There are plenty of reasons your company might use Gorgias. For starters, it keeps your support team organized and efficient (and prevents your laptop from overheating from a million open tabs). But here at Chomps, one of our favorite things about Gorgias is how it helps us analyze tickets to improve our product, customer experience, and brand. Every. Single. Day. 

I’m Zoe Kahn, the Sr. Associate of CX here at Chomps. We’re a better-for-you snack brand dedicated to serving the highest quality products and the best experiences to our consumers. 

We’ve been using Gorgias for almost a year at Chomps. And at my last company, I switched our helpdesk to Gorgias (where I fell in love with the tool). Big-time Gorgias girlie here. 

Below, I’ll show you how we use Gorgias to analyze tickets and surface insights that help us improve the Chomps brand. I hope you can steal some of these ideas to improve your product and brand, too.

What do we learn from ticket analysis?

Ticket analysis means studying customer support conversations to find the root of your customers’ most common frustrations. It’s how you evolve your product to delight customers and build a brand that people genuinely love. 

Let’s back up to understand the kinds of insights we can learn. We all know that issues are inevitable, especially in the ecommerce world. Tons of things can go wrong, like:

• Shipping delays
• Lost packages
• Fulfillment errors
• Website crashes
• Inaccurate customer expectations
• The list goes on (and on and on)

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But even when things do go wrong, we want to make experiences seamless for our consumers. At its most basic, this means getting customers answers as fast as possible when they experience issues. But even better, it means being proactive about preventing future issues rather than constantly applying bandaids. 

Ticket analysis is how you make all of this happen. 

Every company approaches ticket analysis a little differently. At Chomps, ticket analysis helps us find patterns in support tickets and improve our products and processes. The end goal is more happy customers and a leaner support team — both of which hugely impact the business’s bottom line. 

How we set up Gorgias for ongoing ticket analysis

At Chomps, we use multiple tactics for ticket analysis, all based on the tools and dashboards Gorgias supplies. If you’re serious about ticket analysis, you’ll have the most success by first setting up a solid foundation within Gorgias.

Specifically, you’ll want to integrate all of your channels (email, SMS, live chat, and so on) and set up clear Views to keep your work organized. 

Once you set your foundation, you’re ready to tag your support tickets. Tagging tickets — consistently and robustly — is the key to analyzing your frequent support issues and making high-impact decisions backed up by data.

At Chomps, we use three methods of tagging to keep track of our ticket trends:

1. Auto-tagging based on keywords and support channels
2. Manually adding tags to tickets where needed
3. Creating macros for top inquiries and monitoring usage

1) Auto-tag based on topics

To get Gorgias to start auto-tagging tickets for you, you’ll set up auto-tags based on your unique business and the kinds of inquiries you usually see. Here are some common tags we use at Chomps that you’ll probably need, too:

• Manufacturer
• Subscription
• Return/Exchange
• Fulfillment
• Order-Status
• Mis-ship
• Wholesale
• Urgent

Let’s use my favorite priority folder as an example: the Urgent tag.

Auto-tagging is super relevant to most DTC businesses: It surfaces tickets that need immediate attention, such as order changes and address updates that need to be implemented before an order’s out the door.

This automation is incredibly useful, especially when you’re dealing with a high volume of tickets.

Here’s what our URGENT tagging rule looks like at Chomps:

Let’s look at the logic:

• The trigger is simple: It runs when tickets get created.
• Next, under “message body CONTAINS ONE OF,” we’re telling the Rule to look for keywords that are good guesses about what urgent tickets might include: things like “cancel” and “update my address.” If a customer uses those keywords, we want that ticket on our radar quickly. 
• See the keyword that says  “cs_urgent_order_update”? This phrase is always on a ticket if the customer has filled out our contact form (you can build one of these with Gorgias) and selected “Urgent Order Update” as the subject. 

We use this tactic across a variety of areas — every single subject in our dropdown list auto-tags the ticket so we can route it correctly. 

These tags — whether generated from the form or automatically applied based on keywords — allow us to assign priority and monitor the types of tickets we receive. These tags help us find common issues and inefficiencies and solve issues at the root.

Thanks to this urgent auto-tag Rule, we are more likely to update incorrect customer orders before they’re fulfilled by our warehouse. Since our warehouse team is speedy, if orders aren’t adjusted (almost) immediately, these requests get lost among all the non-urgent requests.

Not being able to prioritize correctly means we either lose money by honoring a replacement order or upset the customer.

The fixes don’t just apply to support operations, either: We’ve made changes to our website, fulfillment processes, marketing emails, and much more based on this kind of bulk ticket analysis.

📚 Related reading: See nine more Rule suggestions for auto-tagging your customer service requests. 

2) Manually add tags where needed

We use tags to track ticket types and to understand the percentage of our total tickets that each topic makes up. Automation gets us most of the way there, but even Gorgias’s best-in-class language detection isn’t 100% perfect. Anyone who works in customer service knows that customers can use all kinds of different vocabulary to describe what they’re after. 

At Chomps, every team member gets trained to check the tags on a ticket as soon as they start working on it. On top of that, no tickets should ever be closed without applying at least one tag.

Thanks to this vigilance, we have a lot of confidence in the data we’re using for ticket analysis. There’s no point in spending time analyzing support tickets if you think the data is bad, so it’s worth building these habits and processes. Future you will be thankful (and so will all your customers).

💡 Pro tip: If getting your team to check and apply tags is a challenge, you can set up a Rule that reopens untagged tickets or assigns them to a manager. 

3) Create Macros for top inquiries and monitor usage

Macros are imperative for keeping an efficient and lean support team. But did you know you can also use macros to monitor inquiries, problems, and customer feedback? 

I have a great example of this. At one point last year, we weren’t able to keep up with demand and many of our jerky stick flavors were going out of stock (a good problem to have, but still a problem). 

We made efforts to proactively communicate supply issues, like back-in-stock notifications and keeping social media up to date with the available flavors. However, we’d still get an influx of consumers who wanted to know when exactly specific flavors would be back in stock. 

Using Gorgias, I was able to set up Macros based on each unique flavor we offer and send these out to every customer who asked. It’s not all that creative, and most support teams and companies would stop there. We didn’t.

From there, I looked at our team’s Macro usage and reported back to the rest of the company weekly to share which flavors were requested the most. This analysis was crucial because at that time we had to pick and choose which flavors to produce. 

We needed clarity on what our consumers really wanted — rolling the dice and gambling on random flavors would have made a bad situation worse. Specifically, we may have ended up with overstock on some flavors, and failed to stock up on flavors customers would actually try to order.

This is just one example. But these kinds of issues are things that pop up all the time when you work in customer service. Getting smart about your Macro creation and monitoring usage unlocks a whole new set of data your CX team can use to understand your customers.

How to implement feedback

You can analyze until you’re blue in the face, but if the outcome isn’t taking tangible action to improve your product, customer support, and brand, does it really matter?

Implementing changes based on your support ticket analysis is where the true brand improvement happens. You can’t do that without creating an impeccable feedback loop with key players across your company.

At Chomps, our CX team has recurring meetings with different parts of the team to share the results of our ongoing ticket analysis. Here are two regular meetings we use to share insights:

Monthly CX & Operations meetings

Each month, we have a meeting between our CX and Ops teams. This is where we go over product complaints, innovation requests, and order fulfillment hiccups. 

We like to keep this meeting recurring instead of just doing it when there’s a fire to put out. It allows us to touch base on what’s coming in future months, putting us in a more proactive place. However, we’ll schedule additional meetings if we see an influx in complaints on a certain topic.

We structure the meetings around notable tickets with the following tags, all of which fall into our operations category:

1. Manufacturer: These are any complaints about the product that we get about the product, whether it’s about the package being damaged or a customer commenting on the texture. These tickets also get a tag based on which retailer or online shop the customer ordered from. That way, if we see an influx of outreach from a certain retailer, we can dig into it and communicate with the appropriate teams.
2. Mis-ship: This is when a customer orders one thing and receives another. while we’d love this never to happen but that’s not possible. We’re happy as long as we can catch it.
3. Innovation: This tag is used when customers request a new flavor or snack suggestion. Since the possibilities are endless, we love hearing and sharing these inquiries!

Each month, we analyze the number of tags along with the number of times relevant Macros get used. We compare these to the previous month(s), keeping in mind the percentage of issues compared to sales. 

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For example, if the Macro named “Fulfillment - Mis-ship - MISSING” is up 25%, we can reach out to the warehouse team and ask them to look into what might have happened. Maybe there’s a new team member who needs more training or maybe some bins have gotten mixed up. Stuff happens! Issues are inevitable, the trick is to find (and correct) them.

We get a ton of value out of analyzing complaints around things like taste and texture, as well as innovation requests. Our goal is to amplify the voices of our customers to help other teams throughout Chomps understand what matters to our customers, so we can give them what they want.

Weekly CX & Ecommerce team meetings

Each week, we discuss support tickets about sales, user experience, site bugs, and related topics with our Ecommerce team. They take the insights and apply improvements to our site. 

For instance, this past summer, we had a “$10 off $49” promotion. Customers experienced confusion about the fact that they had to manually enter coupon codes, and didn’t always understand they needed to reach a $49 threshold for the code to work.

Below is a clipping from an old promo email we sent out for a sale. Customers had to use the code at checkout and ensure the order was over $49. This initially seemed like no big deal to us. But every extra step or stipulation you give the customer is a barrier to conversion. 

These are “issues'' we didn’t think of before launching the promotion, but customers wrote in when they experienced these issues. We received emails saying, “I forgot my coupon code,” and noticed conversions decreased. We wondered if it was perhaps because we didn’t provide examples of how to get to the $49 threshold and didn’t offer any “help” at checkout, or examples in the emails.

We were able to improve our promotions in the future thanks to ticket and Macro analysis.

In promotions we’ve held since then, we’ve:

• Implemented an auto-apply discount so customers don’t have to remember codes
• Included clear cart upsell callouts to help customers reach thresholds
• Created clearer graphics for our email, SMS, and social campaigns

We also do a better job of showing the types of discounts customers can receive right on the website, in the flow of shopping:

We also installed a Shopify app that helps guide customers to discounts in their cart — for example, a clear indication of how to unlock free shipping. This helps us increase conversions and average order value (AOV) and decrease customer frustrations and confusion. A win-win for Chomps and our lovely consumers!

Without analyzing these support tickets, we would probably be making the same mistakes over and over again, losing out on sales while frustrating our consumers at the same time.

Take advantage of unlimited seats in Gorgias

This last suggestion isn’t exactly a step in the process. But it’s something to keep in mind as you share customer feedback with your team: Take advantage of the fact that Gorgias allows unlimited seats. 

During our new employee onboarding (for all positions at Chomps), we teach new hires how to use the Gorgias platform. They also get to spend a couple days “on the desk,” handling tickets in Gorgias. This is helpful for team onboarding, plus it means we don’t have to hire additional outside help or sacrifice our average response times during peak seasons. We simply grab internal volunteers to help! 

This also helps with analyzing issues: Oftentimes, Chomps volunteers from other teams have different insights and can spot issues that we CX folks might not have noticed. For instance, Alexa from our ecommerce team has helped out a few times, and here’s what she told me about using Gorgias:

“As a non-CX'r, Gorgias has made helping out the CX team so much easier.  The platform is intuitive. And because our team has built out many Macros, I can easily answer common questions and concerns. Although I'm not on the platform every day, I can toggle between open and closed tickets if I need to reference an old situation and get up to speed quickly and efficiently.”

Ticket analysis (done right) drives great experiences and business growth 

Gorgias includes all kinds of tools to help us analyze our support tickets at Chomps. This analysis has tons of impacts:

• We can fix issues, rather than put bandaids on them (or even worse, ignore them!)
• We can scale our brand more efficiently because we’re not constantly barraged by the same tickets over and over
• Our CX team can spend more time on meaningful conversations with our customers

At Chomps, we love to connect with and build relationships with our consumers. We think it’s part of what makes for an exceptional brand. It’s how you get loyal customers. But you can’t do this when your CX team is bogged down with tickets or your product is rife with issues. 

Ticket analysis is the secret sauce that uncovers issues so you can focus on delivering exceptional experiences, over and over and over.

Want to keep learning from other Gorgias power users? Check out our recent webinar with jewelry brand Jaxxon. They share how they prepare for peak season and set up customer experiences that drives sales instead of repetitive tickets.

Quick summary:

A lack of proactive communication and resources from businesses largely causes WISMO. The best way to reduce WISMO is to provide self-service resources like a chat widget with automated responses and a shipping policy page allowing customers to track orders and find solutions.

WISMO (where is my order?) is the most common question in ecommerce, accounting for 18% of incoming requests on average, according to Gorgias data. 

While WISMO requests are common, too many of them signal an un-optimized customer experience and cause real consequences:

• Longer first response times for all requests, due to a cluttered inbox of WISMO requests
• Frustrated customers that don’t want to wait for an answer to this simple questions
• Overloaded customer service teams who don’t have energy for more important questions 

By developing a strategic plan to manage WISMO requests that includes automation and self-service resources, ecommerce businesses can cure overflowing inboxes and provide better customer experiences. 

Below, learn how to develop your own strategy to stop WISMO requests before they ever turn into support tickets.

What is WISMO?

WISMO is an acronym that stands for “Where is my order?” It’s a common question customers often ask after making a purchase. 

The answer to this question depends on the status of the customer’s order:

• Order received, not yet shipped
• Order shipped, in transit
• Order delivered
• Order lost

Common WISMO requests along the customer journey 

WISMO queries can look like…

• “Where is my package?”
• “Why hasn’t my order arrived?
• “When will you ship my order? I haven’t received it.”
• “What happened to my order?”
• “Give me updates about my order.”
• “Have you lost my order?”
• “I’m still waiting for my order.”
• “Please ship my order as quickly as possible.”
• “I need my order to arrive today.”

