can also use a helpdesk with Intent and Sentiment Detection, which automatically scans tickets to tell you what a customer’s looking for and how they’re feeling. The main benefit is that you can send different automatic responses depending on the customer’s intent and sentiment. 

Tools like Gorgias can identify a ticket

         

How a frictionless customer experience can prevent angry customers

While every brand deals with angry customers from time to time, the best ones design a customer experience that, hopefully, doesn't produce so much frustration. Customer experience is a broad term, but there are a few areas of opportunity to mitigate customer frustration more proactively. 

Build customer self-service resources 

Customer self-service resources is a type of customer experience automation (CXA) that allows customers to quickly solve their own problems. They include:

Provide self-service solutions that improve the customer experience and proactively answer the customer

         

Being able to self-serve information gets them an immediate resolution and saves them the time and hassle of reaching out to you. You might be surprised how many angry emails you avoid by: 

Create a seamless post-purchase experience

A positive post-purchase experience sets the customer up for success from the very beginning, starting with quick order confirmation emails to fast order fulfillment and going all the way to returns. 

A great post-purchase experience involves: 

  • Figuring out the touchpoints on your customers’ journey where you need to be in contact with them 
  • Setting up email campaigns like welcome emails, order confirmation details, shipping and tracking information, an order tracking page, and notifications when an item gets delivered
  • Providing a fun and exciting unboxing experience
  • Sharing links to your help center and to how-to content for assembling and using your products
  • Creating a simple returns and exchanges portal via a tool like Loop Returns 
  • Share information about rewards and loyalty programs 
  • Ask for feedback, both positive and negative, and implement it 
  • Involve new customers in your brand community
  • Provide omnichannel support to meet new customers where they are 

Introduce faster support channels 

If customers need to reach out to you to ask a question, either pre or post-purchase, your best bet is to make it quick and easy to do so. Channels like live chat support, social media support, and SMS messaging support are more immediate channels where customers can see fast responses. 

Live chat and social media, for example, can help you make more sales by answering product questions to quell any objections before a customer makes a purchase. Water filter brand Berkey Filters even advertises their faster channels (live chat and SMS) on the website to steer customers to those fast channels:

image
Berkey Filters
         

The quicker and more seamless you make getting support for your customers, the more likely they are to reach out to you when they have a problem, rather than simply not purchasing from you again. 

In addition, some customers look at what support options are available before they make a purchase. Having these options available can help shoppers feel more comfortable and confident that if they have an issue, you’ll be there quickly to help them resolve it. 

📚Recommended reading: Check out our CX-Driven Growth Playbook for a more robust list of tactics to improve your customer experience, reduce customer anger, and boost revenue by up to 40%.

Are you ready to improve your customer service copy?

You’re now fully prepped to polish your customer support email copy, so even the most unhappy customers walk away happy. Exceptional copywriting isn’t rocket science; it's a skill you can certainly nurture over time, so keep practicing and paying attention to customer responses.

And when you pair great customer service copy with the right customer service automations, you can delight customers at scale. How? You can respond to low-impact tickets (like, "Where is my order?") with helpful, dynamic responses so you have more human time to deal with high-impact tickets like angry customer complaints.

And you don’t need us to tell you that happy customer relationships lead to higher profits. Check out our guide to customer service ROI to learn how to translate your customer service into meaningful business results. 

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Customer Experience
Email
Useful Email Templates For Customer Service

30+ Customer Service Email Templates & 5 Best Practices

By Alexa Hertel
35 min read.
0 min read . By Alexa Hertel

For any business, email plays a crucial role in providing great customer service. But helpful customer support emails take time and effort from your customer service agents. 

Templated responses save time for your customer service team and help customers get the resolution they need faster. With templates, reps can answer questions and resolve customer issues much faster than writing each email from scratch. And data from over 10,000 ecommerce brands shows that by lowering resolution time to under 6 hours, you can raise overall revenue by 2%

Templates also ensure high-quality support. They provide a consistent baseline that busy agents can lean on, especially during high-volume times. This is mission-critical for keeping happy customers around: 92% of customers say they’re more likely to return for a second purchase after a positive customer support experience. And repeat purchases (plus reviews, referrals, and higher average order values) mean repeat customers generate 300% more than first-time shoppers.  

First time shoppers vs. loyal customers

‎Below, you’ll find 30+ effective customer service email templates to help you get started. Here are the top five email categories that you might find most helpful:

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5 tactics for writing better support emails 

Before you jump into writing any customer support emails, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

  1. Fully evaluate what each customer is asking for
  2. Convey empathy with the words you choose
  3. Provide all of the answers and resources they need  
  4. Practice forward resolution
  5. Personalize the response to show that you’re listening

1. Fully evaluate what each customer is asking for

You need context and a deep understanding of a customer's situation to resolve their issue. But, going back and forth with customers to get there creates a high-effort experience for them, which often results in negative feelings toward the support experience. 

Using a platform that displays past customer information – between past conversations, recent orders, and the initial message, you have the best chance of fully understanding what went wrong and what the customer needs without making them repeat information. 

Gorgias includes all customer information in one handy sidebar.

‎In your message, be sure to state what you understand to be the problem so they can correct you if you got something wrong.

2. Convey empathy with the words you choose

Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes can be challenging sometimes, but it’s vital if you want to leave them with a positive experience. Convey that you appreciate where they’re coming from by rephrasing their request, question, or concern. 

It’s especially tempting to shut down empathy when customers seem unreasonable or mean. Even if a customer is inflamed or incorrect, try not to call them out or prove them wrong. Instead, focus on what future solutions you can provide. Stick with the conversation and find out what’s beneath each message or customer complaint. 

Empathy and understanding why a customer is frustrated (and acknowledging any effort they’ve already put into solving the issue themselves) can go a long way towards finding a resolution that makes them happy. 

3. Provide all of the answers and resources they need  

Customer service email templates help save time and increase professionalism. But, keeping them up-to-date at all times is key. Make sure templates reflect your most up-to-date processes and policies and are robust enough to fully answer customer questions. 

You can always edit a template to suit the context of each conversation but the most effective templates will be complete with the best version of the answer possible. That might mean encouraging customers to reference return policies and shipping times, an FAQ section, or help center articles to ensure templates are as detailed and accurate as possible.

Here’s a great example of clear help resources from Bobbie, an organic baby formula brand, organized with a Gorgias help center:

Bobbie
Bobbie

Templates should always reflect the voice and tone of your company. What your brand voice is — formal, casual, friendly, professional — determines the exact words your templates will use. 

4. Practice forward resolution

Forward resolution is where agents anticipate and answer customer questions before they even happen. Take a look through past conversations where you went back-and-forth many times with a customer to see if there are any patterns in the types of questions that came up. 

For example, imagine customers often write in asking whether you ship to Canada. If you just respond, "Yes, we ship to Canada," then they may respond "What are the shipping rates and estimated shipping times for Canada?" That would be a good sign to include that information in your original email, avoiding the need for a follow-up.

This way you save the customer the frustration of wondering where their order is, the time to reach out to your support team, and you save your agents the time it would take to answer their question.

📚 Learn more: Customer Delight Is A Losing Strategy in Ecommerce: Here’s What’s Better

5. Personalize the response to show that you’re listening 

Also keep in mind that templates are customizable tools, not complete solutions. Personalize your customer service emails to give them as much human touch and personality as your brand allows. This way, the customer knows they’re interacting with a real human and are also being treated like one as well. One risk of using templates comes when they aren’t personalized. Templates are amazing starting points, but they should always be personalized to the customer you’re chatting with. 

Some quick ideas for how to do this:

  • Use your name and the customer’s name within the body text
  • Repeat customer feedback so they know you’re actively listening
  • Tweak boilerplate language to fit the actual customer issue
  • Say, in your own words, how the situation will affect their workflow or day-to-day life (positive or negative) 
  • If your customer is in a certain time zone, you could personalize your greeting with the time of day it is for them

30+ helpful customer service email templates 

Relying on well-built customer service templates for chats or emails can help you increase customer satisfaction and improve the customer experience. If customer support agents spend less time responding to the same repetitive questions, they'll have more time to support your pre-sales support strategy and have conversations that drive revenue. 

Below, we offer 30+ customer service email templates, categorized by the types of support conversations brands often have with customers. Feel free to read the templates in order or skip around to whichever is most relevant to your needs.

Email templates that provide proactive support

Proactive customer service starts before a new customer writes into your support team. Rather than waiting for customers to experience a problem before starting a conversation, you can set the tone for a positive customer relationship by reaching out and saying hello. 

Similarly, if you anticipate a problem for customers (like outages or pricing increases), it’s best to let them know with a proactive message.

You can also complement your proactive email templates with self-service resources, including FAQ pages and Help Centers. 

Below are some of the most helpful proactive support email templates you can start using today. While you can use the templates as they are, we suggest tweaking them to meet your individual voice and tone guidelines. 

1) Welcome new customers

Sending a welcome email makes customers feel like part of a community and can offer them key resources that allow them to self-serve answers to common questions, like return policies or shipping costs. 

Hey there {{Customer First Name}},

Thanks for {{Customer action: First purchase, sign-up, subscription}} with {{Company name}}. We’re thrilled that you’ve joined us, and we’re excited to help awesome customers like you in any way we can.

I know you’ve just joined us, so I want to send over {{Resource/offer links}} so you can get the most out of your experience with us.

If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out {{Blog link}} for ongoing tutorials, tips, and stories, and give us a follow on social media! 

I hope you’re already enjoying {{Product name}}, but if not, I’m happy to help. Or you can check out our {{FAQs or knowledge base links}} to troubleshoot on your own.

If there’s anything you need, please respond to this email. We’re here for you!

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

2) Announce a new support channel or a new product/service 

Email is a great place to announce that you just launched a new support channel. It’s also a good channel if you’d like to involve your support team as a resource for new product launches or service offerings. 

Hi {{Customer name}}, 

Good news! We now offer {{Action or item}}. 

Questions? Reach out to us at {{Phone number, website URL, etc}} and we’ll get back to you within {{SLA}}. 

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

{{Company name}}

3) Announce a new self-service resource

Similar to the announcement above, let customers know when you launch a Help Center or self-service resource. 

Hi {{Customer name}}, 

Good news! In order to better support you, we’ve created a {{Self service resource with link}}. Here you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions and step-by-step instructions to set up and troubleshoot our products. We hope making this information more accessible provides a better experience — but always feel free to reach out to us directly for additional help! 

{{Company name}}

📚 Recommended reading: 29 Customer Service Scripts Inspired by Top Ecommerce Brands.

Email templates are even more powerful when combined with equally powerful customer service scripts, keeping your brand messaging consistent and on-target across channels. 

4) Provide renewal reminders to avoid passive churn

If your business includes a subscription-based product, you’ll want to provide reminders to customers that their subscription is about to renew.

Remember: Letting customers easily opt in and out is always the best decision for customer experience. While an easy opt-out process may sound scary for retention rate, you’ll actually do more harm by making customers jump through hoops to cancel their subscription. They’ll likely speak about the poor experience with friends and avoid coming back. 

💡 Tip: If you can let customers self-serve any subscription changes or updates, you eliminate the need for them to reach out to support to do so. Providing links within a subscription reminder email to unsubscribe, skip, or delay a delivery gives customers the ability to do it easily on their end, eliminating a touch point with support and reducing effort for the customer.

Hello {{Customer first name}},

This is a reminder that your subscription for {{Product name}} will renew automatically on {{Renewal date}}. We’ll continue charging the credit card ending in {{Last four digits of credit card number}}. No action needed from you, we’ll process and ship the order in 3-5 business days.

