High-end luggage retailer July’s suitcases and travel accessories stand out against cheaply made travel cases and underwhelming customer service. Combining functionality and fashion, they feature ultra-smooth and quiet wheels, a curved-edge design to help withstand damage, and a smooth finish in stylish block colors. 

After launching in 2019, July exploded in growth post-Covid as people began traveling again. Originally from Australia, July has now expanded to the US and UK markets and doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon. 

The challenge: Speeding up ticket handling without compromising customer experience

Like all ecommerce brands, July receives suitcase-loads of repetitive customer questions about products, warranties, and customer order statuses. Although simple to answer, the sheer volume of these inquiries was time-consuming — especially for a small, fast-growing startup where everybody is busy juggling multiple priorities. 

“High volumes of repetitive tickets meant fewer one-touch tickets, slower resolution time, and slower first response times.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

July’s CX team works hard to deliver impeccable customer service, especially given the product quality and lifetime warranty. During peak seasons, when orders and customer inquiries increase dramatically, July used to take on extra temporary agents to keep up.

Alex Naoumidis, July’s Head of Operations and CX, knew that there must be a more cost-efficient way to quickly answer repetitive tickets and spend more time on complex customer issues. 

“Customers actively traveling tend to have unique situations and need more hands-on support than customers asking general product questions. The way we spend our time should reflect that.” 

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

The solution: Gorgias Automate handles those simple questions without any agent effort

Already enthusiastic Gorgias Helpdesk users, July turned to Automate to automatically respond to those basic, repetitive questions. 

“Getting Automate was like adding an extra 3 people to our team.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

Answering pre-sales and product questions with an easy click

Customers need information throughout their shopping journey, and July turned to Quick Responses to answer those common pre-sales FAQs. These were a huge success in resolving customers’ queries in the flow of shopping, without any agent effort or customer wait time.

“We immediately deflected 450 tickets a month just by setting up some automated Quick Responses. So easy, with a huge payoff.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

July’s Quick Responses include answers to questions about the lifetime warranty, delivery times, and when certain products will be back in stock. They also swap in seasonal FAQs (like Black Friday promotions) when appropriate. 

“Now, we don’t waste the customer or the agent’s time with basic questions that probably don’t require any human interaction.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

Most of the time, customers get all the information they need from the automated answer and happily continue shopping. If they still have questions, they can click to connect to an agent — who can respond faster because they’re not working through a stack of repetitive questions.

Because setting up Quick Responses is quick and simple, July’s CX team can easily change, add, and remove questions. Alex encourages his team to check Automate Statistics to under what’s working, remove or tweak underperforming Quick Responses, and try out new ones. 

Below, you can see the % of interactions fully solved by each Quick Responses, the # of interactions fully solved by Quick Responses, and the # of tickets served by an agent after the Quick Response. 

Providing personalized product guidance with Flows to boost shopper confidence

To help guide customers through choosing the right products, July has had great success with creating interactive Flows that give the customer personalized product recommendations. 

“We created a Flow called “Which July am I?” to make our shopping experience more convenient and personalized for customers.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

Sharing helpful articles to give customers more in-depth information

If customers have pre- or post-sales questions that aren’t covered by Quick Responses or interactive Flows, AI can step in. 

When customers send questions in Chat or email, AI quickly scans the question and sends a relevant article from July’s Help Center – if it contains an answer. This is especially handy where longer, more detailed answers are needed.

“Article Recommendations have also been extremely beneficial for us. With Automate, we’re giving the customer as much information as possible, before they even have to reach out.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

Serving customers faster and more efficiently

When Automate doesn’t fully solve the customer’s question, Automate quickly hands off the ticket to an agent — who can see everything the customer has already asked and the information Automate has already shared. Having this full context at their fingertips makes it easier for the agent to swiftly respond and resolve the issue.

“When a customer doesn't get the answer they need from Automate and the ticket gets handed over, it already says what the customer’s looking for. This greatly improves our one-touch tickets and resolution time.” 

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

And as a bonus? Automate doesn’t charge for these kinds of interactions. If a ticket gets handed off after Automate, you’re not charged toward your monthly automated interactions.

Automate has provided such impressive time and efficiency savings that July now has a dedicated “Automate lead” on their CX team. He focuses on analyzing data from Automate and optimizing July’s setup.

“We have an Automate lead who has a special focus on optimizing Quick Responses, Flows, and Article Recommendations because they provide such exponential value.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

The results: Automate does the work of 3 extra agents, as 31% automation helps achieve 4.85 CSAT

By deflecting up to 31% of tickets using automation, July has freed up its CX team to focus on more complex customer interactions. An impressive 4.85 CSAT score reflects the quality of July’s customer service thanks in part to Automate handling up to a third of all tickets, and giving the human team more time for quality customer care. 

With Automate handling the work of three agents, July is also saving on the extra seasonal headcount costs it used to incur.

“I wish Automate had been around during July’s initial years because we received hundreds of tickets daily. Now we're deflecting anywhere between 1,000–1,500 tickets a month, which for a startup is extremely beneficial.” 

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

Alex recommends Automate to ecommerce startups looking to streamline their handling of straightforward customer tickets while still providing a premium customer experience.

“I recommend Automate to anyone starting in ecommerce, especially if general and product inquiries are taking up time better spent on building or scaling your brand. The numbers don't lie.”

— Alex Naoumidis, Head of Operations and CX at July

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