A customer may reach out to you with a WISMO inquiry via phone, email, SMS, live chat, chatbot, or social media (direct message or through post comments). However, customers tend to reach out only if: 

• You don’t provide a confirmation email with tracking information after purchases
• They don’t know the estimated delivery date
• They have issues with tracking their order using the code you’ve provided
• The shipping date has passed or their order never arrived (without an update)

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Why you should care about WISMO

The moment a new customer clicks “Submit” on a checkout page, they’ll start thinking (a lot) about their order. According to Forbes, the average customer checks the status of their order 4.6 times.

If a customer doesn’t hear anything about their order from you or has to wait too long for an update, they’ll likely get anxious and send you a WISMO request. 

Apart from that, there are additional reasons you should pay attention to WISMO calls: 

• 33% of consumers across all markets have made a complaint to a retailer about delivery. Approximately 69% say the ability to track orders is one of the top three considerations when buying a product online. (Metapack)
• 2 out of 5 US online customers say they are much more likely to buy when they have visibility into delivery dates in advance. As for delays, 70% of customers are less likely to shop with the retailer again if an item is delayed and the retailer fails to inform them about the delay. (Forrester and Bizrate Insights)
• 83% of customers said convenience is more important now than 5 years ago. They want convenience in finding and researching products, comparing prices, checking inventory and shipping methods, and more. (National Retail Federation)  
• 73% of customers will consider switching to a competitor after one negative customer service experience, adversely impacting customer loyalty and creating a ripple effect of challenges for a business. (The Northridge Group)

4 causes of WISMO

A surge in WISMO requests is a result of both internal and external factors, primarily rooted in a lack of communication and insufficient systems. Here are four internal and external causes to help you address and mitigate WISMO tickets.

Internal causes of WISMO

Addressing the internal causes of WISMO tickets is crucial if you're looking to enhance your order tracking and customer communication processes. Here are two key internal reasons for WISMO tickets:

1. Inadequate order management systems: Outdated or inefficient order management systems can lead to inaccuracies in order tracking. This leads to customers seeking reassurance about the status of their orders.
2. Poor cross-team communication: When there is a lack of effective communication between teams like logistics, customer service, and inventory management, it can cause delays in order processing and delivery. Since customers are unaware of these internal issues, they request for WISMO information.

External causes of WISMO

External factors are often beyond your business' direct control but can be managed through proactive measures. Here are some external reasons for WISMO tickets:

1. Lack of real-time tracking information: If your order tracking system lacks real-time updates, customers may be left in the dark about the exact location of their packages. As a result, they submit WISMO tickets to discover their order status.
2. Shipping carrier delays: External shipping carriers can encounter unexpected delays due to weather conditions, customs issues, or other unforeseen events. When customers experience shipping delays, they directly ask the merchants for clarity.

When you identify both the internal and external causes of WISMO inquiries, you can take proactive steps to decrease their occurrence and improve the overall customer experience.

What is the real cost of WISMO?

Most ecommerce merchants are aware of WISMO and the support costs associated with handling tickets, but not all of them understand the true cost of leaving all WISMO requests to a human. 

1) When a human agent responds to the WISMO request

When customers send WISMO requests to your human team, you’ll end up paying the most due to the cost of a human agent searching for the answer and responding manually. In this case, you’ll have to pay for the price of one ticket and customer support agent labor, which comes out to an estimated $12. 

Here’s the math:

• Price of one ticket: Between $0.18 and $0.40
• Customer support agent cost per hour: About $30
• Working hours per day: 8
• Average # tickets answered per day: 20
• The labor cost of one ticket: ($30*8)/20 = $14
• What a WISMO request costs you: From $12.18 ($0.18 + $12) to $12.40 ($0.40 + $12)

Imagine you have 1,000 orders per month and receive 150 WISMO requests. Each month, you’re paying $1,860 (150*$12.40) just to answer questions about order status.

Additionally, a queue full of WISMO tickets also means your team has less bandwidth and time to respond to frustrated customer emails and resolve priority tickets (like pre-sales questions or questions from VIP customers).

2) When you answer the ticket with automation

Let’s say you’ve created an automated response for WISMO in Gorgias using a Rule, or an automatic reply with a helpdesk like Gorgias. When a customer asks, “Where is my order?,” they’ll receive an automatic answer with personalized details about their order status without any human intervention. 

In this case, what WISMO request costs you is the price of one billable ticket in your Gorgias helpdesk, which is between $0.18 and $0.40, depending on your plan.

Most brands wince at the words “automated answer,” and for good reason. Some brands overuse automation, providing a frustrating customer experience. But customers would much rather have this information instantly available than wait for a “human touch.” And if your human agents spend all their time on these simple questions, they won’t have time or energy for tickets that actually need a human touch.

Jewelry brand Jaxxon has found success implementing automation into its customer support: 

“I was very apprehensive about using automation, but we're really liking it! I've tested it out myself as if I'm a customer, and it's really a smooth process.”

— Caela Castillo, Director of Customer Experience at Jaxxon

‎3) When the customer gets an answer via self-service 

This is the cheapest option for your business and the most convenient option for your customers.

When you’re able to deflect WISMO queries with self-service, your cost will be $0! If you can direct people to real-time order tracking in your chat widget, Help Center, or FAQ page, you ensure that customers get an answer before a ticket gets created and your support team can focus on the people with more complicated issues. 

Check out this video to learn how to provide order tracking (and more) in chat to customers with the Gorgias Automate product:

‎But wait, is automating responses good for CX?

When people ask for a status update on an order, they’re looking for a simple information exchange — not friendly conversation. Most likely they’re looking for an immediate answer without having to type up an email and wait for a response. 

If your agents are busy responding to simple WISMO tickets, they won’t be available to provide the human touch on tickets that actually need it. Plus, customers can always ask follow-up questions via email, chat, or phone if they really need more information.

4 ways to reduce WISMO requests

Most customers send in a WISMO inquiry because they’re concerned about their order. The best thing that customer service teams can do to reduce the number of these requests is to provide order status information proactively. 

1. Enable a self-service portal for order tracking 

In Gorgias, you can enable the self-service portal feature on your chat widget and Help Center to quickly resolve WISMO requests. This feature allows your customers to check their order status, package tracking number, and shipping details on their own. They can also request a cancellation or return, and report issues about their order — all without having to type up a message.

This strategy has proven effective for the Jaxxon team. “Chat used to be a support tool for repetitive questions and problem solving,” says Caela. “But now self-service takes care of that for us. Within a month of launching self-service, we’ve seen that our live chat (billable chat tickets) went down by 17%.”

Businesses can also provide this self-service order tracking via a help center. For example, shoe brand ALOHAS offers a “Manage your orders” section at the top of its help center with Gorgias.

Check out this tutorial to learn how to install this feature for your helpdesk. 

2. Automate shipping updates at each post-purchase stage

Just showing delivery estimates on your website isn’t enough. You should also keep customers posted on their order fulfillment status at each post-purchase stage to ensure a smooth delivery process and a positive delivery experience. You can automate delivery update emails within Shopify if you have a Shopify store.   

Start with these:

• Send an order confirmation email notification: Let a customer know you’ve received their order and will start processing it. 
• Provide a branded tracking page: Use third-party shipping and fulfillment apps like AfterShip to create a branded tracking page. Doing this is a great way to control the number of WISMO requests, create a better order tracking experience, and maintain your brand consistency. 
• Send packing and delivery notifications: Inform the customer when you complete the packaging and start shipping orders to increase their trust. 
• Send delay updates: If there is any delivery delay, tell your customer. Being proactive and giving an honest update will keep them satisfied with your post-purchase experience. 

📚 Read more about how to optimize your customer experience to deflect WISMO tickets and generate revenue.

3. How to use automated responses to handle WISMO requests

If customers do send you a message about the status of their order, they expect a quick response from you. To fulfill their expectation, you can accelerate your responsiveness by using customer service automation to deliver an immediate response.

In Gorgias, you can create automated responses for WISMO requests no matter if order tracking is available or not. Here’s how:  

1. When Tracking is Available

Step 1: Go to Settings > Rules > click Create a new rule that will send an automated response to your customer.  

Step 2: Do the following: 

• Select WHEN -> Ticket created as a trigger. 
• Click THEN, and select an IF statement. 
• Select message intents -> name -> contains all of -> shipping/status. 
• Click again on the IF button, and select AND. 
• Choose date of last order (Shopify variable) -> Less than -> 20 days ago.
• Click again on the IF button, and select AND. 
• Choose last order tracking number -> IS NOT EMPTY.

Step 3: 

• Click THEN, select Set Status as an action > closed to automatically close all tickets with this subject. 
• Click THEN again, select Add tags > type Order status/auto-reply.
• Click THEN again -> choose Reply to customer as an action -> type your message. Your answer can be like this:

Hey {{customer first name}},

Get excited! Your order {{number of last order}} is on its way to <address 1, address 2, Zip code, city, province>.

Here is the latest: {{ Tracking URL of last order }}

{{ Tracking number of last order }}

Let us know if you have any other questions. 

Step 4: Click Save rule and activate the rule. 

2. When Tracking isn’t Available

Sometimes, the delivery status for orders on the order status page hasn’t been updated. Reasons can be you haven’t shipped the order yet, or your courier doesn’t support real-time tracking.

In this case, you can create the following rule to send an automated answer to your customer’s WISMO request.

Step 1: Go to Settings > Rules > click Create a new rule that will send an automated response to your customer.  

Step 2: Do the following: 

• Select WHEN > Ticket created as a trigger. 
• Click THEN, and select an IF statement. 
• Select message intents -> Name -> Contains all of -> shipping/status. 
• Click again on the IF button > AND. 
• Choose last order fulfillment status -> IS NOT > fulfilled.
• Click again on the IF button > AND > message intents > DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY OF > type exchange/request and order/change.

Step 3: 

• Click THEN, select Set Status as an action > closed to automatically close all tickets with this subject. 
• Click THEN again, select Add tags > type Order status/auto-reply.

• Click on THEN again -> choose Reply to customer as an action -> type your message. 

Your answer can be like this:

Hey [customer first name],

Working hard to fulfill your order, please check here for now: .

Here’s your order number .

Keep an eye on a tracking email soon!

Step 4: Click Save rule and activate the rule. 

If you subscribe to the Automate product, you’ll get access to autoresponders managed by the Gorgias team, so you won’t have to set these Rules up yourself:

‎4. Be transparent and upfront about your shipping policy 

A clear shipping policy helps you proactively set the right customer expectations around shipping times and costs. It’s also useful to reduce support tickets because customers can find the answers to their shipping questions themselves. 

When you maintain an open dialogue with customers, you give them more confidence to buy from you. They’ll trust you, talk about you on social media, and keep coming back to your store. 

Your shipping policy should include information about order processing time, estimated delivery time, potential service interruptions, and disclaimer. You can display this policy on product detail pages, cart pages, FAQs page, or help center, for example: 

Since the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, many online stores have set up a dedicated page for showing how they’re handling shipping. They also inform shoppers by displaying the information on a website announcement bar or popup. 

Here’s an excellent example from Go-To Skincare: 

You should also always link to an order tracking portal within all order confirmation emails so that customers can self-serve checking in on order status. 

And, as an alternative to sharing the order number front and center in the confirmation email, consider putting “track order” that links to your self-service order tracking portal. You should still share the order number, but provide an even more prominent call to action to track orders on your website rather than your carrier's (like FedEx or USPS). 

Automate WISMO to save time for higher-impact projects

Proactively solving for WISMO requests with automation and self-service can help you reduce customer service costs, increase customer satisfaction, and improve your support agents’ performance. That was the case for the ALOHAS team. 

“Since we started to fully leverage Automate, overall, 56% of chat tickets are handled by self-service.”
‍
— Annalisa Micalizzi, Manager of Global Customer Service at ALOHAS

Once agents are, they can start reaching out to live shoppers to unblock sales, proactively DM customers to bring social traffic to the website, or a myriad of other revenue-boosting CX activities.

Ready to outgrow WISMO with Gorgias? Claim your demo or start a free trial.

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On the Shopify App Store, you'll find no shortage of apps purporting to increase your store's sales. 

But while most of these apps do indeed offer some value, many sales-boosting activities are actually activities that are not directly related to sales — chiefly by improving the customer experience before and after customers make a purchase.

With that in mind, we decided to break down some of the best Shopify apps for both directly and indirectly boosting your sales. Read on to see our full list of top-selling, sales-boosting apps.

1) Carthook: Upsell customers right after checkout

Shopify rating: 4.2 ⭐ (35 reviews)

Conversion rate optimization is underrated. Most online stores focus so much on promotion: more money on ads, more emails, more marketing. But boosting your store's conversion rate means that all of those customers you are driving to your site with your marketing efforts are that much more likely to place a purchase.

And that's exactly what CartHook helps you do. Not only can you optimize your checkout with CartHook's drag-and-drop tool, you can also add upsells to your checkout process. 

Unique features

• Drag-and-drop functionality for creating customized post-purchase offers
• Large library of post-purchase offer templates along with addable elements such as timers, CTAs, and product descriptions
• Intuitive dashboard for tracking the revenue generated from your post-purchase offers

Pricing

• Paid plans start $50/month

How this app helps boost sales

Upsells and cross-sells are both great strategies for increasing average order value, which boosts revenue without having to spend tons on marketing efforts to bring more customers to your site. 

By sending these upsell and cross-sell offers automatically following a purchase, Carthook turns every sale on your website into an opportunity for even more revenue generation.

 2) Klaviyo: The go-to SMS and email marketing app

Shopify rating: 4 ⭐ (1,650 reviews)

Imagine that you buy two dresses from a store. The store sends you an email informing you they have a pair of shoes on sale that would go well with those dresses. Which is more powerful: that email or a generic one inviting you to buy as much as possible on their site?

Klaviyo, the best Shopify app for SMS and email marketing, takes care of this for you. It gathers data on purchase history, browsing history, engagement, and demographic information to create hyper-targeted promotions at scale.

