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TL;DR:

• Email is a common customer service channel but can be slow and challenging to manage.
• To maximize email as a support channel, use it as a stepping stone to faster channels.
• Email allows for longer, more detailed responses and is accessible on all devices.
• To effectively use email, use contact forms instead of listing an email address, funnel customers to faster channels when possible, prioritize tickets by topic and urgency, use templates for consistency, enrich emails with customer and order information, and supplement emails with self-service resources.

As of June 2022, 64% of US customers prefer email when contacting brands, so it’s clear why email is a mainstay in customer support programs. Even still, the Internet’s snail mail can sometimes translate to a slow and negative experience. 

So, how do you maximize email as a customer service channel? You use it as a stepping stone to point customers to faster support channels.

Email is simply the medium; the resources are your answer. From including Help Center articles in your emails to replacing a raw mailto link with a user-friendly contact form, we’ll present plenty of ways to transform email into an efficient support channel.

The good and bad of email as a customer service channel

Like all channels, email has its benefits and weaknesses, but you can’t rely on it alone. Here’s what you can expect from email as a customer service channel.

The good 👍

Email is a commonly preferred channel for customers

It would be unwise to skip offering email support when more than half of customers prefer it over social media. Email support provides a vital bridge to connect with customers, especially if you’re a DTC business that can't engage with your shoppers in person.

Email allows for longer, more detailed responses to inquiries 

Email can illustrate solutions for customers with embedded links, images, and attachments — something instant channels like social media DMs and SMS would handle with more difficulty.

For example, look below at Dr. Squatch’s eyecatching promotional email. Their use of multiple high-quality images, call-to-action buttons, social links, and logos proves how email can accommodate the most elaborate messages.

Email is accessible

If you have a digital footprint, email is almost always a requirement. You need it when creating a new account or when contacting people. It’s even accessible on all devices. Email’s prevalence means customers will expect online stores to offer email support at the very least.

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The bad 👎

Email tends to be a slower channel

The average first response time for email is 7 hours and 34 minutes. While most people tolerate how slow email is, it still doesn’t make for the best customer service experience. Urgent customer questions about product defects or bank account issues require rapid responses that other channels are better suited for.

Email inquiries can be challenging to categorize and prioritize

Email allows for more creative liberty than other messaging channels but also has downsides. Since customers are free to format their own subject lines and messages, the responsibility of sorting through your inbox is on your agents. 

The problem here isn’t just about maintaining a clean workspace but ensuring urgent messages like angry customer emails aren’t overlooked due to a messy inbox.

How to use email as part of your customer support program

Support teams often feel their inbox is an obstacle course rife with concerned customers and a flood of recurring questions. Luckily, there’s a solution: use a customer service helpdesk that can consolidate email and other support tickets to keep your inbox and support team at bay.

Here’s how to effectively use email as a support channel with a helpdesk like Gorgias.

Don’t list an email address — use contact forms instead

Why? To maintain organization 🗂️ and increase service quality ✨

Plainly leaving your email address on your contact page can be intimidating for customers. What should they put in the subject line? Will they actually get a reply back? Since this contact method has practically no guidelines, you’ll want to set parameters to make reaching out more approachable.

How? Do away with a raw email link and use a contact form. Contact forms provide structure to emails. Thanks to step-by-step guidance through drop-down menus and required fields, you can sort emails even before they reach you.

💡 Tip: We recommend that merchants don't direct customers to an email address for support. Instead, use a contact form to intake email support. Contact forms are superior because messages get structural data that helps customer service agents categorize and prioritize incoming tickets.

Funnel customers to faster channels when you can

Why? To increase customer satisfaction (CSAT) score 👍

Don’t forget that you can start an interaction via email and move to a different channel. This tactic isn't new — it's known as omnichannel communication. After all, 46% of customers expect a response time of 4 hours or less, and if switching support channels is the key to providing faster service, then go for it.

How? Let’s say a panicked customer wants to reverse duplicate charges on their credit card ASAP. This interaction could take multiple back and forths spanning several business days. Instead, you can reap the benefits of voice support, SMS or WhatsApp by directing them to your phone number.

“Being able to organize and divert tickets internally, having a good FAQ, making sure that you're actually solving the problems instead of putting band-aids on them, all goes into [reducing] resolution time.” —Zoe Kahn, Manager of CX & Retention at Chomps

Prioritize tickets by topic and urgency

Why? To maintain organization 🗂️ and increase customer retention 🤝

A common customer service mistake is treating tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis. This can lead to more unhappy customers because some tickets are less urgent than others. This is where prioritization can be effective.

How? First, categorize incoming tickets with Gorgias Rules and Tags. Do this by determining the conditions for which tickets should be tagged with an “Urgent” tag. For example, emails containing the word “cancel” will be tagged “Urgent.” Now your most high-value tickets will be solved and your loyal customers won’t need to worry.

How to prioritize unsatisfied customers: Set up a Rule to identify and auto-tag customer complaints as Urgent so you can turn their day around with exceptional customer service.

Use templates to create a consistent standard of service

Why? To increase service quality ✨ and enforce brand voice 🗣️

Being an advocate for personalized customer service doesn’t mean automation needs to be off-limits. Automation can and should be your best friend. 

Automating customer service reduces response times and standardizes service quality. Automation can also capture data from customer interactions, letting support teams make data-driven improvements to their operations.

How? Use Macros (pre-written sample emails) to immediately answer questions about common topics, such as shipping information, return policies, and product-specific questions. Macros are a convenient way to compose professional messages, like customer apology emails, while allowing agents to add a personal touch.

📚 Related: The risks & rewards of customer service automation

Enrich emails with customer and order information

Why? To increase customer satisfaction 👍 and service quality ✨

The biggest challenge about sending emails as a business is striking a balance between valuable and bothersome. It’s not only about crafting attractive promotional emails but making even the most mundane “Your order has shipped!” emails pop with purpose.

How? Integrate your ecommerce platform of choice, whether it’s Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento (Adobe Commerce), with Gorgias. You can view customer information from your chosen platform in the Customer Sidebar and extract the data to automatically populate emails.

Supplement emails with self-service resources

Why? To increase customer satisfaction score 👍 and reduce ticket volume 🔻

In ecommerce, a self-service resource is any resource that answers customer issues without talking to an agent. They include a Help Center (or knowledge base), FAQs, or automated chat widgets. 

How? Create a Help Center with linkable articles that can be inserted into customer support emails. This is especially useful for new customers who may want to ask several frequently asked questions. A Help Center effectively acts as technical support, while freeing up agents to deal with more unique tickets.

A successful customer support program should maximize self-service options to minimize manual effort.

Metrics to track your email performance

How well are you serving your customers through email? The answer lies in measuring how quickly you accomplish support tasks like opening and closing a ticket. But it's not only about speed. Tracking metrics is invaluable for troubleshooting gaps in your customer service operations.

Here are three metrics that can shed a light on how well your customer support team is using email.

Average first response time

Average first response time is the average time it takes for your customer service team to send the first response to a customer after receiving a request. 

🕒 Industry average: 18 hours (Timetoreply)

🟢 Time to aim for: Under 4 hours

🔻 What slows it down: Inadequate staffing, lack of automation, and poor prioritization

➕ How to improve it: Use automation like Rules, Tags, Macros, and more self-service options

Average resolution time

Average resolution time refers to the average amount of time it takes to resolve or address a specific issue or request, typically measured in hours or days.

🕒 Industry average: 18.1 hours (Gorgias) 

🟢 Time to aim for: Same day

🔻 What slows it down: Inefficient process, disorganized inbox, and complex issues

➕ How to improve it: Reroute tickets to faster channels like voice, and build self-service options like a Help Center

First contact resolution rate

First contact resolution rate or FCR rate measures the rate of resolving a customer inquiry within the first interaction. An excellent FCR rate indicates that your support team is well-trained to be able to solve issues efficiently.

🕒 Industry standard: 70% (Fullview)

🟢 Rate to aim for: 78% (Qualtrics)

🔻 What slows it down: Complex issues and lack of customer service skills training

➕ How to improve it: Add more self-service options, ensure agents are given complete information on product/service knowledge and resolution techniques

[Callout] How to calculate FCR: Total number of requests resolved with one interaction in a single time period / the total number of requests in the same time period

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, you can refine your operation by tracking 25 more customer support metrics.

Manage email — and all your other channels — with Gorgias

Email is stronger when combined with other channels — no one knows this better than multitasking expert Gorgias. 

As a powerful helpdesk tool, Gorgias offers omnichannel support and powerful automation features like Macros and Rules that make managing email effortless. You can even supercharge Gorgias with integrations to ecommerce apps like Shopify, Yotpo, and Shipbob to keep you focused on delivering support without distractions. 

Ready to bring in a crowd of happy customers? Book a demo now.

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TL;DR:

• Create personalized onsite campaigns to enhance the shopping experience.
• Activate exit-intent campaigns to reduce cart abandonment.
• Implement upselling strategies to increase average order values.
• Offer product education to boost customer confidence and purchases.

At this point, you’re already well aware that CX is now proving itself to be an invaluable acquisition tool — not just a retention lever.

But to drive the hammer home, we looked into our database to see how CX-focused strategies like onsite campaigns enhance the customer journey and drive substantial increases in sales and conversion rates, specifically with Gorgias Convert.

Using these well-curated campaigns, businesses like Manduka have witnessed a remarkable increase in revenue — approximately $130,000. 

We’ll show you how you can achieve similar results and why it’s a crucial marketing strategy — just as important as paid and email marketing.

Ways to use onsite campaigns for sales without disrupting the shopping experience

Gorgias Convert is an onsite revenue generation tool that helps ecommerce brands boost their conversions by over 6% — and it isn’t your typical intrusive pop-up. This feature seamlessly integrates with your website, recommending products to shoppers in a subtle but still captivating way.

Targeting customer segments based on their browsing behaviors, Convert makes timely and relevant suggestions via chat.

Here are a few ways you can use it:

Create fluid shopping experiences that reduce acquisition costs

Imagine this: someone clicks on your social media ad for acne removal solutions, lands on your site, and isn’t just greeted with a standard product page but accompanied by a personalized message that offers valuable product education.

In fact, Gorgias users see that we typically generate $20 for every $1 spent. So think of onsite campaigns as a way to make your ad dollars work harder with a more personalized experience by:

• Mirroring the language and tone of your ads within your onsite campaigns creates a familiar and comforting environment for your visitors. 
• Populating welcome campaigns that kick in when a shopper lands on your site so that every new customer engagement starts with meaningful dialogue geared toward turning curiosity into sales.

Here’s a fun example from TUSHY, the modern bidet company. 

When customers visit a bidet page, they receive a message from TUSHY’s support team, letting them know about their toilet compatibility page to help them select the right bidet:

Personalize cross-sell and upsell messages on specific product pages

Here’s something many brands get wrong about ecommerce upselling: It’s not about pushing the most expensive items; it’s about showing customers the value of an upgrade that’s complementary to the problems they’re already trying to solve.

As your customers shop, Gorgias Convert suggests complementary items. It’s like when you’re in a store and an associate suggests a tie to match the shirt you’re buying.

Manduka uses these campaigns brilliantly. Targeting shoppers nearing the free shipping threshold, they suggest just the right little extras to tip the scales. 

This makes it quick and easy for customers to top up their orders with relevant products.

The results? 