If you want to skip this shipment, click here: {{Link to skip shipment}}

If you want to unsubscribe, click here: {{Link to unsubscribe}}

Thanks,

{{Current agent first name}}

‍

📚 Recommended reading: Learn how to retain 20% of customers you lose to passive churn and raise overall revenue by up to 0.5%.

5) Announce website or product outages

If you have a planned outage coming up, a quick email goes a long way to stop panicked questions from rolling in. It also allows customers to plan for an outage, especially if your website is one they rely on or visit often. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

We’re currently experiencing a service outage for {{Website / Product / Service}}. We’re actively working on resolving the issue, which we believe is due to {{Reason for outage}}. We apologize for the inconvenience and assure you we’ll have everything up and running as quickly as possible.

Stay tuned at {{Website / Social media page}} for the latest updates.

Thanks, 

{{Current agent first name}}

6) Announce a pricing increase

Raising prices, especially for a subscription service that’s automatically billed monthly? Loyal customers likely want a heads up and an explanation. If you give customers enough notice, it keeps them from feeling swindled.  

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Starting on {{Date}} we are increasing the pricing for {{Product or service}} to {{New pricing information}}. 

We don’t take pricing increases lightly, and we know it’s not the news our customers want to hear! Given {{Reason for pricing increase}}, we feel that this is the right move for our business and the best way to continue offering the best product possible. 

We are grateful to have you as a customer! 

{{Company name}} 

Order status update (before an order ships) emails

Pre-ship

‎"Where is my order" is the main repetitive question that businesses get — up to 40% of all tickets, for some brands using Gorgias. Automating shipping confirmation emails and including a tracking number will provide a better shipping experience that doesn’t require shoppers to contact you whenever they want an update.

A helpdesk or customer service platform like Gorgias can help. Gorgias’s Macros automatically pull important personalized variables like the most recent order number or tracking information into the template. This is possible because Gorgias has a direct connection to your Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento store, and can save your team hours each week. 

No more typing or copy-pasting, just send a Macro.

‎Regardless of whether you use Macros or another solution, here are a few plug-and-play email templates to get you started:

7) Change shipping address

Customers might be in the process of moving, planned a last minute trip, or realized they used an outdated shipping address for an order, which can cause panic. A quick email resolution will put them at ease and ensure their order goes to the right location. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

I’ve updated your shipping address for order {{Number of last order}} and you should be all set now. You will receive a confirmation email when your package ships. 

Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with! 

{{Current agent first name}}

8) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Not shipped, preorder

When a customer inquires about an order that hasn’t shipped yet or an order that includes a pre-order item, make sure agents know your own internal policy and warehouse process. If something looks stuck for a long period of time (and it’s outside the warehouse’s SLA (Service level agreement), agents might have to open an internal investigation. 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for getting in touch. 

It looks like your last order (order {{Number of last order}} from {{Date of last order}} includes a pre-order item. These take a bit longer to ship! 

If you haven’t received a tracking number in the next five days, please respond back to me and I’ll look into it. 

Thanks for your patience! 

{{Current agent first name}}

9) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Not shipped

Sometimes items take longer to ship than usual, or a customer isn’t familiar with your company’s estimated dispatch times. This is a common question, and its response can quell fears of an order being lost or out of stock. 

Hello {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out! Your order {{Number of last order}} has been received and we are working on getting it shipped out. Our processing time to ship an order is 3-5 business days, excluding weekends. 

We will email you a confirmation once it ships, which will include your tracking information as well. 

If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Thanks, 

{{Current agent first name}}

10) Order Is out of stock

This template proactively informs shoppers of a delay and lets them know when they can expect their order to ship. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

We wanted to let you know that your most recent order {{Number of last order}} is currently out of stock. We’re doing everything we can to get more in stock soon and we apologize for the delay!

The good news is that our next shipment should arrive by {{Date of availability}}, and you should receive your order within {{Number of business days}} once the item(s) gets to our warehouse.

Thanks for your patience! We’ll get you taken care of as soon as possible.

{{Current agent first name}}

11) Order change/cancel: Cancel and refund last order 

Sometimes customers change their minds about an order, and want to cancel before it gets shipped out so they don’t have to deal with returning it. This template provides a speedy response and solution. 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

I’ve canceled your last order (order {{Number of last order}}) and issued a refund. As a reminder, this was for {{Product name}} purchased on a credit card ending in {{Last four digits of credit card number}}.

The refund itself can take 3 to 5 days to process and will refund the original amount to the same card. Please let me know if you don’t see this reflected in your account after that time. 

Here if you need us, 

{{Current agent first name}}

12) Order change/cancel: Customer changed mind 

Simple automations can help catch requests like this before it’s too late. With Gorgias, you can swap out items (like switching a blue bike for a black one) without leaving the helpdesk, thanks to its deep integration with your ecommerce platform. 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Absolutely! I’ve swapped out {{Item name}} for the {{Item name}} you originally selected for order {{Number of last order}}. 

If you need anything else, just say the word. 

Best, 

{{Current agent first name}}

📚Recommended reading: Check out or post on how to prioritize customer requests so urgent questions like these don't get lost

Update on order status (after an order ships) email templates

Shipped

‎Shipping comes with its own challenges: issues with carriers, delays due to weather or staffing, orders getting lost, or increased volume during busy seasons slows packages down. As a company, first align on your policy for shipping-related issues. Then, you can incorporate templated work flows that include features like a snooze button. This can come in handy when you need the customer to take action before you can help, like looking out for a package that was supposedly delivered.  

Gorgias Macros have a snooze functionality that reminds support agents to follow up in a given amount of time. For example, a Macro might snooze the ticket for two days to remind an agent to check back in about an order status. 

13) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Shipped

An extremely common question, customers like to be able to follow along with tracking information to see exactly when their order will arrive, whether they’re excited or need it by a certain date. 

Hello {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out! Your order has shipped and I’ve included the information below so that you can track it right to your doorstep. 

Order: {{Number of last order}}

Shipping date: {{Shipping date of last order}}

Tracking number: {{Tracking url of last order}}

Get back in touch if you need any more help. 

Thanks, 

{{Current agent first name}}

📚Related reading: Learn more about where is my order (WISMO) requests and how to reduce them with convenient self-service.

14) Order change/cancel: Already shipped

Sometimes shoppers change their mind when it’s too late, so having a template that lets them know how they can get a refund or an exchange quickly gives them a resolution, even if it’s not exactly what they want. 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thank you for reaching out to us! 

Unfortunately, it looks like your order {{Number of last order}} has already been shipped from our warehouse. Therefore, I’m unable to make any changes to it at this time. 

If possible, refuse the package at delivery. If that’s not possible, please let me know and I will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can send the order back to us. Once we receive the order back at our warehouse, I will send a {{Replacement or refund}} to you right away. 

{{Current agent first name}}

15) Order is lost 

A lost order can be frustrating, especially because it means that it’s been delayed. This template offers a solution to get a shopper a new item or get them their money back.  

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for reaching out! I’m so sorry to hear that you were unable to locate the missing package. Rest assured we will remedy this situation for you. 

I have two options to offer: we can ship a replacement to you or issue a full refund for the order instead. If you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We look forward to receiving your reply.

{{Current agent first name}}

📚 Recommended reading: Learn how to deal with lost ecommerce packages.

Update on order status (order has arrived) email templates

Delivered

‎Once an order arrives, customers might need help locating a missing package, initiating a return or exchange, or getting a replacement for a damaged item. 

16) Order/shipping status (Where is my order?): Delivered, not received 

Similar to a lost order, one that shows as being delivered but that hasn’t been received can cause anxiety for customers. This template offers up a solution and shares the internal policy for these types of packages. 

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received your order yet. It does appear to be in a delivered status. Sometimes this can be due to an incorrect scan by the carrier. If the package doesn't show up in the next {{Insert the number of days according to your policy}} please reach back out and we will {{insert internal policy}}. 

In the meantime, I've contacted the carrier and will be investigating on my end. 

Please reach out if I can help with anything else and I will keep an eye out for your email regarding the package.

{{Current agent first name}}

17) Item arrived damaged 

Items that shipped damaged or were damaged in transit can break trust between customer and company or spike quality concerns, especially for first-time purchases. This template asks for an image of the item so that the agent can offer a quick solution. 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. As we try our best to provide exceptional service, some factors like shipping and handling are out of our control and issues like this can happen.  

Please send us a photo of the broken/damaged item(s) you received and we’ll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible. 

{{Current agent first name}} 

18) Item arrived damaged – follow up

A follow up email for items that arrived damaged. 

Hi {{Customer First Name}}, 

Thanks for sending over the photo of your damaged item. I've ordered a replacement to go out {{Insert policy: free of charge, just pay the cost of shipping, etc}}. Once the item ships we will send you an email confirmation. 

For your damaged item you can go ahead and {{Insert policy: donate, discard, send back to us, give to a friend, etc}}. 

{{Current agent first name}} 

📚 Recommended reading: Check out our list of essential ecommerce best practices.

Help with product exchanges, returns, and cancellations

According to the National Retail Federation, online purchases have a return rate of 20.8%. That means that many shoppers are writing into support teams to ask for an exchange or return if the online store doesn’t offer a self-serve return portal. 

Having a clear return policy minimizes questions, sets clear expectations before a customer makes an order, and can protect the business from losing too much revenue through returns or exchanges. Your policy should be where shoppers can find it easily: in your FAQ section, in your confirmation emails, and within your order flow. When a shopper requests an exchange or return, these templates can provide you with an effective email support script. 

19) Exchange request after order arrives

There’s a reason returns for online businesses average at 20% versus 9% for retail businesses: customers can’t experience what an item actually looks like, get a sense of its size, or try it on in person. The following two templates help with exchange and return requests. 

Hey there {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I see that you are interested in a product exchange. We do allow exchanges, and I’m happy to help you with this right away. 

{{Exchange policy and instructions}}

Once you have {{Required action(s)}}, I can process your exchange and get a new {{Product name}} shipped out to you right away. 

Thanks again, 

{{Current agent first name}}

📚Recommended reading: 

20) Request for return/refund (item eligible)

Hi {{Customer first name}}, 

Thanks for reaching out! For your order that was delivered on {{Shipping date of last order}}, we’d be happy to process a refund for you. 

To get the return process started, please go to our {{Link to returns portal}} and follow the steps. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

{{Current agent first name}}

🤔 Getting too many refund requests? Check out our guide to reducing returns in ecommerce.

21) Request for return/refund (item not eligible) 

Items aren’t always eligible for returns, which can cause tension between a customer and business. Here’s a template for how to handle it. 

Hi {{Customer First Name}},

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, your order {{Number of last order}} is unable to be returned because it is outside of the time window (30 days) outlined in our return policy.

I apologize for any inconvenience that you’ve experienced because of this. 

If there is anything else I can help you with, feel free to reply to this email or visit {{Link to help center}} at any time. 

Thank you again,

{{Current agent first name}}

Angry customer response email templates

The Effortless Experience notes that interactions with support teams are 4x more likely to cause disloyalty in customers rather than loyalty. So, unhappy customers who have had a bad experience expect a quick and kind email response. The following sample emails should help set your team up to support these customers with empathy.

‎22) General frustration with product or experience

This template provides a response for customers who complain about their overall experience with a brand. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again. 

In addition, I've {{Insert policy: refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right. 

We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

{{Current agent first name}}

💡Tip: Build an escalation process internally to handle extremely frustrated customers who post publicly about a negative experience. This allows agents to refer these customers to a lead or manager for assistance. For very angry customers, using a template is usually not the right move, because their situations tend to vary on a case-by-case basis and require someone with experience to provide the best resolution. 