Learn more about how Klaviyo integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Automated campaigns based on triggers such as cart abandonment triggers, price drop triggers, and back-in-stock triggers
• Analytics dashboard that provides real-time insights on all of your email marketing campaigns
• Large library of email templates to help you easily create marketing emails that make you look like a pro

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Paid plans start $5/month

How this app helps boost sales

Email marketing remains a highly effective way to reach customers and drive sales. Email marketing that is targeted and personalized, meanwhile, is all more the more advantageous. With Klaviyo, you'll be able to create automated, personalized email marketing campaigns that are hyper-targeted for optimum conversion rates.

3) UpOrder (formerly Spently): Customize your Shopify notifications

Shopify rating: 4.8 ⭐(579 reviews)

According to a study by Experian, transactional emails average a 114.3% open rate and a 14.4% click rate vs. promotional bulk emails, which average a 12.5% open rate with a 3.1% click rate — that’s 10X open rate, 5X click rate, and 6X more ROI.

This provides a great opportunity to personalize your store’s push notifications to match your brand, facilitate engagement and drive repeat purchases using marketing components.

These include personalized product recommendations, unique discount codes, countdown timers, and referral components. Paired with analytics so that you can iterate with data — after all, you can’t manage metrics that you can’t measure.

Spently makes it easy to customize your Shopify notifications using their builder, allowing you to leverage this captive audience’s engagement within minutes.

Unique features

• Drag-and-drop designer for customizing all 27 Shopify email notification templates
• In-app dashboard that provides ROI-based reporting and analytics
• Recommendation engine that can automatically provide personalized product recommendations

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Paid plans determined by # of orders per month

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How this app helps boost sales

One of the few drawbacks of email marketing is that not everyone opens brand emails. But the high open rate of transactional emails make them an excellent medium for broadcasting key marketing messages. 

By enabling you to customize these notifications and transactional emails to include product recommendations and other marketing materials, Spently lets you capitalize on the captive audience these emails and notifications provide.

4) Gorgias: The customer support platform that boosts revenue

Shopify rating: 4.4 ⭐(533 reviews)

According to data from Shopify, 7 out of 10 online shoppers say that they will spend more money with a business that provides consistently great customer service. However, providing this type of customer service can be tedious and overwhelming without the right tools.

Fortunately, Gorgias solves this problem with Macros and Rules automation. Our helpdesk app allows you to set up rules for frequently asked questions. It detects the text in a conversation and responds based on the rule you create.

For example, Gorgias automatically deflects WISMO tickets and keeps shoppers up to date on their order status. Because of our user-friendly integration with Shopify, we can pull the order data based on the customer's email address and insert that into the reply — no need to copy/paste information or switch tabs

Plus, you can connect all your social media accounts, SMS, voice, and more, for an omnichannel solution. 

It's easy to set up, and we help you create these rules, so start a free trial here!

Unique features

• Centralized customer support dashboard where agents can respond to messages across numerous support channels
• Rules, Macros, and automations for deflecting common customer questions and automating tedious customer support tasks
• Fast-loading live chat widget for offering live chat support on your ecommerce site, including a contact form for building an email list

Pricing

• Paid plans start $10/month

How this app helps boost sales

Today, customer experience is the new battleground on which Shopify sales are won. By offering exceptional customer support via Gorgias, you can improve customer loyalty and generate more referrals and word-of-mouth advertising. 

Gorgias also enables brands to draw a direct line between customer support and revenue generation with detailed revenue statistics showcasing the impact of customer support on your brand's bottom line.

5) Okendo: Display social proof

Shopify rating: 4.9 ⭐(663 reviews)

Real-world shopping is often a very social activity. You get together with your friends and go to stores to try out products. Studies show that we're most influenced by what our friends think and say about a brand.

When we shop online, that social element tends to be missing. That's why you need Okendo, the best Shopify app to mimic that social element and showcase customer experiences.

Okendo makes it easy for you to collect what people say about your products and brand and display them on your Shopify store at key points. This enhances the customer experience allowing them to see your products in a social context.

Through a range of user-generated content like ratings, reviews, trust badges, photos, and even videos, your visitors to your store can see how others are using and loving your products, increasing the chances that they will purchase.

Learn more about how Okendo integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Allows customers to visually showcase their experience by adding photos or videos to their review
• Enables you to request customer reviews via automated post-purchase emails
• Offers tools for publishing user-generated content on social media and at strategic locations on your website

Pricing

• Paid plans start $19/month

How this app helps boost sales

Customer reviews provide your products and brand with powerful social proof, providing unbiased information guaranteed to increase customer trust. 

By helping you collect more of these invaluable reviews and enabling you to display them at key points across your store, Okendo creates a more social customer journey that will improve your store's conversion rate.

6) Returnly: Create a streamlined returns process

Shopify rating: 4.6 ⭐(165 reviews)

Returnly is a Shopify app that helps you create a more customer-friendly returns process and helps reduce the negative impact of product returns by incentivizing customers to exchange their product rather than return it for a refund. 

Returnly allows you to create transparent return policies and enables customers to return products without jumping through hoops. It also connects with your existing logistics systems to handle these returns at a lower cost to you and your customers.

More interestingly, Returnly has an instant refund feature where customers can get a refund on their returns before sending the product back. You may think it results in fraud, but it actually increases customer loyalty and results in re-purchases!

Learn more about how Returnly integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Encourages exchanges by enabling customers to receive the correct item before returning their previous item
• Includes a fully-branded, customizable returns portal
• Automates the returns process to reduce your team's workload

Pricing

• Paid plans start $99/month

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How this app helps boost sales

Product returns can take a big chunk out of an online store's profits, but it's still important to offer a smooth and easy returns process to retain more loyal customers. Not only does Returnly help boost customer loyalty by offering them a hassle-free returns process, but it also helps mitigate the financial impact of returns by encouraging customers to exchange their items instead. 

This sort of "addition by subtraction" grows your store's sales by reducing the number of lost sales due to returns.

7) Loop Returns: Another excellent returns management app

Shopify rating: 4.3 ⭐(29 reviews)

Loop Returns is a returns management app that shares much in common with Returnly. Both apps enable you to streamline the returns process for your customers by creating returns policies and branded returns portals.

However, one key difference is that Loop Returns incentivizes exchanges over refunds by offering customers bonus store credit for choosing to exchange their item rather than return it. This helps mitigate the impact of product returns on your store's bottom line.

Learn more about how Loop Returns integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Encourages customers to exchange products by offering them bonus store credit
• Includes a customizable returns portal that enables one-click exchanges
• Automates the returns process by auto-enforcing the return policy that you create

Pricing

• Paid plans start $59/month

How this app helps boost sales

Loop Returns provides the same sales-boosting benefits that we've already covered for Returnly — it just goes about it slightly differently. With Loop Returns, you'll be able to incentivize customers to choose exchanges over returns by offering them bonus credit. Your customers will love this, and the cost of the bonus credit you provide is sure to be lower than the losses incurred by processing a return.

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8) Shoelace: Run automated retargeting campaigns

Shopify rating: 4.5 ⭐(404 reviews)

Retargeting ads are an excellent way to recapture potential customers who have already discovered your products, and Shoelace is an app that completely automates this process for you. It's like hiring the world's best retargeting expert to run your campaigns, but really it's just an excellent Shopify app.

Once you plug Shoelace into your ecommerce store, it starts to generate campaigns on its own. Yup, it even suggests the ad creatives, so all you have to do is approve it. Then it retargets visitors based on the pages they visited and the products they're interested in. That makes it highly personalized to them.

Imagine you sell all types of fashion items, from shirts to shoes. Someone visits your site to look at a shoe and then browses a competitor to compare prices. Instead of a generic retargeting ad that most stores create, your ad automatically promotes that specific shoe, reminding them to come back and purchase it.

Unique features

• Runs automated social media retargeting ads, no coding required
• Runs automated Google Ads retargeting ads
• Boasts an impressive library of pre-built ad templates

Pricing

• Paid plans start $79/month

How this app helps boost sales

It's rare these days that customers will purchase a product as soon as they discover it. It's much more common for customers to take their time, researching your product and comparing it to competitors. 

However, you want to make sure that customers who discover your product don't forget about it throughout this process, and retargeting ads are a great way to keep it on the forefront of their mind. Shoelace runs these powerful retargeting ads automatically, ensuring that anyone interested in your products is carefully nudged toward a purchase.

9) Shopify Flow: Automate ecommerce activities

Shopify rating: 3.3 ⭐(36 reviews)

Running an ecommerce business is a lot of work. One great way to free up time in your schedule is to list all the repetitive or mundane tasks you and your team are doing and automate them. Anything involving data transfers, synchronizing customer information, updating tags, etc., can and should be automated.

With Shopify Flow, you can set up rules to do this. For example, if you want to tag a customer as high value based on their purchase volume, you can set up a workflow like the one in the image.

That tag can also be passed on to your other apps, like Gorgias, so that it’s synchronized. To take it a step further, you can set up an automated ticket prioritization system in Gorgias based on tags so that the high-value customers get priority.

It may seem like a little thing but even if tagging a customer in different systems takes only a minute, when you multiply that by the number of sales coming through during BFCM you could potentially save hours.

And the time you save can be used to put out fires without feeling overwhelmed or dropping the ball.

Unique features

• Trigger, condition, and action building blocks for creating workflows
• Install pre-built workflow templates for popular use cases in just three clicks
• Use time delays to ensure that workflows execute at the right moment

Pricing

• Free plan available for customers on Shopify, Advanced, or Shopify Plus plan

How this app helps boost sales

Automating time-consuming ecommerce tasks won't directly boost your store's sales, but it will free up time for yourself and your team so that you have more time to focus on the activities that will actually grow your sales.

10) ShopMessage: Launch automated Facebook Messenger Campaigns

Shopify rating: 4.3 ⭐(129 reviews)

Chat apps and Facebook Messenger have become increasingly popular in recent times. Many retailers are now using Messenger to communicate directly with customers and promote products. Most of the time this is completely automated — but done tastefully.

How do you set this up? With ShopMessage, the Messenger marketing automation app for Shopify stores.

ShopMessage automatically creates conversations with customers based on their interactions with your store. If they add a product to the cart and then abandon it, they'll get a Messenger chat asking them to complete the purchase. Plus, they have analytics, so you can see how much revenue your campaigns generated!

Learn more about how ShopMessage integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• List segmentation tools for segmenting your Facebook Messenger list
• Use ShopMessage pop-ups for building your Facebook Messenger list
• Leverage ShopMessage Flows to send automated Facebook messages triggered by various customer actions

Pricing

• Paid plans start at $9/month

How this app helps boost sales

Facebook Messenger is an excellent marketing tool for ecommerce brands to utilize. With ShopMessage, you can grow and segment your Facebook Messenger list, then create targeted and automated Facebook Messenger campaigns promoting your store's products.

11) Smile.io: Create and manage a loyalty program

Shopify rating: 4.8 ⭐(4,844 reviews)

We've talked about creating personalized promotions and providing excellent support to turn customers into loyal fans. Loyalty is powerful because it means recurring sales rather than deal-hunters who only come by when you have a promotion.

There's another way to increase loyalty: creating rewards programs. With Smile.io, you can make your customers feel special by rewarding them for shopping at your store. You can assign points to each customer's action on your store. The more points a customer accumulates, the higher up they go in the VIP list. You can then offer incentives such as discounts and free products to VIP customers. Finally, you can reward them for referring new customers to you, generating even more revenue.

Learn more about how Smile.io integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Create referral programs that reward customers with points for desirable actions such as repeat purchases and referrals
• Provide on-site nudges to remind customers when they have points available to spend
• Search for customers by name and adjust their points manually

Pricing

• Free plan available for customers on Shopify, Advanced, or Shopify Plus plan

How this app helps boost sales

Retaining more loyal customers is almost always a more viable strategy for ecommerce stores than constantly trying to attract new customers — especially today when customer acquisition costs are higher than ever before. 

With Smile.io, you can create and manage loyalty programs that reward your customers for sticking with your brand and making repeat purchases. You can even reward and encourage other sales-boosting activities, such as customer reviews and referrals.

12) Veeqo: Automated inventory management

Shopify rating: 4.1 ⭐(74 reviews)

Veeqo is an all-in-one ecommerce software that allows retailers to manage and automate their entire business. The software’s multichannel inventory management allows retailers to sync inventory across multiple stores, channels, ecommerce marketplaces, and warehouses in real time, ensuring that you never oversell again.

You can view, edit and print orders taking complete control with Veeqo’s order management software. With multichannel shipping and fulfillment capabilities, you can ship customer orders from any sales channel directly in Veeqo with just a few clicks. The software also includes a comprehensive warehouse management system with its own hardware.

Unique features

• Automatically update stock across all stores
• Use a scanner or your mobile device to pick, pack, and ship the right items quicker
• Get detailed analytics and forecasting for improved inventory management

Pricing

• Free plan available

How this app helps boost sales

For one, Veeqo eliminates time-consuming inventory and warehouse management tasks so that you and your team have more time to focus on the activities that will grow sales. 

But just as importantly, Veeqo also helps boost customer satisfaction by ensuring a smooth order fulfillment process and preventing oversells. This improves customer loyalty and encourages more repeat purchases.

13) Yotpo: Encourage customer reviews

Shopify rating: 4.7 ⭐(2,416 reviews

Ninety percent of customers will read online reviews before making a purchase. Put another way, a product in your competitor's store with a positive review will sell more than the same one on yours without a review.

Yotpo is a great app for collecting and managing product reviews for your Shopify store. When someone buys from you, Yotpo waits till they've received the product before sending them an email politely requesting a review. They make it extremely easy for customers to write a review, and that review automatically gets posted on the corresponding product page.

You can also add a Q&A widget to your site, like the one on Amazon. In general, this type of user-generated content not only increases conversions but also contributes to your search engine optimization (SEO).