• Total Campaign revenue: $11,788.91
• Impressions: 37,586
• Mobile Clicks Conversion Rate: 19.65%
• Desktop Clicks Conversion Rate: 12.06%

Jessica Botello, the Customer Service Manager at Manduka, explains why this campaign works so well: 

“People want free shipping. So if they've already got over $75 worth in their cart, they're almost there. Then we pop up and suggest: check out these items. It’s a curated list of the easy little add-ons that you'll need anyway for your yoga practice, but will also take you over the free shipping threshold,” she explains. “What's really helpful is that it pops up, rather than the customer having to go through the menu and look for things.” 

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Winback browsers with exit-intent campaigns

You’ve likely tried exit-intent pop-ups before. You know, those pop-ups that trigger when a customer indicates they’re about to abandon their cart or browsing session. 

As more brands adopt these pop-ups, customers are becoming more accustomed to them. But what’s less obtrusive is a personalized message directly from your team.

There are many ways you can grab your customers' attention with these messages. Maybe it's offering a little nudge with a timely discount, waiving that shipping fee, or answering a last-minute question they had about the product.

Here, let’s look at two examples of how effective these campaigns can be.

Manduka’s exit-intent messages

Manduka uses these exit-intent messages to offer $20 on orders over $100 (a strategic way to not only reduce cart abandonment but also increase AOV and email subscribers simultaneously.) 

By engaging visitors with personalized, timely messages right when they’re about to leave, Gorgias Convert helps transform potential bounces into real conversions.

You can read more about how Manduka set up these campaigns with Gorgias Convert here.

Glamnetic’s approach

Glamnetic has had particular success with an exit intent campaign offering a discount for new customers, new product promotions, and educational campaigns. 

Its most successful campaign offers a sweet 15% discount and boasts an on-ticket conversion rate of 18.39%. 

Here’s how it works:

• Using Gorgias Convert, Glamnetic detects when the mouse hovers near the top of the browser, a telltale sign of an impending exit.
• The same 15% discount available through newsletter or SMS sign-ups is now presented via live chat. It’s straightforward, no strings attached. 
• The campaign targets visitors who’ve been to the site three times or fewer and linger for at least 15 seconds. This specificity ensures the message is relevant and timely.

You can peek at the campaign setup below. It runs 24/7, ready at any moment to engage: 

Strategically highlight new product launches

Countless new products pop up every day; consumers are bombarded with options. The challenge for brands is to launch new products in a visible and desirable way. 

As you’re well aware, that’s tougher than it sounds amidst all the noise consumers already experience daily.

This is where Gorgias Convert stands out and is different from the other pop-up tools.

Unlike your latest TikTok and Instagram ads, these onsite campaigns feel genuine because a friendly support agent makes the recommendation without disrupting the shopping experience.

For example, when Glamnetic unveiled its vibrant Rainbow collection in May 2023, the team deployed targeted, visually appealing onsite campaigns that immediately drew visitors’ eyes to the new products.

Directly on the homepage, visitors were greeted with eye-catching product images from live chat, featuring a seamless and effortless option to add new items to their cart.

That’s why Glamnetic prominently placed top-selling items in the product carousel, directly in the live chat box. The products were impossible to ignore, leading to a 49% sales increase for featured items.

Help customers be successful with product education

Product education is a powerful sales and retention tactic. By building trust with customers right away, they’ll feel more confident purchasing your products because they know they will use them successfully. 

Manduka uses onsite campaigns to educate potential customers. Triggered when visitors spend more than 15 seconds on the yoga props page, the campaigns guide customers through their yoga journey and help them choose the perfect props for their practice.

Jessica Botello, Customer Service Manager at Manduka, highlights the campaign's impact: 

“This yoga props blog suggestion campaign is really great because we have several options, and that can feel confusing to someone who doesn’t know which one to get because they are new to yoga and aren't familiar with which props would benefit them. The blog explains in more detail how to use the different props in your yoga practice, and the different benefits of a round bolster vs a rectangular bolster. So it helps people go ahead and choose the right product for them.”

In other words, simply explaining the nuances between choices like a round versus a rectangular bolster helped customers feel more confident about the products they purchased. 

And the proof is in the pudding. Between April–August 2023, this campaign achieved the following:

• Total Campaign revenue: $3,851.73
• Impressions: 6,310
• Clicks Conversion Rate: 11.5%

By proactively addressing potential questions and concerns, Manduka enhances the shopping experience, leading to higher satisfaction and fewer post-purchase issues.

Promote sales with holiday campaigns 

Holidays aren't just for festivities — they're prime opportunities for brands to connect with customers in fun, thematic ways. 

Take TUSHY, for example. To celebrate US Independence Day, TUSHY ran a cheekily-themed on-site campaign called "USofSPRAY," offering a patriotic 25% off all bidets.

Yes, you read that right — cleaning your bum has never been more patriotic!

Why it works: TUSHY’s approach to holiday promotions is smart and spirited. By aligning their campaign with a major holiday, they tapped into the celebratory mood of their customers, making it not just about a discount but about being part of a nationwide celebration. This not only makes the promotion more memorable but also more engaging.

The USofSPRAY campaign not only captured attention but also captured significant sales:

• Influence on store revenue: A staggering 47.9% of the store's revenue during this period was influenced by the campaign.
• Click-through rate (CTR): The campaign achieved a healthy 3.5% CTR, indicating strong interest and engagement.
• Impressions: It racked up 65,000 impressions, spreading the word far and wide about the benefits of a cleaner, fresher bathroom experience.
• Conversion rate: Impressively, 76% of customers who engaged with the campaign went on to make a purchase.

4 tips to create a well-thought-out onsite campaign

Investing time in well-thought-out onsite campaigns can significantly amplify your marketing efforts, driving a notable increase in conversion rates and better capturing paid traffic. 

Here’s how you can design campaigns that catch the eye and convert browsers into buyers.

Segment, segment, segment

The more targeted your campaign, the better your results — plain and simple.

By segmenting your audience based on specific criteria, such as the amount spent with your brand or past products purchased, you can tailor your messages to match the unique interests and buying habits of different customer groups. 

Note: Gorgias is deeply integrated with platforms like Shopify, so it’s easy to leverage shopper data to create highly personalized onsite campaigns that resonate with your audience. 

Identify your triggers to personalize messages

Set up your campaigns to activate based on specific behaviors, such as browsing certain products, adding items to the cart, or showing signs of exit intent. You can also use more niche triggers, like:

• Total value of shopping cart
• Products in cart
• Time spent on a page
• Number of visits
• Total spent in the past
• VIP status

For instance, by setting up a trigger for VIP customers, you can send campaigns to those high-value shoppers, like exclusive discounts or personalized style recommendations based on past purchases.

A/B test your campaigns

One of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal is A/B testing. By systematically testing messaging, design, or offer variations, you can uncover what resonates most with your audience and refine your strategies accordingly.

TUSHY provides a prime example of A/B testing done right. They conducted an experiment where:

• Group A: 50% of visitors experienced the full suite of targeted on-site campaigns without any discount codes, focusing instead on providing personalized guidance for choosing the right bidet.
• Group B: The other 50% did not receive any targeted campaigns during their visit.

The results were telling:

• Conversion rate lift: Group A saw a 9.6% higher conversion rate than Group B.
• Sales uplift: Additionally, sales increased by 14% compared to those not exposed to the campaigns.

This test highlights the effectiveness of providing personalized support over just using discounts and how A/B testing your offers and messaging — even for one week — helps you understand what makes your customers tick.

Keep track of your success in a detailed dashboard

Effective campaign management isn't just about launching strategies; it’s also about understanding their impact. 

With Gorgias Convert, every campaign you run is tracked in detail through the Campaigns Statistics dashboard. This gives marketers a granular view of performance across different time frames and campaign specifics.

Some specific features you can expect are

• Revenue tracking: See at a glance the total revenue generated by each campaign. This allows you to evaluate the financial impact of your campaigns and prioritize those that deliver the best return on investment.
• Engagement metrics: Monitor key metrics like impressions and click-through rates to assess how well your campaigns are engaging potential customers. This data is crucial for understanding which elements of your campaigns are capturing attention and which may need tweaking.
• Conversion details: Dive deep into the data to see which campaigns are converting browsers into buyers. A list of converted tickets or interactions can highlight successful tactics and offer insights into customer behavior.

In addition to tracking basic metrics, the dashboard also provides insights into more nuanced aspects of campaign performance, such as engagement trends over time or the effectiveness of specific call-to-action placements.

Check out an overview of the Campaign Statistics page in the image below. 

Start investing in onsite marketing

Onsite campaigns stand as pillars in digital marketing, carrying immense potential to captivate and convert visitors into loyal customers. Through them, you can get directly in front of your customers and showcase products or services – but in their capacity to tailor experiences, foster engagement, and ultimately drive conversions. 

Gorgias Convert's innovative approach makes revenue generation easy through onsite campaigns - you will find that you’re increasing your ecommerce revenue quickly and cost-effectively. By leveraging this tool, you can navigate the digital landscape with confidence whether you’re in CX or Marketing. 

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Customer service agents are front and center when they provide customers with outstanding support. But once you pull back the curtains, you’ll find the support operations team behind the scenes supporting conversations, tools, and more.

Like backstage managers, a customer support operations team identifies opportunities for your support team to be more efficient while keeping both your company and customers happy.

I’m Bri Christiano, the Director of Customer Support at Gorgias, and I know first-hand how hectic it can be to perfect your customer service processes. We'll go through how a support operation team functions, the benefits, how to build the team including key roles. 

What does customer support operations do? 

Customer support operations oversees the technical, operational, and organizational parts of customer support. As a distinct team, they support the customer service team, including the representatives and managers.

You may think, but isn’t that what customer service managers are for?

Not quite. 

Customer support managers are on the frontline with agents and ensure the operations run smoothly. A support ops team member enables the frontline team to do their best work.

What is a support operations team?

A support operations team constructs the blueprint that makes your company’s customer service processes run more efficiently while hitting your business targets. Some common roles on a support ops team include managers, analysts, developers or product managers, trainers, and specialists.

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A guide to support operations teams

Investing in a support operations team is a step toward improving the customer experience, which can lead to a 2-7% increase in sales revenue. 

Below we'll explore the advantages of establishing a support ops team, show you the tell-tale signs of when it's time to invest, and provide an overview of each role and function.

Benefits of having a support ops team

When you enlist the help of a strategic support ops team, you gain:

1. Predictable, stable operations. A support ops team standardizes your customer service processes, which can help managers and agents stay on the same page and deliver consistent, high-quality service.
2. A better future for the customer service team. CS leads may only forecast a few months or a year ahead. A support ops team can strategize years in advance and plan for more scenarios with their reporting expertise.
3. A louder voice of support across the org. A support ops team aligns customer service with the company’s targets and has the power to bring relevant issues to other teams. This allows the often-isolated customer service team to be better represented across the company.
4. A stronger, alternate perspective to customer service. The support ops team provides a big-picture view that a customer service team doesn’t have the time to look into. You can arrive at a more complete view with the help of support ops.

Every support ops role & responsibility, ranked by budget

A full-fledged support ops team includes a manager, developer, analyst, trainer, and specialist. However, not all organizations have the budget for every support ops role. In that case, you’ll want to find candidates who can take on the responsibilities of multiple roles.

Below, we’ve ranked each support ops role based on your company’s hiring budget. 

1. Support ops specialist

Hiring budget: Low

Customer operations specialists provide support to customer service teams by managing technical aspects, including assisting with setup, analyzing metrics, and reporting, while also lending a hand to enhance customer experience.

Responsibilities:

• Identify when to help customers and note signs of potential issues or opportunities for more sales
• Understand how the product works and know who to ask for help with specific product issues
• Collect important data and make reports about how satisfied customers are, what products they like, and takes note of what competitors are doing

2. Support trainer

Hiring budget: Low 

A customer support operations trainer is responsible for educating and preparing customer service representatives to effectively handle inquiries, issues, and interactions with customers.

