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TL;DR:
Your Help Center is a great resource for sharing information with customers. And as AI technology transforms customer support, the Help Center now also serves as a data source that provides AI with the knowledge to answer questions.
Gorgias’s AI features function by drawing on information from knowledge sources. For example, Gorgias’s AI can draw upon your past support tickets to generate Help Center content. Likewise, our upcoming AI Agent uses your Help Center to write and send answers to customer questions.
Our AI Agent is coming July 1st (with a Beta starting in May). Below, we'll explain why an up-to-date Help Center that covers all your policies is the best way to prepare for AI Agent, gain admission to the Beta, and resolve 30%+ of your email support interactions.
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AI Agent is a conversational AI tool that answers customer support emails by learning your brand’s policies and processes from your Help Center. It can understand a wide array of questions and generate unique responses that are helpful, personalized, and accurate.
Unlike AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, which are trained on public information, AI Agent specifically works with your data. Its first layer of support is your Help Center, a database of articles about your products and policies. From there, you can complement its knowledge with data from Macros and connected ecommerce tools like Shopify.
With AI Agent as your level 1 support, your team can focus on escalated or VIP tickets and other projects you may not currently have time for.
The crucial step to fully prepare AI Agent is to make sure your Help Center articles are accurate and up-to-date. You don’t need to have your Help Center published or linked on your website — however, articles must be published and not saved as drafts.
To hit the ground running with AI Agent, your Help Center must meet a few criteria. Here’s a checklist to prepare your Help Center:
Ideally, customers should find answers with just one click. You can achieve this by publishing articles that answer your customers’ top concerns.
We’ve compiled the most important Help Center articles to have, with the starred questions being essential to include. You can skip to the bottom of this post to find templates for these topics:
As an online business, your information constantly changes, including policies, product updates, and brand revamps. Review older articles, particularly those over a year old, to ensure the information is still accurate.
Here are the most important elements to update:
If your articles point to other web pages, you’ll want to make sure the right texts are hyperlinked, and the links do not lead to 404 pages.
Some important links to include:
💡 Pro Tip: Avoid including statements in your articles like, “To resolve this issue, contact us at [email]” as this confuses the AI Agent.
Ensure your articles are published so AI Agent can learn from them. Whether the article is Unlisted or Public, you must take them out of Draft mode. An article left in Draft mode remains invisible to AI Agent. To confirm that your article is published, check the top right corner of the editor to ensure the article is “Published” and not “Unsaved.”
That said, if you’re not ready to share your Help Center with customers, you don’t need to publish the Help Center itself.
Related: How to boost your Help Center’s visibility
If you don’t currently have a Help Center, you can set one up and start filling it with articles within a couple of hours. Below are three strategies that will let you create the most comprehensive Help Center, fast.
When you create a Help Center on Gorgias, you can access the AI Library. The AI-generated articles are based on your past conversations with customers and their concerns. You can edit them to suit your brand voice and policies.
As of now, only accounts with a single Shopify store connected have access to the AI Library. We expect multi-store accounts to gain access to this feature by mid-May 2024.
Related: Our AI Library Help Doc
Accelerate the setup of your Help Center by using pre-written article templates. These templates cover common customer inquiries and ensure consistency in response quality and format.
Gorgias offers six ready-to-use Help Center article templates that cover essential topics. These templates enable you to quickly establish a strong database without wasting agents’ time.
Take stock of your existing content, such as FAQs, product guides, and blog posts. Convert this content into Help Center articles and properly categorize them based on the topic for seamless user navigation.
💡 Pro Tip: Each article should only ask one question. This helps AI Agent to easily decipher the purpose of each article.
To speed up Help Center creation, we’ve provided article templates covering topics from shipping and tracking and account creation to product information. Simply edit the details and add the necessary links based on your policies.
⭐️ Where is my order? (WISMO)
To check the status of your order, please visit our Order Tracking Portal and enter your email address and order number. We update our tracking information as soon as it is available.
⭐️ How do I track my order?
Once your order has shipped, we'll send you a confirmation email with a tracking link. Click on the link to view the latest updates on your order and its estimated delivery date.
⭐️ How do I get my tracking number?
Your tracking number will be emailed to you when your order ships. If you haven't received it, please check your spam folder. If it's not there, please contact our customer support team.
⭐️ How much does shipping cost?
Shipping costs vary depending on the weight of your order and the destination. To view shipping costs, simply add items to your cart, proceed to checkout, and enter your shipping address. The applicable shipping fees will be displayed before you finalize your order.
⭐️ Do you offer free shipping?
Yes, we offer free standard shipping on orders over [$#]. A standard shipping fee will be applied to orders under [$#].
⭐️ Do you ship worldwide?
We ship to [#] countries worldwide. Shipping costs and times vary depending on the destination. For detailed information and to see if we ship to your country, please visit our international shipping page.
⭐️ Do you offer expedited shipping?
Yes, we offer expedited shipping options for most locations. You can select your preferred shipping method at checkout. Additional charges will apply for expedited shipping.
⭐️ How long does delivery take?
Delivery times vary depending on the destination and the shipping method selected. For standard shipping in [country], expect your order to arrive within 5-7 business days. International orders may take 10-20 business days.
Why can’t I track my order?
If you can’t track your order, it may be for several reasons: the tracking information is not yet available, the tracking number is incorrect, or there may be a delay in the tracking system updates.
Please allow up to 24 hours for your tracking information to become available after receiving your shipping confirmation email. If you still face issues, contact our customer support team for further assistance.
⭐️ Can I edit or add anything to my order?
Once an order is placed, we are unable to make changes to the order. However, if you need to update your shipping address or contact information, please contact our customer service team immediately after placing your order.
⭐️ How do I apply promo/discount codes?
To apply a promo or discount code, proceed to checkout and enter your code in the 'Discount Code' field. Click 'Apply' to see your new total before finalizing your order. Only one code can be used per order.
What methods of payment do you accept?
We accept various payment methods including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and PayPal.
Please note that we do not accept personal checks or money orders.
Where do I get promo codes/discounts?
To get promo and discount codes, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, check our homepage, and follow us on social media to get the latest deals.
My promo code isn’t working.
The promo code you entered may not work due to an incorrect input (check that you have entered the right letters and numbers), specific conditions (like minimum spend), or an expiry date. If you continue to experience issues, please contact our support team for assistance.
I forgot to add a promo code but already made a purchase.
If you forgot to apply a promo code at checkout, please contact our customer service team as soon as possible. Depending on the status of your order, our team may be able to apply the promo code for you.
How do Shop Pay installments work?
Shop Pay Installments allow you to split your purchase into multiple payments, interest-free. At checkout, choose Shop Pay, select 'Installments', and follow the prompts to set up your payment plan.
How do I update the billing information on my order?
To update your billing information, you may log in to your account and change your information from the Account Settings page. If you do not have an account, please contact our customer service immediately.
How do I purchase a gift card?
Gift cards can be purchased directly from our website. Visit our gift card section, choose the amount, and complete the purchase. The gift card will be directly emailed to you or to the specified recipient.
How do I use a gift card for my purchase?
To use a gift card, enter the code in the 'Gift Card or Discount Code' box at checkout. The value of the gift card will be deducted from your order total.
Do you price match for sales?
We offer price matching for sales within [specific timeframe] of purchase. If an item you’ve bought goes on sale within this period, please contact our customer service to adjust the price difference. Note that certain conditions may apply.
⭐️ What is your return/exchange policy?
We accept returns and exchanges within [30] days of purchase. Items must be in their original condition and packaging. Some items may not be eligible for return. Please see our detailed return policy for more information.
⭐️ What is your cancellation policy?
Orders can be canceled within 24 hours. After this period, we may not be able to cancel your order as it might already be in processing or shipment.
⭐️ How do I initiate a return?
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns & Exchanges Portal and enter your order number and email address.
⭐️ How do I initiate an exchange?
To exchange an item, please visit our Returns & Exchanges Portal.
⭐️ How do I cancel my order?
If you need to cancel your order, please contact us immediately. If your order has not yet been processed, we will cancel it and issue a full refund. If the order is already processed, please refer to our Returns & Exchanges policy.
⭐️ How do I get a refund?
Refunds are processed upon receipt and inspection of the returned item. Please allow up to 10 business days for your refund to be credited back to your original form of payment.
⭐️ Order is marked delivered but not here.
If your order is marked as delivered but you haven't received it, please check around your delivery location and with neighbors. If you still can't locate it, contact our customer support for assistance.
⭐️ What do I do if I receive the wrong item in my order?
If you receive the wrong item, please contact our customer service immediately. We will arrange for the correct item to be sent to you and provide instructions for returning the incorrect item.
I received the right product but in the wrong size/style/color.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please contact our customer service team within [#] days of receiving your order to initiate an exchange for the correct size/style/color. Visit our Returns & Exchanges policy for more information.
What should I do if an item is missing from my order?
We're sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your order. Please check your confirmation emails to ensure all items were included in your shipment. If an item is missing, please contact our customer service team immediately so we can resolve the issue.
What can I do if my item doesn't fit or isn't true to size?
If the item you purchased does not fit, you can return it for a refund or exchange it for a different size. Please refer to our Returns & Exchanges policy for details on how to initiate a return or exchange.
What should I do if I'm having a reaction to the product?
Your safety is our priority. Please stop using the product immediately and consult a healthcare professional as needed. To report a reaction and request a return or exchange, contact our customer support team. We also recommend checking the ingredients list to identify any potential allergens.
What should I do if my order arrived damaged?
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please take a photo of the damaged item and email it to our customer service department within [#] days of delivery. We will assist you with a return or exchange as quickly as possible.
Where can I find sizing information?
Our sizing runs true to size unless stated otherwise.
For detailed sizing information, please visit our Sizing Guide page. The guide includes size charts and tips on measuring yourself to ensure the best fit.
Which style is best suited for my needs?
Our various styles cater to different preferences and requirements. For a breakdown of our styles and their best uses, please check out our detailed Style Guide.
What are the materials or ingredients used in this product?
We use high-quality materials/ingredients to ensure the best experience with our products. For a full list of the materials or ingredients in this product, visit the product page.
What product do you recommend for [trait/preference/condition]?
For [trait/preference/condition], we recommend our [Product Name], designed to provide a [benefit here].
How do I use this product?
For optimal results, follow these steps:
How long does this product last and how should it be stored?
This product typically lasts [X amount of time] when used as directed. Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. For perishable products, refrigeration may be required.
What's the best way to care for this product?
To maintain the quality of your product, we recommend [specific care instructions, e.g., machine wash cold, hand wash only]. For more detailed care instructions, please visit our Care Guide.
What's the difference between Product A and Product B?
Product A is designed for [specific use], while Product B is better suited for [different use].
⭐️ How do I use these rewards points?
You can redeem your rewards points at checkout. Enter the amount of points you wish to apply in the 'Rewards' field, and the discount will be applied to your total.
⭐️ I’m having trouble logging in.
If you're having trouble logging into your account, please try resetting your password using the 'Forgot Password' link on the login page. If you still experience issues, contact our customer support team for help.
⭐️ How do I cancel my membership/subscription?
To cancel your membership or subscription, please log into your account and navigate to the 'Subscriptions' section. You can choose to cancel your subscription from there. If you need assistance, our customer service team is here to help.
⭐️ How do I skip a subscription shipment?
You can skip a subscription shipment by logging into your account, going to the 'Subscriptions' section, and selecting the shipment you wish to skip. Please do this before the billing date for the next shipment.
⭐️ How do I update my subscription items?
To update the items in your subscription, log into your account and visit the 'Subscriptions' tab. You can add or remove products or change the quantities for your next shipment.
How do I set up an account?
Create an account [here] by using the same email address you ordered with.
Please note that if you haven’t created a password, you do not have an account. Additionally, signing up for our emails or ordering doesn't mean you have created an account.
How do I become a member/subscriber/loyalty program?
Become a member by visiting our Membership page.
What are the membership benefits?