Learn more about how Yotpo integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Provides customers with the ability to include photos and videos in their product reviews
• Allows you to create custom questions for collecting targeted customer feedback
• Enables you to display community questions and answers with a Q&A widget

Pricing

• Free plan available for stores with fewer than 100 monthly orders
• Paid plans start at $29/month

How this app helps boost sales

We've already discussed the value of the social proof that user-generated content and customer reviews can provide to improve customer confidence and boost sales. With Yotpo, you can collect a lot more of this invaluable content and display it strategically for maximum effect.

14) Recart: Launch automated SMS marketing campaigns

Shopify rating: 4.8 ⭐(5,508 reviews)

Everyone reads their text messages, making SMS marketing a lucrative marketing avenue for ecommerce brands to explore. With Recart, you can create, launch, and manage automated SMS marketing campaigns. These campaigns can be pre-scheduled or triggered via a wide variety of user actions.

Along with enabling you to create automated SMS marketing campaigns, Recart also helps you build your SMS list with customizable opt-in popups.

Learn more about how Recart integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Customizable popups for growing your SMS subscriber list
• Automated SMS campaigns (based on a variety of triggers)
• Template library with pre-built automations

Pricing

• Paid plans start at $299/month

How this app helps boost sales

SMS marketing can be a lucrative strategy for ecommerce brands, and Recart provides everything you need to execute an effective SMS marketing strategy. By providing tools for building your SMS subscriber list and the ability to create a wide range of automated SMS marketing campaigns, Recart makes it easy to capitalize on this effective marketing approach.

15) LoyaltyLion: Create and manage loyalty programs

Shopify rating: 4.5 ⭐(422 reviews

LoyaltyLion is a program similar to Smile.io that allows you to create and manage loyalty programs to reward repeat customers with high lifetime value. With LoyaltyLion, your customers can earn points from on-site activities such as purchases, reviews, affiliate marketing, and referrals. These points can be vouchers, gift cards, free products, or other custom rewards you create.

Best of all, LoyaltyLion offers a built-in dashboard to track loyalty program analytics, such as customer retention and referrals in real time.

Learn more about how LoyaltyLion integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Automatically rewards enrolled customers with points for desirable actions
• Provides real-time loyalty program analytics with built-in dashboard
• Enables you to fully customize your loyalty program via CSS theme editor

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Paid plans start at $159/month

How this app helps boost sales

Like Smile.io, LoyaltyLion boosts sales by rewarding customers for repeat purchases and other desirable, sales-boosting actions such as reviews and referrals. 

Along with directly encouraging these desirable actions with reward points, LoyaltyLion helps you create a unique and enjoyable experience for your customers that will keep them coming back to your brand.

16) Attentive: Create personalized messages and notifications

Shopify rating: 4.9 ⭐(20 reviews)

Attentive is an app designed to help store owners grow their email and SMS subscriber lists and then send those subscribers personalized, interactive messages. With Attentive, you can create automated abandoned cart reminders, personalized product recommendations, and a wide range of other messages generated using Shopify data.

Along with helping you create automated, personalized SMS and email campaigns, Attentive also helps you grow these lists with tools for creating high-performing ADA-compliant sign-up units.

Learn more about how Attentive integrates with Gorgias.

Unique features

• Automate revenue-generating moments with browse, shopping cart, and checkout abandonment reminders
• Use Shopify data to send curated recommendations and order tracking updates
• Leverage high-performing, ADA-compliant sign-up units for growing your subscriber lists

Pricing

• Paid plan information available after free trial

How this app helps boost sales

SMS and email marketing are both all the more effective when they are personalized and targeted. By leveraging your existing Shopify data, Attentive can automatically launch targeted SMS and email campaigns that will boost your store's sales. Attentive also helps you grow your email and SMS lists so that you can make the most of these effective marketing channels.

17) Loyoly: Create a loyalty and referral program

Shopify rating: 5 ⭐(9 reviews)

Loyoly is a loyalty and referral platform 100% designed for ecommerce. Like Smile.io or LoyaltyLion, you can easily create and integrate points-based and tiered loyalty programs into your online store.

But Loyoly differentiates itself by offering the widest variety of point-earning actions to engage your customers.

Over 30 actions are available and can be added to your loyalty program in no time. As well as rewarding purchases and referrals, you can incentivize your customers to leave reviews, submit photo and video UGC, follow you on social media, like, comment or share your posts, and much more. 

All loyalty points can then be easily redeemed for pre-built or custom rewards.

Unique features

• Create points-based or tiered loyalty programs
• Add referral incentives to the loyalty program to increase brand word-of-mouth.
• Customize the program's landing page to your image, as well as emails (via a strong integration with Klaviyo)

Pricing

• 14-day free trial
• Paid plans start at $49/month 

How this app helps boost sales

With its gamified customer experience and customizable interface, Loyoly boosts sales by encouraging new customers to make repeat purchases, increase their average basket and thus their lifetime value.

But Loyoly doesn't just build loyalty with your existing customers. It also helps you turn them into true brand ambassadors, who increase your message's reach and ultimately attract new customers.

Integrate your Shopify apps for maximum efficiency

Each of the apps we've covered in this article are powerful sales-boosting apps in their own right. But when you integrate your Shopify apps with one another, you unlock even more powerful new features and capabilities.

At Gorgias, we have designed our industry-leading customer support platform with plugins and integrations for many of the top ecommerce apps on the market today, enabling our customers to create a fully integrated tech stack with unmatched capabilities. 

Ready to start leveraging Gorgias' wide range of sales-boosting Shopify integrations? Sign up today!

The buyer’s journey is full of questions: When will this arrive? Is this ethically made? Will I be able to return it if I don’t love it? 

Pre-sales support grows your business by proactively answering these questions to help customers make more confident buying decisions. According to a study by Harvard Business Review, businesses with solid pre-sales strategies convert 40-50% of new customers.  

Whether you’re aware or not, most shoppers need a lot of information before they trust you with their credit card number: information about sizing, shipping costs, production materials, and so on. And if they can’t find an answer, they might venture to Amazon or another store that provides this information upfront. 

Below, learn how to structure a more effective pre-sales strategy that bolsters customer satisfaction and supports a healthy sales cycle. 

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What is pre-sales support?

Pre-sales support is the process of providing shoppers with the answers they need to feel confident in making a purchase. 

Especially as the shopping experience moves online, customers have new questions (e.g. “Is expedited shipping available?”) and more suspicion (e.g. “Does this product really show the accurate color of the product?”). The ability to answer pre-sales questions is an important factor in your online store’s conversion rate. 

Example of pre-sales questions that impact customer sales

A lack of pre-sales questions is a major pain point for shoppers, resulting in lost sales. While your store’s complete list of pre-sales questions will depend on your unique product and industry, use the list below as a starting point that covers most ecommerce fundamentals. Below are some common questions that your support team should be prepared to answer. 

Product details

• What size should I get?
• How does this product work?
• Who is this product for?

When trying to identify the best product for their needs, customers typically ask questions about size, color, durability, warranty, user-friendliness, safety, and so on. Another common question is how the product compares to its competitors.

For example, tech accessory brand Native Union’s product pages include quite a lot of information to proactively answer pre-sales questions about this product. On top of a detailed description, the page includes tech specs, compatibility, a section on “Why we designed this,” and products that work well with this one:

Your agents must answer these questions and point out how each product feature will add value to the customer’s life. If necessary, the agent can recommend other available products that might be a better fit for the customer’s budget or other requirements.

Inventory details

• When will you get this item back in stock?
• Does this include refills? 
• Does this come in any other colors? 

On top of questions about specific products, customers may have pre-sales questions about inventory levels and product availability. Think of this as the equivalent of asking the clerk whether they have any additional sizes in the back.

For example, ABLE responds to inventory-related questions on its Instagram posts: 

Shipping questions 

• How long do items process before they ship?
• Do you ship to my location?
• How much does shipping cost? 
• How long will shipping take?

Shipping-related concerns are common among pre-sales shoppers. Including a robust shipping FAQ page and self-service order tracking once orders ship can go a long way toward quelling those concerns. 

For example, Vancouver-based dress shop Park & Fifth has a detailed FAQ page that lists out answers to many shipping questions. To help brides understand how long they need to order a wedding dress from their white collection, they even specify how long those dresses take to ship. 

Technical support

• Will this item fit in my space? 
• How will I know how to install it once it arrives?
• Will this be compatible with my other devices?

Technical questions often require detailed measurement guides or a human touch so that shoppers can ensure they make the right choice. 

For example, car accessory brand GOBI shares installation guides and product specs within every product page. Since the brand creates roof racks for many different car models, customers need to ensure they’re purchasing the right one. 

Sourcing, ethical concerns, and brand values

• Do you use fairtrade and sustainably sourced materials?
• Are your operations eco-friendly?
• Are your sheets OEKO-TEX certified? 

More and more customers prefer getting their goods and services from socially responsible companies. Pointing out that your company adheres to ethical practices can convince shoppers with those concerns to make a purchase.

For example, fashion brand ALOHAS makes its sustainability practices well known across its website.  

Pricing frustration or confusion

• Can I get a discount?
• Do you have any upcoming sales? 

Most customers are looking for a bargain, so it’s not unusual to hear questions like the above. If a customer complains about prices or missing sales, you can offer a coupon to help get the customer to make a purchase. If giving a coupon is not feasible, inform the customer about upcoming sales.

If your brand doesn’t do sales, let shoppers know why your products are worth the price by explaining your unique selling points (USPs). You can also sway undecided prospects by offering free returns if the product falls short of their expectations.

For example, jewelry brand Jaxxon’s chat widget includes a button labeled, “Do you have any current promotions?” This way, customers can quickly find any promotions without having to leave your website or wait for an agent’s response (both of which would delay, or even derail, the purchase): 

Doubts about product efficacy

• Will this help my hair grow back?
• Are these vitamins really effective? 

When a potential customer doubts a product’s efficacy, telling them the product works is not enough to clear their doubts. 

On your website, make sure to list the product’s ingredients or qualities and explain why each one can deliver the results the prospect seeks. Case studies, positive reviews, and science-backed research that showcases the product’s effectiveness also go a long way in the battle for customer trust.

For example, vitamin brand Ritual shares information about the research team who formulated its vitamins and where it sources its ingredients on its website. 

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7 ways boost revenue with pre-sales support

Pre-sales support helps to stop shoppers from leaving your page to research products on other sites, and provides crucial objection handling that can make or break sales. In fact, Harvard Business Review found that optimized pre-sales processes converted 80 to 90% of repeat customers. 

Your support team must also act as sales reps in order to answer any questions, handle objections, or provide the assistance shoppers need to make a purchase. 

1) Make your website informative and easy-to-navigate

Shoppers won’t make purchases if they get confused on your website, or if it doesn't provide the information prospects need to confidently place an order. Your website’s browsing experience is your first line of defense against pre-sales questions that could block a sale.

There’s no limit to the ways you could optimize your website, but here are some of the best opportunities:

• Provide delivery estimates early in the checkout process
• Use banners to notify customers about temporary announcements (like delivery delays or new promotions)
• Make your shipping and return policy easily clickable from any page
• Create detailed product descriptions that provide information about the products production, compatibility, use cases, sizing, and more
• Create detailed sizing guides or a sizing questionnaire
• Use product quizzes to help customers find the right product for their needs 
• Provide multiple product photos (or even videos and 360-degree images) on each product page

You can also do market research to figure out what kinds of websites are easiest to navigate or for tips and tricks you can adopt to improve your website’s functionality. 

You can also look at your website traffic and perform data analysis to figure out what’s working and where you could use some optimization. For example, if you have incredible shipping and return policies that barely get any traffic, you may want to make links to those pages more prominent.

📚 Recommended reading: Our guide to ecommerce conversion optimization with A/B testing. 

2) Provide proactive self-service resources

On top of information dispersed across your site, you can also centralize answers to pre-sales questions in a self-service resource (like an FAQ page or Help Center knowledge base). 

If customers with questions are directed straight to your email, that’s a problem. You want to create a path to these answers (and the purchases that follow) that doesn't require leaving your website or shopping app — especially before an order is placed when leaving your site means abandoning a cart. 

A detailed, organized resource will quickly become your shoppers’ first stop for all questions and issues before reaching out to support. 

Once you build an FAQ page or Help Center, link it prominently on your website (like Jaxxon, who put a link in their website’s top navigation).

Once customers land on this resource, make navigation as easy as possible so customers can quickly answer their questions. A search bar is your best friend here. Your next best? Clear categorization, titles, and headers so customers can find exactly what they’re looking for. 

For example, furniture brand Branch offers an FAQ page and Help Center organized to answer common pre-sales questions from shoppers:

📚Recommended reading: Why Proactive Customer Service Is Your New Growth Strategy

3) Provide self-service answers to the most common questions in your chat widget

If your customers can’t find help on your website or help center, they’ll likely open up your live chat widget to ask a question. Fortunately, you have one more line of defense: Pre-loaded FAQs in your live chat. 

To save both your support team and your shoppers time, you can use a feature like Gorgias’ Quick Response Flows. These add interactive buttons to your chat widget that customers can click for an instant answer.

Take a look at ALOHAS’ Quick Response Flows to get the idea:

Quick Response Flows are a great match for pre-sales questions because your customers don’t have to leave your website (or wait for an agent’s follow-up response) to get the information they’re looking for.

Plus, Quick Response Flows don’t mimic or replace human agents — if customers aren’t satisfied with an answer, they don’t have to fight with a frustrating chatbot or open up an email to contact your team. They can easily click “I need more help” to be connected with a customer support agent or salesperson. 

How did Jaxxon Increased Revenue by 46% with Quick Response Flows? With Gorgias, Jaxxon is able to automate responses to common pre-sales questions and give customers instant answers around the clock, leading to happier customers, 46% more revenue, and time saved for the team to handle higher-impact conversations.

Read the case study.