23) Escalate angry customers to more technical support

Occasionally, one rep might not have the information they need to figure out what went wrong or how to fix it. In that case, you might need to pass a customer onto an agent who has the resources to help. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.

I have CC’d {{Technical agent first name}} on this email. They will be able to figure out what happened here and ensure that we resolve this for you. 

{{Current agent first name}} 

Make sales

While customer support emails are not marketing emails, you do have an opportunity to drive sales when having a conversation with a customer. A personal note at the end of a positive customer service experience may be more impactful than a mass email marketing campaign because it’s direct, builds upon any context from the full conversation, and can be adapted for the customer’s exact needs.

While you should never sacrifice quality of support to push a sale, here are some templates you can consider using to gently push customers back to your site for repeat purchases and upsells. 

24) Soft launch a product to a small group of customers 

Drum up hype, test out reception to a new item, establish product market fit, or get valuable feedback from a smaller group of customers before launching a new product to everyone. 

Hey {{Customer first name}}! 

We have been developing {{New product type}} for a long time now, and we can’t wait to release it to the world. Because you’re {{An email subscriber, SMS subscriber, made 5+ purchases, or other criteria}}, we’d like to give you the opportunity to buy this before everyone else can. 

{{Link to purchase page}}

Cheers, 

{{Company name}}

25) Promote sales and time-sensitive deals 

These types of targeted sales can help increase subscribers to different platforms (like social media, email, or SMS). They also create exclusivity and urgency for shoppers, who might jump on an item they’ve been waiting on to get a deal. 

Hey {{Customer first name}}!

Here at {{Company name}} we’re always looking for more and better ways to reach even more people with our exciting lineup of {{Products/services}}.

I’m excited to let you know about a deal that’s only available for {{Email subscribers, SMS subscribers, Instagram followers, etc.}}. 

For the next {{Length of time}}, we’re offering {{Offer details}} on {{Products/services}}.

We stand behind our quality {{Products/services}}, and sales like this don’t come often. That makes now the perfect time to {{Desired action -buy/expand/upgrade/sign up}}!

For starters, check out our {{Popular Sale Item/Service}}, it’s already selling fast!

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

📚 Recommended reading: Email isn't the only channel to offer discounts and timely deals. Check out our guide to omnichannel customer service to see how you can expand your support and revenue-driving conversations.

26) Convert abandoned carts

With 70% of ecommerce shoppers abandoning their carts, reducing the number of customers who leave items unpurchased can increase your revenue. 

Hey there {{Customer first name}}!

We couldn’t help but notice you stopped by today, and you were this close to making {{Product name}} yours.

In case you were interrupted or pulled away, it’s not too late to buy!

{{Abandoned Cart Link}}

I can even offer you a {{Coupon/special offer}} if you’re ready to buy right now. This link will give you {{Describe the offer or discount}} if you purchase within {{Timeframe}}.

Thanks again for checking out our store! Let me know if I can answer any questions for you.

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

27) Upsell customers 

Upselling existing customers is less expensive than going out and obtaining new customers for your business. The more purchases returning customers make, the less business have to spend on acquisition costs. 

Hi {{Customer first name}},

Thanks for your recent purchase of {{Product name}} — all of us here at {{Company name}} truly appreciate your business.

I’m reaching out today because I want to make sure you’re getting the most out of that purchase. {{Product name}} is fantastic as a standalone, but it shines when you use it alongside some of our other offerings.

For example, {{Strong explanation of how product/service enhances product they bought}}.

Does this sound like something you’d be interested in? If so, check out {{Product link}} or simply reply to this email.

Best,

{{Current agent first name}}

Collect feedback with these email templates

Customer feedback is powerful data for your business, helping you shape the future direction of your products or services and improve your email open rates. Customers enjoy feeling valued and knowing that you're working to make the product and service experience better and better for them can increase happiness and loyalty.

28) Request customer feedback

This gives customers an open invitation to share how their experience went, so you know what aspects went well and where you can improve. 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your recent purchase. By now, your item should have arrived, and you likely have a good idea of what you think about your purchase.

I’d love to get some feedback from you about your experience so far with us. You can just reply to this email and share your thoughts if you’d like. Even more helpful is if you wouldn’t mind filling out this {{Survey link}}. It shouldn’t take more than {{Estimated completion time}}, and it will help us keep improving as our business grows.

Of course, if you’re having trouble of any kind (or your purchase hasn’t arrived yet), please let me know. I’ll do everything I can to help.

Thanks again for your time!

{{Current agent first name}}

29) Thank customers for their feedback (positive)

Reviews go a long way to build trust in your business. Aside from thanking someone for taking the time to provide positive feedback, it’s a good idea to ask them to write a public review about their experience. 

{{Customer first name}},

Thanks so much for taking the time to give us feedback. We’re always working to improve our products and services, and we’re thrilled when we hear that we’re doing something right. Constructive criticism is great, too, since it helps us improve!

If you’re still feeling the love from your recent purchase, would you mind writing a quick review of your positive experience with us on {{Review site}}? It may not seem like much, but these reviews go a long way.

Thanks again,

{{Current agent first name}}

30) Request feedback from customers who left a negative review

Understanding why someone left a negative review is where, as a support team, you’re going to learn the most. Doing some outreach for customers who left a bad CSAT, NPS score, Yelp or Google review, etc. to see if they are willing to share a bit more information will help you improve the overall experience. 

{{Customer First Name}},

Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Customer survey, review site, etc.}}.

I wanted to check in and get a little more information from you about your experience. This will help our team improve future experiences for you and other shoppers. If you’re open to it, you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts.

Thanks for your time, 

{{Current agent first name}}

📚 Recommended reading: How to Collect Customer Feedback From Support Tickets (+ 8 Other Methods)

Emails that tell customers that they’re chatting with a bot 

31) Tell customers they’re getting an automated email response 

Automated responses can feel impersonal, especially if a shopper is upset. Letting someone know they’re getting an automated response and exactly how to reach a human if they need one can save time for busy teams and get customers a near immediate response. 

{{Customer first name}},

This is an automated response. We are a growing business and, in our best effort to deliver the information you’re looking for as quickly as possible, we do use some automation. 

We think you’re asking about the status of your order and have included information for it below. If you still need support or this didn't answer your question, just respond to this email and a live agent will jump in to help. 

{{Company name}}

Why use email templates for customer support?

Using response templates for your most frequently sent emails means a lower resolution time for customers and higher efficiency for your agents who no longer need to type out each response. For example, the brand Bagallery found that Macros (Gorgias’s version of templates) increased delivery by 3x. 

And templates (for chats and emails alike) don’t have to feel impersonal. While reps might start out with a template, they can personalize templated emails by filling in customer information (like the customer’s name) and important order details (like order tracking numbers). Scroll down to our section on Macros to learn how you can automatically include this kind of personalized information.

Overall, templates create a better, faster experience for everyone. They can:

  • Decrease first response time
  • Decrease resolution time
  • Save time for your customer service team
  • Provide an overall better customer experience

Decrease first response time

When customers write in for support, they expect a quick response no matter if they’re giving positive feedback or have an urgent issue they need resolved. By starting first with a pre-written email template, you can fast-track your team’s first-response time, which can lower anxiety in your customers, give them the answers they need, and allow your team to provide a personalized and high-quality experience at scale. 

A pre-written template might provide a response that lets a customer know the team will be with them shortly — but asks the customer several detailed questions upfront so that the agent can get them an answer faster. 

For example, Jetson, an ecommerce company that sells gut-healing probiotics and prebiotics, saw a 60% decrease in first response time by using Macro email templates.

Decrease resolution time 

Your email templates will also be detailed and quality-assured, helping fully resolve customer issues as quickly as possible. For example, templates might include links to a knowledge base or FAQ center that answers lingering questions. Or, you might be able to drop in detailed tracking information if your system allows for dynamic fields. 

Jetson also saw a 30% decrease in resolution time by using templated responses, improving the customer experience and giving the customer service team more time for their highest-value conversations. 

When implementing templates, make sure you’re including all the information the customer needs for a one-touch resolution. Ideally, customers won’t need to respond with follow-up questions. 

📚 Recommended reading: Our Director of Support’s complete guide to measuring and lowering resolution time.

Save time for your customer service team 

If reps start emails from scratch every time, they’ll spend hours each week typing up the same information, lowering efficiency and taking them away from more important projects. Templates raise the number of chats, emails, and SMS tickets agents can handle in a given day. Increasing efficiency without decreasing quality also means you won’t always have to hire new agents to handle more tickets.

In addition, if your team is not able to pull in customer data within the email platform, they’ll have to toggle back and forth to find it. Or worse, they’ll need to go back and forth with the customer to get simple info like their order number or tracking information.

Templates are especially helpful to help agents during customer service training, or to quickly onboard any temporary help you bring on to help during busy periods like Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM).

📚 Recommended reading: Learn how Princess Polly saw a 40% increase in agent productivity after switching to Gorgias and implementing templates and other time-saving features.

Provide an overall better customer experience

The quicker and easier you make the full support experience, you decrease the chance of the customer putting in a high level of effort. The Effortless Experience shows that 96% of customers who have to work hard to get support feel disloyal to the brand after.

🤔 Not convinced yet? Read our post on the importance of customer service to learn why customer service is more closely linked to revenue than you think. 

Why Macros are superior to regular templates

While regular email templates can be helpful in saving time for your support team, setting up automation takes your support one step further. This is possible with a tool like Gorgias, which offers Macros, or specialized templates that pull in data from a Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce store.

Macro preview

‎Here’s how Macros upgrade your customer support templates:

They help you automatically personalize messages

Macros allow you to pop in variables like customer name, order number, tracking info, or delivery date, and what they ordered, which makes the entire experience feel more personal — even with templates.

Because Gorgias integrates with your ecommerce store, you don’t have to search or ask for customer data (like past order information, reviews left on your site, and so much more). 

‎You can automate follow-up actions

Macros can also be combined with Rules to automatically fire based on certain customer questions and trigger actions, like canceling an order. They can also snooze certain messages that might require a follow-up email so that support agents never leave a conversation without a full resolution. 

Choose from Rule templates to automatically trigger actions on tickets.

‎They include visual product links

When you link a product in a standard template, the customer only sees a URL or hyper-linked text. Plus, agents still have to copy the URL from your store and paste it in the email. But Gorgias’s Shopify product picker lets you search from your product library, select products, and include a visual link that entices customers to click back to your store.  

Visuals in chat

‎They work across channels

Macros can be used for any channel, not just email, since Gorgias is a centralized helpdesk. You can create shorter variations of your email templates to use for live chat, social media, SMS, and more.

They come with a supported Macros Library 

When you sign up for Gorgias, you’ll get access to a Macros Library, which has pre-made and dynamic templates to help get you started. 

These emails are a starting point for agents to save time and ensure consistency and correctness. Then, agents can further tweak templates based on each customer’s needs.  

You can easily measure template utilization

Gorgias comes with a number of Statistics dashboards that measure important customer support metrics like first-response time, revenue generated from customer support, and much more. The Statistics section includes a Macros tab, which shows you how frequently your agents use each Macro:

‎Customer support leaders can use this tab to understand the effectiveness of each Macro and identify when new Macros are needed.

📚 Recommended reading: Evaluating Customer Service: Why, Challenges, and KPIs That Matter

Create loyal and happy customers from day one with Gorgias

Loyal customers come out of great service experiences. Email templates help create a solid baseline so that teams are more equipped to provide high quality support. By removing the need to type out tedious responses to the same questions, email templates give teams the headstart they need so they can provide fast, personalized responses to repetitive questions and spend more time on higher-value conversations.