You’ll earn many perks as a [company name here] member! Upon joining, you’ll receive a 10% off discount on any purchase.
Plus, more benefits:
I forgot my password.
To reset your password, please click [here].
How do I change my default address?
You can change your default address from your Account settings.
If you need to change your shipping address for a current order, please [contact us].
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Nick’s Top Advice:
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
“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
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.”
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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Since ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, customer service automation has stormed its way into almost every industry, including ecommerce. This leap in technology has paved the way for companies to increase their support efficiency dramatically, as demonstrated by the buy-now-pay-later service Klarna, which recently resolved two-thirds of customer service chats with AI.
The business gains arising from automation are evident. Faster and smarter tools mean less time handling mundane tasks and more time improving the customer journey with meaningful conversations, personalized experiences, and seamless upselling opportunities.
At Gorgias, our mission is to elevate customer experiences with automated solutions. To determine the impact, we analyzed data from over 14,000 merchants who use automation compared to those who do not.
Our data revealed a 36% increase in repeat purchases, a 37% reduction in first response time, a 52% reduction in resolution time, a 27% decrease in the ticket-to-order ratio, and a 1% increase in CSAT when automation is used.
These compelling results assert our belief in automation as the next, inevitable step for scaling support teams.
“AI is going to help us transform ourselves into deeper thinkers by taking over simple, standardized functions” —Ron Shah, CEO and Co-founder at Obvi
Before automation, customer service teams scrambled to hire more agents as their customer bases grew. When Black Friday and other peak seasons arrived, hiring more agents was the Band-Aid fix. Today, companies are opting for leaner support teams as automation allows them to do more with less. The benefit? Teams can scale and improve the quality of service without temporarily bringing on new staff.
Automation works like a junior support agent but at a higher efficiency. It can handle frequently asked questions like where is my order? and customize responses according to brand voice. So, as repetitive tasks are handled in the background, agents can focus on more complex tickets, such as product-specific questions or technical issues that require troubleshooting.
“Before, agents had to handle it all. Now, they rarely take a ticket about frequently asked questions. They’re only handling escalations, special product-related questions, and things like that.” —Caela Castillo, Director of Customer Experience, Jaxxon
The flexibility of automation makes it the ideal tool for personalized customer service. Aside from being a keyboard shortcut or macro, automation can be a hands-off assistant that can engage customers and influence as much as 25% of revenue.
At Gorgias, automation is at the core of our products, powering almost every feature in Helpdesk, Automate, and Convert. It allows merchants to deliver delightful and personalized customer interactions across various channels and touchpoints in the customer journey.
While automation is only one of many factors, we’ve found it to positively impact support performance metrics. Based on our data, merchants who used automation saw clear improvements in repeat purchase rates, response times, resolution times, tickets per order, and CSAT scores.
Retaining customer loyalty is challenging even when brands launch loyalty programs, as customers are discouraged by the effort required to receive rewards. However, Gorgias data shows that simply using automation can increase repeat purchase rates. Within 28 days, merchants who automated up to 20% of tickets increased their repeat purchase rate by 8 points.
Yoga apparel brand Manduka used Gorgias Convert's on-site campaigns to influence customers to purchase multiple products. The campaign convinced shoppers to hit a $100 order total for free shipping by recommending small additional items they may be interested in. Their campaign brought in nearly $12,000, proving that automation can directly affect revenue.
“We want to be able to target our repeat customers who have purchased a lot, and say, ‘Welcome back! Here's a new product that would go wonderfully with the item you bought last time.’ It would be a wonderful translation of the in-person retail experience where staff know what you like, so they can assist you better.” —Jessica Botello, Customer Service Manager at Manduka
Automated responses resolve tickets in zero seconds and result in faster first response times. On average, merchants using automation respond 37% faster than ones who don’t automate customer service.
Responding to customers as quickly as possible is especially important during busy seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday so that revenue-generating questions don’t get pushed to the backlog. The customer experience team at health supplement brand Obvi was able to drive 3x more purchases from support conversations compared to previous years.
Faster response times also mean agents are able to make stronger connections with customers. For Obvi’s CX team, it translated to more time to engage with their vibrant Facebook community:
“Instantly, our CX team had time to prioritize important matters, like being active in our community of 75,000 women instead of sitting answering emails.” —Ron Shah, CEO and Co-founder at Obvi
When customer tickets are automated, resolution times improve dramatically. Merchants using automation resolved tickets 52% faster than those without.
Automation is especially helpful in answering pre-sales questions. High-end luggage retailer July deflected 450 tickets a month immediately after activating Quick Responses, one-click FAQs that live in Chat. Their Head of Operations and CX, Alex Naoumidis, notes that setup was “so easy, with a huge payoff.”
This significant efficiency gain ensures customers are well-educated about their products, leaving agents time to personalize the rest of the customer journey.
As automated responses provide quick solutions to customer issues, customers need to contact support less. Based on our data, brands that automate 10% or more of their tickets see a decrease in billable tickets per order. Brands with little to no automation do not see a significant improvement in the ticket-to-order ratio.
For apparel brand Shinesty, automating more than 10% of tickets greatly decreased the number of tickets per order by 27%. Self-serve tools like interactive conversations called Flows and Article Recommendations enabled customers to solve issues relating to discounts, subscription policies, and returns on their own.
“Automate would be useful for any ecommerce company that needs to lower their ticket counts, or wants to provide a more consistent experience.” —Molly Kerrigan, Senior Director of Retention at Shinesty
Thirty days after setting up automation in Gorgias, brands enjoyed a 1% increase in CSAT score, a 4.51 score compared to 4.46 for non-automating brands. Even though satisfaction only nudged an inch, the positive effects reached support teams, improving agent morale and team alignment.
Molly Kerrigan, Senior Director of Retention at Shinesty, emphasizes the importance of preserving quality customer interactions during growth, "We get a lot of praise from our customers, and they talk highly of our CX team after 1:1 interactions. We can’t lose that as we scale."
Since Gorgias provides in-depth conversation analytics, CX teams are finally able to see their impact.
“Tracking customer satisfaction scores in Gorgias is a really big help to us. Before, we didn't know if we were doing well or not, but now we can see people like the service we provide. We use the KPI tracking data for internal monthly meetings to review performance and see where we can improve,” says Deja Jefferson, Customer Experience Manager at Topicals.
Clearly, balancing automation with personalization significantly improves the customer journey. Given that customers with positive customer experiences are 2.7 times more likely to do repeat business, the value of automation is unmistakable.
AI progress has advanced in a short amount of time. But to remind you, this is only the beginning of what automation and AI can do in customer service. We envision AI as a constant work in progress, meant to intake information until it is capable enough to handle more complex tasks. This means agents will spend more time building strong customer connections and finding ways the business can grow.
Gorgias is at the forefront of this evolution, developing automation and AI-driven solutions like an AI-generated Help Center, an AI Agent, a generative AI assistant that autonomously answers customer questions, and an Interaction Quality Score to measure and report on AI-customer interactions. Gorgias aims to transform how support teams and customers interact with AI, paving the way for more impactful customer experiences on a human scale.
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The best in CX and ecommerce, right to your inbox
TL;DR:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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?
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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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 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 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:
You can peek at the campaign setup below. It runs 24/7, ready at any moment to engage:
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.
Mia, Head of Customer Experience at Glamnetic, shares the strategy behind the success: “The aim was to elevate the visibility of new releases without requiring customers to hunt for them. Our onsite campaigns proactively present our latest products through compelling visuals and straightforward navigation, simplifying the decision-making process for the buyer.”
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.
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:
By proactively addressing potential questions and concerns, Manduka enhances the shopping experience, leading to higher satisfaction and fewer post-purchase issues.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
The results were telling:
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.
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
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.
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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TJ’s Top Advice:
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.
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.”
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.
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
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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TL;DR:
This year, we witnessed customer service teams from 16,140 brands support over 77 million shoppers and millions of tickets with Gorgias.
As we turn to a new chapter, we want to spotlight how six of the top-performing industries delivered customer service in 2023.
From food to fashion, we’ll see how quickly agents answered questions, then discover what customers were asking, and learn from experts about what customer experience trends to expect in the new year.
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Step into the ecommerce world, where you’ll find a vibrant population of merchants, each with their own niche and groups of loyal customers. Together, they generated $1.45 billion in revenue in 2023.
Of course, this would not have been possible without the grit of customer service teams and their dedication to customer satisfaction.
Support teams across 20 industries answered customer inquiries within one business day and solved them in two and a half, resulting in very satisfied shoppers. Impressively, 15% of interactions were fully automated and resolved on average.
Here are the average industry support stats:
The most popular ecommerce industries — Apparel and Fashion, Health, Wellness, and Fitness, Cosmetics, Food and Beverage, Consumer Goods, and Luxury Goods and Jewelry — were the top performers.
Using exclusive Gorgias data, we’ll look at how support teams from these industries handled tickets. Then, we’ll gain expert insight into the ecommerce experience in 2023, and how experts predict it will change in the coming year.
Our first stop is the bustling market of Apparel and Fashion. We’re all familiar with how tricky online clothes shopping can be. Most likely due to issues with sizing and style, support teams mainly dealt with inquiries about:
Yet, despite receiving the highest number of customer tickets among the six industries, Apparel and Fashion brands kept customers happy. They responded within one business day and resolved issues within two, with 15% of interactions being resolved with automation.
Here are their stats compared to the overall industry average:
According to Loop, over 50% of their merchants now charge for certain returns, including fees for exchanges and returns for store credit. This change aligns with consumer preferences, as their report shows 70% of shoppers are willing to pay for premium, convenient experiences, a trend already embraced by half of these customers.
The next stop on our tour is the thriving Health, Wellness, and Fitness industry.
Unfortunately, brands in this sector had a challenging year keeping up with unpleasant tickets about:
Perhaps support teams could have automated more than 15% of interactions to handle these repetitive tickets better. But despite their slower-than-average first response time, customers were still pleased with the support experience:
Expert Insights: Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at women’s wellness brand Love Wellness, highlights that personalized customer service has been a key trend of 2023. She’s observed that customers now expect to receive personal recommendations during their shopping journeys.
Now, take a peek at the fast-growing Cosmetics industry, and you’ll see how eager customers were to check out the hype around both small businesses and celebrity brands.
Given the boom of influencer marketing for these highly personal products, customers often inquired about:
To solve these tickets, support teams automated 18% of interactions and attained faster times than average:
Getting hungry? This year, the growing appetite for Food and Beverage in the ecommerce world was unmistakable. Beef jerky or freshly squeezed fruit juice, customers savored their snacks. But it also didn’t stop them from being tough critics.
The main issues raised to Food and Beverage support teams revolved around:
Luckily, they cut down their first response time by automating 15% of interactions — nearly three hours faster than average:
Expert insights: Zoe Kahn, former Manager of CX & Retention at Chomps and now Owner of Inevitable Agency, saw inventory issues as a major challenge of 2023. The complexity of inventory logistics is difficult for consumers to understand, leading to higher outreach from customers wondering when items would be back in stock. "Quieting those concerns is really difficult," Zoe notes. However, after witnessing inventory issues over the last few years, Zoe realized that "it's inevitable that inventory problems will happen because of how challenging the logistics of selling a product are."
There’s a lot to explore in the all-encompassing Consumer Goods industry. You’ll find brands that sell everything from sustainable water bottles and furniture to everything else in between, like dog toys and mystery subscription boxes.
While Consumer Goods brands only automated 14% of interactions, their resolution time was two hours faster than the industry average, resulting in the happiest customers among the six industries:
The top tickets Consumer Goods brands received were about:
Expert Insights: Ren Fuller-Wasserman, the Director of Experience at TUSHY, notes that the impact of the macroeconomic climate was among the top challenges faced in 2023. “As there's talk of recession and inflation, people are really looking for products that provide added value,” she says.
Our partner Okendo, a growth marketing platform that has worked with well-known brands like SKIMS and Rhode, notes that tech stack consolidation has been the top priority in 2023. They saw that merchants who used a multifaceted product with app integrations resulted in a 15x return on investment.