Responsibilities:

• Create and update training materials that the customer support team uses
• Deliver onboarding and ongoing training sessions and workshops to keep team members up-to-date with industry best practices
• Assess the effectiveness of training programs through feedback collection, performance metrics analysis, and evaluations

3. Support operations analyst

Hiring budget: Medium 

A customer support operations analyst analyzes data and metrics related to customer interactions and customer service processes to identify trends and improve the overall quality of customer support.

Responsibilities:

• Create a complex staffing model with multiple inputs and considerations
• Create reports based on KPIs and present findings to the customer support team
• Assess support workflows and processes to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks, and makes recommendations for optimization
• Evaluate and implement tools and automation solutions to streamline tasks

4. Developer or Product Manager

Hiring budget: High 

A customer support operations developer (also known as a product manager) creates and maintains the systems, tools, and processes used to enhance and streamline customer support operations.

Responsibilities:

• Create and maintains tools and applications that enhance the efficiency and functionality of support operations, including self-service tools and chatbots
• Automate repetitive tasks and processes within support operations to reduce the manual work done by agents
• Assist and troubleshoot technical issues for support agents to ensure they can effectively use the necessary tools

5. Support operations manager

Hiring budget: High 

A support ops manager oversees and coordinates the operational aspects of customer support teams.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee the support ops team and recruit, train, and mentors team members
• Analyze data and key performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions for customer service
• Develop strategies to align support operations with overall business objectives, including budget management and resource allocation
• Planning for each upcoming quarter and setting key performance metrics
• Working with customer service managers and aligning on goals with them 

When to build a support ops team

There are a few signs that indicate you’re ready to expand and join forces with a support ops team.

1. New roles and duties are popping up

As your business grows, new roles start to emerge to accommodate your team’s size and customer base. This may look like managers and agents finding themselves taking on more operational tasks like leading training sessions, tool workshops, or focusing on data to increase profits.

If these duties are taking away time for you to do your regular customer service responsibilities (like resolving customer issues or supervising your agents), it’s time to invest in support ops.

2. Your support leads are spread across multiple time zones

If support leads are located in various time zones, it’s harder for your team to get on the same page. For instance, one team lead may prioritize using brand voice more than another lead does. This results in inconsistent and confusing brand messaging.

To align your team leads, you’ll need one source of information to standardize your processes — and that can be fulfilled by a support ops manager.

3. Your current workflow can’t keep up with complex tickets

If your workflow fails to cover all your customer inquiries, it may be time to redesign your processes. Unfortunately, building an efficient workflow from scratch takes time that managers typically don’t have. Support ops is exactly the team you need to ideate, test, and deploy these workflows.

Processes, policies, and automation: a framework for optimizing customer support operations

Focus on building a sound hiring process

Rushing to fill positions will only harm your brand and customers in the long run. When hiring for customer service, use a proactive hiring process. This means taking the time to take stock of your needs and resources, and being selective about your candidates.

Here are three ways to be intentional with the hiring process:

1. Determine which specialized support roles are needed. Are new operational duties being delegated to managers or agents? Maybe you need an analyst to make better use of your data or a training specialist for your growing team.
2. Assess the inefficiencies in your current support operations. Certain support ops roles can fill in the gaps that your support team doesn’t have the time for. For example, a support ops developer can improve your tools, while a support ops manager can take care of hitting your business targets.
3. Consider your budget. Your budget will determine the size of your support ops team. Be realistic and adjust your expectations according to your needs. This can mean hiring for one support ops team member or outsourcing.

🧠 Learn more: Why proactive customer service is essential for growing your business

Implement a customer service policy as soon as possible

A customer service policy is a document containing a set of guidelines, rules, and standards for customer service teams. Its goal is to help agents handle day-to-day tasks and set benchmarks for great customer service.

These documents are essentially guides for how the customer service team should work. Agents can use them when they onboard or need a refresher. They can even be adapted into customer-facing policies.

📚 Related reading: How to build an FAQ page + 7 examples

Set realistic SLAs

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract that outlines the minimum acceptable service between one party and another. In your case, the ops team and the support team. An SLA typically covers topics like SLA best practices, including service availability and average response times.

Here’s how to create one:

1. Define objectives and metrics: Clearly define the objectives and expectations of the support ops team and the customer support team. Identify specific key performance indicators that both teams can stick to.
2. Agree on responsibilities: Specify who’s responsible for what tasks on both teams, including training, reporting, and development to avoid miscommunication.
3. Set performance targets: Establish targets and deadlines for meeting performance metrics. These targets should be realistic and aligned with the organization's goals and customer expectations. 
4. Compose, review, and publish the document: Share your document with all members of the support ops and customer service team. You may even conduct a meeting to align on your new agreement. 
5. Continuously improve: Schedule regular SLA review meetings between the support ops and customer support teams to assess performance, identify areas for improvement, and create new initiatives.

Create a solid training plan for the customer service team

Elevating the quality of training for the support team significantly increases customer satisfaction. Improvement is key: 40% of customers claim that they stop doing business with companies who have poor customer service.

Some ideas for useful training activities:

• Improve customer interactions by reviewing tickets as a team
• Deepen product knowledge with Loom videos
• Drill down empathy by mapping the customer journey together
• Refine soft skills with workshops dedicated to active listening, empathy, and effective communication
• Practice responding to public social media reviews and comments

When you put these strategies together, you empower your ops team with the expertise and resources needed to excel in their roles, allowing them to pass the knowledge on to your customer service reps.

Write templates that your agents can use in various circumstances

Agents shouldn’t have to spend their time crafting templates — that’s a job for the support ops team. With templates, agents can speed up resolution times and increase customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). 

Here are the key templates to prep for customer service agents:

• Where is my order? (WISMO) response 
• Order shipment update
• Returned/refunded order
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Complaint acknowledgment
• Follow-up emails for prior tickets
• Feedback/survey requests

On Gorgias, you can quickly create a library of templates with Macros. Whenever you need to send a canned response, just click the template or Macro you need and you’re done — no need to type anything out.

🧠 Learn more: 25+ customer service scripts inspired by top ecommerce brands

Use tagging to organize and prioritize tickets

An unorganized inbox can ruin customer experience and risk your highest-value customers. By implementing a system that strategically tags and prioritizes tickets, the customer support team can focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

To create a library of useful tags, ask yourself these questions:

• What are the most common inquiries? 
• Which channels receive the most urgent inquiries?
• Which types of tickets require escalation?
• Can you identify high-value customers from the inquiry?

Based on these questions, you can start creating Tags based on the most relevant customer query topics, ticket urgency, high-value vs. low-value tickets, and response urgency. 

Harness automation to streamline workflows

Automating parts of the customer service workflow can be a game-changer. Work with the customer service team to identify the repetitive tasks in their day that they can go without and offload to automation. 

On Gorgias, you can create Rules to…

• Auto-tag tickets. Automatically apply tags to tickets to categorize them based on keywords, issue types, or other criteria for easier tracking.
• Send automated responses. Send pre-written responses (called Macros) to customers based on specific triggers or ticket attributes.
• Assign tickets to specific agents. You can assign incoming tickets to specific support agents or teams based on criteria like keywords or urgency.
• Auto-close resolved tickets. Automatically close tickets when certain criteria are met, such as a customer confirming issue resolution.

Check out our customer service automation guide for more tips on which automations can speed up your support.

How Princess Polly built a seamless customer service operations system

Princess Polly, the leading Australian fashion DTC brand, is an expert when it comes to establishing streamlined customer service operations.

With their priorities set on comprehensive metrics and a constant feedback loop, they entrusted Gorgias to do the heavy lifting. Immediately after using Gorgias, Princess Polly managed to increase their efficiency by 40%, decrease resolution time by 80%, and decrease first response time by 95%.

📚 Read more: Princess Polly improves their CX team efficiency by benefiting from Gorgias-Shopify integration

Optimize your support ops team’s efficiency with Gorgias

Whether you're starting your support ops team from scratch or expanding it, Gorgias can be there to build it with you. With powerful features like Macros for automating routine tasks and detailed support performance and revenue statistics at your fingertips, Gorgias empowers your support ops team to work smarter, not harder. Unlock a new level of productivity by booking a Gorgias demo today.

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I firmly believe everyone should experience working in customer support because, let’s face it, working in support isn't always recognized for the challenging job it is. 

The importance of customer service for brand success has been proven time and again. Yet, customer support continues to get regarded as a necessary cost the business has to bite. It's often under-resourced and under-performs as a result, reinforcing the perception that support brings little value.

I’m on a mission to change that. 

I'm Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, and my journey has taught me that we customer support professionals have to be loud and proud about the importance of our work, since we're repairing a pretty damaged reputation.

In this article, I will share practical tips and firsthand experiences to help you showcase the significant impact of customer support on your bottom line, and make the case for more budget and respect in the organization.

Why is customer service important

A great customer experience is crucial to any business. And at the heart of that experience is good customer service.

Right now, every small business owner is experiencing the frustrations of rising customer acquisition costs. The solution? Leverage the relationships with customers you already have by focusing on repeat purchases and customer lifetime value (LTV). This strategy is much more profitable: Keeping customers costs much less than attracting new ones, and returning customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time shoppers (according to Gorgias data).

Your customer service agents are your brand’s frontline representation. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, great reps have the capacity to enable sales and keep customers coming back. And undertrained or ill-equipped reps have the capacity to drive new customers away and dissolve relationships with current customers. 

Simply put, customer service is important because it has a huge impact on your revenue. Let’s break that truth down into some specifics.

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7 ways customer service impacts your bottom line

From generating more referrals to increasing your average order value, there are several benefits to offering a great customer service experience. 

1. Excellent service increases conversion rates

The truth is, new customers are often hesitant to trust a company that they’ve never done business with before. 

Studies have found that 18% will abandon their cart if they don’t trust the website with their credit card information. And, even if a customer trusts your business enough to make a purchase, still roughly 70% of all online shopping carts are left abandoned. 

Why? Some of the top reasons are

• A complicated checkout process
• Questions about product pricing
• Problems with payment 

These are all customer problems that live chat support agents can address proactively, which will increase trust and decrease abandoned carts. Adding live chat to your website can boost conversions by 12%.

Tip: Provide pre-sales support

Picture a shopping experience where uncertainty is met with immediate guidance, and questions are answered before they even arise—this is the essence of Love Wellness' commitment to elevating pre-sales support.

On our product description pages, we prominently feature 

• Links to our general FAQ page
• A striking red button on the bottom right corner for customers to reach out and connect with our support team via email. 
• A FAQ block on the product page with answers related to the product being viewed.

In addition to what we do at Love Wellness, you can enable chat campaigns to proactively guide customers through the checkout process or answer common questions that are blockers to purchasing.  

Chat campaigns can trigger when certain conditions are met (like visiting/dwelling on a certain page or being a repeat shopper). You can hit these targeted shoppers with a message, like offering personalized product recommendations or providing a unique discount code. Now that’s an experience worth telling your friends about.

Remember: Customer service involves more than just resolving customer issues post-purchase. Support reps also act as sales agents, answering pre-sales inquiries and offering discounts to encourage orders.

Already using Gorgias? Learn how our platform integrated with referral platforms like Smile.io and LoyaltyLion to combine the forces of your word-of-mouth marketing and customer experience.

2. Personalized customer service drives repeat business

According to a report from Salesforce, 97% of marketers report an improvement in business results due to personalization. Customer service is no exception: including customers' names, avoiding asking for the same information multiple times, and providing customer-specific recommendations all help build customer loyalty.