Gorgias is a customer service platform built for ecommerce merchants. Features like Macros help you provide personalized, self-service responses to repetitive questions and spend more.

Check out our video below to learn more or read our CX Growth Playbook to learn how to generate consistent revenue from your customer support team. 

{{lead-magnet-2}}

Customer Experience
Email
Live Chat Apps

8 Amazing Live Chat Apps for Customer Support

By Ryan Baum
12 min read.
0 min read . By Ryan Baum

Today’s brands know the mission-critical value of customer service — especially fast, persnoalized service. And few customer service channels are more effective that live chat apps, especially when it comes to online shopping. 

Along with improving the customer experience, live chat apps can also help reduce repetitive support tickets and your customer support team’s workload. It also serves as a revenue-generating channel for ecommerce businesses — one that not many are tapping into (yet).

To help you start taking advantage of all the benefits of a good live chat solution, we'll explore what to look for in a live chat provider and cover the eight best live chat apps available today.

8 best live chat software for customer support 

If you would like to start offering customer support via real-time chat conversations, you can't go wrong with the live chat tools below.

We included ratings from Capterra next to each live chat’s names, plus the number of reviews for the app.

1) Gorgias: 4.6 ⭐(488 reviews)

Gorgias is an all-in-one customer support platform that offers a fast-loading live chat widget in addition to a wide range of other customer support tools. 

Given that 38% of customers report say they’re more likely to purchase a product if they offer live chat support, live chat can be an excellent way to drive sales and increase revenue (in addition to improving your customer support, of course). 

Gorgias’ live chat solution offers unique self-service features, like:

  • Quick Answer Flows that automatically answer the most common customer questions
  • Order Management Flows that let customers track, return, and cancel orders without waiting on an agent — that’s right, no more WISMO tickets

Plus, for small teams and round-the-clock coverage, Gorgias’ live chat service includes a contact form that customers see when you’re offline. They can still send their message and receive a follow up message via email.

Check out our live chat solutions here to see for yourself why Gorgias is the leading customer support service for revenue-focused ecommerce stores.

Key features

  • Centralized customer support helpdesk and ticketing system
  • Omnichannel customer service
  • Helpful customer support metrics like first response time and resolution time
  • Fast-loading live chat feature that won't slow down your website
  • Seamless integrations with a variety of ecommerce tools, includin an open API
  • Automated workflows for creating canned responses to common customer questions 
  • An advanced knowledge base for FAQS and customer self-service
  • Chat campaigns (when customers get popup chat invitations proactively) to help boost sales with live chat
  • Works for Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce

Pros

  • Advanced automations and self-service features
  • Customer data is displayed next to the live chat ticket, leading to better personalization and customer engagement
  • Easy to install, set up, and use — perfect for small businesses

Cons

  • Can’t get a standalone live chat app  
  • Some reported issues with mobile app for iOS and Android users
  • No way to pause your subscription when undergoing integrations or updating your website

2) HubSpot Live Chat: 4.4 ⭐(1,659 reviews)

Since 2006, HubSpot has provided ecommerce stores with some of the best tools available — and HubSpot Live Chat is yet another excellent offering. With HubSpot Live Chat, you can easily install a chat button on your ecommerce store. When customers contact you, agents can reply via an integrated messaging service like Slack or Facebook Messenger. 

HubSpot Live Chat also allows you to create automated templates and AI-powered chatbots for responding to common questions. Easily route customer inquiries to other support channels such as email or phone, create targeted, customizable welcome messages for different pages on your site, and automatically save your chat messages/chat history for future reference.

Key features

  • Customizable live chat widgets
  • Offers a no-code chatbot builder
  • Live chat support agents can access data from HubSpot’s CRM to guide customer conversations and get the full context about the customer while chatting

Pros

  • Free to download and use for unlimited chats
  • Seamless plugin with other HubSpot tools
  • No coding required to customize live chat widget

Cons

  • Limited number of features compared to other live chat solutions
  • Bots are not as advanced as some competitors’; don’t use artificial intelligence or natural language processing
  • Only good “if you go all in” on the larger Hubspot Service Hub, according to one reviewer — better for teams who are already embedded in the HubSpot ecosystem

3) LiveChat: 4.5 ⭐(745 reviews)

LiveChat is a live chat solution for both sales and customer support. It allows customers to contact a live representative via chat when they have a question or issue, and lets sales agents proactively contact website visitors during the buying process. Along with enabling live chat support via a chat box, SMS, email, Facebook Messenger, and more, LiveChat also enables you to create AI chatbots for sales and for responding to common customer inquiries.

Key features

  • AI chatbots to greet customers and quickly route chats based on their response
  • Automatic visitor segmentation based on the pages that they visit for targeted, personalized messaging
  • Message sneak peek allows agents to see what a customer is typing for faster responses

Pros

  • Offers 200+ integrations with other ecommerce tools and platforms
  • Provides detailed reporting and analytics
  • Features an intuitive and easy to navigate user experience (UX)

Cons

  • Pricing plans are somewhat on the costly side
  • Reported glitches within the notification system 
  • Difficult to install and set up

4) Pure Chat: 4.3 ⭐(204 reviews)

If you are looking for a straightforward and affordable live chat solution, Pure Chat is a great option. With Pure Chat, you can look forward to unlimited chats, a user-friendly dashboard, and a chat widget that is easy to customize. Pure Chat might not offer the range of features in more expensive live chat apps, but it does offer everything you need to start offering live chat support.

Key features

  • Excellent chat widget customization options
  • Unlimited chat history transcript storage
  • Real-time analytics and visitor tracking

Pros

  • Takes a matter of minutes to set up and is easy to use
  • Affordable, flat-rate pricing
  • iOS and Android mobile apps

Cons

  • Only capable of supporting up to 10 live chat reps
  • Limited features and integrations compared to more comprehensive live chat solutions
  • Does not allow you to attach documents or images to a chat conversation

📚Recommended reading: Our list of email marketing automation campaigns every ecommerce business should consider.

5) LiveHelpNow: 4.2 ⭐ (145 reviews)

LiveHelpNow offers feature-rich live chat tools for both customer support and lead generation. With LiveHelpNow, you get features like SMS and text-to-chat, detailed reporting, customizable proactive chat triggers, conversion tracking, and much more.    

Key features

  • Automatically translates over 100 different languages
  • Auto chat tagging to simplify organizing customer interactions
  • View chat transcripts in real-time and send agents messages that are visible only to the agent

Pros

  • Free training and implementation support
  • Provides AI tools such as canned response recommendations to speed up response times and reduce agent error
  • Offers a long list of useful integrations

Cons

  • Chatbots only available as a paid add-on
  • Somewhat prone to bugs and glitches
  • UI is a little messy and confusing

6) Olark: 4.3 ⭐(221 reviews)

Olark offers everything you could want out of a live chat app, including a highly customizable chat widget, automation rules for both sales and customer support workflows, a transcript archive, and detailed live chat analytics. In addition to an impressive list of features that come included with Olark's base plan, the app also offers additional "PowerUps" such as automatic language translation, visitor insights, and visitor co-browsing that allows agents to see a customer's screen.

Key features

  • Custom chatbox forms for collecting information from customers before they connect with a live representative
  • Real-time analytics for chat volume, customer satisfaction, and support agent activity
  • Live chat automation rules for automatically greeting customers, sending messages based on customer behavior, routing customer queries to the right department, and more

Pros

  • Chat transcripts are easy to search and navigate
  • Offers 25 different integrations
  • Easy to set up and use

Cons

  • Additional costs to remove Olark branding from your chat box
  • Does not provide AI chatbots
  • Automation features are limited

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7) Chatlio: 4.3 ⭐(85 reviews)

If you are already using Slack to communicate with your team members, Chatlio is a great way to use Slack as a means for communicating with your customers as well. Once you install Chatlio on your website, visitors can connect with support agents via a live chat window and support agents can then manage and respond to these messages directly from their Slack dashboard. Chatlio doesn't offer the extensive list of features and tools provided by many apps on our list, but it is affordable and easy to use — especially if you and your team are already comfortable using Slack.

Key features

  • Fully customizable chat widget
  • Triggers for proactively engaging customers
  • A user-friendly live chat support dashboard complete with helpful analytics

Pros

  • Affordable flat-rate pricing
  • Effortless to install and set up
  • Offers lots of customization options

Cons

  • No chatbots and limited automation features
  • Heavily dependent on its integration with Slack
  • Pricey given its limited features

📚Recommended reading: Our guide to conversion rate optimization built in partnership with Swanky, a leading ecommerce conversion rate agency.

8) LiveAgent: 4.5 ⭐(1,424 reviews)

Established in 2006, LiveAgent was one of the first live chat solutions for ecommerce to hit the market and is still renowned today as an app that is feature-rich and easy to use. With a LiveAgent subscription, you can look forward to proactive chat invitations with lots of customization options, chat analytics and customer tracking features, an unlimited number of customizable chat widgets, and an easy-to-navigate chat history database.

Key features

  • Fast-loading, customizable, and reliable chat widgets
  • Allows you to create canned responses for swift resolutions to common customer inquiries
  • Website monitoring for tracking both customer and support agent activity

Pros

  • Offers a free plan that includes one chat button and a limited yet useful list of features
  • Great customer support that is available 24/7
  • Easy to install and use

Cons

  • Limited automation and chat routing features 
  • Doesn't offer as many integrations as comparable apps
  • Mobile app UI is a little clunky

Still want more suggestions? Check out our list of the best live chat apps for Shopify or, if you don't use Shopify, the best live chat apps for ecommerce.

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What features should you look for in a live chat app?

There are a lot of different apps that enable you to install a chat box or chat widget for your website visitors. There are even a number of free live chat apps available for download. 

However, not all live chat solutions are created equally. Before you go to the trouble and expense of installing a live chat app on your ecommerce website, make sure that it meets the following criteria:

Features to look for in a live chat app.

Easy to set up and use for all your team members

One of the biggest benefits of live chat support is the fact it can make life easier for your support agents. If a live chat solution is overly complex and difficult to use, this defeats its purpose. 

Check out an app's reviews to see what other users say about its ease of use, and be sure to choose an app that makes life easier for your team members — not harder. Websites like G2 and Capterra offer a ton of details about thousands of business apps, including real customer reviews.

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Capterra

When weighing your options, reviews will also give you insights about how much technical know-how is needed to set it up. 

  • Is coding required? 
  • Will you need help from your IT team to roll it out to all your agents? 
  • Can setupand troubleshooting be handled within your customer service department? 

Make sure that whatever you choose is reasonable and realistic for your organization.

📚Recommended reading: How to add live chat to your Shopify store.

Integrates smoothly with other tools

The best live chat apps can integrate with the rest of your tech stack, providing powerful new capabilities. For example, a live chat app that integrates with a larger helpdesk that’s connected to SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram allows you to offer live support to customers on social media. 

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Likewise, a live chat app that integrates with other, non-support tools . For example, ecommerce stores should choose a live chat app that integrates with their:

Related: 150+ of the best tools for ecommerce.

Has a transparent pricing model

Before you purchase live chat software, make sure that you fully understand its pricing model. In some cases, it may seem that a subscription to a live chat app is highly affordable — until you read the fine print and get hit with hidden fees or a buggy free version with no support. 

Most of the apps on this list range in pricing from about $10 per month to $50 per month. 

However, every platform does things a little differently — some charge per user per month, some charge a flat rate, others may even charge per ticket. Determine what your organization deems “affordable” and keep this figure in mind as you compare tools.