4) Automatically answer common pre-sales questions your support team gets asked

If customers end up asking a question to your support team, you still have an opportunity to provide an answer with the help of automation. We recommend using a helpdesk that leverages omnichannel communication to receive and send messages via email, live chat, SMS, or any other channel.

With help from Gorgias, you can automatically detect common customer questions and fire an instant response based on a pre-written Macro template.

Gorgias’ Intent Detection capabilities can understand when customers are looking for specific information, so you can provide a helpful response without waiting for an agent. 

Setting up automated responses provides instant, helpful responses while improving project management for agents (they won’t have to answer as many questions) and create better workflows for them.

Save your time for better things

Unlock your customer support with Automate in Gorgias. Leverage tools designed to resolve common customer inquiries so you can focus on conversations that no robot can answer.

5) Use chat campaigns to reach out to live shoppers in real time 

Chat campaigns are automated outreach to customers via your site’s chat widget — kind of like an in-store sales team member approaching a shopper to see if they need help and know about the latest products and promotions.

Chat campaigns can offer updates, news like product launches or recent collabs, or ask shoppers if they have any questions they need answered. 

For example, if you use Gorgias, you can set up a prompt for users who have been on the site for a while: 

While the above example is a welcome message for all website visitors, you can get much more specific. For example, you can create chat campaigns for:

• Premium product pages to offer high-touch support
• Shipping pages to remind customers about your free shipping eligibility
• Checkout pages to offer a discount to get shoppers over the finish line

📚 Recommended reading: Learn more about chat campaigns, including examples to move shoppers down the sales funnel. 

6) Create custom pre-sales views within your helpdesk

To help support agents filter out pre-sales conversations, set up rules to help tag and prioritize pre-sales tickets within your helpdesk. 

In Gorgias, you can set up views and create tags and rules within those views so that agents can filter for only pre-sales questions. If you do this, be sure to clearly define to agents what qualifies as a pre-sales question. It’s anything that a shopper needs answered in order to justify a purchase. 

7) Monitor social media for pre-sales questions (and answer them publicly)

Help potential customers learn more about your products without ever leaving the social app they’re using. 

Because social media comments and direct messages come in across apps and usually in large quantities, this task should never fall on your marketing team. Instead, set support agents up with the information they need to answer customer questions on social media. These questions can often remove the barrier a shopper needs to make a purchase. 

For example, fine jewelry brand Fewer Finer often answers questions via Instagram Stories to help sell different pieces in its vintage and signature collections. 

How to measure pre-sales support

Most brands don’t think customer support teams offer much in the way of lead generation or sales. This couldn’t be farther from the truth: Pre-sales customer support teams can be a huge facilitator of sales — it’s just a matter of proving so. 

Here are three ways to measure revenue that comes in through support.  

1) Use a revenue generated by support dashboard 

Create or monitor a dashboard that shows all revenue that your support team generates. If you use Gorgias, you can see this in the Revenue Statistics part of your account. Gorgias attributes revenue to a conversation with an agent within the last 5 days before a sale. 

2. Track traffic coming into your help center

The traffic you get to your help center can also be another great indicator of pre-sales questions answered, an indicator of revenue generated by support. 

If a shopper visits your help center before making a purchase — especially an article containing pre-sales questions — it’s most likely because they’re interested in your brand, have questions, and are actively interested in learning more. 

Keep an eye on traffic here to prove your impact as well as understand how you could better organize and link your knowledge base to improve discoverability. 

3. Track the automation rate of pre-sales Quick Response Flows

If you automate responses in chat for common questions (called Quick Response Flows if you use Gorgias), you can measure their traffic.

For example, if you see that 200% more people click the response for “Do you have new products,” that’s a good sign your pre-sales support is funneling traffic to product pages. If you see a spike in purchases following that, count that as a win. If you use Gorgias, you can find these stats in the Revenue Statistics Dashboard. 

Post-sales support 

Post-sales support is an effective tool for supporting existing customers, encouraging exchanges over returns, and creating repeat business. 

The difference between pre-sales and post-sales support

Pre-sales support means answering the questions customers ask before making a purchase plus leading customers through the sales process and closing deals. Support agents turn into sales representatives to guide a customer from being a prospect to becoming a satisfied shopper. 

Customer support team members handle post-sales support as well — and this activity impacts your brand’s bottom line as well. By creating a good impression and meeting customer needs through quality post-sales, customers are more likely to become return shoppers, boosting customer retention and lifetime value. 

Proactive post-sales strategies 

After a customer places an order, keep them at ease but eager to keep shopping by sending:

• Detailed order confirmations: Share order confirmation emails that include a link to a customer’s order portal where they can find status updates like shipping times or return information. This helps to reduce WISMO (where is my order) requests. 
• A thank you note: Appreciating a customer goes a long way in showing that you value their patronage.
• Review request: Asking for feedback shows clients that their opinions matter to your company, and can help you make necessary improvements to the post-sales process. 
• Product suggestions: Product suggestions are a great way to keep customers engaged while awaiting their orders. Sending them product suggestions that match their searches also increases the chances of the customer making more purchases.
• Shipping updates: Send shoppers shipment updates until their order arrives. The updates can contain personalized alerts about ongoing discount offers, upcoming promotions, and more, to bring customers back to your store.
• Marketing communications: Send out email newsletters or nurture campaigns to re-engage shoppers and encourage repeat purchases.
• Offer fast customer support wherever your customers are: According to a study by AMA, you can use live chat to improve post-sales customer support by 39%. Lowering your average response time can also help meet customer expectations. 
• Take an omnichannel approach: Customers expect to get support on their preferred channel, whether that's SMS or Facebook Messenger. Make that a reality for them by employing omnichannel customer service. 

Strengthen your pre-sales activities with Gorgias

Gorgias can support your support agents and your customers as they embark on a pre-sales journey. While most customer support teams and tools focus on troubleshooting issues, Gorgias focuses on generating more qualified leads and improving conversion rates for online stores.

Book your demo to try out the most revenue-generating helpdesk in ecommerce. 

TL;DR:

• Live chat metrics measure speed, efficiency, satisfaction, volume, and business impact across your support operation
• First response time and resolution time are the most tracked speed metrics, with industry benchmarks under 90 seconds and 10 minutes respectively
• AI-powered chatbots can deflect 40-60% of repetitive inquiries when measured through containment rate
• Tracking CSAT and customer effort score together gives you a complete picture of the customer experience

Your support team is handling hundreds of chats per week, but you have no idea if customers are satisfied, agents are overwhelmed, or conversations are driving sales. 

Live chat metrics give you that visibility. These KPIs measure how fast your team responds, how efficiently they resolve issues, and how those conversations impact revenue. Without them, you lack visibility into staffing decisions, training priorities, and customer satisfaction. 

In this guide, we'll walk through the 14 most important live chat metrics for ecommerce brands, why they matter, and how to improve them with the right tools.

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What are live chat metrics and why they matter for ecommerce

Live chat metrics show how well your support team performs, how efficiently they handle volume, and how chat impacts the business. They help you identify slowdowns, quality issues, and missed opportunities in customer conversations.

Not all metrics are equally useful. Vanity metrics like total chat volume describe activity. Actionable KPIs like first response time or resolution rate tell you what to fix and where to invest.

For ecommerce brands, these metrics matter more than in most industries. Chat volume spikes during BFCM, launches, and promos. You need to respond fast without sacrificing quality. And unlike email or phone, live chat often sits directly on the path to purchase.

When you don’t track live chat metrics, decisions rely on gut instinct. Staffing guesses replace planning. Coaching becomes reactive. Proving ROI gets harder. The right metrics help you staff smarter, coach better, reduce costs, and tie chat conversations to revenue.

Live chat metrics generally fall into a few core categories, which we’ll break down throughout this guide.

The core categories of live chat metrics

Live chat metrics measure different parts of your support operation, and you need a mix of them to understand performance clearly.

Speed and time-based metrics show how quickly your team responds and resolves chats, setting the baseline for customer expectations.

Efficiency and quality metrics reveal whether issues are solved correctly the first time, not just quickly.

Volume and coverage metrics help you understand chat demand and whether your team has enough capacity during peak periods.

Satisfaction and experience metrics measure how customers feel after a chat and how easy it was to get help.

Automation and AI metrics track how often chatbots resolve conversations without human involvement, freeing agents for complex issues.

Revenue and growth metrics connect chat conversations to conversions and sales, helping you prove ROI.

Next, we’ll break down each category and the specific metrics to track.

Speed and time-based live chat metrics

Speed matters in live chat more than any other support channel. Customers initiate a chat because they want immediate help. If they were willing to wait, they'd send an email. Time-based metrics reveal whether you're meeting their expectations for instant responses and quick resolutions.

First response time (FRT): How fast you reply to a new conversation

What it measures:

The time between when a customer starts a chat and when an agent sends the first reply.

Why it matters:

This first moment sets the tone for the entire interaction and strongly affects whether shoppers stay engaged or leave.

Benchmark:

Top ecommerce teams respond in under 40 seconds.

Formula:

First response time = time of first agent message − time chat started

How to improve it:

• Staff peak hours based on historical chat volume
• Use chatbots for instant greetings and routing
• Set skill-based routing to avoid queue bottlenecks
• Allow limited concurrent chats during high-volume periods

Tip: Track median FRT instead of averages to avoid outliers skewing results.

Average response time: How fast you reply throughout the conversation

What it measures:

The average time it takes an agent to reply to each message after the first response.

Why it matters:

Customers expect steady speed throughout the chat, not fast greetings followed by long pauses.

Benchmark:

High-performing teams keep average response times under 2 minutes.

Formula:

Average response time = total agent reply time ÷ number of agent responses

How to improve it:

• Use saved replies for common questions
• Keep Help Center content searchable inside chat
• Reduce concurrent chats for complex issues

Average resolution time (ART): How long it takes to fully solve issues

What it measures:

The total time from chat start to issue resolution and chat closure.

Why it matters:

Fast replies mean little if the issue takes too long to solve.

Benchmark:

Simple issues should be resolved in under 10 minutes. For complex issues, aim for under an hour.

Formula:

Resolution time = chat close time − chat start time

How to improve it:

• Create step-by-step troubleshooting templates
• Give agents authority to handle refunds and order edits
• Use AI to surface relevant Help Center articles
• Route chats by issue type to reduce handoffs

How speed metrics work together

Speed metrics only tell the full story when viewed together.

For example, a team might hit a 45-second first response time, but if average response time stretches to five minutes and resolution takes 25 minutes, customers still experience friction. The chat starts fast, then slows down.

In practice, use first response time to gauge engagement, average response time to spot agent overload, and resolution time to identify process or tooling gaps. Looking at them together shows where speed breaks down.

Efficiency and quality live chat metrics

Speed gets customers in the door. Efficiency and quality determine whether their issue is actually solved. These metrics show whether chats are resolved fully, handled by the right person, and completed without unnecessary effort.

First contact resolution rate (FCR): How fast you solve issues on the first interaction

What it measures:

The percentage of chats resolved in a single interaction without follow-ups or escalation.

Why it matters:

High FCR lowers repeat contacts, reduces support costs, and increases customer satisfaction.

Benchmark:

70%+ is standard, while 80%+ is considered excellent for ecommerce support.

Formula:
FCR = (chats resolved on first contact ÷ total chats) × 100

How to improve it:

• Train agents deeply on products, policies, and common issues
• Use complete Macros that answer the full question, not part of it
• Collect context upfront with pre-chat forms
• Empower agents to process refunds, cancellations, and changes without escalation

Average chat duration: How long conversations take from start to finish

What it measures:

The total time from when a chat starts to when it’s closed.

Why it matters:

Chats should be efficient but thorough. Shorter isn’t better if issues aren’t fully resolved.

Benchmark:

Most ecommerce chats fall between 10-13 minutes, depending on complexity.

Formula:

Average chat duration = total chat time ÷ number of chats

How to improve it:

• Use Macros to reduce typing time
• Train agents to ask clarifying questions early
• Remove unnecessary verification steps
• Match complex issues with focused agents

Tip: Review chat duration alongside FCR and CSAT to ensure speed doesn’t hurt quality.

Transfer rate: How often chats are escalated

What it measures:

The percentage of chats handed off between agents or escalated from bots to humans.

Why it matters:

Each transfer adds wait time and forces customers to repeat themselves.

Benchmark:

Under 10% is ideal for most ecommerce teams.

Formula:

Transfer rate = (transferred chats ÷ total chats) × 100

How to reduce it:

• Use skill-based routing from the start
• Cross-train agents on common issues
• Route chats using pre-chat issue selection
• Give agents the tools and permissions to resolve issues independently

How efficiency and quality metrics work together

Start with FCR. It tells you whether problems are actually solved.

If FCR is strong but chat duration keeps climbing, agents may lack tools or permissions. If duration is short but transfer rate is high, chats are moving fast but landing with the wrong person.

Reading these metrics side by side helps you see whether your team is being efficient, effective, or just busy.

Volume and coverage live chat metrics

Volume and coverage metrics show whether you’re staffed to meet demand. They help you plan schedules, avoid missed chats, and balance agent workload without hurting quality.

Chat volume: How often customers reach out to your support team

What it measures:

The total number of chat conversations started in a given time period.

Why it matters:

Chat volume reveals demand patterns and helps you staff proactively instead of reacting when queues spike.

Benchmark:

There’s no universal benchmark, but ecommerce teams should expect predictable spikes around promos, launches, and BFCM.

Formula:

Chat volume = total chats initiated in a time period

How to manage it:

• Segment volume by hour, day, and inquiry type
• Prepare staffing for known peak events
• Deflect repetitive questions with AI and self-service
• Set clear chat availability if 24/7 coverage isn’t realistic

Missed chat rate: How often chats are left unanswered

What it measures:

The percentage of chat requests that don’t receive a response.

Why it matters:

Every missed chat is a missed chance to resolve an issue or convert a shopper.

Benchmark:

Under 5% is good, while under 3% is excellent.