Your customer support platform should make personalization easy by showing a customer’s order and conversation history with your brand, so reps have the full context when speaking to customers:

And, with a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can build templated Macros, which automatically pull customer data into your messages (names, order numbers, shipping addresses, etc). 

Tip: Offer premium support at key stages of the buyer’s journey 

One way we offer personalized customer support at Love Wellness is our “Shop with a wellness specialist” program. Shoppers can take a short quiz, get matched with an expert, and text that specialist directly to build a personalized wellness routine.

3. Customer service data holds key information

Customer service can be a goldmine of key data that benefits the entire team, serving as a wellspring of insights that drive informed decisions and overall business success. 

How? Customer service acts as a direct line to your customers' thoughts and experiences. By consistently collecting and analyzing feedback, you gain an understanding of pain points, preferences, and trends that can influence product development, marketing strategies, and overall business direction.

Tip: Collect customer feedback often

One word: convenience.

Your customers should be able to share feedback without leaping through hoops. 

And, when you've got a vault of feedback, don't let it gather digital dust. Your team has so much data they can review between channels like email, SMS, chat, and social media—both compliments and complaints. You need to be willing to listen to every customer’s needs. 

We have a channel in Slack dedicated to customer feedback. Dropping in feedback is part of the team’s daily and weekly responsibilities, which helps them get really familiar with all of the content. It also allows our team to dissect them and collaborate on how we can improve. You could also schedule recurring feedback share sessions with the Product or Website teams, or even invite them directly into Gorgias (at no extra cost) and create a dedicated view for product feedback, website feedback, and so on.

4. A great customer service experience drives referrals

Happy customers are much more likely to recommend your brand to others than customers who have a poor customer service experience. 

94% of U.S. shoppers will recommend companies with service they rate as “very good.”

Along with increasing the likelihood of organic referrals, a great customer service experience can earn your more positive reviews.

Considering 95% of customers report reading online reviews before making a purchasing decision, showcasing just how important these reviews can be when it comes to attracting new business. We have a whole page dedicated to this on the Love Wellness website.

There’s also a filter option on every product page review widget so that shoppers can see the most common things people are saying about a product and filter down accordingly. 

Tip: Train everyone on how to have a customer-first mindset

Customer service is one of the main ways we build trust with customers, which is especially important in the personal care and women's health niche. Our aim is to provide a safe space for questions that customers might not even be comfortable asking a doctor.

At Love Wellness, we believe that every single team member plays a vital role in creating a haven of care and understanding. That’s why we created an immersive customer experience training program that involves each and every one of us, including the president of the company and even our office manager!

This program is about truly understanding Love Wellness' purpose, from top to bottom. Whether I'm involved in customer service management, product sourcing, managing our online presence, or crafting compelling copy, I've come to realize that a customer-first mindset is the key. 

Bonus reading: See Gorgias’ tips on customer service training to help improve the quality of support.

Tip: Create self-service resources

Your customer support team can create self-service resources like an FAQ page or Help Center to educate customers about your return policies, shipping practices, and the quality of your materials or ingredients. And by proactively during the pre-purchase process, you can provide first-time customers with the answers they need to make a purchase.

Here’s what ours looks like at Love Wellness, which answers key pre-sales questions about each product, plus frequently-asked questions about payment, shipping, and more.

5. Satisfied customers have higher average order values

By addressing any questions or concerns that may be preventing a customer from making a purchase, proactive customer support can boost your AOV by encouraging customers to purchase additional products they might not have bought otherwise.

The proof is in the pudding: businesses that offer proactive live chat customer support generate a 10%-15% higher AOV than those that do not. 

At Love Wellness we have a proactive outreach program for delivery issues, with the goal of reaching out to the customer to triage before they reach out to us. Since starting this, of our ~250 tickets, 105 have received a CSAT and the score is a solid 5 across the board!

According to Gorgias data, repeat customers make up only 21% of the average brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that brand’s revenue thanks to these higher cart values:

Tip: Find opportunities to sell more

Another effective way that customer support boosts AOV is by providing your sales team with upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

For example, at Love Wellness we make sure to explain to customers how they should use the product on the description page. In this section, we also call out additional products that pair well with what they’re looking at.

6. Good customer service increases customer loyalty

One well-known rule of business is that attracting new customers is always more expensive than marketing to your existing customer base. 

And fun fact: A staggering 95% of U.S. consumers use customer service quality as a factor when determining whether or not to do business with a company. 

My point? By prioritizing customer relationships and positive customer experiences, you can ensure that the customers you attract remain loyal to your brand and offer as much value as possible over the full course of their relationship with your business.

Tip: Fulfill your promises to customers

Promises made, promises kept. Make sure you have the means to follow through on your claims—and the backup available when mistakes happen

My two-fold advice:

• Build trust: If you're advertising 2-day shipping, get the necessary resources and operational capacity to consistently meet this commitment. 
• Tip: during a high volume period, especially over holidays, if there's even a chance that your shipping commitment isn't going to be met 100%, temporarily remove that option to keep expectations realistic.
• Manage customer expectations: Claims like "better taste" are subjective. Highlight provable benefits, such as health advantages, to set realistic expectations.

When customers consistently receive what they expect, they are more likely to become repeat buyers and advocates for your brand.

7. Great customer service reduces marketing spend

Between social media, content, advertising, and SEO, marketing can get very expensive very quickly. For small businesses, these expenses cost thousands of dollars every month. 

I’ve already mentioned how exceptional customer service improves customer retention rate. By investing in your support team, your brand can generate positive word-of-mouth, reviews, and repeat customer service. 

This means you’ll draw more value from your existing customers rather than spending money trying to attract new ones, which is a much more cost-effective and sustainable path to growth.

Tip: Use tools that are well-integrated

In the past, we had a custom tech stack that operated in isolation, causing manual errors and a great deal of confusion. We were practically solving puzzles blindfolded when something went wrong.

After finally having enough, we dismantled our old tech stack and reconstructed it with components that had native integrations already in place. We've learned the hard way that a well-integrated tech stack is the backbone of efficient customer service.

There's no more frustrating tab-switching or tedious copy/pasting to handle tasks like creating discount codes, editing orders, and processing refunds — trust me, it’s saving us from a lot of hair-pulling moments.

One tool that has been a game-changer for us is Gorgias, thanks to its integrations with Shopify (ecommerce), Okendo (reviews), Yotpo (loyalty rewards and referrals), and Recharge (subscriptions). These integrations have streamlined our customer support process by helping agents make changes to those other tools (like refunding an order or updating subscription status) without changing tabs. It also helps our agents offer more personalized support (with less back-and-forth) by giving them the full customer context, right in the ticket view.

Tip: Take an omnichannel approach to customer support

Every customer has a different communication preference. Omnichannel support makes it easy for them to reach you on various channels like text (SMS support), live chat support on your website, and social media support).

Offering omnichannel communication is important and can be effective, but only if it's tailored to the consideration of your customers and business needs.

For example, the bulk of our inbox is subscription management, so tackling those tickets via SMS is not effective for us. The messages are too long, and often include details customers need to hang onto to reference back to, so email is by far the better channel. 

Want more tips? Read our list of customer service best practices.

What happens when customer service isn’t prioritized

We've all been there — waiting endlessly on hold, being bounced around different departments, and feeling the frustration mount. It's not a feeling we relish. 

Take contacting your bank, for instance. The last thing that crosses your mind after that ordeal is calling them again anytime soon. Instead, it's more like, "Phew, glad that's over. Hope I won't have to do that again."

Now, transpose that to an ecommerce scenario. A lousy customer service experience can easily push a shopper to the point of churn, or even talk bad about your brand online or to their friends.

Above, we discussed the impact of great customer service on your bottom line. But the real thing to be aware of is just how damaging bad customer service is — enough to tank a great product, brand, and company. 

The costs of subpar service are staggering, ranging from $75 billion to a jaw-dropping $1.6 trillion annually. Plus, according to Retail Dive, a whopping 73% of customers won’t return to your brand after just a couple of poor customer service expenses. 

There’s a compounding snowball effect beyond losing customers as well: your customer service team gets burnt out and quits, you hire quickly (and not carefully) to replace those reps, and you’re left with an untrained and understaffed team. 

As a result, your company has poor customer service, so execs never get to see the impact that good experiences could have on your bottom line, leading to even fewer resources for customer success. The cycle continues from there.

Thankfully, good customer service can have the opposite effect.

Example: Excellent customer service helped Best Buy overcome bankruptcy

CB Insights shared a story about how, in 2012, Best Buy grappled with a $1.7 billion loss due to rising ecommerce and Amazon's Price Check app. The company turned this around by putting customer service at the forefront by 

• Empowering sales staff with thorough training that focused on being friendly and knowledgeable
• Introducing a bold price-matching guarantee to keep shoppers engaged
• Reviving the employee discount program
• Offering personalized in-home consultation with a technology advisor

This customer-centric approach revitalized the brand. If they hadn’t made these improvements, Best Buy might not be here today.

Transform customer support into your new growth engine with Gorgias

Looking back, I've realized that nailing customer support is all about staying ahead of the game and making smart moves — fast.

Remember, your customer support situation can impact your revenue in ways you might not imagine, and profitability is essential these days. The goal is to ensure your customer support strategy cultivates loyalty rather than driving customers away. That's where Gorgias comes in.

Designed exclusively for ecommerce, Gorgias equips online stores with powerful tools to enhance customer interactions, ultimately driving revenue growth, including:

• A centralized view of support interactions from all your channels
• Live chat support widgets (including proactive chat campaigns)
• Customer self-service tools like Help Centers and self-service order tracking and management
• Deep integrations with Shopify and other ecommerce platforms to quickly cancel, refund, and modify orders
• Rules and Macros for automating tedious customer support tasks
• Detailed and flexible reporting and analytics features

I encourage you to book a short time with the team to learn all about it. Gorgias has been a game-changer for Love Wellness and I’m confident it can be for your brand too.

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As the Customer Experience Manager at Dr. Squatch, a men's naturally-derived personal care company, I’m constantly looking for ways to craft exceptional experiences for our customers. But the question to ask is: does it actually make a difference to our revenue?

Unearthing the impact of your customer service team starts with evaluation. To do this, it’s essential to track metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) around customer service.

Evaluating the impact of a customer service team can sometimes be an ambiguous task. That’s why I’m here to outline the most important customer service metrics to watch, so you can effortlessly recognize the ways your customer service team directly moves the needle.

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What is customer support evaluation?

Customer support evaluation is the process of measuring your customer service program's impact on the business.

It requires using metrics and KPIs to understand whether your support team is providing a great customer experience that can generate repeat customers, positive reviews, referrals, and more.

Evaluating your customer support also requires understanding the return on investment (ROI). In other words, do the benefits produced by your support efforts outweigh the cost of your support program?

The benefits of evaluating customer service

In almost every business, a developed support program is worth its weight in gold. Evaluating your program is how you prove it to company leadership, earning you additional budget for tools and team members. 

You can think of a strong customer experience as a rising tide that lifts all ships — the impact is vast but also hard to quantify.

At Dr. Squatch, we’re close with our customers and even closer to the numbers. Once we started employing a data-driven approach to customer support management, it made a huge difference in both customer satisfaction and hitting company targets.

Let’s look at the five incredible benefits you get after you make evaluation a regular part of your customer service program.

1) Detailed insight into your customers’ needs

Customer inquiries are a treasure trove of rich data for you to dig into to create a better experience for future interactions. By evaluating metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT) or average resolution time, you can identify key trends and issues online shoppers are dealing with and update your customer service strategy.