📚Recommended reading: Live chat vs. chatbots — what’s the right combination?

Offers reliable, accessible customer support

Live chat apps are designed to enhance customer support, but it's important for the companies behind those apps to offer excellent customer support themselves. 

There are plenty of instances where your live chat app might not work like it should; whether it's difficulties installing the app, getting it to integrate with another tool, or any number of other issues. In these cases, you want reliable, fast support — so it's important to prioritize apps that offer it.

Live chat seamlessly with Gorgias

According to a 2021 survey, 65% of customers have higher expectations for customer service today than they did three to five years ago. Beyond improving customer satisfaction, live chat widgets can also serve as a powerful sales tool. They enable you to proactively contact customers and guide them through the buying process, increasing revenue along the way.

Gorgias is the customer service platform built for ecommerce, and our live chat is only the tip of the iceberg. Watch the video to learn more about how Gorgias can help you improve CX and unlock a whole new channel of revenue: Happy customers.

At Gorgias, our live chat solutions are perfectly suited for both customer support and lead generation. We help your organization be proactive about support, leading to happier customers and more revenue — get started today.

Live Chat
Apps and Integrations
Facebook Messenger Customer Service

Tips for Using Facebook Messenger for Customer Service

By Jordan Miller
12 min read.
0 min read . By Jordan Miller

The best way to make customer service as convenient as possible is for ecommerce stores to meet customers where they already are. 

With that in mind, responding to customer interactions on a messaging platform can be an excellent way to provide better customer service — especially on one as popular as Facebook Messenger. 

According to research by Statista, Messenger has 106 million active daily users in America. And if a customer comes across one of your Facebook pages, your Facebook ad, or a Facebook comment that mentions you, the Facebook messaging app might be the first place they’ll go to ask you a question.

Below, learn how to use Messenger for business as an optimized customer service channel. 

Why teams use Facebook Messenger for customer service

According to data from Review42, 1.3 billion people around the globe use Facebook Messenger each month. This makes Facebook Messenger the second most popular mobile app for messaging in the world, behind WhatsApp (and, if you count it, SMS). 

Providing customer care via a channel customers already spend a lot of their time creates an easier, more comfortable experience for them overall. Here are some other benefits of implementing customer support on Facebook Messenger. 

Benefits of Facebook Messenger customer service.

Provide an omnichannel experience 

Asking customers to report a problem via your company's website or its customer support phone number may not seem like a big ask. However, allowing them to contact your company via the social media messaging apps that they are already most comfortable with increases the chances that they will reach out. If contacting support is too cumbersome or unfamiliar, they may simply take their business elsewhere without giving you the opportunity to make it right.

Answering customer queries seamlessly across channels is called omnichannel customer service, and it’s become a critical way for brands to offer better customer experiences. Research shows that getting support on the channels they love even influences purchase decisions.   

📚Recommended reading: How to usse social media for customer service. ‍

Make customer engagement more personal 

Messenger is one of the more personal communication channels to choose from, especially since many people use Facebook Messenger to communicate with friends and family. 

Because of this, managing customer relationships via Facebook Messenger is a more relaxed, natural, and personal way for customers to engage with your brand. 

📚Recommended reading: How to offer personalized customer service at scale.

Make public conversions private 

If a customer is upset, they might leave an angry comment on one of your Facebook posts. Bringing that conversation into a direct message takes that public conversation private, allowing you to offer more personalized support without the eyes of your entire follower base (or prospective customers) on you. 

  • For curious or excited customers, you can have more personalized conversations, send over a small discount, and have a longer conversation that isn’t possible in public comment
  • For escalated or upset customers, you can remove the heated conversation from a public forum and resolve the issues with minimal damage to your brand

Just be sure to ask them to message you first to comply with privacy standards. 

📚Recommended reading: How to deal with angry and escalated customers.

Integrate with a helpdesk and centralize communication 

When you open the floodgates to social media customer support, you or your team will likely be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of comments, questions, or posts that include your brand. While not all of these mentions will require support, the more you can stay on top of them, the better your brand perception will be. 

Use a helpdesk to respond to Facebook Messenger conversations alongside conversations from other channels in one centralized place.

Facebook Messenger can integrate with a CRM or helpdesk that can centralize conversations from all of your other support channels (like email, live chat, SMS, voice, and social media) under one user-friendly dashboard. This makes it much easier to organize conversations so that reps can respond to things in real time or automate responses to common questions.

For example, Gorgias lets you create templated responses to common questions which saves your support reps time. It also lets you set business hours and automate responses to set customer expectations and let them know when you’ll respond. 

Learn more about how Gorgias integrates with Facebook Messenger. 

Messenger saves each customer's chat history and makes it easy to re-engage at any time

Even without any integrations, Facebook Messenger still automatically saves customers’ chat history. This makes it easy to re-engage with customers anytime you wish, which simplifies the customer service process and can potentially save your support team (and customers) a lot of time and hassle.

📚Recommended reading: Should You Delegate Social Media to Customer Support?

Use chatbots and automation to provide quick responses 

Chatbots offer near-immediate response and resolution times to simple customer inquiries. By addressing common issues without the need for a live support agent, chatbots can also reduce your support ticket volume and free your support team up to focus on more complex and pressing issues.

However, practice caution here. Most chatbots provide sub-optimal customer service. That’s why we prefer automation features that offer the same convenience (without deceiving your customers). While it’s not currently available on Facebook Messenger, take a look at how we build automation features into live chat to offer a better experience than chatbots:

https://gorgias.wistia.com/medias/gb277k8th0 

📚Recommended reading: 2022 Customer Service Automation Guide [+Benefits and Best Practices]

7 Facebook Messenger best practices for customer support teams

If you’d like to get as much value as possible from Facebook Messenger, here are seven best practices for using Facebook Messenger as a customer service channel.

1) Mind Facebook Messenger’s privacy policy 

Keep in mind that, as stated in Messenger’s privacy policy, you can only send messages to people who message you first. 

When moving from a public channel (like a Facebook comment) to a private channel, ask customers to make the move rather than messaging them. One way to maneuver this conversation is to ask the customer to message you something specific, privately, to resolve the issue. For example:


“No worries, {{Customer name}}! Your order hasn’t shipped so we can still change the mailing address. Please send us the new shipping address in a private message and we’ll make the change.”

2) Respond quickly, whether via a live chat experience or a chatbot

According to data from SuperOffice, 46% of customers expect a response time for customer service inquiries of four hours or less. Further, 12% of customers expect companies to provide a quick response in 15 minutes or less. 

‍Using Messenger chatbots can be a great way to ensure speedy responses to common customer questions. However, responding quickly is still important if you’re offering customers a live chat experience via Facebook Messenger rather than directing them to a chatbot. Even if you do use live chat, you can still set up chatbots to send an auto-response that thanks them for their inquiry and lets them know that an agent will assist them soon. 

Here’s how to set up that kind of automatic response Rule within Gorgias:

Automatically respond on Facebook Messenger with a Gorgias Rule.

In all cases, it’s essential to make every effort to respond to customer inquiries as quickly as possible.

📚Recommended reading: Check out our case study of Berkey Filters, who achieved low response rates and high channel adoption rates after launching a new customer service messaging channel.

3) Automate simple questions that come through Facebook Messenger

In addition to lowering the average first response time of your customer support team, using bots to automate simple questions that come through Facebook Messenger can also free up a lot of time in your team's schedule. 

According to data from Tidio, 62% of customers would rather use a chatbot than wait for a customer service representative to take their call, making Facebook Messenger chatbots an excellent way to ensure that your customer service process is as speedy and convenient as possible. If you use a helpdesk, a plugin like ShopMessage can create this type of automation for you.  

If you use Gorgias, set up autoresponse rules to make each day’s workflow easier for your team. For example, set business hours and an autoresponse rule that fires if a customer does or doesn’t reach you during that time. 

For shoppers who message outside of business hours, automate text to let them know when you’ll be back online. For those who message during business hours, automate a message that approximates wait times: 

Automatically respond on Facebook Messenger outside of business hours with a Gorgias Rule.

 4) Use content, FAQs, and knowledge base material to get customers to solutions faster

Resources like blog posts, FAQs, and knowledge base material can all serve as excellent customer service tools to supplement the support you offer via Facebook Messenger. 

FAQ and Help Center pages example
Branch

Link your help center prominently on Facebook, send over links to your help articles for additional details or step-by-step walkthroughs once you answer their questions, or share blog posts that provide additional helpful information directly via chat.

Providing helpful self-service tools like these as part of your Facebook Messenger support strategy can go a long way toward making Facebook a more effective customer service channel.

5) Create short, Facebook-appropriate templates for FAQs

To save yourself or your team time, create templated responses for the most common questions that come through Facebook Messenger. 

Like a Facebook message would be, keep these responses short and sweet. Prioritize the messages that tend to come through Facebook. For example, shoppers will likely send in a message about an ad they saw or a product they’re interested in rather than asking for an update on their order status. 

📚Recommended reading: 10 Best Practices for Providing Exceptional Customer Service on Twitter

6) Seek out context to help customers with support requests

While it can certainly be beneficial for support agents to direct customers to resources such as knowledge base material, the reverse is true as well. Resources customers send in while seeking assistance can offer a lot of value. 

Facebook Messenger makes it easy for people to send photos, videos, and documents. These resources can provide helpful additional information about an issue support reps are attempting to resolve. For example, an agent might need to take a closer look at a crack in a defective product or see the color of an item they need to send a replacement for. 

Seeking context starts with having your agents ask customers the right questions. For example, asking customers how they are using the product that they purchased can provide agents with a lot more context regarding the issue that the customer is facing. Asking customers if there is anything else that you can help them with after the initial problem has been resolved is another question that can ensure that no issues go unaddressed. 

By making an effort to seek out as much context as possible, your customer support agents can ensure that they provide relevant information that fully resolves each issue. 

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7) Respond to every customer who sends you a message

It isn't always easy, but responding to every customer who sends you a message through Facebook Messenger is essential if you want to optimize customer satisfaction and reduce churn. This is especially evident when you consider the fact that Facebook Messenger shows users when their message has been seen. 

In other words, if you choose to ignore a customer's message, they’ll know about it. Thankfully, tools such as autoresponders and dashboards for centralizing customer conversations can make replying to each and every customer message a much more feasible goal. For example, if you use Gorgias, all open tickets will appear prominently until you close them.  

Respond to Facebook messages in your helpdesk to provide omnichannel service

Centralizing all of your customer conversations across channels under one easy-to-use dashboard makes managing Facebook Messenger conversations much more efficient for your support team. It lessens the possibility that high-priority messages will get lost, and allows teams to assign different conversations to the right agent who is best suited to support. 

This is where customer service platforms like Gorgias come in. Those that offer integrations will also show a customer's entire history with your business like their purchase history, past support conversations, and even social comments on different platforms. This allows your support agents to provide more helpful and personalized assistance. 

Customer information to personalize interactions.

Omnichannel experiences help meet customers where they are, ensure a smooth, hassle-free experience, and let them message you from the app where they’re most comfortable. This increases the likelihood they will actually reach out to you, rather than deciding not to shop with you again instead. 

How to set up a Facebook customer service channel with Gorgias

With Gorgias, ecommerce stores can centralize customer conversations across multiple channels under one user-friendly dashboard, employ customer experience automation features complete with AI-powered customer intent and sentiment detection, create automated customer service workflows for Facebook Messenger, and much more. You can also expand your support messaging capabilities with our SMS feature.

