As brands have begun to evolve due to COVID-19, subscription offerings have been impacted tremendously. Many founders are baffled about what to do. But, you’re not alone. Learn about the trends we’re seeing with Shopify Subscription businesses and what successful brands are doing as they explore these new waters. 

Read on to learn what’s happening in the subscription service realm and how you can better navigate through the muck to a thriving company in a post-Coronavirus economy. 

eCommerce Subscription Trends From the Last 12 Weeks 

What happened in the eCommerce space due to COVID-19? In our helpdesk ticket platform, we’ve seen the following trends in subscription business customer service: 

1. In the beginning, there was a tremendous spike in subscription cancellations. 
2. Shortly thereafter, we saw an increase in requests for a partial refund. 
3. A few weeks passed before we noticed an influx of solicitations for full refunds. 
4. Most recently, order cancellations came pouring in. 

Now, partial refund requests are going down -- these requests were for shipping costs, specific discounts, and other related transactions. 

On the macro level, overall subscription order processing is up. However, on the micro level, a number of merchants aren’t weathering the storm as well as others. 

Subscription offerings in the higher-value, hobby space seem to be a bit slower than usual. Yet, merchants who offer subscriptions for essential consumer packaged goods have to hustle to keep up with demands.

And, this is not surprising at all. Many people had a knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic while others had a change in priorities. Right now, people are more reserved about making snap-decisions. We can likely expect purchasers and merchants to make more calculated decisions now and into the future. 

Now that we’re working from home, we need new essentials like office supplies and furniture. Plus, for some of the essentials like health and beauty products, we’re now turning online for where we might have gone to a brick and mortar shop before. 

Now, people can’t really hop into the store to pick up tp and other essentials on the way home anymore. So, consumers are looking to find the most convenient way to have them delivered. And, they want to know they have a reliable source of essential products. 

For example, at the beginning of this pandemic, everyone knows there was a tremendous run for toilet paper. And, merchants who offered this product saw 10-15X increases with toilet tissue sales. 

Who Gives a Crap is an Australia-based, charitable toilet paper subscription company. 

When this crisis started, Who Gives a Crap held back stock to accommodate subscribers rather than allowing new customers to order. They chose to prioritize loyalty over acquisition. 

This brand is now thriving because of a steady uptick in consumable goods online. And, while the 10-15X trend may not last, long-term retention and increased revenue are likely. People will want to subscribe to receive preferential treatment. 

Are Higher-Ticket, Hobby Subscription Services Suffering Higher Cancellations & Refunds? 

We don’t have the exact numbers, but just because you offer higher-ticket hobby products doesn’t mean you’re doomed. There are multiple causes for high order cancellations and refunds. 

For example, the supply chain is a key issue. If you don’t have inventory because you’re non-essential or shipping is too slow, you may have to cancel orders and offer full refunds. This happens because you don’t have the ability to fulfill an order, not because of an economic downturn. 

Consumers are also leveraging the freedom to skip shipments and utilize subscription flexibility in other ways. Some people have overstocked or stockpiled on certain products. Then, they realized they didn’t need the quantity, so they now want to pause while still maintaining a relationship with a subscription company.

The UK Independent noticed a trend with sex toys, which fall into the non-essential category -- sales have tripled across the board. While it may have been predictable in retrospect, this isn’t a typical trend for an economic crisis. But, with social distancing, people can’t really go in Tinder dates and they have a lot of time on their hands. So, consumers are spending more money on at-home entertainment. 

(Yet, if your supply chain runs out, no matter your niche, you may still see an increase in order cancellations.)

What are the Products With the Highest Interest for Online Shoppers Right Now? 

Supermarkets aren’t able to service people at their homes in many cases. So, consumers are turning online for many of their daily needs and wants. What we’ve seen is an increase in subscriptions for nearly anything that you use at home. Specifically, here are the products we’ve noticed are in high-demand. 