Our final stop is at the small gem of an industry, Luxury Goods and Jewelry. Making sure their pricey wares arrived to customers safely was the top priority. That’s why the top questions support teams received were in regard to:
Out of all the industries, Luxury Goods and Jewelry brands automated the most interactions at 28%, which certainly helped to shorten response and resolution times:
Expert Insights: Caela Castillo, Director of CX at Jaxxon, advises preparing early for BFCM but being flexible to change. She notes, “Sometimes you need a different perspective,” acknowledging that agents are valuable resources to gain customer insights, especially when it comes to planning new customer service strategies.
It’s been a fruitful year of expediting the traditionally slow support process. However, with greater strides made in AI technology, ecommerce has only scratched the surface of providing accelerated service.
We interviewed ecommerce experts who saw the rise and fall of trends in 2023 and are ready to use their learnings to make the new year better.
Here are the top four actions ecommerce companies should take in 2024.
We’re constantly fed an endless stream of new technology, which can be a distraction to business goals. That’s why the CTO of ecommerce agency Novatize, Pierre-Olivier Brassard, highly recommends planning a robust strategy first. Clear business goals will help teams pick the best tools — not the other way around.
Customer service management platform TalentPop saw AI as the top CX trend of 2023. They foresee late adopters using AI next year, while early adopters will focus on optimization. To get ahead of the game, TalentPop recommends that support teams research all AI options since CX will only become more saturated with AI tools.
Brandon Amoroso, Founder & President at Electriq and Co-founder at SCALIS observed similar trends. In 2023, many CX teams implemented more self-service options for customers. Going into 2024, Brandon notes that a “continual integration of AI into the entire customer experience” is likely.
As social shopping gains traction, marketing platform Yotpo predicts customers are going to look for more real-time communication with brands. In fact, HubSpot reports a 45% year-over-year surge in using social media DMs for customer service. Therefore, using tools that enable interactions through DMs or text, like Yotpo SMS, will be a crucial strategy in the upcoming year.
Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, advises CX leaders to ensure their contributions are recognized. Kwasniewicz notes that support teams often know the business better than any other department. "Beat the CX drum loudly. If you're not in the room, find a way in the room," she stresses.
If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know that unhappy customers are unavoidable. Customer satisfaction has plummeted since 2018, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
That’s why top brands don’t wait until angry customer emails arrive to decide how to respond. By setting up processes and templates ahead of time, your customer support team doesn’t need to craft responses from scratch. Especially while emotions are running high and angry customers are waiting for responses.
Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to process and respond to angry customer emails, considerations for handling angry or rude customers without making the situation worse, and tips to prevent angry customers by improving your customer experience (CX). We'll also share templates and sample emails for how to respond to:
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When customers aren’t happy with your product, service, or customer support, the stakes are high. You could lose them as a repeat customer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Angry customers also go and tell their friends and family, either by word-of-mouth, on social media, or via a Google review.
The Effortless Experience found that 96% of disgruntled customers who had a high-effort or bad experience with a brand feel disloyal to that brand afterward. In other words, a frustrating, high-effort experience will irreversibly damage your brand's reputation for almost any customer, whether they’re first-time or regular shoppers. That spells trouble for your bottom line.
Also, your customer service team doesn’t want to respond to nasty emails all day long. Customer service can already be an emotionally challenging role, and spending all day dealing with angry customers is a quick path toward burnout and quitting.
📚 Related reading: Read our guide to hiring A+ customer service agents, written in partnership with customer service agency Helpflow.com.
Respond to angry customer emails by acknowledging the customer's frustration, owning any mistakes, gathering additional context, confirming you understand the entire situation, and fully resolving the issue.
These messages are high-stakes: When someone writes to your organization with an angry message, they’re angry enough to sit at their keyboard and express their anger. You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media.
You’re lucky they wrote to you — the next message could be on a review website or social media.
It’s imperative to respond to every single angry customer email — ideally with fast response times.
If you have a small team or are only online for certain parts of the day, consider setting up a standard automated reply to confirm receipt of their email. We listed this as step 0 because it’s not a catch-all solution: You should not send this kind of email if you’re able to provide a human response within an hour or two. Nobody likes an extra, unnecessary email.
If you do choose to activate this kind of response, it should:
Here’s a mockup of how to create this kind of automated response with Gorgias Rules:
📚 Recommended reading: Get more tips and tricks to improve your response times.
This may seem obvious, but unless you address every point the customer makes, you’re only prolonging the correspondence and further irritating them.
It’s easy to overlook something the customer says, particularly if the email’s pretty emotive or raises several points. So, try to summarize what they’re complaining about in a separate text document or as a note on the ticket in your helpdesk.
Consider bullet-pointing each issue to ensure you answer every aspect of their message, as shown in the internal note above.
Before responding, consider if there’s any research you can do on your end to resolve the issue faster. For example, if a customer asks whether an item will come back in stock, you may look up similar items currently available if that customer is in a time crunch (like for the holidays).
You’ll also want to ensure you have all of the context you need to provide a full resolution for that customer.
For example, if a customer is trying to track down a lost package, take a look at the package history and order date to better understand why they’re upset and whether you’ll need to re-send the item or reach out to the carrier on their behalf.
Ideally, your helpdesk has integrations with shipping software (like AfterShip) so you can see this information right next to the customer’s message (rather than having to navigate to a new tool).
Some requests, whether from a VIP customer, the urgency of the issue, or its scale, need to be escalated right away. Based on the policy you’ve set out for your support team members, encourage them to forward major concerns to the correct team quickly.
📚 Recommended reading: Read our Director of Support’s guide to prioritizing customer service requests.
Yes, you've already done this in your automated message – but it doesn't hurt to do it again. So, always say thank you at the start of your email. You must acknowledge their complaint and show you care about their feedback.
For instance, if a customer has written to complain, you could start with something along the lines of:
Thank you for contacting [your company name] and letting us know about your experiences with our [insert name of the product/situation]. We appreciate you contacting us to let us know. We value customer feedback so that we can work to provide you with gold-plated customer service.’
If you're not already, it's time to take a personalized approach to customer service. While this means taking a more holistic approach to the service process in general, the first step is to take note of small details, like using a customer’s name in correspondence.
Consumers crave a personalized experience; they want to be treated as individuals, not as just another support ticket. That means avoiding asking them for information they’ve already given you again. It also means using a customer support tool that provides all of their historical account information in one place. Your helpdesk should show all past orders, correspondence with support, shipping address information, and even marketing emails they’ve received and clicked on.
For example, Gorgias’ Customer Sidebar provides customer information right next to the ticket that can help you personalize the message.
If your customer has taken the time to bring an issue to your attention, it’s polite and good practice to acknowledge that. So, in your response, reflect on what they’ve told you.
For example, you could write something like this:
‘I can see that you’re frustrated [insert a suitable empathic summary of the customer’s feelings] about your experiences with our product/customer service. We can see how, on this occasion, we didn’t reach our normally high standards of delivery.’
Always focus on solving the customer’s problem. Find a solution and clearly explain the resolution to the customer’s complaint.
For example, if they’re upset about a product’s quality or performance, you need to refer them to your returns and replacements policy. On some occasions, it may be necessary to escalate a complaint if it’s not within your power to resolve. In which case, again, follow the protocol your company has to handle the specific issue so that it complements your current chain of command.
According to a research study conducted by Gartner and later coined The Effortless Experience, 45% of customers who have a positive support experience tell less than three people. In contrast, 48% of customers with a negative experience shared it with over ten people.
While a positive, low-effort solution is a short-term expense for you, it could keep the customer on your side, netting future purchases or at least minimizing negative word of mouth and reviews.
If a customer is still upset after you’ve already offered a solution, chances are it wasn’t the right one. Ensure that you’re able to give the customer a few different options for a resolution in case the original one didn’t work for them (or wasn’t the result they hoped for).
Of course, this should only go as far as your support policy states. If possible, tag in a customer service lead to see if you can make an exception to your policy. In a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can tag specific agents or an escalated team.
Above, we covered the steps to follow when responding to angry emails. Below, we’ll share some high-level considerations to keep in mind when crafting responses.
Use clear language and show empathy. Always consider your audience. Remember, your audience doesn’t know your organization's internal workings or technical aspects.
Interestingly, 65% of online shoppers prefer casual over a formal tone in their customer service interactions. That said, if the customer isn’t happy with your response or solution, 78% said that an overly casual style would elicit an adverse reaction from them.
Why? Because it sounds like you're not taking their problem seriously.
Also, consider the words you use. For example, remove any uses of the “but” from your responses. By eliminating negative terms like this, you’ll exude more of a positive tone, which works wonders for altering perception.
For example:
“Thank you for contacting us, but we don’t provide that service.”
Vs.
“Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, we're unable to provide that service. We do, however, provide the following….”
See the difference?
Through practice and experience, you’ll be better positioned to sense your customer’s tone. For example, if the customer’s frustration radiates through their message, show empathy by offering reassurance and the right level of apology.
There’s nothing worse than grammatical and spelling errors. Re-read your response and run it through a spelling and grammar checker. If in doubt, ask a colleague to double-check it for you.
Some reputable online spell checkers include Grammarly, Reverso, and Language Tool. Your organization may already have a subscription for marketing or other purposes, so check what’s available.
The key to understanding whether a customer is truly angry is empathy and context.
Use empathy to dissect the tone and language a customer uses in their correspondence with you. Then, use the context they've given you and that you have about their order history to piece together their entire situation.
For example, a customer might write in about a lost or delayed package. Based on the language they’re using, and the fact that they paid to upgrade shipping to get it in time for a friend’s birthday, tells you that this customer is angry and in need of a fast resolution.
You should strive to provide top-notch support no matter if a customer is merely frustrated versus angry. But, your communication, time to resolution, and the solution you offer need to be even more considerate when dealing with someone who is truly irate.
Sometimes, angry or frustrated customers will use profanity when complaining about an issue. The best responses to rude customers involve focusing on what the problem is to help get them to a solution.
Some customer service phrases to use include:
You may already have a series of customer service email templates you and your team use to handle various customer complaints. However, it’s always worth doing a little housekeeping to ensure they reflect your commitment to great customer service.
This is especially true if your customer service software comes with a set of templates already in existence. Don't make the mistake of just using these as they are. Instead, personalize them to reflect your own brand’s voice and tone.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a summary version of some of the examples above to illustrate how to respond to an upset customer:
Dear [insert customer name],
Thank you for contacting us. I'm very sorry to hear you experienced poor customer service from the [insert your brand name] team.
It’s important to us that our customers are happy, so we're sorry we could not provide our usual high service standards to you.
Possible paragraph:
Having investigated your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. I'm happy to tell you; we can offer you the following solution [insert an explanation of the answer].
Alternative paragraph:
We're currently investigating your complaint about [insert a summary of the complaint]. Because your complaint involves several departments/strands/suppliers, it will take us a couple of days to get to the bottom of why, on this occasion, you received less than a gold standard of service from us. Thank you for your patience while we investigate this matter. I'll get in contact with you in two days to update you on our progress.
Once the complaint is resolved, you could offer a discount to reduce the number of returns, which are more expensive to your business than exchanges:
We’d like to prove just how important you are to us by offering you a discount of [x%] on your next purchase.
Sign off:
Thank you for bringing this negative experience to our attention. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused.
If there's anything else I can help you with or you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best wishes,
[Name and contact details]
If you use Gorgias, a helpdesk that deeply integrates with your entire ecommerce tech stack (including Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce), feel free to use the copy above as a Macro (which is what we call templated responses).
Your agents can use the template as a starting point and tweak it to meet each customer's unique needs.
Below, we’ve put together a series of templates that you can implement for different angry customer situations.
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.
In addition, I've {{Insert policy: refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right.
We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hello {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out! Your order {{Number of last order}} has been received and we are working on getting it shipped out. Our processing time to ship an order is 3-5 business days, excluding weekends.