On Gorgias, your incoming tickets are automatically sorted by AI-powered intent and sentiment detection, giving you a quick overview of which customer issues should be at the top of the list.

2) Identifies which customer service tasks can be automated

It’s not enough to have a talented team replying on behalf of your brand. You need to make sure your team is focusing on the right activities and not wasting their time on the wrong ones.

By measuring metrics related to your team’s performance — like first response time and resolution time — you can identify which tasks can be done with automation. You’ll also be able to figure out which agents on your team may need more training and support.

3) Balances your revenue and expenses

Customer acquisition is becoming more expensive, so keeping track of customer service can give you an idea of how much customer service truly provides within your organization. 

4) Lets you calculate the true customer lifetime value 

True lifetime value is the measure of a customer’s worth over the duration of the customer-business relationship. 

Keep in mind, it’s less expensive to keep current customers than to find new ones. This is increasingly true as customer acquisition costs and social media ad prices soar.

5) Helps to create predictable support quality

Solid customer support quality is predictable. And that’s not a bad thing. That means when anything new, surprising, or daunting happens, you don’t need to call in a special task force. 

Thanks to your stable operations, your whole team will simply need short-term and long-term action plans, like establishing a list of steps to take and point of contacts and to inform.

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Four key indicators that your customer service program needs a makeover

Beyond bad reviews and customer complaints, there are a few quick ways you can tell if your customer service program is not doing well. 

These four key indicators are major signs that your customer service program needs some refining.

1) High contact rate (over 33%)

A contact rate of over 33% means something about your customer journey, communication, or product is not quite right. Your customers aren’t getting the answers they need.

The goal of your customer service team should always be to resolve tickets efficiently. If a customer has to reach out to your brand multiple times, you most likely need to update your support resources.

Leading indicator: Multiple touchpoints per customer

How to fix it: Include more self-service options to give customers quick answers without having to wait to talk to an agent. Add a Help Center, chat widget, or send informative confirmation and post-purchase emails. For example, our chat widget at Dr. Squatch suggests common questions and answers them via an automated quick response flow based on the customers’ reply. 

2) A customer satisfaction score (CSAT) under 4/5

Your customers should be coming away from interactions feeling good about your brand and the support it provides. There’s no acceptable reason for a low CSAT score, so you should always take a closer look when it starts to fall. 

Leading indicator: Friction in customer conversations 

How to fix it: Provide additional training to your support agents to ensure they’re equipped to handle the most pressing customer requests effectively and empathetically. Then, actively seek feedback from customers and use their input to make continuous improvements to your program.

3) Inconsistent first response time and resolution time

Your first response time (FRT) will fluctuate, and most people understand that, but waiting 4 days for an email from support is unacceptable for today’s shoppers. In general, customers want answers within 10 minutes.

Leading indicator: More customer complaints and a low CSAT

How to fix it: Align with your team and identify your customer base’s main complaints. To deflect repeat inquiries, immediately add self-service options like a Help Center or a chat widget to your online store. You can also use automated responses to acknowledge inquiries right away. 

4) Significant percentage of revenue spent on support

Ecommerce companies should aim to spend anywhere from 10% to 15% of revenue on customer service. If you’re spending significantly more than that, it may be a sign that it’s time to reprioritize and take a closer look at how your agents are performing.

Leading indicator: Low agent efficiency

How to fix it: Analyze ticket volume and estimate how many tickets each agent should be able handle and in what set amount of time. When expectations are set within a service level agreement (SLA), align your team and train them on your new methods.

Challenges that impact your customer service program

Managing a customer service program comes with challenges that typically start from the top of the organization and quickly become a domino effect.

Here are the most common challenges a customer service program faces:

• A lack of buy-in from your company. Executive teams may not understand the value in investing in a support team. They often think customer service is there to keep problems away, instead of bringing new value in.
• Under-supported agents. A lack of trust in the customer service team trickles down to agents. It results in insufficient resources and, in turn, overworked and unmotivated support reps.

• Inadequate policies and guidelines. Since agents don’t have the proper resources, the quality of policies take a hit. Whether customer-facing or internal, these policies can suffer from being too broad or unenforced.
• High ticket volumes. An non-cohesive team ultimately affects how customer service runs and the biggest indicator is a workflow that can’t handle a large number of customer inquiries.

These challenges usually exist for one reason: your company hasn’t seen the tangible value your customer service program brings. 

So, how do you prove it? By prioritizing data collection and evaluating your customer service program, of course.

📚 Read more: 12 customer service challenges harming your team and revenue (+ how to solve them)

How to evaluate your customer service program’s success 

Let’s dive into 12 of the most important customer service KPIs to track to help evaluate your customer service program. By doing so, you’ll be able to recognize how the assistance you provide directly impacts your goals, revenue, and customers.

Note: It’s hard to create a one-size-fits-all reporting template — due to the differences between industries and companies — but a solid understanding of these metrics will help you create a plan for tracking the ones that matter most to your business.

1) Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

The customer satisfaction score tracks how satisfied customers are with your company’s products and services. A high CSAT is a reliable measure of good customer service.

How is it measured?

First, you’ll need to collect customer data through a customer satisfaction survey, typically sent through email. It includes a single question like, “On a scale from 1 to 5, how satisfied are you with your experience today?” 

Once you’ve collected enough responses, use this formula:

CSAT = (Satisfied customers / Total customers surveyed) x 100

Tools for measuring CSAT

There are a ton of tools out there to help you track your organization’s CSAT, but a few to check out include:

• Gorgias
• Nicereply
• Lumoa

Why is it important?

Tracking your company’s CSAT gives you important insight into exactly how satisfied customers are right after an interaction with a member of your team. It can even help identify potential issues before they grow too large. 

2) Net promoter score (NPS)

Net promoter score (NPS) measures how likely a customer is to recommend your brand to another person. It indicates how effective your customer service is as well as how satisfied customers are by gathering data about how likely they are to promote your brand.

How is it measured?

Like measuring CSAT, you can use a survey approach. Through email, you can ask your customers, “How likely are you to recommend our brand to a family member or friend?” 

To determine your NPS, subtract the percentage of detractors (people who say they wouldn’t promote your brand) from the percentage of promoters (those who said they would promote your brand). The resulting score is a whole number between -100 and 100. 

Here’s the formula:

NPS = Percentage of promoters - Percentage of detractors

Similar to tracking CSAT, NPS data can be continuously gathered, but we recommend checking in on a monthly basis. 

Read more about NPS scores and how they’re calculated.

Tools for measuring NPS

• Survicate
• HubSpot Customer Feedback Software
• SurveySparrow
• Survey Kiwi

Check out our guide to how to create an NPS survey that gets responses.

Why is it important?

Your brand’s NPS directly ties to the customer relationship as well as how well your customer success team is doing. Tracking NPS along with CSAT can give you a clearer picture of how customers feel about your brand.

3) Customer retention rate (CRR)

As mentioned previously, retaining customers is always less expensive than finding new customers, that’s why your customer retention rate is a vital metric to keep track of. In particular, ecommerce companies have an average CRR of about 30%, according to Omniconvert, so if your company’s CRR is lower than that, it could be a sign that your customer support isn’t as effective as it could be. 

How is it measured?

To calculate CRR, you’ll need the following information: number of customers at the end of a given time period (E), number of customers gained within that time period (N), number of customers at the beginning of the time period (S). 

Then, plug those numbers into this formula:

CRR = [(E-N)/S] x 100

Tools for measuring CRR

• Mixpanel
• Qualtrics 
• Optimove

Why is it important?

Your company’s ability to retain customers directly relates to its success because when customers disappear, so does revenue.

4) Net retention rate (NRR)

Sometimes known as net dollar retention (NDR) or net revenue rate, NRR is the percentage of recurring revenue retained from your existing customer base over a period of time. This period can be monthly, quarterly, or annually. According to Klipfolio, a good NRR can range between 90% and 125% depending on your brand’s target customer size.

How is it measured?

NRR = [(Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the start of a month + expansions + upsells - churn - contractions) / MRR at the start of the month] x 100

Tools for measuring NRR

• ChurnZero
• Mosaic

Why is it important?

Net revenue retention is another extremely valuable metric that helps you understand how your customers are feeling about your brand and products, as well as how your business is doing from a financial standpoint. 

5) First reply time (FRT)

First reply time, or first response time is how long it takes one of your customer service reps to respond to a customer inquiry on average. This could be over email, phone, or chat. Typically, a “good” first reply time is less than 24 hours in a ticketing system, less than 90 seconds for live chat, and three minutes for phone, according to Klipfolio. 

If your brand dedicates a lot of time to live chat, check out these metrics specific to live chat.

How is it measured?

You can calculate your first reply time by measuring the duration of time between when a customer submits a request and the time when a member of your customer support team responds.

FRT = Total first response times during period of time / Total number of tickets resolved in that period

Tools for measuring FRT

• Gorgias
• GeckoBoard
• Observe AI

Why is it important?

First reply times are directly related to your brand’s CSAT. No customer wants to wait days for an email response, or sit on hold for several minutes. Decreasing your first reply times will inevitably increase customer satisfaction.

6) First contact resolution (FCR)

First contact resolution, or first call resolution (FCR), measures an agent’s ability to resolve a customer’s problem or question within the first interaction without requiring a follow up. The average standard benchmark for FCR is 70% to 75%, according to global research.

How is it measured?

You can use this simple formula to calculate FCR:

FCR = Total number of inquiries resolved on the first call / Total number of unique inquiries

Tools for measuring FCR

• TalkDesk
• mySQM
• Akixi

Why is it important?

Your company’s FCR also directly ties to boosting customer satisfaction. According to McKinsey & Company, 83% of customers expect to be able to resolve their complex issues within one interaction. When you meet customer expectations, you encourage brand loyalty and repeat customers, and reduce encountering difficult customers.

7) Average resolution time (ART)

Customers are happier when they don’t have to wait a long time, and average resolution time (ART) is another metric that keeps track of this data. ART shows how customer service team members are performing, and lets you see who may need additional training or support.

How is it measured?

To measure average resolution time, take the total duration of all resolved conversations and divide that by the number of customer conversations that took place over a specific period of time. This metric is also sometimes referred to as the mean time to resolve, or MTTR. 

ART = Total resolution time for all resolved tickets / Total number of tickets solved

Tools for measuring ART

• Gorgias
• AgileCRM
• Kissmetrics

Why is it important?

Your ART is a vital metric that helps keep tabs on how efficient your customer service team is. If your ART is long, or you notice that it’s getting longer, this is a sign that you need to give your processes a closer look and adjust your strategies if needed.

8) Total resolution time

Resolution time is the total time it takes to complete a customer interaction. This is similar to average resolution time, but focuses on the total time spent resolving tickets rather than the average time spent resolving tickets.

How is it measured?

To measure your total resolution time, note the start and end time of each customer conversation over a specific time frame, such as a one-month period. 

Measuring your total resolution time doesn’t require a formula, but is much easier to track with a helpdesk that includes support performance statistics like Gorgias.

Tools for measuring total resolution time

• Olark
• Aircall (specifically for contact center support)

Why is it important?

Total resolution time gives you a deeper look into how long your customer service team spends helping customers solve their issues, which can help inform further strategy and business direction. 

For example, if the total response time steadily increases over several months, you may need to look at hiring additional customer support reps.

9) Customer effort score (CES)

Your customer effort score (CES) tracks how much effort customers feel like they need to put into resolving an issue. The effort customers should have to put into resolving the issue should be minimal, so you want this score to be as low as possible. 

How is it measured?