Formula:

Missed chat rate = (missed chats ÷ total chat requests) × 100

How to reduce it:

• Staff peak hours based on historical volume
• Use chatbots for overflow and off-hours coverage
• Cap concurrent chats to avoid agent overload
• Switch chat to offline when no agents are available

Chats per agent: The average workload of each agent

What it measures:

The average number of chats handled by each agent in a given period.

Why it matters:

This metric helps balance productivity with quality and prevent burnout.

Benchmark:

30–50 chats per agent per day is typical for ecommerce, depending on complexity.

Formula:

Chats per agent = total chats handled ÷ number of agents

How to optimize it:

• Enable limited concurrent chats
• Use Macros to reduce response time
• Offload simple questions to automation
• Cross-train agents to handle multiple inquiry types

How volume and coverage metrics work together

If volume rises but missed chats stay low, staffing is working. If missed chats spike, check chats per agent. High workloads usually mean agents are stretched too thin, even if headcount hasn’t changed.

Viewed together, these metrics show whether you have a demand problem, a coverage problem, or both.

Satisfaction and experience live chat metrics

Operational metrics show how chat performs. Satisfaction metrics show how it feels to customers. These are the strongest predictors of loyalty, repeat purchases, and long-term value.

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score: How customers rate the chat experience

What it measures:

How satisfied customers are with their chat experience, usually collected via a post-chat survey.

Why it matters:

CSAT reflects whether customers felt helped, heard, and resolved.

Benchmark:

Most ecommerce brands have a 4.6 CSAT. 

Formula:

CSAT = (number of satisfied responses ÷ total responses) × 100

How to improve it:

• Reduce response and resolution times
• Coach agents on empathy and tone
• Prioritize first contact resolution
• Empower agents to resolve issues fully
• Follow up on low scores to identify gaps

Customer effort score: How easy it was to get help

What it measures:

How easy it was for customers to get their issue resolved.

Why it matters:

Low-effort experiences are more predictive of loyalty than delight.

Benchmark:

Aim for 5+ on a 7-point scale.

Formula:

CES = % of “easy” responses (6–7) − % of “difficult” responses (1–2)

How to reduce effort:

• Show agents full customer and order context
• Reduce transfers and handoffs
• Collect context upfront with pre-chat forms
• Empower agents to resolve issues without escalation

Read more: Customer delight is a losing strategy in ecommerce: Here's what's better

How satisfaction metrics work together

CSAT tells you how customers felt. CES explains why.

If CSAT drops and CES is low, the experience likely involved long waits, transfers, or repeated questions. When both are strong, customers feel helped without friction, even if the issue wasn’t perfect.

Automation and AI live chat metrics

Automation only works if it helps customers. These metrics show whether AI is reducing workload without hurting the experience.

Chatbot deflection rate: How often AI resolves without a handoff

What it measures:

The percentage of AI-handled chats resolved without a human handoff.

Why it matters:

High deflection lowers cost per resolution and provides true 24/7 coverage.

Benchmark:

40–60% is typical for well-trained AI, while 70%+ is best-in-class for repetitive inquiries.

Formula:

Deflection rate = (chats resolved by AI ÷ total AI-handled chats) × 100

How to improve it:

• Train AI on your most common questions

• Connect AI to order and return data
• Review failed handoffs and refine responses
• Allow easy escalation to a human
• Track bot CSAT alongside deflection rate

Important: A high deflection rate only matters if customers are satisfied. Always measure AI CSAT separately from human CSAT.

How automation metrics work together

Deflection rate shows efficiency. Bot CSAT confirms quality.

If deflection rises but CSAT drops, automation is creating friction. When both increase together, AI is reducing volume while maintaining a good experience.

Revenue and growth live chat metrics

Live chat can influence revenue, not just resolve issues. These metrics show whether conversations help customers buy and how support contributes to growth.

Conversion rate from chat: How conversations drive sales

What it measures:

The percentage of chat conversations that lead to a purchase within a defined attribution window, usually 24–48 hours.

Why it matters:

Chat often captures shoppers in the consideration phase, when a small question stands between them and a purchase.

Benchmark:

Conversion rates typically fall at 4.7%, with the top brands at 13%. 

Formula:

Chat conversion rate = (purchases attributed to chat ÷ total chats) × 100

How to improve it:

• Train agents on product knowledge and recommendations
• Enable agents to offer targeted incentives when appropriate
• Use proactive chat for high-intent shoppers
• Share product links, images, and comparisons directly in chat

Tip: Segment conversion by conversation type. Pre-purchase chats usually convert at higher rates than post-purchase support.

📚 Read more: Customer service ROI: How to measure and improve value

Revenue per chat: How much revenue is tied to each conversation

What it measures:

The average revenue generated from each chat conversation.

Why it matters:

This metric turns chat performance into a dollar value leadership can evaluate.

Benchmark:

There’s no universal standard, but revenue per chat should trend upward as chat conversion improves.

Formula:

Revenue per chat = total revenue attributed to chat ÷ total chats

How to improve it:

• Focus proactive chat on high-value products
• Pair recommendations with real-time context
• Review top-performing conversations to refine playbooks

How revenue and growth metrics work together

Conversion rate indicates whether chat influences purchase decisions, while revenue per chat indicates the value of those conversations. 

A high conversion rate with low revenue often means chat is closing low-value orders, while high revenue with low conversion can signal chat is engaging too late in the journey. When both rise together, live chat clearly contributes to growth, not just support volume.

Operational insights that improve live chat performance

Beyond the core performance metrics, there are operational insights that help you understand why your metrics look the way they do and what specific actions you can take to improve them.

Contact reasons and themes

What it is:

A structured way to group chats by why customers reach out, such as order tracking, sizing questions, returns, or complaints.

Why it matters:

Recurring contact reasons often point to unclear policies, missing information, or product friction that support alone can’t fix.

How to use it:

• Review top contact themes regularly to spot trends
• Improve product pages, FAQs, or policies based on recurring questions
• Route chats to specialized agents based on topic

Voice of the customer (VOC)

What it is:

The language customers use in live chat to describe problems, objections, and feedback.

Why it matters:

This language reflects real customer concerns and often surfaces issues before they appear in conversion or retention data.

How to use it:

• Share common objections with marketing and product teams
• Mirror customer language in ads, emails, and on-site messaging
• Use complaints and compliments to guide prioritization

Insight: Forrester found that customer-obsessed companies grow revenue 41% faster than competitors by acting on customer feedback.

Behavioral patterns in conversations

What it is:

How customers behave during chats, including repeat questions, long pauses, or multiple handoffs.

Why it matters:

Behavioral friction often signals missing context, unclear processes, or tooling limitations.

How to use it:

• Review chats with repeated follow-ups or escalations
• Identify where customers get stuck or confused
• Fix upstream issues rather than coaching agents on symptoms

Cross-team insight sharing

What it is:

Using live chat insights outside of the CX team to inform marketing, product, and operations.

Why it matters:

Many support contacts are preventable when insights are shared early and acted on collaboratively.

How to use it:

• Sync regularly with marketing on objections and questions
• Flag operational issues like shipping or fulfillment delays
• Use insights to guide automation and self-service priorities

How operational insights work together

Consider a team seeing a rise in live chats about returns.

Contact reasons show that most chats are tagged “returns” and “exchange.” Conversation reviews reveal customers repeatedly asking about eligibility and timelines. Voice of the customer shows frustration with unclear wording on the returns page.

Taken together, the fix isn’t faster replies. It’s clearer return messaging, better Help Center content, and proactive chat prompts that answer the question before customers ask.

Start improving your live chat metrics with Gorgias

Tracking the right live chat metrics helps you understand what’s working, what’s breaking, and where chat drives real business impact. When speed, efficiency, satisfaction, and revenue are measured together, live chat becomes easier to manage and easier to justify.

Gorgias brings these insights into one place. You can track performance in real time, understand customer intent, and use automation to handle routine questions while agents focus on higher-value conversations.

Want to see how it works? Book a demo to explore how ecommerce teams use Gorgias to improve live chat performance and drive growth.

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From providing you with powerful marketing tools to automating time-consuming processes that are clogging up your schedule, choosing the right extensions to integrate into your Magento store can offer a wide range of benefits. 

‍If you already use Magento (also called Adobe Commerce), you’re probably familiar with Magento Extensions and how they work. If you’re currently considering Magento, consider taking a look at our comparison post of Magento and Shopify, another leading ecommerce platform. 

Let's take a look at the top 19 best Magento extensions available today, including their standout features and common user reviews.  

What Magento extensions are and how they work

Unlike plug-n-play ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce, Magento does not come equipped with many pre-built solutions for marketing, sales, customer support, and inventory management. Fortunately, Magento and Magento 2 do offer a large number of downloadable extensions available on the Magento Marketplace. 

These Magento extensions offer many powerful benefits, spanning from:

• Creating automated email and SMS marketing campaigns complete with personalized product recommendations 
• Providing your customers with streamlined and efficient customer support

Take a look at our list to improve the user experience on your online store and ultimately help you generate more sales.

Best Magento extensions for marketing

Creating effective marketing campaigns for your online products isn't always a straightforward task. 

By providing a range of marketing capabilities and automating much of the campaign creation process, these Magento extensions for marketing can go a long way toward making your marketing efforts more profitable.

1) Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an email marketing solution that provides several convenient tools designed to improve the results of your email campaigns. The tool also makes the process of managing those campaigns more efficient. 

With Klaviyo, you can look forward to tools such as automated email and SMS marketing flows, list segmentation tools, and a user-friendly dashboard that provides an abundance of helpful analytics and insights about your email marketing campaigns.

Unique features

• Includes a number of triggers such as cart abandonment triggers, price drop triggers, and back-in-stock triggers for automatically launching email flows
• Provides a wide variety of customizable email templates
• Powerful segmentation filters for segmenting your email and SMS lists

What users think of this app

• User-friendly and easy to set up
• A wide selection of pre-built triggers to choose from
• A capable email builder that makes it easy to create branded emails

Use Gorgias? Take a look at how Klaviyo integrates with Gorgias. 

2) Yotpo

Yotpo is an ecommerce marketing platform that provides Magento store owners with unified, data-driven solutions for SMS marketing, loyalty and referrals, reviews, and more.

With Yotpo, you can create custom loyalty programs, send high-converting text messages shoppers actually want to read, and collect authentic customer feedback — all in one place.

Unique features

• A library of SMS flows and campaign templates paired with powerful segmentation capabilities 
• Enriched data across all Yotpo products, granular performance metrics, and customer-level insights
• The ability to use SMS to send mobile-optimized review requests or notify loyal customers about their VIP status and reward points

What users think of this app

• Provides plenty of features for managing loyalty and referral programs
• Useful segmentation and targeting features
• Review request templates and flows lead to a boost in product reviews

Use Gorgias? Take a look at how Yotpo integrates with Gorgias.

3) Magento 2 Instagram Connect

With roughly a billion monthly active users, Instagram is a social media platform that offers a wealth of marketing opportunities. 

The Magento 2 Instagram Connect extension allows store owners to automatically sync products from their Magento store to their Instagram account and provides a number of other Instagram marketing tools and features such as CTA buttons for Instagram photos and an Instagram widget that lets you display your Instagram feed on your website.

Unique features

• Allows you to add a CTA button that appears when someone hovers over one of your Instagram photos
• A performance report to showcase which photos are generating the most orders
• The ability to fetch photos using hashtags from Instagram to your Magento 2 store

What users think of this app

• Great for improving the visual appeal of a Magento store
• Plenty of customization options
• Data from the performance report is very helpful for optimizing Instagram marketing campaigns

4) MageWorx SEO Suite Ultimate

Boosting organic traffic with great SEO is one of the most reliable long-term ecommerce marketing strategies. With MageWorx SEO Suite Ultimate, store owners are able to access numerous SEO tools and features, including XML & HTML sitemaps, automatic cross-linking, advanced rich snippets, layered navigation, and many more.

Unique features

• Built-in SEO reports allow you to detect and resolve SEO issues
• Canonical URLs to eliminate duplicate content
• Extended breadcrumbs provide enhanced on-site navigation

What users think of this app

• Product SEO templates are great for optimizing the metadata of product listings
• Compatible with both Magento 2 Venia PWA theme and Hyva theme
• Automatic redirects easily eliminate 404 errors

📚 Recommended reading: Our guide to ecommerce SEO for beginners.

Best Magento extensions for sales

In 2020, ecommerce sales accounted for 14% of all retail sales, up 9.5% compared to 2011. If you would like to take a large bite out of this ever-growing ecommerce pie, here are three feature-rich Magento sales extensions worth checking out.

5) CedCommerce HubSpot Integration

CedCommerce HubSpot Integration is an app that allows you to sync your Magento store with HubSpot, providing tools such as marketing automation workflows, a camping ROI tracker, and abandoned cart recovery tools.

Unique features

• Syncs data between HubSpot and Magento in a single click
• Sends out automated reminder emails to customers who have abandoned their cart
• Provides a variety of automated marketing flows based on RFM segmentation

What users think of this app

• Saves time integrating customer data from a Magento store to Hubspot
• Provides a convenient dashboard for managing marketing and sales from a single platform
• Great list segmentation features

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6) Magenest Zoho CRM Extension

Zoho CRM is a CRM service designed to help ecommerce store owners store and segment customer data in order to better target their marketing campaigns and see upselling and cross-selling opportunities. 

With Magenest Zoho CRM Extension, you can automatically sync data straight from your Magento store to your CRM, putting the capabilities of Zoho CRM at your fingertips without the need to spend hours syncing data manually.

Unique features

• Can automatically sync customer data, promotion data, product data, and more from Magento 2 stores to Zoho CRM in real time
• Lets you control how often data syncs to avoid straining your server
• Has a no-code setup experience thanks to the API-based connector 

What users think of this app

• Open source and customizable
• Easy to set up and use
• Great customer support

7) Magediary Product Scheduler

Magediary Product Scheduler is an extension that offers useful countdown timer widgets such as product launch timers and promotional timers. This extension also allows you to send automated email notifications to customers who subscribe for scheduled products.