We will email you a confirmation once it ships, which will include your tracking information as well.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thanks,
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
We wanted to let you know that your most recent order {{Number of last order}} is currently out of stock. We’re doing everything we can to get more in stock soon and we apologize for the delay!
The good news is that our next shipment should arrive by {{Date of availability}}, and you should receive your order within {{Number of business days}} once the item(s) gets to our warehouse.
Thanks for your patience! We’ll get you taken care of as soon as possible.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. As we try our best to provide exceptional service, some factors like shipping and handling are out of our control and issues like this can happen.
Please send us a photo of the broken/damaged item(s) you received and we’ll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thank you for reaching out! I’m so sorry to hear that you were unable to locate the missing package. Rest assured we will remedy this situation for you.
I have two options to offer: we can ship a replacement to you or issue a full refund for the order instead. If you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We look forward to receiving your reply.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received your order yet. It does appear to be in a delivered status. Sometimes this can be due to an incorrect scan by the carrier. If the package doesn't show up in the next {{Insert the number of days according to your policy}} please reach back out and we will {{insert internal policy}}.
In the meantime, I've contacted the carrier and will be investigating on my end.
Please reach out if I can help with anything else and I will keep an eye out for your email regarding the package.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
We regret to inform you that your order {{order number}} has been delayed.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding. The reason for the delay is {{reason for the delay}}.
You can track the status of your order using this tracking link {{Link to tracking portal}}.
If you’d like to return or exchange your order, you can do so here {{Link to return/exchange portal}}.
Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any questions or can provide further assistance.
Best,
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thank you for letting us know we sent you the wrong product. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are sending you the correct product, the {{correct product name}} and it will be shipped by {{estimated shipping date}}.
We sent it using expedited shipping, so you should receive it {{estimated delivery date}}. Please return {{old product}} in the original shipping box and packaging using the attached shipping label and instructions. Please contact us with any additional questions.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out to us!
Unfortunately, it looks like your order {{Number of last order}} has already been shipped from our warehouse. Therefore, I’m unable to make any changes to it at this time.
If possible, refuse the package at delivery. If that’s not possible, please let me know and I will send you a prepaid shipping label so that you can send the order back to us. Once we receive the order back at our warehouse, I will send a {{Replacement or refund}} to you right away.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Absolutely! I’ve swapped out {{Item name}} for the {{Item name}} you originally selected for order {{Number of last order}}.
If you need anything else, just say the word.
Best,
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thanks for reaching out! For your order that was delivered on {{Shipping date of last order}}, we’d be happy to process a refund for you.
To get the return process started, please go to our {{Link to returns portal}} and follow the steps.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, your order {{Number of last order}} is unable to be returned because it is outside of the time window (30 days) outlined in our return policy.
I apologize for any inconvenience that you’ve experienced because of this.
If there is anything else I can help you with, feel free to reply to this email or visit {{Link to help center}} at any time.
Thank you again,
{{Current agent first name}}
Hey there {{Customer first name}},
Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I see that you are interested in a product exchange. We do allow exchanges, and I’m happy to help you with this right away.
{{Exchange policy and instructions}}
Once you have {{Required action(s)}}, I can process your exchange and get a new {{Product name}} shipped out to you right away.
Thanks again,
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your service experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.
In addition, I've {{Insert policy: coupon, refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right.
We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.
I have CC’d {{Technical/Lead agent first name}} on this email. They will be able to figure out what happened here and will follow up to ensure that we resolve this for you.
{{Current agent first name}}
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for following up with us.
We sincerely apologize that we didn’t get back to you — we’ve been overloaded with requests lately and yours slipped through the cracks. This is not the type of support experience we strive to provide.
To answer your original question {{Provide context and a resolution to the original issue or request}}.
I hope this helps!
All the best,
{{Current agent first name}}
{{Customer First Name}},
Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Concern or issue they had with the brand or their experience}}.
We strive to provide an amazing experience for all of our customers, and sometimes we fall short of doing that. We sincerely apologize for the experience you’ve had with our brand.
As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to offer you {{Discount code, free gift, free shipping on next order; whatever aligns with your policy}}.
Have a great day,
{{Current agent first name}}
{{Customer First Name}},
Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Customer survey, review site, etc.}}.
I wanted to check in and get a little more information from you about your experience. This will help our team improve future experiences for you and other shoppers. If you’re open to it, you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts.
Thanks for your time,
{{Current agent first name}}
Angry customers use harsh language and accusatory words, and often make demands to your company or service team.
Some examples of phrases and words to look out for include:
Additionally, keep an eye out for any language that includes profanity.
As your team grows, you can also use a helpdesk with Intent and Sentiment Detection, which automatically scans tickets to tell you what a customer’s looking for and how they’re feeling. The main benefit is that you can send different automatic responses depending on the customer’s intent and sentiment.
While every brand deals with angry customers from time to time, the best ones design a customer experience that, hopefully, doesn't produce so much frustration. Customer experience is a broad term, but there are a few areas of opportunity to mitigate customer frustration more proactively.
Customer self-service resources is a type of customer experience automation (CXA) that allows customers to quickly solve their own problems. They include:
Being able to self-serve information gets them an immediate resolution and saves them the time and hassle of reaching out to you. You might be surprised how many angry emails you avoid by:
A positive post-purchase experience sets the customer up for success from the very beginning, starting with quick order confirmation emails to fast order fulfillment and going all the way to returns.
A great post-purchase experience involves:
If customers need to reach out to you to ask a question, either pre or post-purchase, your best bet is to make it quick and easy to do so. Channels like live chat support, social media support, and SMS messaging support are more immediate channels where customers can see fast responses.
Live chat and social media, for example, can help you make more sales by answering product questions to quell any objections before a customer makes a purchase. Water filter brand Berkey Filters even advertises their faster channels (live chat and SMS) on the website to steer customers to those fast channels:
The quicker and more seamless you make getting support for your customers, the more likely they are to reach out to you when they have a problem, rather than simply not purchasing from you again.
In addition, some customers look at what support options are available before they make a purchase. Having these options available can help shoppers feel more comfortable and confident that if they have an issue, you’ll be there quickly to help them resolve it.
📚Recommended reading: Check out our CX-Driven Growth Playbook for a more robust list of tactics to improve your customer experience, reduce customer anger, and boost revenue by up to 40%.
You’re now fully prepped to polish your customer support email copy, so even the most unhappy customers walk away happy. Exceptional copywriting isn’t rocket science; it's a skill you can certainly nurture over time, so keep practicing and paying attention to customer responses.
And when you pair great customer service copy with the right customer service automations, you can delight customers at scale. How? You can respond to low-impact tickets (like, "Where is my order?") with helpful, dynamic responses so you have more human time to deal with high-impact tickets like angry customer complaints.
And you don’t need us to tell you that happy customer relationships lead to higher profits. Check out our guide to customer service ROI to learn how to translate your customer service into meaningful business results.
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Finding the best Shopify theme for your business may feel like a huge undertaking — and it is. You have to identify themes, test them, and determine criteria as you go. It can easily start to feel overwhelming.
To make this process a little easier for you, we’ve analyzed 13,191 Shopify stores and hand-picked the 26 most popular themes to help get you started. But before diving in, it’s important to understand how to approach choosing the right Shopify theme for your business.
The top ten Shopify themes we recommend are:
A free theme or a premium one? A template or a custom theme? Which one you should choose actually depends on many factors.
If you’re looking for a Shopify theme for your store but don’t know where to start, answering the following questions might help:
There is no “one size fits all” strategy for choosing a theme because every business is unique, so take time to figure out the questions above to narrow down your options.
Pro tip: Get inspired from established stores by using a Shopify theme detector to identify the theme they’re using. You’ll get a lot of ideas to build your own ecommerce store, for sure.
Shopify hosts a limited selection of themes on their website. These official Shopify themes go through intensive testing for quality and bugs. Usually, they sell at a premium pricepoint compared to non-approved themes — but offer merchants the most effortless and professional-looking stores.
Price: $350
Website: Mojave Shopify Theme
Mojave is a flexible, modern, premium Shopify theme designed by DigiFist. It’s built with fashion, health and beauty, apparel, and clothing brands in mind. Mojave’s modern design features a detailed product page with large images, clean lines, and minimalist fonts that will capture (and hold) your customer's attention. Mojave supports all the new Online Store 2.0 features, such as drag-and-drop sections and blocks to create custom pages in your store without special coding. Mojave comes with flexible, well-designed blocks for images, products, videos, quotes, and more.
Price: $220
Website: Retina Shopify Theme
Developed by Out of the Sandbox, Retina is an ideal choice if you’re selling apparel or furniture and housewares. Retina offers four styles: Austin, Montreal, Melbourne, and Amsterdam, with different color palettes.
Each style includes useful features like product recommendations, multiple home page videos, custom promotion tiles, product image zoom, and slide-out cart. You can also create a self-service FAQ page so customers can find answers to common questions themselves.
If you choose Retina, you can be sure your ecommerce website is mobile-friendly and leveraging Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to reach more Shopify customers.
Price: $350
Website: Flow Shopify Theme
Flow offers three sharp and minimalist designs (Queenstown, Byron, and Cannes) that help your products stand out. This theme is great if you’re selling high-end items or you want to direct customers to unique features of your products.
Flow allows you to feature a YouTube or Vimeo video on the homepage, display your products in a masonry-style grid, and showcase information about a specific collection with a page sidebar. You can also add a slide-out cart so your customers can easily add products to their shopping cart without leaving the current page. There is a promotional banner where you can set up to promote your latest offers.
Keep in mind that you can contact the Flow developers team via email only. The phone and video call support aren’t available.
Price: $260
Website: Paper Shopify theme
Paper is an easy-to-use and modern Shopify theme designed by Brickspace Lab. Paper’s clean and thoughtful design features large imagery with in-depth branding customizations. You will be able to take advantage of new Online Store 2.0 features and build custom templates with expertly designed drag-and-drop sections.
Price: $240
Website: Parallax Shopify Theme
If you want to build a modern ecommerce site, think about Parallax. This theme offers a striking parallax scrolling effect, enhancing your brand’s style and making it more appealing to customers.
Parallax offers four styles: Aspen, Madrid, Vienna, and Los Angeles. These styles share features like parallax effect, a multi-level menu, promotional banner, multiple homepage videos, and slide-out cart.
Parallax is also developed by Out of the Sandbox, so you can be sure you’ll receive excellent customer support from the team.
Price: $350
Website: Taiga Shopify theme
Taiga is a blazing-fast and mobile-first premium Shopify theme for D2C brands designed by award-winning Shopify Plus agency Woolman. It gives you outstanding visual freedom: over 10+ video-supporting sections with unparalleled access to define your design settings. Zero customized code to make your brand feel unique.
Taiga is developed for the needs of modern merchants. Quality code powers winning speed: two components you need as a fast-growing sustainable business.
Additional key features
Price: $260
Website: Testament Shopify Theme
Testament offers four styles (Genesis, Exodus, Revelation, and Deliverance), aiming to help you create a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
Testament supports quick view, multi-column menu, color swatches, collection page sidebar, and homepage video. The theme comes with the sticky navigation feature, allowing you to keep menus fixed to the top of your page as you scroll down.
Price: $350
Website: Prestige Shopify Theme
Prestige is a premium Shopify theme designed for high-end ecommerce businesses and is great for businesses in clothing and accessories, health and beauty, as well as business equipment and supplies. It supports three styles (Allure, Couture, and Vogue) and is great for editorial content, visual storytelling, and physical stores.
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Price: $350
Website: Impulse Shopify Theme
Impulse is great if you often run promotion campaigns because it allows you to display custom promotions in different places in your store.
Impulse allows you to display promotional content on collection pages and promote sales with custom promotion tiles. Its features also include homepage menu lists, collection sub-listing, custom collection sidebar filters, and pickup availability.
Price: $350
Website: Motion Shopify Theme
If you want to use animation and video in your store, consider the Motion theme. It’s a premium Shopify theme designed and supported by Archetype Themes.