To measure your brand’s CES, you can use a questionnaire with a scale and ask the question, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy was your experience today?” with 1 being “very easy” and 5 being “very hard.” 

Once you have your responses, tally up how many of each score you received — meaning, how many times were you rated a 1, a 2, etc. Then, you can use this formula to determine your CES:

CES = Percentage of “very easy” responses - Percentage of “very hard” responses 

Much like NPS, CES is a whole number between -100 and 100.

Tools for measuring CES

• Typeform
• AskNicely
• Formstack

Why is it important?

CES gives you the opportunity to see how your support team is performing through the eyes of your customers. It can also help identify areas for improvement within your operations if you give customers a place to voice feedback within your questionnaire.

10) Conversation abandonment rate

Your brand’s abandonment rate is a simple, yet highly informational metric. Whether the conversation is happening via email, chat, or phone, if a customer abandons the session, it should be a red flag that there is friction in the process.

How is it measured?

All you need to track is the number of abandoned incidents and the total number of incidents. In this context, “incidents” refers to either calls, emails, or live chat sessions. Once you have those two numbers, you can plug them into the following formula:

Conversation abandonment rate = (Number of abandoned incidents / Total number of incidents) x 100

Tools for measuring conversation abandonment rate

• Hotjar
• Omnisend

Why is it important?

A customer abandoning a conversation they initiated is a bad sign and can lead to poor net promoter scores and high churn rates.

11) Contact rate

Contact rate, also known as customer contact rate, measures the percentage of active customers who ask for help in a given time period — usually a month. 

How is it measured?

To calculate your company’s contact rate, you can divide the number of customers who contact your customer service team for help over the course of a month by the number of total customers. Then, multiply that number by 100. 

Contact rate = (Number of customers who contact you in a month / Total number of customers) x 100

Tools for measuring contact rate

• Mixpanel
• Woopra

Why is it important?

Contact rate is helpful in diagnosing your company’s overall health. For example, a high contact rate may indicate that customers are contacting your support team about everything because you don’t have alternative resources like a Help Center or FAQ page.

12) Backlog

Otherwise known as revenue backlog, backlog is a metric that determines how much revenue will be coming into your business. This metric can be especially helpful if you’re an ecommerce brand that operates on a subscription-based model. 

How is it measured?

The only thing you need to determine your revenue backlog is the sum of the values of your customers’ subscriptions. However, this can be much more complicated in practice if your business model has multiple types of subscriptions, so it’s beneficial to use tools to track this metric.

Tools for measuring backlog

• Y42
• Dataweave

Why is it important?

Keeping tabs on your revenue is vital to ensuring the growth and continued success of your brand. By tracking your revenue backlog, you’ll be able to see if revenue is going to drop before it actually does. 

How to evaluate individual agent performance in 5 steps

Understanding your customer service program at an organizational level is an excellent step. But what about individual employee performance? 

A customer service performance review is key. It gives the agent constructive feedback and provides clear guidance for improvement. The goal of a performance evaluation is to assess their abilities, yes, but also motivate them towards even better performance.

Let’s look at the common performance review phases step by step. 

1) Decide the objective of your review

Lay out the objectives of the review. Is it to assess past performance, set future goals, identify areas of improvement, or all of the above?

2) Analyze relevant data

Take a look at the relevant metrics to gauge agent performance. Make sure you have a record of any previous performance reviews, goals set, training undergone, and feedback received.

Key metrics to pinpoint individual performance:

• First contact response time
• Total resolution time
• Average ticket volume
• Error rate

With Gorgias, it’s easy to keep track of every agent’s performance with Support Performance Statistics. Their intuitive dashboard provides a quick look at the health of your support team and even gives you detailed information on each of your team member’s stats, like their first response time, total closed tickets, and more.

3) Run a soft skills and behavioral assessment 

How effectively does the agent communicate with customers? Are they clear, empathetic, and responsive? Assess the agent’s ability to diagnose customer problems and find solutions. Look at important customer service skills like problem solving, communication skills, as well as teamwork skills.

4) Present your findings to the agent

Share the metrics you’ve collected and any feedback received from customers. Present this so customer service agents understand how customers perceive them. Discuss the agent’s strengths and achievements, where they need improvement. 

5) Set goals and expectations

Discuss immediate and future objectives with the agent. Encourage open dialogue and assure them to come to you with any feedback or concerns.  

At the end of the day, you have to care. Make feedback a regular occurrence. It doesn’t have to be scary. Give feedback whether it's positive, negative, or you just want to tell someone to continue going in the same direction. 

Be prepared to create action plans and reset expectations for bottom performers or people you just want to improve. Having a low performer doesn't necessarily mean that they're tanking, but maybe there's just one area of improvement they can really work on. It's just a matter of having an action plan. 

Do customer service metrics really affect business growth?

Absolutely.

Customer service is the backbone of a business’s success. When you focus on giving outstanding customer service (in addition to product quality, of course), you get customer satisfaction, which turns into new and repeat customers and more revenue.

The customer service metrics outlined in this article are helpful tools to set you on the right path toward building a more successful customer service program. Paying closer attention to the data that matters most can help you identify areas for improvement, which is necessary in order for any business to grow.

Make your customers happy and your business happier with Gorgias

Now that you know which customer service metrics are the best to track to ensure your ecommerce business’s success, you can start evaluating your customer service program. 

Every metric I included above can offer your business better insights into what your current customer service program is doing right, and where there’s room for improvement. You don’t have to track all of these KPIs, but I highly recommend using a platform like Gorgias to keep your customer conversations and metrics in one spot.

If you’re ready to revamp your customer service program and improve your level of service, learn more about what Gorgias can do for ecommerce businesses or sign up today.

Customer service professionals (and the customer service skills they possess) are at the frontline of creating great brand experiences. 

All too often, customer service workers aren’t valued as truly skilled or strategic members of the business. It’s a shame (and a missed opportunity), given how big a role customer service agents play in the success of a business. 

According to 2022 McKinsey research, three out of five customer service leaders view attracting, training, and retaining skilled customer service workers as a top business priority.

My name is Deja Jefferson, and I’m the CX and Consumer Insights Manager at Topicals. We’ve upskilled our customer experience associates with both soft and hard skills to give our customers complete support and unwavering confidence when making a purchase.

Here are 16 of the most important hard and soft skills for customer support that we train for at Topicals, and that you should build your support team to possess. 

Top customer service soft skills to manage any situation

Customer service soft skills are the non-technical, interpersonal traits agents use while supporting shoppers. Ultimately, soft skills help to problem solve through good communication and clear thinking. 

These aren’t technical skills, nor are they easily quantifiable, but they are vitally important to improve customer communications.

1) Positive language

Your support agents need to have a firm understanding of how their tone of voice and word choice affect customer satisfaction. 

Using positive language is a valuable customer service technique that steers conversations toward positive emotions, which generate positive outcomes for customers and your business. 

Examples of positive language used in customer service

Here are some examples of how your team can use positive language in customer service situations.

• “Absolutely! We will definitely get this sorted out for you.“
• “Good idea! I will do everything I can to make it right.”
• “Oh, that certainly sounds like something I can help you with.”
• “I’m confident it will work out and we’ll get your product to you as soon as possible.”
• “Thanks! I hope you have a fantastic day. Please reach out again if I can assist you with anything else.”

For further clarification, here are a few examples of what these same interactions might look like using negative language instead:

• “Oh no! I’ll see if I can fix your problem.”
• “That sounds awful; I wish that didn’t happen.”
• “Ah, I’m not sure if I can fix it, but I’ll try.”
• “Don’t be upset; this is why I’m here.”
• “There you go. Let me know if anything else goes wrong.”

Tips to use positive language in your customer service communications 

You can get a sense of a person’s positive language skills early on, even during an interview when hiring for customer service roles. 

If your support agents need help using positive language for any scenario, write customer service scripts or Macros that incorporate positive language. This helps all your agents stay positive, whether they're brand-new employees or established team members.

“I ensure that customer service provided by Topicals not only exhibits empathy when issues arise but should be seamlessly integrated throughout the entire transaction process. Our priority is to ensure that our customers feel fully supported at every step.”

—Deja Jefferson, CX and Consumer Insights Manager at Topicals

2) Showing empathy

It's a key customer service skill to show empathy for a shopper, especially when a difficult situation comes up. 

When customers share their challenges and frustrations, it's essential for them to feel assured that their concerns are being understood by empathetic listeners. In the realm of targeted skincare for specific skin conditions, we must consider the vulnerability of consumers as they seek out new skincare solutions. Let's be honest — they've received recommendations from friends, witnessed numerous skin influencers endorse their preferred "featured" products for various skin types, and might be following advice from various dermatologists, (if they're lucky). I ensure that customer service provided by Topicals not only exhibits empathy when issues arise but should be seamlessly integrated throughout the entire transaction process. Our priority is to ensure that our customers feel fully supported at every step.

Examples of empathy in customer service

Take a look at this hypothetical customer issue with an angry customer:

• Hypothetical issue: “When my order arrived, it was three days late and broken. This was supposed to be a birthday gift for my daughter, and now I’m not going to have this in time to give it to her on that day. I’m angry, and I demand a refund.”
• Empathetic Response: “Wow. That does sound frustrating, and it’s not the experience you were hoping for when you chose to shop with us. I totally see why you’re angry. Let me find out what I can do for you.”

Tips to foster empathy among your customer service team 

Empathy is hard to teach. At Topicals, I train my team to get inside the customer’s mind. 

Our customers are real people facing challenging (and highly personal) skin issues, from Hyperpigmentation, Atrophic/Acne Scarring, Keratosis Pilaris, and so much more.

Sure, some customers lose their patience when they feel defeated — that’s unavoidable. But most of them are feeling frustrated and hopeless. And my team has an opportunity to give them hope that we can work together to help fix the customer’s issue. 

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3) Active listening skills

Whether in a physical retail setting or digital, active listening is a key step to adapting to nuanced questions or navigating tense situations with customers.

Active listening is listening with the intent to obtain information and understand it, rather than simply listening with the intent to reply. 

Examples of active listening in customer service

Active listening requires the agent to acknowledge that they understand our customers during a conversation, and provide feedback or ask follow-up questions when appropriate.

First, let’s look at a hypothetical customer issue:

• “Hey, I ordered the Post-Acne Kit several weeks ago and still haven’t received my package. I haven’t gotten an email with tracking updates. Can you tell me whether or not my order was shipped?”

Here’s what a generic, canned response looks like:

• “Thank you for contacting us. Did you receive a confirmation email with your order number?”

But when you use active listening skills, the reply becomes more like this:

• "Hi there, we apologize for the delay in your order. Rest assured, we're actively resolving the issue with our shipping partners to determine its status. If it's considered lost, we'll promptly send a replacement. It may take 24-48 hrs for us to hear back but we will provide and update to you tomorrow. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.”

The second example response showcases that the support agent has heard the problem and is actively looking for a solution.

Tips to incorporate active listening in your customer service strategy 

Use active listening alongside a helpdesk like Gorgias, which helps your customer service representatives “remember” past interactions. It’s like active listening but at scale.  

Gorgias displays customer information like past conversations and orders, current orders, and data from your other apps (like loyalty points or product review scores). 

Your agents can use this information to avoid asking for information the customer already gave, and automatically pull it into their responses with variables like [Last Order #] or [Shipping Address]. 

Related reading: Our full guide on personalized customer service

4) Time management

Time management is the ability to get the most important things done, with a limited number of hours in a day. 

As a customer service skill, it's make-or-break: The better an agent's time management, the quicker their first response time and the more tickets they can resolve.