Setting up the Gorgias and Facebook integration is quick and easy. Just visit Settings -> Integrations -> Facebook, Messenger & Instagram on your Gorgias dashboard. Make sure you’re logged into the correct Facebook account, authorize Gorgias on Facebook, select the page you want to add and your import settings, and then add the page! 

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To see for yourself how Gorgias can streamline your customer service process by integrating with Facebook to create a unified customer service workspace, check out our social media features or sign up for a free trial today. 

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Social Media
Customer Experience
Black Friday Logistics

A Complete Guide to BFCM Logistics

By Frederik Nielsen
10 min read.
0 min read . By Frederik Nielsen

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest retail days in a year, for most businesses.

A good number of online businesses 11 months analyzing data, planning discounts, and building inventories just to prepare for the Thanksgiving week. One mistake many ecommerce businesses make is not paying enough attention to logistics.

During the Thanksgiving rush, a single mistake can throw off your entire supply chain. The holiday rush can get so hectic that last year, UPS hired more than 100,000 additional employees, in order to handle the anticipated increase parcel volume.

Seeing how order numbers are about to skyrocket during Black Friday, it’s important to prepare your business to handle it. 

If your business isn’t ready just yet, this blog post is for you. We’re going to cover:

  • What can you do to make sure your store is prepared for BFCM
  • The biggest logistic challenges your store will face during the holidays
  • How to create a complete logistics plan in five easy-to-follow steps 

So let’s dive into it. 

How to Prepare Your Online Store for BFCM

During the holidays, the competition for consumers’ attention can be fierce. By the time Thanksgiving comes around, most store owners have already spent months developing BFCM marketing strategies and planning deals.

But if your website isn’t fully prepared for the occasion, you say goodbye to BFCM profit. Check out our complete guide to BFCM for ecommerce for more tips.

Check Website Performance

Around 45% of consumers buy only from brands they trust. Nothing can destroy your credibility and customer relationship quicker than a low-functioning website. Having a website capable of handling a huge surge of visitors is especially important during the holidays. 

For starters, make sure that the store functions properly on both mobile and desktop devices. Last year, almost 40% of Black Friday online sales came from phones and tablets. 

There are a lot of things that can slow your website down. In order to see if everything is working as it should, you need to check it. You can do this by going to Google PageSpeed Insights and running a checkup for free. 

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Image Source: developers.google.com 

Have a Look at Your Inventory 

While keeping track of inventory may be low on your totem pole of customer support Black Friday tasks, it’s important to be aware of. Your inventory can affect everything from advertising to logistics. 

One possible solution is to start using inventory management software in the months leading up to the Black Friday weekend. One solution is to use the Emerge App, which allows you to keep track of every single piece of inventory.

Inventory management solutions will help you know which products need to be restocked and which ones you can start pushing early. If a certain item has failed to sell out after more than 12 months, you can put a high discount on it. Examine your inventory in time and plan everything accordingly. 

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emergeapp.net

Prepare Your Workers

Once Black Friday comes around, your workers better be ready to handle the increase in orders, BFCM returns, and complaints. If you want to keep satisfaction levels high, customer service agents need to do their jobs correctly. And in order for them to do their job, you need to make sure that they’re trained.

Talk to your staff. See if they’re aware that things are about to become more frantic than usual. Some workers thrive under pressure. Others aren’t accustomed to working in stressful situations. The best way to eliminate their fear – and subsequent mistakes – is to put in work and train them.

If they want to nail customer service, your workers need to:

  • Respond to inquiries immediately
  • Use positive/professional language
  • Take a proactive approach to problem-solving‍

Logistics Challenges During BFCM

Last year, many retailers were caught by surprise by BFCM. Due to high discounts, many consumers hurried to make their purchases early. Those discounts pulled a bulk of sales into a narrow timeframe. Unsurprisingly, some merchants weren’t expecting such a high demand. 

Since most people will do a majority of their shopping online this BFCM weekend, you can expect a busy year again. Here are some logistic challenges that you’ll face in 2022. 

The Demand Can Vary Significantly

The biggest logistics challenge is the lack of control retailers have during the Black Friday weekend. Year-to-year, demand isn’t consistent. This can happen for many reasons. For instance, this year, in the United States, the demand may not be so high.

That’s because the last November payday falls after Black Friday. This will eliminate the spur-of-the-moment purchases. On the other hand, more people have probably saved up money during quarantine. All of these factors make the entire ordeal hard to predict. 

Lack of Communication

As we said earlier, even the biggest players in the delivery game like FedEx are forced to add capacity to meet the ever-increasing demands during BFCM. No matter what company you’re working with, chances are, they might not be able to deliver all of your product on time.

But you have to talk to them and find out for yourself. 

If you’re not communicating with your logistics partner, you won’t be able to create a delivery commitment schedule that’s manageable. By making unrealistic claims, you can jeopardize your entire operation and lose a lot of customers. 

Unrealistic Delivery Expectations

Large online stores like Amazon, Walmart, and Target all offer next-day delivery. To compete with them, many small and mid-sized companies are offering this option as well. However, during Black Friday, this may be impossible to maintain. 

While you want to offer fast delivery you need to be realistic with yourself as well as your customers. You can discuss this with your delivery company. If the delivery company you're working with can’t handle the load, notify your customers. 

And don’t worry, most consumers prefer honesty over speed. 

How to Plan BFCM Logistics in 5 Steps

Black Friday is unpredictable and so are the consumers. If you really want to have a successful Thanksgiving week, you need to be able to adapt to any situation. And you can do this by making sure that your business is prepared for the unexpected. 

Here are five steps you need to take in order to bulletproof your logistics and get your store ready just in time for BFCM. 

1. Conducting Demand Forecasting

If you take the time to prepare for Black Friday, you can expect good results. And by results, we do mean sales. But make sure you’re communicating delivery times, and following through with orders. Otherwise, you risk a ton of complaints, emails, and negative comments. 

To be prepared, you need to do some demand forecasting.

What’s demand forecasting, you might ask? Simply put, it’s a way of calculating how many sales you can expect to generate during a certain period. 

Your supply chain management solution probably has the ability to give you a demand forecast. In addition, talk to your supplier, they’re probably watching Black Friday trends closely and doing their own market research. They can possibly help you find the right level of product you should be carrying on BFCM. 

2. Preparing Great Shipping Deals

When talking about customer satisfaction levels, you can’t overlook delivery. Your customers want to be in the know. They want to know exactly when their order will arrive. As a matter of fact, 9 out 10 shoppers feel that on-time delivery is extremely important.  

Timely delivery is one thing, but you know what will really make you look good in the eyes of your customers? Making the shipping free. Not sure about it? Well, just consider this: more than 85% of Black Friday sales Salesforce tackled in 2019 had free shipping. 

If you’re afraid that you’ll lose a lot of money this way, just consider this an investment. Your customers will be happy with their purchase and will surely come back after BFCM. Keep this in mind: 85% of customers prefer free shipping to fast delivery. 

If you need shipping support, check out our list of the top shipping software for ecommerce.

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www.fact-finder.com

3. Making an Effort With Customer Service

Everyone feels overwhelmed at times during a Black Friday sale. But no matter how hectic things become, you need to make sure that every customer question and request gets answered in short amount of time. 

Customer service is important all year round, but during the holiday season, it’s extremely important. Many customers will come across your website for the first time during the BFCM weekend. You want to leave a great first impression, don’t you?

Some customers will contact you directly, while others will message you on social media. Your help desk should allow you to see and answer all of these messages as quickly as possible. With Gorgias, you can decrease your first -response time by 78%. 

4. Automate As Much As You Can

Many aspects of your business operations can be automated. Countless companies lose countless hours every month on needless tasks. Now is the perfect time to get ahead and start looking into customer experience automation. Customer support is a great place to start to solve tickets quicker and drive revenue. 

By notifying your customers about the status of their purchase quickly, you’ll undoubtedly let them know that they can trust you. Also, if you’re working with a small delivery company, you should check to see if your supplier is up-to-date.

According to a recent study, one-third of warehouses in the United States are working with outdated storage and management equipment. New equipment is much faster and will prevent any delays in delivery. Make sure that your 3rd-party supplier is legitimate. 

5. Setting Up Reverse Logistics

The reality of any holiday seasons is: people can change their minds in a second. That’s why we see so many abandoned shopping carts and returned products. Even though you’ll hope for no returns, you need to be prepared for them. 

You can do this by doing some reverse logistics. This should be a part of every supply chain. In reverse logistics, the goods move from the end user back to the seller. The returned products may be disposed of in some cases, but more often than not, they’re resold. 

Reverse logistics may relate to any of these activities after the purchase:

  • Product returns
  • Product refurbishing
  • Damaged packaging
  • Delivery failure 

To prevent delivery failure, you can easily set up an order tracking page that will allow your customers to know about the status of their purchase at any time. 

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Image Source: community.shopify.com 

Don’t Forget to Keep Your Shoppers in the Loop!

Preparing for the Black Friday weekend can be stressful. There are dozens of business aspects you need to prepare for the increase in orders. Logistics is one of the most important elements of your operation, so you need to put in extra work. 

Let’s go over the basics again. In the months leading up to BFCM, your business should:

  • What’s the demand for your products and restock accordingly
  • Prepare good shopping deals for your customers worldwide
  • Beef up your customer service and implement live chat 
  • Automate tickets and work with automated warehouses
  • Set up reverse logistics to prepare for product returns 

Keeping the customers satisfied should be your #1 concern. If you manage to do that during the BFCM weekend, they’ll surely come back to your stare after the holiday. 

You can’t leave the customers waiting for their shipment or a response. To ensure that, you need a handy helpdesk. That’s why you should try out Gorgias. 

Gorgias is an ecommerce help desk that allows users to provide multichannel customer service from a single dashboard. 

Go ahead, sign up for Gorgias, get your 15-day free trial, and see your customer satisfaction rates skyrocket.

Black Friday—Cyber Monday (BFCM)
Apps For Ecommerce

9 Apps for Ecommerce That Every Early-Stage Brand Needs

By Ryan Baum
11 min read.
0 min read . By Ryan Baum

Starting a new ecommerce business can be a whirlwind of responsibilities and decisions — like choosing which ecommerce apps you'll use to run your business. When your time and budget are limited, how do you determine which apps and plug-ins will: 

  • Be easy to manage?
  • Have the biggest impact on your business?
  • Make sense for an new store’s priorities?

Some ecommerce apps are a must-have right out of the gate, while others can wait until you get more budget and staff. 

To help determine which apps are necessary for your new business, we share the most important criteria early-stage brands should look for in an app before covering nine ecommerce apps that every online business needs to download.

The best ecommerce apps for small-but-mighty brands

Now that we've covered the specific criteria that new ecommerce stores should look for in their apps, let's take a look at a few of the most essential ecommerce apps to set your business up for success.

1) Shopify: An ecommerce platform for building your online store

The first and most essential app for anyone starting a new ecommerce store is an ecommerce platform for building and hosting a shopping app or website. As the most popular ecommerce platform on the market today, Shopify makes it easy for new stores to offer online shopping essentials, like:

  • Mobile optimization for shoppers on mobile devices
  • Multiple payment options (like credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and more)
  • Simple checkout processes to limit cart abandonment

With Shopify, app development is easy-breezy: You can build a customized online store using simple drag-and-drop commands. Best of all, Shopify has an app store full of integrations with just about all popular ecommerce apps and tools, enabling you to expand on all of these features. For example, you can download a Shopify app to: 

Take a look at how Shopify integrates with Gorgias to save time and provide personalized customer experiences. 