Motion includes many interesting features that aim to bring your brand to life regardless of catalog size, including multiple text, image, and page animations as well as multiple auto-play YouTube and videos on homepage.
Price: $320
Website: Symmetry Shopify Theme
Symmetry is another great Shopify theme for stores selling different product categories. It supports four styles: Salt Yard, Beatnik, Chantilly, and Duke.
One of Symmetry’s best features is reorderable homepage rows, allowing you to display products, blog posts, or promotions in any order with customizable rows. Besides, this theme provides slideshow, long-form design, quick buy view, and multi-column menu.
Price: $350
Website: Envy Shopify Theme
Envy offers an intuitive design with four styles: Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Gothenburg. It’s perfect for stores that focus on regular promotions and featured products.
Envy features include display discounts, free gifts, and other promotional content with a pop-up or a banner as well as the ability to tag images using image hotspot linking.
Price: $280
Website: Atlantic Shopify Theme
Atlantic is great for high-volume stores. It’s designed to help you grow and scale your business faster.
Atlantic supports four styles (Organic, Light, Modern, and Chic). Features include a multi-column menu, slideshow, quick buy, modular-style homepage, and pickup availability. This theme receives many five-star reviews on the Shopify theme store because of its excellent customer support.
Price: $300
Website: Modular Shopify Theme
Modular comes in three styles (Chelsa, Mayfair, and Hoxton) that are well-suited for a wide range of products. It also focuses on clean and minimalist design.
Using Modular, you can give customers a better experience with scrolling between product pages, adding items to their carts without leaving pages (one tactic to help recover abandoned shopping carts), and quickly filtering products by brand, price, etc. You can also add customer testimonials to build trust with first-time shoppers.
Price: $340
Website: Empire Shopify Theme
Designed and supported by Pixel Union, Empire allows you to create a store that offers customers the same shopping experience as Amazon. Empire comes with three styles (Graphic, Supply, and Industrial) optimized for stores with large catalogs. Empire offers features like homepage menu lists, pickup availability, live search, advanced product filtering, and quick add-to-cart functionality.
Price: $320
Website: Pipeline Shopify Theme
Pipeline is another minimalist Shopify theme with parallax effect scrolling and three unique styles (Light, Bright, and Dark). This theme is best suited for stores with a large number of products.
Like many other themes in this list, Pipeline offers a multi-column drop-down menu, a modular-style homepage, and advanced product filtering. The theme also supports large images, which means those images fit seamlessly into your pages.
Price: $220
Website: District Shopify Theme
No matter what you’re selling, the District Shopify Theme could be great for your shop if you have large catalogs and a desire to showcase featured products and collections. District features Shopify’s Online Store 2.0, which uses drag-and-drop sections to create custom pages without coding.
Price: $260
Website: Icon Shopify Theme
If you’re looking for a Shopify theme to highlight images and other content, Icon may be perfect for you — especially if you’re also in the fashion, health and beauty, or home and garden industries. Icon is also uniquely set up for stores with large catalogs and dropshippers. This theme also features numerous marketing and conversion features like promo banners, in-menu promos, cross-selling, blogs, back-in-stock alerts, quickview, FAQ page, and store locator.
Price: $240
Website: Responsive Shopify Theme
Looking for a focus on your products? You may want to check out the Responsive Shopify theme as it puts your products and brand at the forefront, utilizing full-width imagery. Responsive is ideal for fashion, beauty, and sports and recreation shops with large catalogs. Even better, the Responsive theme looks stunning on every screen across devices.
Merchants can also find themes that aren’t in Shopify’s official theme library. These themes are often high-quality (especially those with a many reviews and high ratings, like the ones below) and usually a bit less expensive. But they aren’t vetted by Shopify, and therefore may be a little rougher around the edges.
Price: $77
Website: Vendy Shopify Theme
Vendy is a premium multipurpose Shopify theme for fashion. It’s developed for comfortable use and flawless online store creation. Even if you are not tech-savvy at all, with Vendy you can launch a store of any complexity. Plus, this theme is perfect for dropshipping
What’s more? Vendy is a synonym for “responsive clean design.” Also, Vendy allows flexible editing in the Shopify Visual Builder and the number of pre-made layouts. Without a doubt, you will like varied page templates, catchy web forms, product wish lists and lists, and other perks. As well, this Shopify theme for fashion is packed with unique lookbook and blog templates. Just try it and customize it as you prefer!
Price: $89
Website: Ella Shopify Theme
Ella offers +17 homepage layouts, +16 child themes, +7 category pages, +10 product pages, multiple headers and footers, and more. It’s an all-in-one Shopify theme, ideal for any stylish fashion and clothing stores.
Ella allows you to design your store using features like quick shop, quick edit cart, quick update car, multiple languages, multiple currencies, product recommendation, upsell bundle, etc. This theme also includes smart search and suggestion features, enhancing the shopping experience.
Price: $79
Website: Shella Shopify Theme
When it comes to Shopify themes for fashion, Shella can be considered one of the best. This theme is developed with fashion in mind, meaning everything on it is optimized to help you get your fashion stores noticed.
Here is what makes Shella worth checking out:
Price: $99
Website: Basel Shopify Theme
With plenty of design options, Basel allows you to design your store in many different ways. For example, Basel supports the drag-and-drop page builder, making it easy for you to add/remove/replace elements on pages. It also comes with several header variations, colors, and backgrounds.
Price: $99
Website: Porto Shopify Theme
Porto is a popular Shopify theme used by more than 45,000 ecommerce merchants. It’s built with amazing UI and UX experience and is continuously being updated.
Porto’s highlight features:
Price: $89
Website: Wokiee Shopify Theme
As a Premium Shopify theme, Wokiee is not your basic theme; it can act as a powerful design tool to help your business grow. Even with its in-depth premium features, it is still easy to create fast, responsive, and mobile-friendly websites to provide a top-notch user experience.
Price: $59
Website: Roxxe Shopify Theme
The Roxxe Shopify theme is a versatile choice for a shop that wants options but also desires a robust yet modern look. Roxxe has over 70 pre-built homepages, as well as 50 pre-designed layouts with sections you can rearrange and combine as you see fit. Needless to say, Roxxe is a fairly simple theme to use that also comes with plenty of easy-to-follow instructions.
There you have it! We hope this list of the best Shopify themes made it easier to find what you need to get your online shop up and running. And check out our guide on Shopify vs. Shopify Plus if you're interested in additional ways to customize your site beyond these themes. As you continue building your brand and updating your website based on the needs of your customers, you’ll also want to review your customer service process.
Luckily, you can tap into a Shopify helpdesk app like Gorgias to level up.
Gorgias’ customer service platform is uniquely positioned to help Shopify owners with all of their customer service needs, from automating your most common tasks to using machine learning to better help customers.
Learn more about Gorgias for Shopify stores.
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You can — and should — prepare for these mishaps with a library of apology email templates. A timely apology email builds trust, prevents churn, improves your retention rate, protects your bottom line, and keeps your company name in good standing.
According to KPMG, 46% of customers who are truly loyal to a brand will remain so even after a negative experience. They’re also far more likely to recommend a brand to friends and family or write a positive review online.
An effective apology email is your best bet to regain and reinforce customer loyalty after an error or delay. And loyal customers are closely linked to revenue. According to data from more than 10,000 Gorgias merchants, repeat customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time customers.
Continue reading to learn the key components that every effective and sincere apology email should have, as well as some dos and don’ts, to keep customers on your side.
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Apologies can repair the situation or make it worse. If you bungle the apology, you risk losing a customer forever. But a well-executed apology can strengthen your relationship with a customer, as Brianna Christiano, Gorgias's Director of Support, explains.
“In my experience, proactively sending an apology email and admitting that maybe you made a mistake as a company, or you didn't provide the best experience, really builds trust with customers,” says Christiano. “You'd be surprised how many customers will forgive you for that mistake.”
This list will prepare you for creating your own customer service apology emails to make sure you correct the situation without making it worse.
When a mistake happens, you don’t want to be left scrambling. Being prepared ahead of time with email templates will allow you to send out on-brand apology emails and correct the mistake as quickly as possible.
It’s also critical that everyone on your customer support team has access to those templates. Make this part of your customer service training and onboarding to ensure that every customer is receiving the same level of care when an apology needs to happen.
With Macros, Gorgias customers can build a library of customer service responses, including apologies, to send as emails to customers. You can respond directly to tickets in your helpdesk using these Macros and ensure consistent messaging (and the right customer service words), no matter who responds.
Macros are templates that you build for common ticket responses, such as shipping inquiries or apologies, that can be further customized with individual customer information.
Macros integrate with ecommerce platforms (like Shopify or BigCommerce) so you can insert personalized information for each customer. Here’s an example of how Macros use variables to pull customer data directly from BigCommerce (in this case) and automatically personalize the message:
Speed is of the essence when it’s time to send a customer apology email. You should send an apology as soon as you see something has gone wrong, rather than waiting for a customer complaint to come in.
Frustrating or negative customer experiences decrease loyalty. According to The Effortless Experience, 96% of high-effort experiences — such as having to contact the company — make the customer feel disloyal afterward. Frustrated customers can easily turn into angry customers.
“Instead, you're reducing the escalation upfront by being proactive,” says Christiano. “When the company sends an email about an issue the customer didn’t notice, customers appreciate that the company has gone above and beyond.”
Gorgias analyzes incoming tickets for sentiment to detect angry and escalated customers so you can address them before they take their anger out on social media and cause further damage.
You can then apply rules (or automation) to filter tickets based on sentiment and prioritize your customer responses.
A personal apology is always a more sincere apology. When you create your templates for customer apology emails, leave spots to insert personalized information about the affected customer, from the customer’s name to more detailed order information.
You can get even more detailed than that, though. Using Gorgias’ Customer Sidebar feature, your customer success or support team can see information in the sidebar such as:
For example, you could thank a customer for a past review (“Thanks so much for your kind words about our matcha powder!”), or reference a past order (“How did you like the matcha powder you ordered last month?”).
Or, go above and beyond ("Again, so sorry for this issue. I noticed you're a frequent shopper here and I want to thank you for your business and patience as we sort this out — here's a discount code for 15% off your next order: SORRY15!").
If you see a customer has left a negative comment in the past, mention it and tell them how that feedback has helped your brand to correct the issue and provide better service.
Taking the time to personalize customer interactions, including apology emails, directly impacts your revenue. According to a study by Twilio, 98% of companies say personalization increases customer loyalty. Additionally, customers around the world spend an average of 46% more when engagement is personalized.
Being proactive with your apology letters is important, but you can also go too far. Sending these emails to customers who haven’t actually been affected by the issue will just create more headaches for your customer support reps.
“Before you send a mass email to 50,000 customers, make sure that most of those people were impacted. Because if you don't, you're going to create more confusion,” says Christiano.
If, for example, you’re having supply issues, don’t send a mass email to every single customer. Those whose orders are actually unaffected will now think there’s a problem with their orders even if there’s not. That’s going to mean more incoming and unnecessary tickets for you to deal with.
Every company has a different brand identity and style of communication. For some, it may be on-brand to send communications with emojis and playful wording. Others may prefer something more simple and elegant. In any case, you may need to adjust that voice for customer apology letters.
This starts right from the subject line. If a customer’s order is delayed, whether due to shipping issues or stock shortages, that’s a serious issue. Sending a subject line with cutesy wording like “oops” and frowning emojis may communicate that you’re not taking the delay seriously.
“If it's a small inconvenience, I think you can keep it lighter. It really just depends on the severity of the problem,” says Christiano.
Here’s an example of a small mistake that justifies a light-hearted tone:
And here’s an example of a graver issue, handled with more detail and a serious tone:
In the body of the email, use straightforward language that clearly acknowledges the problem rather than dancing around the issue and directly communicate how you’ve corrected the mistake.