Customer service response times tremendously impact your store’s bottom line. If a response to a query takes too long, customer satisfaction plummets. 

Examples of time management in customer service

In a customer support environment, managing time effectively allows an agent to handle a larger volume of tickets (without breaking their back).

Effective time management is a team sport. You need to make sure: 

• Your automations (like Rules) are saving your team from repetitive tasks
• Your team is using resources (like Macros) to avoid typing messages from scratch
• Your team is prioritizing customer service requests to handle the most important tickets first

Tips to improve time management with your customer service team 

Your agents have better things to do than copy/paste order statuses all day. We use Gorgias’s Automate at Topicals to handle repetitive questions (like “Where is my order?” or “Where do you ship?”) so that my team can spend their time on issues that need human attention. 

Plus, Automate helps customers, even when my team isn’t online. 

5) Patience and awareness of tense situations

Support services is an industry that is stressful by nature, largely because most shoppers’ problems are a little tense. 

Your agents need to understand when a situation is tense and what to do to defuse the emotional heat:

• Recognize the situation as emotionally tense
• Detach from taking anything said personally
• Maintain control over internal negative emotions
• Employ empathetic responses to the customer

Examples of patience and awareness of tense situations in customer service

We know we can’t make everyone happy, but we can always make sure people feel heard. In this example, a shopper shared on Instagram that the product we were featuring didn’t work for them. 

Instagram comments are public-facing and we always want to be sure we address feedback from disappointed customers in this kind of arena. 

So, we apologized and recognized what the commentator said. Then, we suggested carrying the conversation to a private DM so we could find a solution. 

Tips to boost patience and handle awareness of tense situations 

In addition, support agents need to care for themselves, drink plenty of water, and get enough rest. 

"People underestimate the emotional and mental resilience that working in CX requires. It’s hard not to take things personally sometimes."

—Grace Choi, Customer Experience Team Lead at TUSHY

When an agent takes time for self-care, they are prepared to be resilient to the job's stresses and approach customer problems with understanding. It’ll improve both a customer's patience with your rep as well as their ultimate satisfaction.

6) Reflecting

Reflecting is the act of repeating a concern to the person speaking — and it’s a crucial customer service skill your agents must master. 

It will make your shoppers feel heard, which is the foundation of a great experience.

Reflecting accomplishes three things:

1. Enables the speaker to hear their own thoughts spoken back to them so that they can focus on what they have to say and what they feel.
2. Displays empathy to the speaker, letting them know that you are trying to understand the concern at hand.
3. Encourages the speaker to continue expressing themselves.

Example of reflecting in customer service

Let’s see what reflecting looks like in action in a customer support context.

• Hypothetical issue: “I’ve been having trouble getting my Scar Primer to work properly. I’ve written in three times for help with the same problem, and it keeps happening. Does this product even work?”
• Reflective response: “Hi, I’m happy to help. Sounds like the Scar Primer is giving you trouble. Are you not seeing results, or is it causing a breakout? I’ve got some solutions to try for either.”

Tips to improve reflection in your customer service strategy 

Sometimes, the most challenging part of solving a problem is understanding what the problem actually is.

Here are a couple of clarifying phrases to keep in your back pocket. 

• “It sounds like ..., is this correct?” 
• “Did I miss anything?” 
• “Is there anything else you want to make sure I understand?” 

7) Maintaining brand voice

A strong brand voice is crucial for any brand, but keeping the brand tone consistent in customer comms is a challenge — especially for technical tickets.

Example of maintaining brand voice in customer service

Skilled customer service reps know that maintaining brand voice in customer communications goes a long way toward improving customer experiences. 

Personalized Macros help brands plug in automated responses for commonly asked questions. You can build pre-made responses that are infused with your brand voice, so you can maintain fast and effective response times without sacrificing your core messaging.  

At Topicals, we use Macros to help maintain brand voice while handling a high volume of customer service tickets. We’ve built a library of templated responses based on our audience persona of skincare-obsessed Gen Z-ers and millennials.  

As a result, 69% of tickets at Topicals are now dealt with using automations.

Tips to encourage customer service reps to maintain brand voice 

In addition to Macros, consider following up with customers using SMS messaging. 

At Topicals, we tested out SMS so customer service reps could follow up with customers. The less formal format made it easy to keep up with our brand persona of Gen-Z and millennials who prefer quick messaging over emails or phone support.  

We were blown away by the positive response. Customers were willing to open up about their experiences and were happy to chat about how much they loved our products. 

Important hard skills for any customer service rep

Beyond the soft skills we’ve discussed above, there are hard skills every customer service representative needs to master.  

Customer service techniques or hard skills are defined as the hands-on, technical requirements of the job. This entails understanding the company's products and the tools and technology that your customer service team uses. 

8) Product knowledge 

The most obvious customer service skill your agents (and your virtual assistants) must possess is the ability to answer questions and communicate information about the products you sell. 

An essential part of customer service training is making sure your agents really understand the product, so they can answer in-depth questions and questions about how to use the product:

• “Can I use Faded with my retinol at night?”
• “How long will it take for me to see results?”
• “Will this work on my melasma?

If hiring, you may occasionally come across an applicant who has existing knowledge of your products, which is a bonus. Still, you should maintain a knowledge base that gives your support team (and your customers, if you chose to make your knowledge base public) easy access to the information they need.

Product knowledge includes product ingredients, uses, compatibility, troubleshooting, and more. Your training should also include process and policy information, like shipping times, packaging, returns and exchanges, and other common questions in ecommerce.

Tips to expand your product knowledge 

• Create a comprehensive knowledge base or FAQ page so support agents can easily access the product information they need.
• Have your product development team brief support agents on new products and product updates.
• Identify frequently asked product questions and ensure that your agents have canned responses to these questions.

↗️ Check out our Director of Support’s guide to customer service training for more guidance.

9) Language and grammar

Your support staff doesn’t need to illustrate beautiful images with their wordplay — actually, that risks confusing the customer. However, they do need a sharp understanding of the language they’re using and know how to use proper grammar and spelling.

Test your prospective agents on the following:

• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Word use

Tips for improving your language and grammar

If your agents are having trouble with spelling or grammar, consider giving them access to tools they can incorporate into their day-to-day work. 

A few great language and grammar tools to consider include:

• Gorgias, which includes spell check
• Grammarly
• ProWritingAid
• Hemingway App

10) Typing speed

Typing speed may not sound like the most crucial skill on this list, but when you break it down faster typing speed = faster response times. 

90% of customers rate an immediate response as "important" or "very important" when they have a support request. So, the faster you can move through tickets, the more satisfied your customers are likely to be.  

Tips to optimize typing speed

Take a typing speed test to know exactly how your typing ability stacks up. 

Generally speaking, here’s a ranking of words per minute (WPM): 

• Below average: 20 WPM or less 
• Average: Between 20 - 40 WPM
• Above average: 40 - 60 WPM 

If you’re a professional typist, you’re likely typing at a whopping 60 - 90 WPM (or more!) 

11) Email

A bulk of communication with your customers will take place via email. 

Make sure your support staff has excellent email communication skills in place and that they understand how to leverage your email platform’s features.        

One great way to make email customer support more streamlined and convenient for your team is to utilize a single platform for all of your customer support channels. 

With Gorgias, agents can respond to emails, SMS messages, and social media messages from a single, easy-to-use dashboard rather than having to master each channel individually. 

Tips for better emails

• Include the recipient’s name in the body of the email, and use a professional signature at the end of the message.
• Speed up your email response time with automated responses to common customer questions.
• Create an efficient system for responding to email inquiries so that nothing slips through the cracks.
• Limit back-and-forth responses and reduce your resolution times by requesting all necessary information in your initial email to the customer.

↗️ Check out our email templates for a way to scale quality email customer service.‍

‍12) Indirect channels (like social media)

Considering 59% of the world's population uses some form of social media, it makes sense to arm your support staff to field questions and concerns that come through your social media comments. 

Build a clear protocol to handle public tickets. Will you move the conversation to another communication platform or handle it where it starts? Your support agent should know what you expect as well as how to use the social media platforms you promote your brand on.

If you don’t have a helpdesk, you’re missing out on opportunities to provide great experiences and turn more casual browsers into loyal buyers:

“Gorgias has so much integration between Shopify, Instagram, and Facebook. The Facebook ad comment has been very interesting. People have been converting right there, thanks to simple social interaction.” —Cody Szymanski, Customer Experience Manager, Shinesty

↗️ Learn more about how Shinesty earns more sales and answers questions faster with Gorgias.

Tips for social media customer service teams

• Move public negative customer interactions to a private channel (like DMs) so that they don't damage your brand image.
• Don’t worry about being on every social media channel, only use the ones where your customers are the most active. 
• Monitor social conversations that are relevant to your brand with social listening tools.

↗️ Read our complete guide on social media and customer service for more tips.

13) Omnichannel customer service

Most customer relationships span multiple channels. As your brand grows, make sure your customer service agents are comfortable switching from one channel to the next. 

If you don’t have a helpdesk, this will require a bit of tab-shuffling throughout the day to respond to comments and messages from all these different platforms. 

That said, a helpdesk will save your agents hours every week by unifying your omnichannel approach to one platform, where agents can see every past interaction — be it an hour-long phone call or a 5-star review — and respond to customers without leaving the platform.

Tips for omnichannel customer support

Offering customer support via multiple channels such as live chat, email, call centers, and social media provides customers with more touchpoints for contacting your company. 

A helpdesk that can unify customer support interactions across channels in one view is helpful for agents because it reduces the amount of app swapping they have to do. It also gives every customer's entire interaction history with your brand across all channels. 

Here are a few effective tips to optimize your omnichannel support approach:

• Use a centralized customer support dashboard so support reps can access messages from multiple channels in a single location.
• Offer mobile-friendly customer support options.
• Create a system for efficiently transferring customer interactions between support channels.

↗️ Check out our complete guide to omnichannel customer service for more tips.

Ecommerce-specific customer service skills

The skills we’ve covered so far can apply to agents that work to manage customer issues for in-person or online experiences. 

For those agents who solely work in ecommerce, there are four more valuable skills to help improve customer satisfaction with your brand. 

14) Live chat

Nearly 80% of customers told PwC that a speedy, helpful answer is the most important aspect of good customer service. So, brands are turning to messaging-based customer support channels (like live chat support, WhatsApp, and SMS texting) to meet these customer expectations. 

If your support team isn’t trained on these fast-moving channels, you could miss out on opportunities for sales. 

Example to incorporate live chat in your customer service communications 

In addition to the technical skill required to maneuver these channels within your helpdesk, your staff should refine their skillset to drive sales with live chat. Live chat can boost your conversion rate by 12%, and it’s made a huge difference in raising our purchase rate and lowering our return rate here at Topicals:

Tips for enhancing live chat skills

• Use templated Macros to help your live chat agents address customer questions more efficiently.
• Use automated responses to filter out repetitive questions for your agents.
• Ensure clear communication by prioritizing proper spelling and grammar.

Check out our detailed guide to live chat support for more tips and tricks. 

15) Decision making 

When talking directly with customers you need to be able to solve their issues quickly — and that involves fast decision-making. 

It’s the responsibility of the customer service rep to take care of the customer by providing the best possible solution to their problem right away.  

Example of decision-making in customer service

Sometimes what the customer wants isn’t beneficial to your business’s bottom line. If that happens, your agents need to be able to weigh this one issue with the customers’ entire lifetime value. 

Let’s look at a hypothetical example. 

• “Hey, I ordered the Faded serum in the mail. When it was delivered, the box was damaged. The serum works just fine, but considering the way it was delivered, I’d like my money back. 