Key features

  • Easy-to-use store creator
  • Hundreds of customizable themes and templates
  • Hundreds of apps and integrations available on the Shopify app store

Pros

  • Intuitive and easy-to-use interface
  • Affordable pricing
  • Great customer support

Cons

  • Not as customizable as more advanced ecommerce platforms such as Magento and BigCommerce
  • Does not support email hosting

Pricing options

Shopify offers three pricing plans:

  • Basic plan for $29 per month
  • Shopify plan for $79 per month
  • Advanced plan for $299 per month

While Shopify is a favorite choice for many, it’s not the only ecommerce platform. Popular alternatives include WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento. We recommend staying away from general website builders like WordPress and Wix, which offer limited support for ecommerce. 

2) Huboo: Order fulfillment and tracking

Huboo is an order fulfillment solution that enables effortless order tracking and much more. With Huboo, you can outsource all of your company's order fulfillment responsibilities, shipping your products in bulk to Huboo warehouses, where they are stored, picked, packed, and delivered on behalf of your brand. 

Customers demand the ability to track their orders. 90% of consumers who engage in online shopping actively track their packages, with 20% of consumers tracking their packages multiple times a day. If you want to keep your customers happy and avoid a flood of "where is my order?" tickets, you will need to provide order tracking.

Using your Huboo Dashboard, you can see sales and listings by channel, courier tracking, inventory, costs, and billing, making it easy to provide order updates to your customers. 

To learn more about Huboo, check out our Huboo partner page.

Key features

  • Capable of integrating with all popular sales channels and marketplaces
  • Huboo Dashboard for easily tracking orders along with important fulfillment metrics and KPIs
  • Wide-ranging fulfillment network in the EU and UK capable of fulfilling orders all over the world

Pros

  • Helps eliminate fulfillment errors with 99.9% picking accuracy
  • Removes the burden of order fulfillment and warehouse management

Cons

  • Per-item pricing adds to your company's shipping costs
  • Does not accept bulky, chilled, or frozen goods

Pricing options

Huboo charges per-item rates for every package shipped, varying based on the package size and how quickly it is delivered. For a detailed breakdown of these rates, check out Huboo's pricing page.

3) ShipHero: Warehouse management and order fulfillment

Another excellent warehouse management and order fulfillment app, ShipHero offers two solutions to ecommerce stores: 

  1. A warehouse management system for managing your own warehouses more efficiently
  2. Completely outsourced fulfillment. 

With ShipHero’s fully outsourced fulfillment services, store owners can ship their products in bulk to ShipHero warehouses, where they are picked, packed, and delivered with 99%+ shipping accuracy. 

ShipHero’s warehouse management system lets you automatically process orders and returns, manage your inventory, and access insightful analytics and reporting.

Key features

  • Fully outsourced warehouse management and order fulfillment
  • Built-in reporting features covering everything from COGS to Picker/Packer Efficiency to Replenishment
  • Automation rules, including smart warehouse routing, shipping method mapping, and address validation

Pros

  • Provides the option to manage inventory and order fulfillment yourself using ShipHero’s warehouse management system or the option to outsource these responsibilities
  • Includes excellent automation features for improving order fulfillment efficiency and accuracy
  • Enables 30% faster shipping and a 35% reduction in warehouse costs

Cons

  • Somewhat difficult to set up and navigate by some reports
  • Higher shipping costs

Pricing options

ShipHero offers three pricing plans for its warehouse management system:

  • Standard WMS for Brands plan starting at $1,850 per month
  • WMS for 3PLs plan starting at $1,995 per month
  • Enterprise WMS for Brands plan with custom pricing available upon request

However, pricing for their outsourced fulfillment services is only available upon request.

4) Gorgias: Helpdesk and live chat

89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase with a company following a positive customer service interaction. While most brands want to offer great customer experience, doing so as a small team can be difficult. 

Luckily, helpdesks like Gorgias make it easy to offer great customer support without all the hassle, thanks to automation and self-service features. 

Thankfully, Gorgias makes it easy for brands of all sizes to offer personalized customer support via an industry-leading customer support platform. This includes features such as:

  • A centralized dashboard for managing tickets and customer messages across numerous support channels
  • Automation of tedious customer support tasks
  • Help Centers and other self-service support options
  • A fast-loading live chat widget for offering live chat support
  • And much more

Key features

Pros

  • Detailed customer support data and analytics for further fine-tuning your support services
  • Broad range of customer support tools and features in a single platform
  • Revenue-generation focused so that you can turn customer support into profits

Cons

  • Can take some time to master all of Gorgias' tools and features
  • Revenue statistics are only available on upper-tier plans

Pricing options

Gorgias offers five pricing plans:

  • Starter plan for $10 per month
  • Basic plan for $60 per month
  • Pro plan for $360 per month
  • Advanced plan for $900 per month
  • Enterprise plan with custom pricing available upon request

5) Klaviyo: SMS and email marketing

Klaviyo is an SMS and email marketing platform with unparalleled personalization possitbilitieis. With Klaviyo, you can: 

  • Design attractive custom emails and text for your ecommerce website’s shoppers without any coding experience
  • Manage and segment contact lists with built in customer relationship management (CRM) features
    Create and launch automated SMS and  email marketing campaigns
  • Track the results of those campaigns with detailed reports

Email marketing remains one of the most effective of all digital marketing channels and is something that every ecommerce store should take advantage of. Plus, SMS marketing has been one of the most trending marketing channels for the past few years thanks to texting’s highly visible push notifications. 

Take a look at how Klaviyo and Gorgias integrate for even more powerful experiences. 

Key features

  • A/B testing and segmentation features for honing your email marketing strategy
  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • Advanced campaign automation

Pros

  • Easy to set up and use
  • Affordable pricing, including a forever free plan

Cons

  • Limited SMS marketing features
  • Support team is sometimes unresponsive

Pricing options

Klaviyo offers three pricing plans:

  • Free plan for $0 per month that supports up to 500 monthly email sends
  • Email plan with pricing based on how many contacts your business has
  • Email and SMS plan with pricing based on how many contacts your business has

6) Canva: Design and content creation

Whether it's creating graphics for your emails, website, social media posts, or anything in between, creating and running an online store requires you to design a lot of content. Canva makes content design and creation easy regardless of your artistic experience. 

With Canva, you can use attractive design templates and user-friendly drag-and-drop commands to create all manner of designs, including logos, flyers, banners, and much more.

Key features

  • Drag-and-drop content designer
  • Premium content library with 100 million+ photos, graphics, video, audio, and fonts
  • Time-saving design tools such as Magic Resize and Background Remover.

Pros

  • Very easy to use regardless of your design experience
  • Advanced functionality that rivals expensive competitors like Photoshop

Cons

  • Can't move one design to another, requiring you to create each design completely from scratch
  • Limited video editing tools

Pricing options

Canva offers three pricing plans:

  • Free plan for $0 per month
  • Pro plan starting at $12.99 per month
  • Teams plan starting at $14.99 per month

7) Typeform: Customer feedback surveys

Customer feedback is an invaluable resource for ecommerce stores of all sizes, enabling you to take a data-based approach to optimizing your store's customer experience. 

With Typeform, you can start gathering more customer feedback by using templates to create customer feedback surveys. 

Along with these customer feedback survey templates, Typeform also offers signup forms, report forms, order forms, and a ton of other professional templates.

Key features

  • Hundreds of high-quality survey and form templates
  • Quiz maker for creating customer quizzes (such as product recommendation quizzes)
  • Brand kit for creating a set of custom fonts, colors, and media that you can use on any form

Pros

  • Supports a long list of integrations with other popular ecommerce tools
  • Makes it easy to create high-quality customer feedback surveys regardless of your design experience

Cons

  • Only for creating surveys and forms; you'll need integrations to actually send these forms out and gather responses
  • Offers mobile app for iOS but not for Android

Pricing options

Typeform offers three pricing plans:

  • Basic plan for $25 per month
  • Plus plan for $50 per month
  • Business plan for $83 per month

8) Triple Whale: Analytics and reporting

Triple Whale is a complete ecommerce hub for Shopify stores that lets you track the metrics that matter most to your brand in one easy-to-use dashboard. 

https://youtu.be/RIaCgvdr2mc

Triple Whale's attribution features allow you to track how much you spend on each marketing channel and your return on these investments. If you are looking for a single solution that gives your brand access to all of the data and insights it needs to grow and improve, you'll find a lot to like about Triple Whale.

Key features

  • Six attribution models and journey mapping for unlocking key insights in real-time
  • Creative analysis tools for measuring ad performance
  • Mobile app for viewing your data on the go

Pros

  • Real-time insights provide much more flexibility and proactivity than monthly reports
  • Single source of truth for your ecommerce store

Cons

  • Somewhat costly for the features that it provides
  • Only available for Shopify stores

Pricing options

Triple Whale offers five pricing plans:

  • Dashboard plan for $100 per month
  • Attribution plan for $300 per month
  • Full Whale plan for $450 per month
  • Custom plan with custom pricing available upon request

9) Recharge: Subscription management

It might surprise you to learn that 54% of online shoppers are subscribed to at least one ecommerce subscription. Leveraging the subscription model is a good way to create a reliable, recurring revenue stream for your business. However, it's also a model that entails its own unique requirements and complexities.

The best way to create and manage a subscription service for your online store is to utilize a subscription management app, and Recharge is a great one to consider. Recharge lets you quickly set up a subscription program, packaging your products or services into monthly or annual subscription plans. 

The app processes recurring subscription payments and makes it easy to manage every aspect of your subscription programs, providing detailed analytics into the performance of your program. Recharge also allows you to create a customer-facing subscription management portal where customers can easily view, change, or cancel their subscriptions.

Learn how Recharge and Gorgias integrate for powerful subscription management. 

Key Features

  • Developer Hub for quickly creating and setting up subscription offers
  • Analytics suite that provides insights into revenue, customers, and subscriptions
  • Subscription management via RechargeSMS or a customer portal

Pros

  • Gives customers the option to skip or delay deliveries rather than canceling, helping reduce customer churn
  • Makes it quick and easy to create subscription offers

Cons

  • Limited customization options
  • The only subscription management app on the market for Shopify stores

Pricing options

Recharge offers three pricing plans:

  • Standard plan with no monthly fees and 1% + 10 cents per transaction
  • Pro plan for $499/month and 1% + 19 cents per transaction
  • Custom plan with tailored pricing available upon request

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Key ecommerce app features small businesses should look for

Most new ecommerce businesses don't have the budget or the sales volume to justify purchasing a broad range of ecommerce apps right away. So, you'll need to narrow down your selection to the apps with great bang for your buck. 

With that in mind, here are the most important features that small business owners should look for in ecommerce apps:

What kinds of apps do new stores need

Provides flexible, affordable pricing

Some ecommerce solutions can cost thousands of dollars a month or more, putting them out of reach for most small businesses and early-stage brands. 

These high-priced apps are almost always geared toward larger organizations anyway, meaning that you aren't likely to need all of the features they offer until your business grows. 

The good news is that there’s also a wide range of affordable ecommerce apps designed to support smaller stores and brands — those are the ones we’ll focus on below.

Automates manual tasks and ecommerce processes

Starting a new business requires a lot of hard work. The more manual tasks and workflows you can automate, the more time you have to focus on important activities like developing new products and growing your audience.

Creating automated email marketing campaigns rather than sending out emails manually is one example of how apps that offer automation features can save you time. Using automation to provide canned responses to common customer questions is another example of the time-saving benefits that automation can provide.

Monitors ecommerce performance

Whatever function of your ecommerce business that an app is designed to facilitate (whether it's customer support, marketing, sales, or order fulfillment), it also needs to be able to track your store's performance in these key areas. 