Again, this is where creating personalized email apologies comes in. Christiano says you should look at factors like:
Adjust the templates below to fit with your brand’s unique voice, but don’t forget that the wrong tone can make an apology email less effective.
A sincere apology to your customers should directly acknowledge the issue, take full responsibility, tell them what steps are being done to correct it, and give them a reason to come back and shop again.
Consider ending apology letters with some sort of offer — a voucher code for free shipping, a discount coupon code, store credit, or other perks. This demonstrates that you understand the customer has dealt with an inconvenience and you want to make it up to them beyond sending your “sincerest apologies.”
Christiano says it’s a good rule of thumb that if an issue is serious enough that you need to send an apology email, it’s worth considering including some sort of offer. For the most serious issues, you may even want to offer a full refund to retain that customer.
Here’s a great example of a mass email apology that extends the discount for goodwill (and more sales):
Don’t think of offering a coupon code as a further loss. It’s better to take a small hit on the next purchase than to not get the next order at all. Plus, an angry customer may leave negative reviews on your site or social media, driving away other potential customers and impacting your customer satisfaction (CSAT) score.
Below you’ll find useful email templates for every type of apology you may have to send as a brand. These apology email examples have spaces for you to insert personalized information for each customer, such as the customer’s name and shopping history. Use these as a starting point to craft your own letter templates.
This template is for when you’ve had site-wide technical issues or glitch that has impacted your entire customer base. Mass emails are less customized than individual emails, but should still contain all the key parts of a good apology.
Hi {{Customer first name}},
We’re currently experiencing a service outage for {{Website / Product / Service}}. We’re actively working on resolving the issue, which we believe is due to {{Reason for outage}}. We apologize for the inconvenience and assure you we’ll have everything up and running as quickly as possible.
Stay tuned at {{Website / Social media page}} for the latest updates.
Thanks,
{{Current agent first name}}
This is for when a customer’s order will be sent out late. This is when you should consider how to tailor your apology letter to the unique customer and their history with your brand.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
We regret to inform you that your order {{order number}} has been delayed.
We apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding. The reason for the delay is {{reason for the delay}}.
You can track the status of your order using this tracking link {{Link to tracking portal}}.
If you’d like to return or exchange your order, you can do so here {{Link to return/exchange portal}}.
Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any questions or can provide further assistance.
Best,
{{Current agent first name}}
This is for when you have a company-wide issue with delivery times, such as stock shortages or even shipping issues beyond your control, and need to send a mass apology email.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
We’re reaching out to let you know that we’re currently experiencing shipment delays, largely due to {{Cause (e.g. supply chain issues, holiday rush, broken workflows, etc.}}. There will most likely be delays of {{range of business days}} on recent orders.
We understand this is a serious issue and are doing everything in our power to fulfill your orders as quickly as possible. For more information on shipping delays, you can check out {{link to FAQ page}}. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to our team by responding to this email.
Best,
{{Current agent first name}}
This is a customer whose order has been lost This will likely be sent in response to an incoming ticket from an upset customer.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thank you for reaching out! I’m so sorry to hear that you were unable to locate the missing package. Rest assured we will remedy this situation for you.
I have two options to offer: we can ship a replacement to you or issue a full refund for the order instead. If you prefer a replacement order, we kindly ask that you confirm the shipping address of where you would like the replacement order sent. We look forward to receiving your reply.
{{Current agent first name}}
This is for when a customer receives a defective product. You’ll need to provide instructions on what the customer should do next, in addition to an apology.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thanks for reaching out about your recent order {{Number of last order}}. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. As we try our best to provide exceptional service, some factors like shipping and handling are out of our control and issues like this can happen.
Please send us a photo of the broken/damaged item(s) you received and we’ll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible.
{{Current agent first name}}
If the incorrect item, or incorrect quantity of an item, is delivered you’ll need to apologize but also tell the customer what they should do with any incorrect items.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
Thank you for letting us know we sent you the wrong product. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are sending you the correct product, the {{correct product name}} and it will be shipped by {{estimated shipping date}}.
We sent it using expedited shipping, so you should receive it {{estimated delivery date}}. Please return {{old product}} in the original shipping box and packaging using the attached shipping label and instructions. Please contact us with any additional questions.
{{Current agent first name}}
If you sent a piece of email marketing with an incorrect or missing discount code, for example, you should follow up with an apology and correction. And, if it’s not too complicated, explain what caused the miscommunication in the first place, and the steps you’ve taken to prevent it from happening again.
Hi {{Customer First Name}},
On {{day of the communication mistake}}, we experienced a hiccup with {{cause of the error}}. This resulted in you receiving a confusing email — sorry about that!
We addressed the issue and hope to avoid this happening in the future. As a way to apologize for any confusion caused by the last email, we {{Insert policy: temporary discount, free shipping, personalized code, added a credit, etc..}}.
Thank you for understanding. Please respond to this email with any questions!
Best,
{{Current agent first name}}
When a customer is upset, a professional apology can go a long way to correcting the issue and retaining their business.
{{Customer First Name}},
Thanks so much for your feedback on {{Customer survey, review site, etc.}}.
I wanted to check in and get a little more information from you about your experience. This will help our team improve future experiences for you and other shoppers. If you’re open to it, you can just reply to this email and share your thoughts.
Thanks for your time,
{{Current agent first name}}
As we’ve discussed, poor customer experience can decrease loyalty. Correcting the issue and apologizing can help get that loyalty back.
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.
In addition, I've {{Insert policy: refund, added a credit, send a replacement, etc.}} to make this right.
We truly value you as a customer and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
{{Current agent first name}}
If a customer is already escalated, you need to have an apology email that reflects how the customer feels. Unhappy customers can cause lots of damage beyond lost business, including damage to your reputation through social posting and reviews.
Hi {{Customer first name}},
Thank you for reaching out and letting us know about your experience with us. This is not up to our standard and I've passed this along to our team to ensure this doesn't happen again.
I have CC’d {{Technical/Lead agent first name}} on this email. They will be able to figure out what happened here and ensure that we resolve this for you.
{{Current agent first name}}
When mistakes happen, remember that your most valuable customers are the ones who come back again and again. Mistakes create a risk of losing a customer, but it’s also an opportunity to rebuild loyalty and turn a bad situation into a chance for a positive customer service interaction.
Your customer service team should have a clear process in place for winning back upset customers and having a thorough library of sincere, on-brand customer apology emails is a key piece of the process.
For further reading on customer responses, read about Gorgias’ other customer email templates and customer service scripts inspired by top ecommerce brands.
Start a demo with Gorgias today to streamline your customer responses and get the best possible return on investment with customer service.Mistakes happen. Even with the best-laid plans, your ecommerce business will inevitably run into shipping delays, website outages, and other mishaps that cause customer complaints.
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There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to customer service organizational structure, especially as business grows and your customer base evolves. Your customer support team structure includes the structure of your support team and how the support team fits into the larger company’s org chart.
Different-sized teams and companies have different challenges. As you set up your customer service team, you have to give the support team enough autonomy to set and achieve their own goals, but also make sure they’re set up to work cross-functionally with other parts of the business.
Below, we’ll go over the underlying principles of building your team’s structure, the challenges support teams face, and how to improve customer service with an organizational structure that fuels your people and your business.
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Having the right organizational structure can have a huge impact on business outcomes, including revenue and important metrics like response times. Without structure, it’s just agents answering questions repetitively and reactively.
As many as 27% of customers who place an order reach out to support at some point in the buying journey. And 88% say the experience a brand provides is equally as important as the product or services it sells.
Structure helps you improve the system so you’re spending more time on high-impact tasks, and specializing your team so they’re really fast and effective at the activities that drive the most impact — and this will ultimately boost the bottom line. After all, improving the customer experience can increase sales revenues by 2%–7% and profitability by 1%–2%.
One team structure could prioritize supporting customers in different languages and time zones, while other structures could help your agents specialize in wholesale service or certain product lines. None of these is inherently better or worse than the last — but choosing one that supports your unique needs and facilitates customer retention will set your team up for success.
If this article just said “Do what’s best for you,” then it wouldn’t be helpful. So to find the right customer service team structure for your business, see where these 43 underlying principles point you.
The most important principle is to build your team around your business structure and goals. If your business goal is to expand internationally, consider structuring your teams to operate out of various time zones and languages.
If your goal is to boost customer lifetime value with subscriptions, you could structure your team to be true consultants to ensure your customers succeed with your product and stick around.
Whether your business goals lead you to structure your team by specialty, product segment, geographic location, sales channel, or processes, don’t forget to take these plans into account when it comes to customer service hiring.
When you start as a small business, you can get to know the strengths of your team. In the early stages, everybody has to do everything. Strengths in specific areas begin to emerge. Then, you can specialize as you grow.
Build for the team you have, balanced with your business model and goals. Consider everyone’s interests, strengths, and goals, as well as what the business needs.
Is one team member really interested in larger wholesale deals, while the rest of the team prefers direct-to-consumer messaging? Consider creating a role for that wholesale-lover within the larger wholesale team. It’ll be great for specialization and creating day-to-day responsibilities that keep team members around.
When you're building your team, you might start by thinking about all the tasks that need to get done. But if you're starting from scratch, you can probably automate many of those tasks.
Before you build a team around these tasks, determine how you can build automated processes to avoid dedicating an entire salary that automation can do. Customer service outsourcing can also be a viable possibility.
Consider incorporating things like autoresponders to common queries or automatically routing queries to the appropriate team or person to create more efficiency. Both of these are excellent for customer satisfaction, and helping your agents focus on customer relationships.
With Gorgias Rules, for example, you can automatically tag, route, and assign support tickets to the right people. So your specialized teams can automatically get their tickets, for example. And Gorgias Automate, for example, includes automations for tagging, prioritizing, and responding.
It’s important your customer service team is the appropriate size. You don’t want too many agents who don’t have enough work to do—and you also don’t want too few, leading to poor customer support experiences.
So, how big is too big, and how small is too small? The following guidelines should be taken into consideration as a general rule of thumb:
Building an effective, revenue-driving customer service team isn’t without challenges. But those customer service challenges evolve as the business and team grow in size, so you’ll face unique obstacles through each phase of growth.
Extra small customer service teams are made up of less than 10 people, each of whom contributes to a little of everything.
To effectively implement and manage an extra small customer service team, it’s important to first hire agents who are willing to do a little bit of everything. During onboarding, ensure you train agents on all aspects of the job and department. Then train them for the future.
Training for the future involves developing people from day 1 to retain them for a long time. Identify early on who might be a good team leader or trainer once the team grows, and how to best leverage each individual’s skills and strengths to contribute to the overall business. You’ll likely have some folks who are more technically savvy while others might excel at people management. Keep these differences in mind.
As far as structure goes, you’ll have agents and a lead manager — no supervisors needed here.
Some strengths of extra small service teams include:
As far as weaknesses go, extra small teams:
Customer service teams with fewer than 20 people to be categorized as “small.” This is when you start to introduce more structural organization, since there are more people.
For small service teams, it’s still important to hire agents who are willing to do a little bit of everything, and to train them on this wide variety of tasks and responsibilities.
As you grow, it’s important to build and develop a small team for the future — when it’s not so small.
Again, no supervisors are needed. Hierarchy should consist of agents and a lead manager, just like with extra small teams. There might also be an interim manager who is responsible for strategy and business results. This person likely reports to a director or VP of customer care or experience, or something similar.
The strengths of small support teams are similar to those of extra-small teams:
Unique challenges small teams face include:
Customer service teams with 20-100 people to be categorized as “medium.”
Start by understanding where you’re at by evaluating customer service to see what your needs are, especially as it relates to segmenting your team and queries.
At this point, you need dedicated resourcing as things start to get more segmented. This is where you can create specialized field teams. For example, you may want to introduce technical support agents, or channel-specific agents (who handle phone support, social media support, or live chat support).
At Gorgias, for example, our billing department used to send support queries to the normal queue. But it’s so specialized, so billing really needed a team of people who just deal with those requests. So we created a field team in our service department that only handles billing queries. That field team is under its own dedicated lead. As another example, Stitch Fix routes warehouse tickets to a warehouse field team — another specialized department.