Unique features

• Provides email notification templates for letting customers know about new product launches and promotions
• Allows you to create both "coming soon" and "ends soon" countdown timers
• Allows customers to sign up to be notified when a product is back in stock

What users think of this app

• Email notification templates and countdown timer widgets are both highly customizable
• Countdown timers boost conversion rates during promotions
• Responsive customer support

Best Magento extensions for customer support

According to data from Invesp, investing in new customers is between 5-25 times more expensive than retaining existing customers. By helping you provide exceptional customer support, these customer support Magento extensions will help you keep your retention rates as high as possible while at the same time minimizing your customer support team's workload.

8) Gorgias

Gorgias is a customer support platform that provides everything you need to improve the quality of your customer service while also reducing the burden of your customer support team. 

With Gorgias, Magento store owners are able to access powerful tools and features such as live chat support, a centralized dashboard for support agents to work from, self-service options for reducing support ticket volume, and a wide range of Rules and Macros for automating tasks such as ticket generation and prioritization. If you are looking for an all-in-one solution to customer support, be sure to check out Gorgias today.

Unique features

• Fast-loading live chat widgets that won't slow down your website
• Allows support agents to manage customer support tickets from a single, convenient dashboard
• Capable of automating a wide variety of tedious customer support tasks

What users think of this app

• Automation features allow store owners to reduce the size of their customer support staff
• Great for prioritizing customer inquiries to ensure that the most important inquiries receive the fastest possible response
• Great for revenue generation from conversions and long-term loyalty

9) Sparsh Technologies WhatsApp Chat

With 1.6 billion users across the globe, WhatsApp is by far the most popular messaging app in the world today. The WhatsApp Chat extension by Sparsh Technologies allows Magento store owners to create a customizable plug-in that lets customers contact the store's support team via WhatsApp directly from the website. Best of all, this extension is completely free to download and use.

Unique features

• Admin is able to change the default WhatsApp mobile number and push message from backend
• Customizable contact button
• Free to download and use

What users think of this app

• Easy to set up and use
• Store owners can enable and disable the plug-in with a single click
• Plenty of customization options

10) Amnesty FAQ and Product Questions

One of the best ways to reduce your customer support ticket volume is to provide customers with plenty of resources for finding the answers to common issues on their own. With the Amnesty FAQ and Product Questions extension, you can easily create FAQ pages and product questions designed to provide customers the answers they need without them having to contact your customer support team.

Unique features

• FAQ pages are SEO-optimized
• Built-in GDPR consent, reCaptcha, and Search Terms Report functionality
• Social sharing buttons and product question ratings for encouraging audience involvement

What users think of this app

• Plenty of customization options
• FAQ widgets and tabs provide customers with convenient access to self-service resources
• Provides valuable insights about the questions that customers are asking most commonly

Best Magento extensions for payment & security

Making it as easy as possible for customers to pay for their purchases is a vital objective if you want to optimize the conversion rate of your ecommerce website. With Magento extensions for payment and security, you can provide your customers with convenient payment options while also ensuring that their sensitive financial data is kept secure.

11) PowerSync mPower Subscriptions & Recurring Payments

The mPower Subscription and Recurring Payments extension by PowerSync is a solution that makes it easy for Magento store owners to create a recurring revenue business model. 

With this extension, you are able to create and manage subscriptions for your products and easily accept recurring payments from customers who sign up for a subscription.

Unique features

• Makes it easy to manage subscriptions from a single dashboard
• Allows you to create custom billing frequencies
• Automates subscription renewals and recurring charges

What users think of this app

• Unlimited customization options
• Provides a simple checkout experience for both normal and recurring orders
• Sends out helpful automated notifications to both customers and merchants

12) Stripe Payments

Stripe Payments is one of the most popular payment processing solutions for ecommerce store owners. 

With Stripe Payments, merchants are able to provide customers with convenient and secure payment options that support almost every currency and payment method in existence today.

Unique features

• Supports 135+ currencies and payment methods
• Provides checkout flows for optimizing the checkout experience on your website
• Promises 99.99%+ uptime

What users think of this app

• Great for detecting and preventing fraudulent payments
• Frequently updated with new features
• Makes it easy to issue both virtual and physical gift cards

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📚 Recommended reading: Our guide to ecommerce payment processing.

13) Aheadworks Smart One Step Checkout

Streamlining the checkout process as much as possible is a vital goal for merchants that want to reduce their abandoned cart rate. With Smart One Step Checkout from Aheadworks, store owners are able to provide customers with an Amazon-like, one-click checkout experience by easily adding or removing predefined fields on the checkout page.

Unique features

• Allows you to track the conversion rate and performance of each checkout field
• Makes it easy to edit every aspect of Magento's default checkout process
• Supports a wide range of payment methods

What users think of this app

• Insightful built-in reports for highlighting checkout process bottlenecks
• Also available for Magento 1 stores
• Automated address suggestion further speeds up the checkout process

Best Magento extensions for shipping & fulfillment

According to data from eFulfillment Service, the average cost to fulfill an order for online retailers is 70% of the order value. 

‍In order to keep your shipping and fulfillment costs as low as possible while also providing a great customer experience, it is essential to create an optimized shipping and fulfillment process, which is something that these Magento extensions for shipping and fulfillment are sure to help with.

14) ShipStation

ShipStation is an extension that provides a number of tools and features designed to help store owners streamline their order fulfillment process, including the ability to:

• Import orders from multiple stores and channels
• Perform bulk updates 
• Automation processes for quickly processing and fulfilling orders
• Compare rates across carriers and print shipping labels
• Send customers automated shipping updates

Unique features

• Capable of connecting with multiple platforms/marketplaces
• Makes it easy to set up shipping rules to automate your order fulfillment process
• Offers an inventory management dashboard for viewing stock levels, allocating stock, and setting inventory alerts

What users think of this app

• Makes it easy to combine multiple orders into a single shipment
• User-friendly and easy to set up
• Automations make creating shipping rules far less time-consuming

Use Gorgias? See how we integrate with ShipStation. 

15) Amasty Pre Order

Having products go out of stock is something that can often lead to lost business. With Amasty Pre Order, though, merchants can enable customers to easily pre-order products that are out-of-stock or products that have yet to be released.

Unique features

• Customizable pre-order buttons and notes
• Module is read-compatible with GraphQL
• Enables pre-order functionality for all types of products

What users think of this app

• Provides valuable insights on customer preferences and product demand for improved inventory management
• Allows you to set discounts on pre-order products via rules
• Fully-optimized for mobile devices

Best Magento extensions for data & reporting

Quality data is the fuel that powers successful ecommerce stores. With these Magento extensions for data and reporting, you can leverage a variety of tools for collecting and analyzing customer data, providing you with the insights you need to optimize the customer experience on your online store.

16) WeltPixel Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce

WeltPixel Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce is a solution that automatically syncs data from your Magento store to your Google Analytics account, allowing you to easily track and analyze an incredibly wide range of data regarding your customers and website visitors.

Unique features

• Google Ads conversion tracking
• Provides data on product impressions and product clicks based on a variety of criteria
• Tracks stock status, product review count, product review status, and much more

What users think of this app

• The free version of the extension includes an impressive offering of features
• Full-page cache and varnish cache ready
• Paid version includes one-minute installation GUI and one month of free support

17) Mopinion Feedback Surveys

Customer surveys are one of the most effective tools for gathering zero-party customer data. With Mopinion Feedback Surveys, you are able to embed customizable survey forms on your Magento website. Mopinion Feedback Surveys also allows you to create email surveys and app-based mobile surveys as well.

Unique features

• Allows you to integrate feedback forms into your email campaigns
• Provides a variety of customizable feedback form templates
• Easy-to-install SDKs for iOS and Android allow you to integrate feedback forms into your native mobile apps

What users think of this app

• Feedback form templates offer a broad range of customization options
• Easy to set up and use
• Lots of useful integrations

Best Magento extensions for finance & accounting

Keeping up with the finances and accounting for your ecommerce store can often be a complex and time-consuming process. Thankfully, these Magento extensions for finance and accounting provide plenty of helpful tools for keeping you organized and automating a lot of tedious accounting tasks.

18) Magenest QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is arguably the most comprehensive ecommerce finance and accounting solution on the market today. 

With the Magenest Quickbooks Online extension, you can automatically sync data from your Magento store to QuickBooks Online, making it easy for you to utilize QuickBooks' many tools and features for more accurate and efficient accounting.

Unique features

• Magento 2 data changes are automatically updated to QuickBooks Online
• Allows you to map payment methods to deposit accounts
• Syncs sales orders, invoices, credit memos, customer data, tax rates, and more from Magento 2 to QuickBooks Online

What users think of this app

• Allows you to connect multiple sales channels to a single account
• Easy to set up and use
• Provides the option to sync and edit data manually

19) TaxJar Sales Tax Automation

With sales tax rates differing from state to state, county to county, and city to city, keeping up with how much sales tax you owe for each purchase can quickly become dizzying. 

TaxJar Sales Tax Automation, however, is able to automate the entire sales tax life cycle across multiple sales channels, including sales tax calculations, nexus tracking, and reporting/filing.

Unique features

• Automates sales tax compliance across 11,000 different jurisdictions
• Automatically calculates and collects the appropriate sales tax amount at checkout
• Address validation ensures that the correct sales tax amount is collected for the jurisdiction where the customer is located

What users think of this app

• Excellent customer support
• Provides detailed and easy-to-understand sales tax reports
• Allows you to automatically submit returns and remittance to each jurisdiction

Activate better customer service for your Magento store with Gorgias

From a powerful ticketing system and auto-responders to live chat and customer intent detection, Gorgias has what your Magento store needs to provide a top-notch customer experience. 

Check out our Gorgias for Magento page to learn more about the best customer platform for ecommerce brands.

Quick summary:

• Positive scripting means using polite, pre-written responses to make customers feel acknowledged and taken care of
• Benefits: less frustrated customers, better customer satisfaction, and faster first response times
• Negatives: can make customer service teams sound overly friendly or robotic and may lead to slower resolution times when agents rely solely on scripts

A great customer experience relies on much more than positivity and kindness — your customers expect personalization at scale, self-service options, and concrete benefits like free shipping. That said, using the right words is an important factor in customer conversations.

Positive scripting is one practice that can help your customer service representative steer customer interactions toward desired outcomes (like upselling shoppers and bringing first-time customers back for a second purchase).

However, over-relying script templates in customer support is a shortcut to unhelpful customer care interactions. Read on to learn how to make the most of positive scripting while also avoiding its pitfalls.

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What is positive scripting? (AKA positive phraseology)

Positive scripting is the practice of creating canned responses for customer service interactions that use positive language to limit customer frustration and promote desired outcomes. 

With positive scripting, brands can provide support reps with resources such as scripts and templates that they can use to help ensure positive customer interactions. These scripts and templates can also be used as training resources to provide reps with examples of constructive interactions and positive language.

‎Goals of positive scripting

There are several goals that brands can accomplish with positive customer service scripts, including:

• Promoting constructive customer service experiences that contribute to customer satisfaction
• Alleviating customer frustration and de-escalating angry customers
• Maintaining a consistent, positive brand voice
• Speeding up response times to customer queries

Where can positive scripting be used?

Positive scripting can be used across numerous contact centers and customer support channels. 

Like any customer support practice, positive scripting should be tweaked for each channel. 

Call centers

Providing support via a phone call requires reps to be quick on their feet, and this is where the practice of positive scripting first originated. 

Providing call center scripts to your call center agents can go a long way toward helping agents stay positive and on-brand when there isn't much time for them to formulate a response.

SMS support

Agents have a little more time to think about their SMS responses, but not much. Customers contacting your support team via SMS still expect swift responses, and positive scripting can help ensure that your SMS responses are swift, positive, and on-brand.

Live chat support

Like SMS, live chat conversations tend to be fast-moving — and this is one of the primary reasons why many consumers list live chat as their preferred customer support channel. 

With positive scripting and live chat tools like Gorgias live chat, you can provide fast, convenient, and helpful support via this advantageous channel.

📚 Recommended reading: Find out how Gorgias customer Ohh Deer used Gorgias chat to generate $12,500 in revenue — per quarter.

Email support

Support reps can typically put a little more time and thought into their email responses. 

Nevertheless, email templates with positive scripting can still help keep these responses positive and consistent while also enabling reps to respond to email queries more efficiently.

Social media support

Providing support via social media is a great way to meet your customers where they're most comfortable — and positive scripting helps keep these responses positive and on-brand. 

This is especially important when responding to comments and posts that other potential customers are likely to see.

Scripts and templates

Scripts, templates, and automated responses should all be built using positive scripting. 

If you use a helpdesk, chances are you can build a library of templates in the tool for agents to use during customer conversations. 

For example, you can use Gorgias Macros to build positive templates and autoresponses. Unlike most templates, Gorgias Macros pull customer information from ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, as well as other ecommerce tools (like Klaviyo and ShipBob) to automatically personalize the response. 

Even better? Thanks to automated Rules, Gorgias can automatically send these personalized templates to customers for basic interactions — like WISMO (where is my order), questions about shipping and return policies, and so on. 

This way, your customer service team time saves time while still fostering a great, personalized customer experience.

Customer support training programs

You can use positive scripting to guide customer service training by using customer support scripts with positive language as examples of beneficial customer interactions. 

This helps new team members get a feel for expectations regarding your company's voice and tone, which they can reflect in their individual customer interactions.

Benefits of effective positive scripting

When used correctly, positive scripting can improve the quality of a brand's customer support services in several key ways, including:

Enhance customer experiences to encourage repeat business

Did you know that 54% of customers say they would stop purchasing from a brand after just a single bad experience? If you want to promote customer loyalty and repeat business, it's vital to provide positive experiences throughout every step of the customer journey. 

Likewise, repeat customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time shoppers, according to our data from over 10,000 ecommerce brands. Repeat customers place repeat orders, place larger orders, refer friends to your store, leave product reviews, and more. 