This is especially important for small stores, who don’t have full time data analysts to pull insights from tools. Choosing apps that provide detailed analytics and reporting will give your business the data and insights it needs for continual optimization.

Integrates with other ecommerce tools

Integrating all your ecommerce apps can enable powerful new features and capabilities. For instance, integrating your customer support app with your order tracking and fulfillment app might allow you to easily provide tracking numbers and order updates when customers request them. 

Integrate your apps for ecommerce

Along with choosing apps that offer a broad range of possible integrations with other popular ecommerce tools, it's especially important to ensure that the apps you select are capable of integrating with whatever ecommerce platform you use.

Supports your most important ecommerce KPIs

When you don't have the budget to purchase every app you might want, it's important to focus on the apps that align most closely with your important KPIs. Business of all sizes, but especially small businesses, do well to focus on one area at a time. Are you looking to: 

Identifying the KPIs most important to your business and choosing your ecommerce apps based on these KPIs will ensure that you purchase apps that will have the biggest impact on your store's success.

Offers "try it before you buy it" model

When budgets are tight, you need to ensure that the app you purchase will meet your business's needs before you break out your wallet. For this reason, small businesses should prioritize apps that offer a free trial, a free version, or, at the very least, a free demo.

Includes customer success or support

Ecommerce apps are often challenging to set up and use. And as a small business owner, you can't afford to spend all your time troubleshooting issues with your ecommerce apps. This makes it important to choose apps with high-quality customer support or customer success services.

Offers additional pricing plans

While it's great to find an app with free or affordable pricing, you also need solutions that can scale alongside your company. Choosing apps with multiple pricing plans allows you to upgrade your subscription as your company grows, without having to switch to a new app.

Learn why ecommerce stores of all sizes favor the Gorgias app

Choosing the right customer support platform is just one of the many vital decisions you will need to make as an ecommerce store owner. While you’ve got plenty of options, only one is exclusively built for ecommerce and offers features and plans that scale from small stores to large enterprises.

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If you want to get started enjoying the many benefits of the best ecommerce customer support platform on the market, sign up for Gorgias today!

Apps and Integrations
Improve Your Customer Service Response Times

7 Ways to Improve Your Customer Service Response Times

By Astaeka Pramuditya
11 min read.
0 min read . By Astaeka Pramuditya

Modern customers have high expectations when it comes to customer service. One survey showed that nearly half of customers expected an email response from businesses in less than four hours. If your average response time is much higher than this, you could be losing out on a lot of business. 

Of course, meeting customer expectations regarding response time is often easier said than done. If your customer support team is struggling to keep up, the good news is that there are some effective ways to shorten your response times without having to hire a team of new employees.

In this blog, we'll discuss why a fast response time is such a vital component of great customer service and go over seven proven methods you can use to achieve a faster response to customer service emails and messages. 

What is a good customer service response time?

When a customer reaches out to you, you should aim for a first response time of one hour for emails, 15 minutes for social media messages, 40 seconds for SMS messages, and even less than that for live chat messages.

Why response times are important for customer service teams 

No matter what product or service you happen to be selling, creating a positive customer experience is an essential ingredient in the recipe for long-term success. While there is a lot that goes into creating a great experience for your customers, prompt customer service goes a long way. 

Here are a few of the reasons why achieving fast response times is such an important goal for your customer service department: 

1) Customers continue to demand faster responses 

More and more customers have come to expect near real-time access to companies across multiple channels. One Hubspot survey showed that 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question. 

Furthermore, 60% of people who needed support defined "immediate" as 10 minutes or less. If your company isn’t responding to customer queries at least this fast, you risk falling short of expectations your competitors may be meeting. 

2) Poor response times reflect negatively on your company 

Fair or not, poor response times can hurt your brand image. Encouraging brand loyalty and return customers is a vital goal for any business, and poor response times can make this goal all the more difficult to reach. 

Keep in mind that customers expect fast response times since so many companies today can meet those expectations. If your company isn't keeping up with the customer service offered by the competition, it could damage your brand reputation among existing customers. 

3) Faster responses that lead to quicker resolutions can increase revenue

There are plenty of scenarios where responding to a customer query within a short time frame can lead to your business making more money. If a customer has a question about your product, for example, responding quickly before they move on to another product could lead to a sale you might not otherwise make. 

If a customer needs to return a product, prompt customer service could encourage them to exchange the product for another product or store credit rather than becoming frustrated and demanding a cash return. In instances such as these, fast response times that lead to quick resolutions can directly translate to more or retained revenue. 

4) Quick responses can boost customer satisfaction

Good customer service doesn't mean that you always have to solve a customer's issue on the first response. In many cases, simply acknowledging their email and letting them know that you’re working on a solution is enough to keep customers temporarily satisfied and buy your customer service team some time. 

Unless the issue is immediately resolvable, your goal in an initial response should be to acknowledge the customer's problem, let them know that you’ve assigned their ticket to a representative, and provide them with a time frame for when they can expect a resolution. 

Sending out an initial response that covers these bases can keep customers satisfied and patient while your team members work on their follow-up. 

Related: How To Measure Net Promoter Score (NPS)

5) Slow response times might increase your workload

Achieving fast response times may seem like a lot of work. Many times, though, slow responses can end up increasing the workload of your customer support team. If you don't respond quickly enough to a customer that needs assistance, they may end up contacting your company multiple times through multiple channels. 

This can lead to numerous support tickets being created for a single issue, bogging down your team and creating unnecessary confusion that could have otherwise been avoided if you had responded to the customer's initial query promptly. This is another reason it’s helpful to keep your average first response time as low as possible. 

How to reduce customer service response times

For all of the reasons listed above, responding to customer service emails in the shortest amount of time possible is ideal. Thankfully, there are many different methods you can use to speed up your response times across all your support channels that don't require huge investments or shifts.

1) Make sure you're measuring first response times 

Before you can test out solutions, determine what your average response time currently is (if you don’t already know). First response time is a crucial customer service metric to evaluate your team's impact because it affects revenue-related metrics like churn and retention rates.

To calculate the average first response time, all you have to do is add up all of your first response times for a given period then divide that number by the number of resolved tickets during that time.

Once you've determined what your average first response time is, you can then set goals for improvement and continue to measure your progress. Gorgias provides you with many analytic tools that allow you to track key customer service metrics, including average response time. By leveraging tools such as these, you can easily analyze your customer support team's efforts and set achievable benchmarks for more improvement.

Related: Customer Service ROI: How to Measure and Improve

2) Take advantage of customer service software

Responding to every customer email manually is a monumental task. If you’re still solely relying on traditional methods of responding to customer queries, achieving fast response times is going to be nearly impossible. Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of customer service software on the market today that can take a lot of the heavy lifting out of your workflows.

For example, help desk software allows your team members to see and reply to customer queries from any channel — like social media, ecommerce stores, WhatsApp, and SMS — from a single centralized dashboard. You can organize them based on factors such as the date and time received, priority, subject matter, and some other categories.

Customer service software also automates time-consuming tasks, like sending initial responses to customer emails. This is just a snapshot of the ways these platforms can help your team reduce your response times. We highly recommend leveraging software to optimize your customer support process. 

Related: Learn how Gorgias' support performance and live agent performance dashboards can help you measure

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3) Utilize customer service automation for 24/7 service 

We touched on it briefly, but customer service automation can free up your customer support team significantly during business hours. It provides customers with immediate, automated responses that you can personalize to make sound as friendly as a manual response. These small measures free up your team to focus on more complicated and pressing tasks.

That’s not all. Setting up an auto-responder allows you to send customers an all-important first response any time you like. There’s no need for a live representative, and a quick response could prevent another ticket or message from piling up to deal with in the morning. Most software lets you automate responses and send them via email, chatbot, app notification, text and more. 

Recommended reading: Ecommerce Customer Support Best Practices

4) Use scripts and email templates 

Having your customer service team type out a custom response to every new email they receive from a customer is inefficient. In addition to using an auto-responder to send out an automated first response, one simple way to speed up your reply time is to make use of scripts and email templates. 

To build your scripts, start by identifying common questions and issues that your support team encounters most frequently. You can then create helpful boilerplate answers with blank spots to plug in customer details using your software or other tools. 

One pro tip is to look back at positive customer feedback or five-star interactions to get ideas. See which answers made customers feel heard and satisfied while also solving their issues quickly. For live customer support channels such as phone calls or live chat, you can create scripts for each FAQ that representatives can follow. 

Leveraging scripts and email templates ensures that your team members aren't having to type out the same response over and over again to commonly asked questions, enabling them to provide service in a more efficient and timely manner. 

5) Create a system to categorize and segment priority tickets 

Some customer support tickets should take higher priority than others. A customer that’s reporting a fraudulent purchase with their debit card needs a quicker response than someone who’s asking if there are any discounts they can use.

  • Start by prioritizing tickets that have been open the longest. These are the customers who may be growing impatient, or even angry enough not to shop or work with your business again.
  • From there, you’ll want to prioritize the most complicated or resource-intensive tickets. This helps your team get a head start on the tickets that could end up taking a lot of time to resolve. 

Beyond prioritizing tickets, it’s also helpful to categorize them if they share similarities. Grouping similar tickets together boost efficiency. For example, your team can come up with one main solution (create a new discount code because the previous one is buggy) and easily resolve the entire group of tickets in a single pass. 

If you’re making use of email templates, a single rep may be able to clear an entire batch of tickets in seconds or minutes.  

6) Offer multichannel customer support options 

Every channel where you communicate with customers — from your main phone line and website to messaging platforms like social media and live chat support — should include customer support options. Having multichannel customer support options offers a couple of advantages.  

For one, it makes it easy for customers to reach out and engage with your company wherever they are. You may be serving customers across demographics, from Generation Z to baby boomers, all of whom have different communication preferences. The customer’s initial outreach is their first interaction with your customer service experience, and it’s great to start on a note of convenience and ease no matter who the customer is. 

Setting up multichannel customer support options can also give your response teams quicker access to the requests that they receive, allowing them to organize by priority no matter where the request originates.

Recommended reading: Customer Support Metrics

7) Leverage self-service to reduce tickets 

Any time a customer can resolve their issue on their own is a success for your business. Customer self-service support keeps your team’s hands-free and prevents one more support ticket from entering the queue. Here are some useful resources you can provide customers: 

  • Company blog
  • Product instructions, how-tos, and video tutorials
  • FAQ page
  • Community forum 
  • Dictionaries or glossaries 
  • Case studies 
  • Knowledge base or help center

Equipped with this information, many customers will be able to answer their questions — and perhaps discover or try something new with your product. As you’re putting these resources together, think about how tech-savvy your audience is and how long they want to spend reading about their issue. 

With Gorgias Automate, you can improve your live chat widget with a self-service flows that let your customers track and manage their orders without any agent interaction. You can also enable a chatbot. Customers can type in their question or comments and the chatbot will pull up your content that matches those keywords. 

All of these tools combine to reduce the number of tickets your support team receives in the first place, which can ultimately result in faster response times for the tickets that do appear. 

Recommended reading on live chat:

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Gorgias helps support teams reduce response times

We’ve covered a variety of ways to roll back your response times, but that’s not all these best practices accomplish. They also optimize your customer service workflow overall, ensuring your customer service interactions are positive and helpful and your team isn’t overloaded or losing time to repetitive, manual tasks. 

At Gorgias, we’re proud to offer a number of different customer service software solutions, from live-chat solutions to chatbot solutions, to email auto-responders. To learn more about how Gorgias can help you speed up your response times in a way that is affordable and hassle-free, book a demo today.

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