You might start creating field teams once you hit mid-sized, perhaps creating departments that specialize in billing, warehousing, refunds, strategy and reporting, or anything else that requires specific knowledge or access. Clear management roles and robust knowledge bases for your team become incredibly important at this stage.
As far as structure goes, mid-sized customer service teams should have agents who report to a supervisor, who reports to a manager, who reports to a director.
Each field team lead should interface with a strategy operational team who tells them what to do, so that lead can then translate and implement with their respective field team.
Strengths of mid-sized customer service teams include:
Some unique challenges mid-sized teams face include:
Customer service teams with 100-300 people are categorized as “large.”
Larger teams grow in complexity and involve even more field teams and more hierarchy. You’ll likely have one or more dedicated strategy operational teams that guide the actions of field teams. These strategy teams are more focused on the bigger picture, and they’re responsible for communicating their insights and vision to field team leads who can then work on implementation.
As the organization gets bigger, it gets more complex. More roles need to emerge, and your agents won’t necessarily be doing the same work. This is when efficiency becomes a priority because things can get convoluted. When scaling through smaller stages, you likely weren’t focused on things like cost savings.
As far as structure goes, you’ll see more silos start to emerge here — and you really need a seasoned manager once you hit 100 people. Hierarchy includes agents who report to a lead manager, who reports to a supervisor, who reports to a well-seasoned manager, who reports to a director, who then finally reports to a VP.
Leads should meet with direct reports every week. Directors may report to a VP who manages multiple types of work and directors from other departments. So they may not be as in tune with the rest of the customer service organization as they could be.
There are many advantages to large service teams, including:
Unique challenges large teams face include:
You’ll have different needs depending on how you structure your team. Let’s go over some different ways you can do this.
Product-based customer service structures can work well for companies with diverse product lines. For example, a health and wellness brand might have one team dedicated to its supplement product line, one for skincare, and one for haircare.
This approach helps foster subject matter experts within your service team. Agents specialize in a specific type of product, ideally knowing all the ins and outs and how to answer common queries. This is especially helpful when customers need a lot of education or consultation to find the right product or use it correctly.
On the other hand, there are potential limitations when it comes to cross-selling. If your team is only focused on product lines, you may not be able to encourage customers. Additionally, this can lead to fragmented interactions as customers ask about products from different areas of the business, outside of the team’s expertise.
A location-based approach works for dispersed or global companies. Companies that are truly international—they do business in different languages, they have location-specific offerings, etc.—might consider a location-based structure.
One of the advantages here is that you can cover lots of time zones and languages with minimal confusion or misunderstanding. It also allows for deeper cultural understandings of different customer segments.
On the flip side, location-based service teams can be very disjointed. They might not interface with one another, either due to time zones or language barriers, and this leads to limited knowledge sharing. Developing each department of your service team similarly can be challenging for managers as well.
A function-based structure is when the customer support department is its own team which reports directly to company leadership, rather than dedicated senior-level customer service members. This positions support as its own strategic decision-making part of the business, not just a support for other teams.
This approach typically works best for companies and teams on the smaller side, since they don’t need too much specialization across locations or product lines. A strong company culture is required for this structure to be effective.
A function-based structure leads to a unified support team with a strong sense of community — and its support-expert leader — both of which are great for morale, performance, and team retention.
However, it can also lead to a lack of specialization within the support team and difficulty collaborating cross-functionally with other parts of the business. If all your team is concerned about is resolving customer issues, you’ll never work with other teams to ensure customer success across all areas of the business.
A segment-based customer service structure is when teams are dedicated to specific customer segments. This might be sales channels such as B2B vs. B2C vs. wholesale, or customer types like subscribers vs. one-time purchasers.
The advantage here is that you can deliver service to different types of experiences to align with different customer expectations. The questions a wholesale customer asks are likely to be very different than those from a direct consumer — and good customer service will look different for each group, too. Dividing your service team in such a way helps reps specialize and provide great customer service to every customer.
This model only works for companies that have distinct customer segments with unique needs.
Customer service teams can use Gorgias to custom-build their team every step of the way — after all your support team is on the frontlines and has a huge impact on customer loyalty.
Gorgias has multiple user roles to reflect your structure and give everyone the right permissions, useful both when you’re just starting out and when you’ve scaled to be a large customer service team of hundreds of people.
Book a demo to learn more about how Gorgias helps your entire team contribute to a CX engine that grows your business.
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Last September, Gorgias hosted CX-All Star: Episode 1, a webinar presented by a superstar panel of customer experience leaders in the DTC industry. From the health and wellness space to the tech sphere, experts Eli Weiss, Amanda Kwasniewicz, Deja Jefferson, and Ren Fuller-Wasserman gathered years of experience and wasted no time sharing their top strategies, tips, and a-ha moments with fellow attendees.
One hour wasn't long enough to reveal all their expert tricks, but it was definitely enough to help fellow CXers rethink their strategy. If you weren't able to attend the event, these were the top four lessons we learned from CX All-Star: Episode 1.
Amanda Kwasniewicz, the VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, emphasizes how CX should be the core of any business. "[CX] has a finger on the pulse of everything we do, whether we're just on the receiving end or whether we're executing it."
To emphasize CX's far-reaching impact, Amanda introduced a company-wide policy where every new employee spends six weeks working directly with support tickets and customers. This immersive approach to CX was so successful that non-CX team members, from marketing to finance, were able to help the CX team during a hectic inbox day when Love Wellness migrated platforms.
Read more: Why customer service is important, according to a VP of CX
"I think CX is often viewed as a call center, a revenue driver—and we're missing the core part that it's a feedback machine. It's like a feedback treasure trove. So, if you can think about it as all three of those things, that's what it is. It really is about the experience."
—Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness
"Brands are either notoriously anti-having a big CX team, or they're very straightforward. Either one of those extremes is dangerous," says Eli Weiss, VP of Retention Advocacy at Yotpo. The balance lies in building a team of passionate learners willing to grow.
Our experts agree that product knowledge can be taught through training, but soft skills like empathy, creativity, and passion are intrinsic. Eli notes that asking questions like "Why CX?" helps determine if a candidate will stick around. Amanda notes these team members often become superstar hires for other departments because of the breadth of their knowledge and skills.
Related: Hiring for customer service
“[LinkedIn] is how I've gotten a lot of people early on. I just looked at brands that crush it and said, 'Stay exactly where you are. I just need 2 hours.' Those 2 hours will usually give you what you as a founder can do in six, because somebody that's doing it all day is probably really good at figuring out how to put a move on it.”
—Eli Weiss, VP of Retention Advocacy at Yotpo
"If people can understand and learn the product they're selling and they can educate the customer, I think that's really valuable," says Deja Jefferson, Manager of Customer Insights at skincare brand Topicals. That's why she takes a diverse approach to product knowledge onboarding.
At Topicals, new hires don't only have to pore over lengthy documents to learn about skincare products. They get their hands dirty by speaking to experts in the product team, reading cheat sheets, and talking to customers about personal skin concerns. This multifaceted strategy is inclusive to all types of learners and leads to agents becoming true experts.
Read more: Customer service training: what to cover + how to do it
"People who are passionate about what they're doing and about helping customers [will] figure out the rest."
—Deja Jefferson, Customer Insights Manager at Topicals
Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Head of Customer Experience at bidet brand TUSHY, empowers her team to go above standard protocols to create memorable or, as her team calls it, mensch (Yiddish for a person of integrity) moments. These are exceptional CX moments that can't be found in the onboarding manual, things like sending handwritten notes, personalized texts, and replacing items without question.
However, as with all things, it's also valuable to understand that mistakes happen. Ren likens the trial-and-error nature of customer experience to building a plane as it's being flown — it won't be perfect. She notes that protocols are important guidelines, but it's also worthwhile to allow your team to be mensch and decide, where do I need to follow the protocols here?
"There are incredible opportunities to make moments that matter, but only if your team has the agency to do so."
—Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Head of Customer Experience at TUSHY
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The Gorgias helpdesk is a highly customizable, automatable tool. In theory, you could use it like a standard inbox, answering customer support tickets from top to bottom. But you’re better off taking advantage of its features to organize your inbox, automatically prioritize and assign tickets, and automate repetitive tasks.
Streamlining your helpdesk from the jump is the best way to spend less time on administrative work so you can respond faster and leave customers satisfied.
TalentPop is a customer service management agency for ecommerce brands like yours and optimizes Gorgias for over 500 top brands like Jaxxon, Lilly Lashes, and Kettle & Fire. And while each brand’s needs are unique, every ecommerce company could benefit from essentials like automated ticket routing and answering WISMO requests.
We developed this playbook to share these best practices for setting up Gorgias so your team can get back to focusing on what matters most: tending to urgent requests and having impactful conversations with your valued customers.
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In Gorgias, Tags keep track of the contents and context of a ticket at a glance:
Especially as your team grows, Tags are the best way to keep your helpdesk organized, filter for specific conversations, and track the progress of customer resolutions. Plus, when combined with automation (which we’ll discuss in the next section), Tags help your team prioritize requests, route conversations to a specific team member, or send messages to customers.
Accurate and up-to-date Tags also help you analyze ticket trends much easier. For example, if you suddenly experience a 20% spike in tickets tagged with “product-complaint,” you can quickly dig into that issue.
Gorgias comes with a set of Tags that you can start using automatically, but you should build out the list based on your needs. When we help brands build out their list of Tags, we start by auditing past tickets to understand existing patterns.
Below, we included a list of the most common Tags you’ll likely find helpful. Start there, and consider auditing your own helpdesk to add any additional tags your team would find helpful.
Tags for customer account management
Tags for collaboration
Tags for customer feedback
Tags for product feedback
Tags for discounts
Tags for orders
Tags for return and exchange
Tags for shipping
Order status
Tags for social media
Tags for subscriptions
Tags for urgent inquiries
Tags for VIP customers
Tags for wholesale requests
Once you have those (and other) Tags set up, you can apply them manually or use automation to automatically tag incoming tickets.
In Gorgias, Rules are flexible tools to automate a wide range of day-to-day tasks, like tagging, routing, automatically closing no-reply messages, and even replying to basic messages.
Just like Tags, Rules will vary from brand to brand. And the possibilities of Rules are near-endless, so no blog post can give you a complete list of Rules to use. That said, here are four categories of Rules (with specific examples) you’ll likely find useful:
Manually applying Tags can eat up agent time (and leave room for error). Move faster and ensure your tags are more accurate by setting up Rules to auto-tag tickets based on ticket content.
The following Rules use keywords in the message to apply Tags. For even more advanced tagging, you can use Gorgias’s Intent and Sentiment Detection to tag tickets even when the ticket doesn’t include a specific keyword.
Rule description: When an agent requests an email address update from customers, apply the “edit-address” tag.
Rule benefit: This Rule helps you keep track of incorrect email addresses and email address updates. When you then use this Tag in correspondence with a View, you’ll have an easy time matching up the customer’s old and new email addresses.
How to set up Rule:
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets mentioning product damage with “Damaged/Defective.”
Rule benefit: Tagging these kinds of tickets is a great way to prioritize these sensitive interactions, so customers aren’t left waiting after they receive a damaged item. If you respond quickly and courteously, you greatly increase your chances of mitigating an escalation and retaining the customer.
How to set up Rule:
💡Tip: Adjust the rule to include keywords from previous tickets about damaged inquiries, which will best reflect how customers talk about your product getting damaged. For example, if you sell clothes, people will use words like “torn” and “stained” more than “broken.”
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets containing exchange requests with “Exchange Request.”
Rule benefit: This is a very beneficial auto-tagging feature that, when corresponding to a view, will help your customer service agents prioritize exchange requests on time. From our experience, this is especially helpful for apparel and jewelry brands, although you can use it for a variety of brands.