While many different elements go into crafting positive customer experiences, facilitating friendly and welcoming customer interactions with positive scripting is one important step.

Avoid or de-escalate angry customers

Using positive words and language may not solve a customer's problem, but it can help ease their frustrations. Positive scripting is an effective way to de-escalate angry customers — and a great way to prevent customers from ever becoming angry in the first place.

Become more consistent with customer communication and policies

Your customer service agents don’t just need to be positive, they need to follow the same policies and procedures, especially for common customer interactions. Using scripting to guide 

Of course, you can also specify which policies agents can bend, and when. For example, if repeat customers ask for an extension on refund eligibility, it’s probably in your best interest to permit the return rather than frustrate a repeat customer.

📚Recommended reading: Our guide to creating a customer service policy that actually provides value. 

Maintain a positive brand voice

Positive scripting helps you maintain a consistent brand voice, but, just as importantly, it also helps you maintain a positive brand voice. By using positive scripting to guide your brand's messaging, you can carefully (and intentionally) design your language to encourage customer satisfaction and beneficial outcomes.

Examples of positive scripting

A majority of customer interactions can become more pleasant and productive with positive scripting. Here are some scenarios that would benefit from positive scripting:

• Greeting: "Good [morning/afternoon/evening], thank you for choosing [Company Name]. How can I help you today?"
• Apologizing: "I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience you've faced. Let me look into this for you."
• Offering assistance: "I'd be delighted to assist you with that" or "I'm here to make this right for you."
• Expressing appreciation: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention" or "We appreciate your business and your feedback."
• Providing assurance: "Rest assured, we'll resolve this for you" or "We'll do everything we can to make this a positive experience."
• Suggesting solutions: "Let me find that information for you" or "May I suggest an alternative solution?"‍
• Ending interactions: "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?" or "I hope you have a wonderful day."

The pitfalls of positive scripting

The biggest potential drawback of positive scripting is one that we've already touched on; customers who contact your call center or other customer support channel want to feel as though they are talking to a real human and not a robot regurgitating a script. 

It's also vital to remember that customers are ultimately much more interested in resolving their problems quickly than in the language that your reps use. Many times, a simple message with the information they're looking for (such as a tracking number) will suffice with no flair or positivity required.

To prevent positive scripting from harming your customer interactions rather than improving them, here are a few other key mistakes and pitfalls to avoid:

• Not giving support team members the freedom to deviate from their script or inject their own flair
• Scripting entire customer interactions instead of just using scripts to save time on the most common, process-heavy elements
• Focusing too much on positive language and too little on actually solving customer issues as quickly as possible
• Writing scripts that sound too robotic or overly-friendly
• Using vague empathy statements rather than training your agents to be genuine and sincere

These are all serious mistakes to avoid if you want to make the most of positive scripting. When used appropriately, though, the benefits of this practice far outweigh its cons.

How to use positive scripting for customer service: 7 best practices

Positive scripting is a powerful tool for ecommerce brands to leverage, but it's important to use it correctly. Here are the seven best practices that you should employ to make the most of positive scripting (and avoid its pitfalls).

1) Use scripts as a starting point, not for the entire interaction

The scripts you give your support reps should be used for the most common, predictable part of customer interactions rather than mapping out the entire conversation. 

For example, your agents might use a script to greet customers and share information about your shipping policy (in response to a question about shipping). But, the agent should be flexible enough to include unique information or handle follow-up questions that may not be so predictable.

“I like to think of Macros as guidelines. When you open up a Macro, it's not 100% the right thing to say, because you have to match the customer’s tone and specific query. And it's up to the agent to understand that and adjust along the way — but Gorgias gives you the tools to do that.” 

— Leeor Cohen, Founder and CEO at CreateCX

If you require your agents to follow a script from start to finish, you risk sounding robotic and not providing agents with the flexibility they need to keep customers happy.

2) Prepare positive responses for common situations

Customers who cannot track their order, received the wrong item, or want to make a return are just a few examples of common situations where customers are sure to welcome a little friendliness and empathy — along with helpful information and clear next steps. 

Using positive scripting to create responses to these common situations helps your brand handle these issues consistently and ensure that they are handled with care and positivity. 

All you have to do is identify the questions that your support team receives most frequently and then load positive, brand-consistent responses into your helpdesk:

While each brand varies, some of the most common situations include:

• WISMO, or “where is my order?”
• Questions about refund and returns policies
• Questions about product availability
• Product-related questions (sizing, compatibility, ingredients, etc.)

3) Encourage customer support to enhance scripts with their own unique flair

Customer service reps should be free to deviate from scripts when needed or inject them with their unique flair. Encouraging your reps to use scripts as a guide rather than a word-for-word requirement ensures that your brand doesn't script away its human touch.

We love this example of an agent bending a policy and sparking up a delightful conversation:

4) Use scripts for training representatives

Along with using customer service scripts to guide customer interactions in the moment, you can also use them as resources for training your representatives. Once again, not everything that your agents say will be scripted, so ensuring they understand the principles behind positive scripting is just as important as providing the scripts themselves. 

Using scripts to showcase what positive customer interactions look like will allow your agents to leverage positive language even when they aren't using a script. For example, you can use scripts to demonstrate mock customer service interactions and then dive into the specifics of why the scripted responses you've created work well for those situations.

📚 Recommended reading: Our Director of Support’s guide to customer service training.

5) Avoid sounding like a robot

Several of the tips we've already covered are geared toward preventing support agents from sounding wooden or robotic, and this is an essential consideration when using positive scripting. 

By using scripts to initiate an interaction rather than scripting the entire conversation, giving agents the freedom to add their own flair to the scripts, and adding personality to the scripts you create, you can avoid this common pitfall of positive scripting. 

It's also vital for your reps to demonstrate genuine empathy throughout customer interactions to avoid sounding uncaring and robotic. This can't be easily scripted, making it important to ensure that your reps know how to adopt an empathetic tone and approach.

📚 Recommended reading: The ultimate guide to offering personalized customer service at scale. 

6) Nail the greeting

Your agent's initial greeting to a customer sets the tone for the rest of the interaction. It's also one of the easiest parts of customer interactions to script since the initial greeting will largely remain the same regardless of the customer's specific issue or sentiment. 

Stating the company name and the agent's name, asking the customer's name, telling them good morning/good afternoon, and assuring them that you are happy to assist them are all great elements to consider including in your greeting script.

7) Test, iterate, and refine to perfect your customer service interactions

Like almost every aspect of ecommerce, positive scripting in customer service is something you can continually improve with proper testing. CSAT surveys are one excellent way to gather customer feedback following a customer support interaction. You can use the feedback you gather from these surveys to fine-tune your customer support scripts. 

For instance, if many customers complain that your reps sound unempathetic or robotic, you may want to revisit the language of your scripts or encourage your agents to inject more of their own personalities. Throughout testing and refining your scripts, keep in mind that script building should be a collaborative experiment, with customer service teams working alongside reps and using data from past customer service interactions to guide the process.

Offer positive, fast, and helpful customer service with Gorgias

Positive scripting is one effective way to improve the quality of your brand's customer support and encourage more positive customer experiences. However, it's also just one small element of high-quality, revenue-generating customer support. 

If you would like to offer the type of fast, positive, and helpful customer service that will set your brand apart from the competition, it's important to use the right customer support tools.

With Gorgias' industry-leading customer support platform, you'll be able to leverage a range of advanced customer support tools and capabilities — all designed to boost customer satisfaction by improving both the speed and helpfulness of your support services. 

To get started offering positive, fast, and helpful customer support via the best ecommerce customer support platform on the market, be sure to sign up for Gorgias today!

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Maximizing peak season sales isn’t only about driving customers to your website. If website visitors people encounter a slow, unhelpful, or lackluster customer experience, they’ll click away before buying — flushing away all your marketing efforts and dollars.

In a recent webinar, Caela Castillo, Director of Customer Experience at luxury men’s jewelry brand Jaxxon, shared Jaxxon’s strategies for optimizing customer experience to maximize revenue during peak season. 

We’ll start with some of the most concrete strategies Jaxxon leverages, and wrap up with some bigger-picture insights on how Caela manages the team. 

You can also hear Caela share these tips herself by watching the webinar here.

How Jaxxon manages ticket spikes during peak season

Last year, Jaxxon had what Caela describes as a very successful but challenging peak season, when customer support tickets skyrocketed to three times normal levels. As a result, Jaxxon has stepped up its approach to optimizing customer support for efficiency and self-service during the 2022 peak season.

Here are the tactics and tools Jaxxons used to manage ticket spikes this year:

Provide self-service answers to FAQ in live chat

Jaxxon uses Gorgias Quick Response Flows to answer frequently asked questions during peak season. Caela and her team customize the questions and answers so that customers can get an instant response to common queries.

“We really noticed that adding automated self-service with Gorgias took part of the load off us. A lot of customers’ questions are answered by self-service, so then they’re happy and we don’t have to do anything further with those tickets,” Caela says. 

Automating these responses has two-fold benefits:

1. Customers get instant answers to questions — no wait time required
2. Agents actually have time for conversations that need a human touch

“If the customer has additional questions, then our agents have the time to have an authentic conversation with them, and give them a really great experience.”

Regularly review tickets to monitor performance and spot emerging issues

Caela regularly reviews recent customer conversations to monitor individual agent performance and identify areas for improvement or lessons learned. Using Gorgias tags — automatically applied to customer tickets for categorization and filtering — Caela can also get a sense for the most common customer questions and issues.

“If we're noticing a trend with a certain issue, then we want to solve it right away rather than figure it out weeks from now when it’s a bigger issue,” Caela explains. “So we don't want to only review tickets once a month. We want to do it in real time.”

The real opportunity for peak seasons is turning first-time customers into repeat shoppers

Jaxxon realizes that any peak season is a starting line, not a finish line. Providing an awesome first customer experience doesn’t just net a sale. It nurtures longterm relationships and turns happy customers into loyal brand advocates.

“We want to make sure that first shopping experience is really great — everything from the customer support to the shipping to the box it arrives in — so they want to come back and buy again. We listen to our customer reviews and we really want to help people have a great experience.”

Jaxxon invests in ongoing training and support to ensure its customer service agents have the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to do their job confidently and effectively.

“Sometimes customers are a little hesitant about buying something as expensive as solid gold online. And our agents can explain to them the difference between our products, or suggest an upgrade, or say, hey, would you like this bracelet to go with the Cuban link chain you bought last time?” says Caela. 

“For our agents to be able to upsell and cross-sell like that is super important for us — and it works.”

Quick Response Flows help Jaxxon open the door to some of these conversions. Providing quick, helpful answers about product restocks, sizing, shipping and more, lays a positive foundation that human agents can easily build on.

How Jaxxon sustains the team during peak seasons

One of the biggest challenges during any peak season is thinking ahead so that your team — not just your customers — succeed.

Plan ahead when it comes to coverage

First off, make sure you have enough customer service agents in place to cope with soaring demand. Jaxxon has increased its customer support team for this year’s peak season. 

Caela uses a zoning plan to stagger agents’ shifts across different time zones and locations, so there is always enough coverage for Jaxxon’s 24/7 customer support. She adapts this as peak season unfolds to meet shifting demand.

“Having open communication is essential. We always say there are no stupid questions. We’re here to help each other. Even though we work remotely, we're still able to communicate really well and work as a team.

Once the team is in place, get them ready. “Training your team is really important, and making sure they have the resources and support they need,” Caela says.

📚 Related reading: How to stand out during Black Friday with 18 marketing strategies

Maintain staff morale during crunch time

“Keeping morale high is so important for peak season, because it’s a busy time in life, not just at work,” Caela says. This is a unique situation in ecommerce — did anyone else have a turkey in the oven while answering support tickets during BFCM?

“Everyone gets stressed; sometimes people get sick. It's hard to sustain motivation sometimes. So we want to make sure everyone's really taken care of and set up for success. And we try to make it fun for the team.” 

A culture of mutual support among the Jaxxon customer service team is reinforced by team-based incentives to win gift cards, jewelry and more when certain targets are met.

“A positive attitude goes a long way to keeping people motivated. You get so much farther if you're kind and positive. And I’m very big on looking at difficult situations as learning experiences. And if someone is struggling, other team members will help them so we all rise together.” 

📚 Related reading: How Jaxxon offers motivates agents with rotating customer support incentives.

Lean on tools and systems to manage high demand

Having the right systems in place to manage customer support more efficiently is important at any time of year. But it has the biggest impact during peak periods when demand balloons. 

“You have to prepare for the worst, in terms of very high demand. Things just get crazier as peak season progresses! So make sure to have your self-service and automation set up and ready to go,” says Caela. “After last year’s challenges, we've made sure to have stronger systems in place this year.”

Jaxxon now uses Gorgias to manage all customer conversations. This helps the team work more efficiently in several ways:

• Seeing all customer conversations across different channels in one place, to avoid tab-shuffling and duplicated responses
• Filtering and sorting tickets, for easier prioritization
• Deflecting some questions to automated self-service, to free up customer service agents’ time for more complex customer conversations
• Bringing together all of a customer’s information, to enable more personalized service

Implementing self-service chat has cut Jaxxon’s live chat volume by 17%, yet increased conversions by 6%. Meanwhile, revenue generated by chat has shot up by an impressive 46%. The overall impact has been positive for customer experience and Jaxxon’s bottom line.

Read more about how Jaxxon uses Gorgias to speed up response times without sacrificing the quality of customer service.

Customer experience is vital to maximize peak season sales

By assembling a larger, well-trained customer service team and putting the right tools in place, Jaxxon is poised to continue delivering high-quality customer service this peak season — even when ticket volumes triple. Caela and her team are excited to dive into the peak season. With Gorgias by their side, they are ready to ride out whatever challenges come their way.

To hear the full story of Caela’s tips, lessons learned, and Jaxxon’s preparations for peak seasons, watch the webinar replay.

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