• Food
• Coffee & Tea
• Alcohol
• Pets (Cat Litter, Pet Food)
• Toilet Paper
• Cosmetic & Well-Being (Natural Deodorant)
• Vape

Underwaterpistol, a leading Shopify Plus service provider, is working with a new client who was planning to launch a natural cosmetic and well-being subscription box prior to the pandemic. While Coronavirus has added some red tape to the logistics of the operations, consumer demand has accelerated rollout for these products.  

Keep in mind that, over the next few weeks, we are sure to see more changes and it will be important to watch them. 

What Do Successful Subscription Brands Do Differently? 

Some of the tactics we see successful brands using are the same across the board. Know what they are so that you can thrive in the subscription business world. 

1. Retain Subscribers with Preferential Treatment 

Preferential treatment is one of the most effective business tactics for subscription companies because it aligns with the core of why people subscribe in the first place: exclusivity. Who Gives a Crap “guaranteed” subscribers would get their products, which motivated people to subscribe.

Pre COVID-19, we did this at Gorgias and we can attest to the power behind the process. Our subscribers were grandfathered-into specific prices and features. And, we experienced high retention because of this. You will have similar results with consumer packaged goods subscriptions. 

2. Leverage a Wider Product Range

Most subscription box companies have core consumable items. They sell between one to three variations of a product. But, many of the successful brands we see leverage add-ons, either relevant to the core offering or not. 

A one-time product add-on is trending right now, especially on longer-time use items. So, if your core offering is toilet tissue, which people go through quicker, and you add another product to your offering that might take longer to use, like toothpaste, it can help you increase one-time sales. This is a smart move even if it feels negative that someone wants to cancel their subscription the next month. 

3. Adapt their Subscription Models to Change

If you can no longer offer your supplies because of a supply chain issue, you have choices: 

1. Sit and wait for this to end while you lose money and loyalty. 
2. Make a short-term investment to resolve the problem for long-term results. 

For example, some sellers can no longer use Amazon’s warehouses for fulfillment (which aren’t only for sales on amazon.com) because the company is only accepting essential items, at least temporarily. So, some of those sellers stop offering their products through FBA. Those merchants lose a ton of business. 

On the other hand, there have been sellers in similar positions who flew out to their suppliers and negotiated dropshipping solutions. And, guess what? These brands’ sales haven’t skipped a beat. 

4. Add Fringe Benefits 

Amazon Prime members get expedited shipment on purchases and discounts. Likewise, subscription companies can offer fringe benefits and free gifts to their subscribers. 

Freshly Picked is an infant moccasin company that implements this strategy well. 

Freshly Picked offers “The Fringe,” a membership that costs $10 month. Fringe members get expedited delivery, discounts, and the $10 is redeemable in the store. So, customers can apply their membership cost to purchases. Using this method, you create a perceived discount without giving up your margins. 

5. Use Shopper Objections to Fuel Membership Benefits

You have your customers who believe in you. Then, you have your non-believers who have objections about why they don’t order or why they don’t upgrade. When you know what causes people not to convert, you can make better business decisions. 

So, find out what makes people NOT order from you. Then, add value to your membership offer by providing those perks exclusively. Look to your customer service requests to discover what some of your audience’s greatest problems are, then solve them. 

6. Implement the Right Tools 

First of all, it’s super important to make sure the tools you use are compatible with one another. Next, you need to use reliable platforms. Third, make sure you leverage the features that are available to you. 

The following tools work well alone, together, and with Gorgias to power subscription businesses. 

Klaviyo 

A constant, consistent message is key. And, Klaviyo can help you deliver this by automating crucial analytics, email flows, and sequences.

Advanced Tip: It can work wonders to push for a new subscription after a customers’ second order. 

ReCharge

Recharge is a must for anyone who wants to process recurring payments at scale in today’s market. 

Little Data

You need to be tracking and monitoring visitor and user behavior. Leverage Little Data for advanced and relevant analytics. 