While the delivery person didn't take great care to keep the packaging intact, the customer was clear that the serum works as advertised. It might not be realistic for your brand’s bottom line to offer a replacement in this case. 

Instead of giving the customer something that could hurt your bottom line, a strong customer service agent might make a quick decision:

• “Wow, I’m so sorry to hear the package was damaged — our packaging is really cute and we’re proud of the design work. Luckily, it sounds like our Faded serum is living up to its expectations, which we are so happy to hear. We are happy to offer you 30% off your next order with this special discount code.”  

Sometimes, bending your rules to keep a customer happy (even if it’s not the most cost-effective) can pay you back with repeat purchases, positive reviews, recommendations, and more. 

Tips to empower your customer service team to make informed decisions

In your customer service policies and training, be extremely clear about what kinds of situations are black-and-white, where the agent must follow company policy. 

But also be very clear where there's some gray area, where the agent can deviate from the stated policy to delight a customer or make sure an interaction ends positively. 

Make sure your customer service reps know what they are allowed to do on their own, and when they need a manager's review.

16) Pre-sales support 

In a physical retail setting, employees can welcome customers, ask if they need any help, and give customers the information (and encouragement) they need to make a purchase. 

Pre-sale support means you are able to communicate with a shopper during their browsing experience — helping the shopper make a confident purchasing decision before they click “checkout.” 

It's tricky to pull this off in an ecommerce setting, but it can have a huge impact on the ROI of your support team. That’s why it's important to think critically about how your brand offers pre-sale support and give agents the skills to pull it off.

Examples of pre-sales support in ecommerce customer service 

Empower your customer service reps to speak with shoppers during their browsing experience. 

At Topicals, we offer a lot of education about our products, so we can arm agents with the knowledge they need to talk about Topicals with customers. 

Here are a few examples of common pre-sale questions your agents might see: 

• Product questions: How does this product work? 
• Inventory questions: When will this product be back in stock? 
• Shipping questions: Do you ship to my location? 
• Technical questions: How do I use this product? 
• Sourcing or ethical questions: Do you use sustainably sourced materials? 
• Pricing questions: When will this item go on sale?  

Tips to establish pre-sale support in your customer service communications

For brands that use Gorgias, Convert lets you proactively reach out to customers based on their browsing behavior. 

This way, you can ask if the customer has questions, remind them of a timely promotion or free shipping offer, point them to a product recommendation quiz, or even offer a discount to nudge them toward a purchase. 

Level up your customer service skills with training 

When you’re looking for a new agent, it’s a great idea to hire for the skills in this list right out the gate. Then, continue to offer training opportunities for your customer service reps to master their craft. 

Training for the skills listed in this article has a great impact on your company’s reputation and revenue.

• If you’re trying to level up your agents, take a look at our Support Leader's Guide to Better Customer Service Training. 
• If you’re trying to level up your own skills, we’ve compiled a list of excellent resources to gain customer service certifications. 

Once you’re ready to put those skills to use, sign up for Gorgias to turn your customer support team into a revenue-generating machine.

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TJ’s Top Advice: 

• As a leader, foster openness and creativity by encouraging team members to regularly share their ideas.
• Tell your customers when you update a product. Including them in the conversation can build trust and bring about valuable feedback.
• Treat your customers as your stakeholders. They are the driving force behind your brand and deserve to have their voices heard.
• Leadership entails continuous learning from your team, customers, and the industry at large.

Everybody wants to skip to the answers, but for TJ Balo, there is more joy to be found in the learning. Since 2014, TJ has been the Head of Customer Relations and Marketing at Andrea Iyamah, a fashion line founded in 2011 by Nigerian designer Andrea Dumebi Iyamah. From Toronto, TJ leads a group of customer service reps from around the world, including New York and Nigeria, teaching them the ins and outs of customer service operations, logistics, and lingo.

Encouraging out-of-the-box ideas

Brainstorming is one of the most exciting parts of the job for TJ, who’s always finding ways to improve the customer experience. When his team gets together, there is no wrong answer. TJ encourages his staff to think outside the box. Whether it’s a bold social media marketing play or a never-before-done collection, he wants to hear it all.

“I always want them to bring new concepts and ideas to the table. I think that for success, it's not about the implementation. It's about what you’re thinking,” he says. 

The vulnerability to share out-of-the-box ideas allows his team to create a playground where creativity is the only goal. It’s where every idea has a chance to shine when the time is right, whether it’s in a month or in the next year. All TJ asks is for every person to be fearless and confident: “Let your presence be known. The minute I can identify you, that's when I know that you're doing something right and I'm doing something right.”

Including customers in the conversation

Online businesses, especially fashion brands, are no strangers to the challenge of meeting customer expectations. Sometimes colors don’t appear the same way on a screen as they do in person. Other times, sizes may run a smidge too loose or snug. Regardless of the issue, “it’s about consistent communication first,” TJ says. 

How can you show up for the customer and show them they matter? For TJ’s team, customer satisfaction is their guiding light. They always remember to throw in an incentive for customers, whether it’s a refund, discount, or replacement.  

‎TJ pays the same heed to internal feedback. His team’s opinion takes precedence before a product is released. They answer questions like, “What’s missing?” “Does it translate well to different body types?” People naturally gravitate towards good products, and TJ wants to hit that mark as closely as possible the first time around.

When mishaps occur, broadcasting the solution to their customer base is imperative. “I think that that's one step a lot of fashion and retail brands miss. They take the feedback in, and they come out with a new or better product, but the customer doesn't know because they don't communicate that message to them to say, ‘We took this in from you, we have this new version out, come and try it again,” he says. 

Treating customers as stakeholders

Peruse Andrea Iyamah’s Pinterest and their inspirations draw from a cornucopia of African cultures, stories, and experiences. Traditional details can be found in every piece, from a modern sleeveless dress in the recognizable silhouette of a Kaftan to jumpsuits adorned with sculptural pleats similar to those found on a Gele. The room to innovate is boundless, especially with their Treasures.

Treasures, the term of endearment for their customers, are the backbone of Andrea Iyamah. Without the support and feedback of their Treasures, the brand would not have crossed international borders, dressing icons like Michelle Obama, Gabrielle Union, Ciara, and Kate Hudson.

‎“We treat our customers as our stakeholders. We believe they’re the driving force of the brand and its vision, hence our goal to make them feel valued and appreciated,” TJ emphasizes.

On Instagram, they spotlight their Treasures’ voices with Instagram carousels of rave reviews on Twitter. One Treasure confidently states, “Andrea Iyamah never misses… I swear.”

“You have to take in every single detail. That is where the brand meets the stakeholder. That's where they both come together. I never give credit to just either or. They both come together to create and to curate this amazing masterpiece.” —TJ Balo on handling custom orders

Continuous learning is vital to leadership

For a business that’s been operating for over a decade, you could say Andrea Iyamah has accomplished everything. But for TJ, the learning never stops. “Research and ensuring that you're actually taking in that research is the genesis of staying on the cutting edge.” 

He recognizes that they aren’t the first to do it in their industry, that there are countless other companies making great strides. Nonetheless, he wants to be the best to do it. “As we grow, as a business, as a brand, as a company, even just as a team generally, I want to be a reflection of what I would like from my team. You can never know it all. Continuous learning is also leadership.”

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Nick’s Top Advice:

• Sharpen your skills through classes, books, and other resources.
• Ensure your hires are all good communicators.
• Create rapport and maintain strong relationships with your network because this will pay off in your future endeavors.

Nick O’Brien didn’t think he would find himself back in the print packaging industry, a trade that’s been written in his family tree for four generations. Then 2015 came and Nick witnessed how difficult it was for New York City business owners to find print packaging suppliers. This reignited a fire in him, pushing Nick to start his own print packaging business called Templi in 2017.

Don’t end up non-technical

There were already “two big strikes” against Nick starting as a non-technical and solo entrepreneur. Although he had spent his younger years working for his family’s print shop Concept Print, Templi was new territory. Not only was there printing to worry about, there was also the coordination work of wrangling together a reliable group of suppliers, designers, and buyers.

He accepted this operations puzzle completely, “I worked through it by realizing, know what you don't know, and trying to get 1% better and more technical every day.”

Nick took it upon himself to fill in the gaps even without a background in business. Code Academy, an online learning platform for coding, was foundational to Nick’s learning and helped him overcome early obstacles. “You can’t run away from learning,” he says, “you have to try to get proficient in all of these areas before you make your hires.”

“You could start non-technical, but you shouldn't end up non-technical.”

Lead by example

The balance between leader and learner was hectic in the early days of Templi, and Nick could only survive as a one-man operation for so long. Building his team was ultimately a self-assessment of what duties he could and couldn’t handle as a founder. He was “basically replacing [himself] with the things he felt were the most easy to train — like customer service, bookkeeping, artwork.” 

For those beginning the hiring process in their startup, he advises to “start small with the technical hire to keep your costs low, then bring in administrative hires to relieve yourself of smaller tasks, so you can stay focused on sales and the customer relationship.”

‎Now, with 10 people on the team, maintaining a healthy workplace culture is top of mind. “Find people who are good communicators and who raise the standards of the team with each new hire.” As a CEO, that means being eager to receive criticisms from both employees and customers so you know which company standards need to be improved.

“How you deal with problems as CEO is how your culture ends up getting defined.”

Keep in touch with your network

In 2020, Templi was one of many U.S. businesses shocked by the global COVID-19 pandemic. When orders stopped coming in, Nick had to start selling personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep the business afloat, “I relied on some connections I had from living and working in China for a couple of years, and that gave us just enough money to keep the business going.”

Maintaining a network is crucial for Templi since they serve design agencies in charge of multiple brands. “Creatives, by nature, have higher standards, and if we do right by them, we make their life easier, they bring us more customers.”

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“You may think that because you're in ecommerce, you're not physically connected to your customer, but I would implore you to get connected in every way you can — visit a customer, call them, understand deeply the problems you’re trying to solve. Those relationships will pay off for you and them.”‎ —Nick O'Brien on connecting with your customers

Optimize with speed-based KPIs

Nick often talks about iterating quickly, and to him, that means integrating customer feedback. He still makes sure to spend time with customers, whether he’s visiting their offices or getting their feedback through an email.

To make sure they’re on track, their KPIs address consistency and speed: “We're always trying to optimize for anything that involves those two things, like optimizing for repeat orders. We ultimately want to put these types of purchases on autopilot for the customer and create as much consistency as we can.”

Templi’s minimum order quantities (also known as MOQ) are at the high end of the spectrum, with coffee cup orders starting at a minimum of 2,000 cups per order and bar coasters at 2,500. At this level of manufacturing, printing errors and product defects can occur. How does Templi salvage them? Or, more importantly, how do they keep customers happy? 

“To retain a customer, sometimes you may not want to give a certain discount, but then you realize you need to retain them as best you can. That plays into your customer experience, doing whatever you can to keep customers happy, and optimizing the customer experience at every turn.” 

Focus and be present

When the work day ends, Nick comes home to his wife and three-year-old daughter. He is mindful about time, dividing his day into half-hour blocks. For Nick, a great day equates to 10-12 hours of focused work, which he uses carefully: “You need to be able to focus, turn off, and be present for your family.” 

Templi has already beat the odds of startup longevity as a seven-year-old business. Focus is also Nick’s mantra when it comes to leveling up Templi, “Just making those incremental improvements on focus is probably the best thing I've done in building the team.” 

Nick reminds aspiring entrepreneurs not to shy away from collaboration and to continue getting better 1% every day.

“I'm doing my best. I'm not perfect, so I always try and keep getting better everyday.”

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