Shinesty is a Boulder-based ecommerce brand specializing in outrageous party clothing and themed party apparel. The brand started out in 2014 for one reason only: "to force the world not to take itself too seriously."

Today, people come to Shinesty to find outrageous vintage clothing for their themed parties and events. Crazy socks, retro swimwear, animal print boxers, funny undies, and more — Shinesty has all types of colors and prints for everyone.

It's the online store for those who want a little more excitement in their closet, whether that's a garishly patterned suit, a fancy dress hat, or a novelty pair of briefs. Shinesty have built a loyal community of customers centered around a love of frivolous fashion finds.

Recently the Gorgias team had an opportunity to sit down with Shinesty Customer Experience Manager, Cody Szymanski and learn how the brand manages customer service. Here are some key takeaways from the interview.

Problem with the Previous Helpdesk

For a long time, Shinesty used Zendesk to handle customer inquiries. The three-member team worked together to monitor all emails, chat, and phone calls, as well as keep track of comments on social media. Cody emphasized that it was literally a nightmare.

The brand couldn't find a simple way to interact with users on these platforms— not in a time-efficient manner, anyway. Other than that, Zendesk didn't have the social connectivity they needed.

Shinesty's shoppers were all over social media with questions about their orders and queries about the size, shape and style of the products. They were hungry for information, and Shinesty knew that if they could just tap into this well of eager buyers, they'd be golden.

As Shinesty grew, the brand realized they needed a better helpdesk that helps them centralize everything into one place and stop going back and forth between channels.

"That was the main reason we switched from Zendesk to Gorgias because it allows us to grow tremendously and gives us the flexibility to have all of the social channels under one roof." - Cody Szymanski, CX Manager

Scalling and Growing With Gorgias

Cody said that transitioning from Zendesk to Gorgias was smooth. The process is pretty straightforward — they just need to click buttons to finish the setup. The team even can import tickets from Zendesk to Gorgias, which worked really well.

"It's huge to be able to manage all support channels efficiently, and Gorgias made that happen."

- Cody Szymanski, CX Manager

The Shinesty team has seen a lot of benefits from Gorgias. Engagement is through the roof, and the ability to communicate with customers in real-time has dramatically increased the number of sales.

"It's really cool that Gorgias has so many integrations between Shopify, Facebook, and Instagram."

- Cody Szymanski, CX Manager

They took advantage of Gorgias' best feature to scale and grow their business. For example:

• Unifying emails, live chats, phone calls, social media comments, and mentions. The team no longer has to switch between platforms, which cost them a lot of time and attention.
• Through Gorgias' social integrations, Shinesty are now able to respond to social ad comments and interact with their buyers in a way they've never done before.
• Viewing Shopify data like order tracking and lifetime value of a customer right inside Gorgias.
• Integrating with third-party apps to save time and enhance customer satisfaction. For example, Gorgias - TrustPilot integration allows the team to turn customer reviews into tickets so that they can respond to customer quickly. No more switching to another system and another tab. No more switching to another system and another tab.
• Using Gorgias Chat to convert customers immediately. For example; when a customer is on the checkout page, they can reach out to an agent via chat and get help right away if they have any concerns.
• Adding people to the platform so that everyone can know what's happening on the customer support side and how the brand is communicating with customers. This creates complete visibility and increases transparency throughout the business.

"The information is right there for the agent, it involves fewer clicks and fewer tabs. This helps the agent become more efficient, get more tickets done, make happier customers, decrease response time, and reduce stress. All of those things are incredibly valuable." - Cody Szymanski, CX Manager

Auto responses free up agent time elsewhere

While Shinesty were keen to engage with their customers in a meaningful way on social media, and the were also looking to cut down the amount of time their support agents spent responding to common questions.

Cody added that thanks to Gorgias, their average resolution time and first response time are extremely low. They now provide their first response time within 57 minutes and resolve a ticket within 1 hour 1 minutes, much lower than they were comparatively when we compare year over year.

Gorgias allowed them to set auto-responses for frequently asked questions that would otherwise utilize an agent's time. With extra time on their hands, agents are now able to concentrate on pre-sale actions and chat to convert on-the-fence buyers.

They're saving time elsewhere too. In the past, duplicating an order or creating a new one took a series of long-winded steps. Now, it takes Shinesty just a few clicks to do the same task through Gorgias.

Creating a conversation generation machine

Shinesty's bold personality is one of the brand's key selling points. Customers aren't just buying a product — they’re buying into a movement. Now with a simple social media integrations and the ability to respond to social comments from a central hub, Shinesty have turned their ads into a conversation generation machine.

"The Facebook ad commenting has been very interesting. People have been converting right there thanks to a simple social interaction." - Cody Szymanski, CX Manager

Gorgias has given Shinesty the ability to level-up their ad game. They're able to let their personality shine through in the comments, without losing any time. Now, as well as creating instant connections with potential customers in the places where they're hanging out the most, the brand also has the tools it needs to turn browsers into buyers in just a couple of clicks.

The team has noticed a significant increase in engagement on social media ads and posts, while the auto-responses and macros features have freed up precious time so customer support agents can focus on conversion tactics elsewhere. The team has also seen a boost in customer satisfaction.

"I would give Gorgias a 10 out of 10, and anybody who has not given it a shot, definitely give it a try. If you're on a phone but also trying to manage social media channels, you really have to stop doing that. It's not going to be scalable for you." - Cody Szymanski, CX Manager