How to set up Rule:
💡Tip: We recommend updating the Exchange Request Rule with language from previous and future tickets. Continuously optimizing the rule to include additional keywords will help make the tagging function more accurate over time.
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets containing refund/cancellation requests with “Refund/Cancellation.”
Rule benefit: When corresponding to a View, this auto-tagging feature will help your team effectively prioritize refund and cancelation requests, which is important for a couple of reasons:
How to set up Rule:
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets mentioning new product reviews with “Review.”
Rule benefit: When corresponding to a view, this rule will help your customer service agents properly manage and respond to incoming reviews, both positive and negative.
How To Setup Rule: Unlike our other rules, there can be multiple configurations for this set-up — it depends on the platform that you are using. Gorgias currently integrates with several review apps, but each one can require a different setup. In this example, we will include the most common configurations.
Here’s a Rule that leverages the Gorgias integration with Yotpo, flagging new reviews of your channel:
Here’s a review based on the ticket’s subject line to catch new reviews based on the standard format of some review platforms:
💡Tip: Take your internal reviews-monitoring processes to the next level by manually tagging reviews as positive or negative. This will help you better understand which reviews are positive or negative, overall trends, and flag reviews with a high score but negative tone.
Another trick we like is to tag reviews with the relevant product’s SKU to help your team better understand which products people enjoy or dislike the most. This feedback is invaluable for your Product team.
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets containing time-sensitive requests with “Urgent.”
Rule benefit: Urgent tickets should always be prioritized, which is what this rule — when corresponding to a view — helps your team to do.
How to set up Rule:
💡 Tip: Set up this rule with keywords that your team deems urgent, like when customers threaten to contact the Better Business Bureau or ask to speak with a manager. Negative comments don’t have to be the only urgent ones, either: You can tag pre-sales tickets or tickets from VIP customers as urgent.
Additionally, you can apply a rule for Urgent tickets explicitly related to social media. This setup is a stellar method for ensuring public (ie. customer-facing) issues are resolved quickly.
Rule description: Automatically tag incoming tickets mentioning problems with your website with “Website Issue.” (Note: You might also choose to also add the Urgent tag so you can address these issues quickly.)
Rule benefit: This Rule is a lifesaver — it’s been highly effective for our clients during sales, general marketing campaigns, or even on an average Tuesday. It can ensure that you don’t miss out on sales and that your customers always have the best experience.
How to set up Rule:
Rule description: This ticket advises customers when your live chat is unavailable due to business hours or holidays.
Rule benefit: One of our favorites for gauging bandwidth, this rule is great for identifying when messages come in outside your regular business hours. With this data, you may consider bringing on additional support if ticket volume is high outside of your regular customer service schedule.
Note: To use this Rule, you’ll have to set up Business Hours. You can also adjust your chat setting so chat is unavailable outside business hours, and customers must fill out Contact Forms (which require their email address) to send a message so you can follow up via email when your team logs back on.
How to set up Rule:
In case you missed it, an internal note in Gorgias is a note added to a ticket that’s only visible to your team — it’s not shared with the customer. Internal notes can be added to conversations to share vital or helpful information about the customer or the ticket with your team. These notes can also record any actions taken on the customer's request.
Rule description: When an agent creates an internal note, this Rule automatically tags the tickets as “Internal Note - Open.”
Rule benefit: This Rule is great for ensuring internal team communications are appropriately tagged and sorted into Views, so all internal views get flagged and all customer questions get answered.
How to set up Rule:
An auto-reply is a pre-written response automatically sent to a customer based on the ticket’s content, channel, timing, or a variety of other factors. You can use auto-replies to:
Note that auto-replied tickets still have limitations and should be frequently reviewed and re-assessed.
Rule description: Answer and resolve inquiries about order status.
Rule benefit: Provide instant responses to the most common question in ecommerce customer support and free your agents up for higher-impact interactions.
How to set up Rule:
📚 Related reading: Check out our complete guide to automating WISMO requests.
Views filter and organize customer data within the left sidebar, allowing customer service teams to access and respond to customer inquiries quickly. Views can also prioritize tickets by urgency or organize them by channel. This feature helps customer service teams manage their workload more efficiently and provides insights into common customer issues or trends.
Views are simple to set up based on ticket tags and other qualities, so we won’t spend time explaining how to set them up here. Instead, we’ll share a couple of types of Views you’ll likely find useful.
Building views based on urgency within Gorgias is a good idea for several reasons:
Building views based on specific channels within Gorgias can be extremely helpful for your brand’s customer service needs:
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Macros in Gorgias are pre-made responses that insert commonly-used text into a ticket response after being triggered by a keyboard shortcut or by clicking a Gorgias interface button.
They help agents decrease response times by eliminating the need to repeatedly (and manually) type the same response for similar customer service inquiries. A customer service representative might use a Macro to insert a standard response to a frequently asked question or even a product return request.
As we tell our own TalentPop agents during training, it is never in your best interest to 100% rely on Macros. Macros should be a foundation for writing responses to customers, as every inquiry is unique and each customer deserves a personalized experience.
Handling returns and exchanges can be complex. As a customer service management agency that has worked with over 500 top ecommerce brands, we can confidently say that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not the correct one for these situations.
With this in mind, we generally provide our agents with different options to handle situations based on client SOPs.
Below you will find an example of what an unbranded Macro for this could look like:
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
It's {{current_user.firstname}} from [Brand Name].
Thanks for reaching out!
You can return an item within [X days] of receiving your order.
Once we receive your package, please allow up to 2 weeks for us to receive and inspect your product.
Once everything is properly verified on our end, we can process the return and issue the credit back to your original payment method.
For more information, please take a look here [Link to Return Policy].
We would love to help you out regarding your return request.
Since you received your goods within the return window of [X days], we can absolutely help you with a return.
Attached is a return label you can use to ship the items back to us.
Once we receive your package, please allow up to [X days] for us to receive and inspect your product.
Once everything is properly verified on our end, we can process the return and issue a credit back to your original payment method.
For more information, please take a look here [Link to Return Policy].
Your order was delivered on [Delivery Date] and is already past our return window of [X Days], we can no longer process a return.
For more information, please take a look here [Link to Return Policy].
Should you have any further questions, please let me know and I am more than happy to assist you.
All the best!
{{current_user.firstname}}
[Brand Name]
💡Tip: Another option to make this Macro more concise is to separate the situation types specifically. I.e. Return: Return Policy, Return: Within Return Window, Return: Outside of Return Window, etc. We find this the best approach, as it provides you with cleaner data that you can use to better understand customer situations.
Just like exchanges, we can either create a single Macro that explains different options for an agent to choose from, or create separate Macros for each situation (like regular refund/order cancellations, damaged refunds [minor/major defect], discount errors, product out of stock, subscription refund, etc.)
Below you will find an example of what an unbranded Macro for this could look like:
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
It's {{current_user.firstname}} from (Brand Name). Thanks for reaching out!
I am more than happy to help you out with your refund request.
I've refunded your last order {{ticket.customer.integrations.shopify.orders[0].name}} as requested.
We have successfully processed a partial refund on your order {{ticket.customer.integrations.shopify.orders[0].name}} as requested.
Please allow (X-X) business days for the refund to be processed. These funds will be refunded back to the original form of payment used for the purchase.
Thank you and please let us know if there is anything else that we can help you with.
We are very sorry to hear that you were not satisfied with your purchase. We can't process your refund request at this time because (insert the reason why a refund is not applicable).
Please let us know if you have any questions on this.
If the customer wants to follow up on a refund request that has been processed
Upon checking your order {{ticket.customer.integrations.shopify.orders[0].name}}, I can confirm that your refund has been processed on our end. You will see the refund amount on your payment account within 3-5 business days.
If you do not see any updates, I would recommend contacting your bank directly to verify the refund progress.
We apologize for any delays on this.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
All the best!
{{current_user.firstname}}
[Brand Name]
💡Tip: If you create a more specific refund Macro, we recommend adding the specific tags and corresponding actions that should be taken while using it. For example:
This action lets you choose whether you want to process a full refund or a partial refund:
Hello {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
It's {{current_user.firstname}} from (Brand Name). Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I am so sorry for how you received this item!
Since this defect seems it should not affect the integrity of the item, we can provide the following options:
1. Keep the item and we will issue an XX% discount code for the inconvenience and condition that the product showed up in.
2. We will issue a return label for you to be able to send it back and we can then process a replacement or a refund.
Please note that if you decide to keep the item, it will not qualify for further compensation in the future if any additional issues occur.
Thank you,
{{current_user.firstname}}
[Brand Name]
Hello {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
It's {{current_user.firstname}} from (Brand Name). Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
We're so sorry you received your order damaged. We totally understand how frustrating this feels and we'd love to be able to make it up to you!
Here are a few options for you to choose from:=
1. A replacement (if stock allows).
2. A refund back to your original payment method.
3. A refund in form of store credit (gift card).
Please let us know what option would work best!
Also, please use the discount code XXXX on your next purchase as a gift from us.
Thank you!
{{current_user.firstname}}
[Brand Name]
In the examples above, you may notice that in both situations, we are providing customers with options to choose from. From our experience, when customers can choose the type of service they want, they are more likely to be satisfied with their overall experience.
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
We would love to assist you!
Can you kindly share with us what you would like to change in your order?
Once we have this information, we can go ahead and update your order.
We have successfully updated your order. We have sent you a new order confirmation to your email for your reference.
Please let me know if you have any questions and we look forward to getting your order in your hands!
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}},
It appears that your order was fulfilled last {{ticket.customer.integrations.shopify.orders[0].fulfillments[0].created_at|datetime_format("MMMM d YYYY")}} and unfortunately we can no longer cancel it.
You can simply refuse the package upon delivery, and once your online tracking information updates that your order is on its way back to us, please let us know over email so we can assist and provide you with either a store credit or a refund.
Out of curiosity, can you kindly share what made you change your mind about your order? I'd love to share this with our Product Team! From there, we can understand how we can improve things on our end and how we can best help you out.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to your reply.
Live chat can be an impactful support channel for your ecommerce business, as it can decrease response times, improve your overall customer experience, and drive revenue further.
This Macro is great to use as a sign-off; you can amend it according to your brand voice or the situation at hand.
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}}!
I hope I was able to address your concerns.
Please feel free to reach out anytime. All the best! {{current_user.firstname}}
If we can be of further assistance, please free to reach us again or send us an email at support@client.com. Thank you and have a great day!
This Macro is great to use when you have agents online and receive a live chat message, but are busy responding to another customer.
Hi {{ticket.customer.firstname}}! We received your message and an agent will be with you soon!
You can pair this Macro with an autoresponder Rule, so customers automatically receive this message in response to the first live chat message they send. Here’s what that Rule looks like:
The basic setup of Gorgias is easy, but some brands may want extra help to fully customize Tags, Views, Rules, and Macros to provide great service as efficiently as possible. If this sounds like you, TalentPop is here to help.
As a trusted Gorgias Partner, we have extensive experience with Gorgias’s helpdesk. We understand that every business is different, and we strive to help each of our clients find the best solutions that work for their teams. We’re well equipped to customize the platform to your preferences and unique situation streamline your processes and help your business grow.
Whether you’re getting started with Gorgias or are ready to level up your helpdesk to meet your needs, our implementation team is here to be your Gorgias guide.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help, book a call with our team for a free consultation.
TJ’s Top Advice:
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.
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.”
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.
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
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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TL;DR:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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?
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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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 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 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:
You can peek at the campaign setup below. It runs 24/7, ready at any moment to engage:
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.
Mia, Head of Customer Experience at Glamnetic, shares the strategy behind the success: “The aim was to elevate the visibility of new releases without requiring customers to hunt for them. Our onsite campaigns proactively present our latest products through compelling visuals and straightforward navigation, simplifying the decision-making process for the buyer.”
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.
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:
By proactively addressing potential questions and concerns, Manduka enhances the shopping experience, leading to higher satisfaction and fewer post-purchase issues.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
The results were telling:
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.
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
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.
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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