ChurnBuster 

Reduce customer churn with failed payment recovery options from ChurnBuster. 

LoyaltyLion 

Create data-driven loyalty programs to generate more engagement and subscriber retention. 

7. Communicate Beyond Email 

Email isn’t dead, but you now have an unprecedented opportunity to get in front of people where they are -- on social media and on their phones. Worldwide since the start of Coronavirus 45% of consumers are spending more time on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. And, brands are paying attention.  

As a subscription service offering, you should use social media and SMS for order updates, upsells, and other customer communications. Don’t limit yourself to email. And, choose tools that enable you to meet your customers where they are. 

8. Deliver a Consistent Brand Message

As always, your brand message is central to your success. Right now more than ever, people want to hear from you. And, if you stay consistent and connected, your customers will stick with you now and into the future. 

Be mindful that each detail is aligned across all communication platforms including your website, social media, email, and offline messaging. You have an unprecedented opportunity to be remembered if your messaging strategy is aligned across all channels. 

9. Incentivize Wisely

Brands that know how to incentivize see higher returns in business. To illustrate, many new subscription companies launch aggressively with 20% discounts for new users. And, while they believe they’re offering more incentive for customers or members to purchase, they’re actually only making a cut to their own profits. 10-15% discounts offer the same psychological incentive at less cost to the merchant. 

One incentive that does work well is to offer a small discount for the new subscriber and the same discount for a friend. This works well because it creates a sense of community and giving for the customer and generates a referral for the business. 

The bottom line is that successful companies seem to inform themselves about incentives that work and apply creative strategies that show proven results. 

Final Thoughts

The online shopping ecosystem is evolving, but that doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom. There are actionable steps you can take to stay in the game now and into the future. Stay informed and roll with the punches. Remember that a bit of extra effort now can have a lasting impact on the long-term outcomes of your business.

As Shopify Plus continues to power a growing number of the world’s leading ecommerce sites, brands, and merchants, their eco system is evolving. They’ve grown their program to include certified Plus partners, who can keep up with the demand of merchants - one of the many benefits of Shopify Plus. We’re excited to announce that Gorgias is the only certified customer service platform for Shopify Plus merchants.

Not on Shopify Plus yet? Check out our Shopify vs. Shopify Plus breakdown to understand when to switch.

What makes the program special?

The Shopify Plus Certified App Program supports the largest Shopify merchants by helping them find the apps and solutions they need to build and scale their business. This program is exclusive to Shopify Plus apps that have shown a level of product quality, performance, and privacy, and support that can be relied upon for the unique and often advanced requirements of a Shopify Plus Merchants

Enterprise grade merchants need enterprise grade solutions they can trust. When thousands of customers are wondering where their order is after Black Friday, or wondering if they should order half a size up, they need a customer support platform that can keep up.

Which is why Gorgias is the only customer support platform to make the grade. We help merchants like Steve Madden, MVMT, and Death Wish Coffee reduce costs and increase profits.

Scale as you need

Whether it’s BFCM, a new drop, or being featured on Shark Tank, we can scale with you as your demand grows and slows. With unlimited users you can add more support agents or chat sales specialists as you need, without the commitment of multi year contacts. We’ve also partnered with some of the best contact centers specializing in supporting ecommerce merchants..

Automate more and save 30% of your time

Did you know that 70% of customer service tickets are related to to- helping customers with an update on their order, edit, change, or cancel their order? That’s a lot of tedious work that’s costly. Make the lives of your agents easier, by automating up to 15% of your tickets during your busiest days and saving 30% of your time.

Turn Customer Support from a Cost Centre to a Profit Generator

As more customers want questions before they buy, we help merchants monetize and track every interaction with their customers. Use the time that you’ve saved findiFrom questions to potential customers on your ads to targeted website chat, we help Shopify Plus merchants increase sales.

You spoke and we listened. We’re excited to tell you that, we are ready to launch out of beta. Now, you can connect your Magento 2 store with your Gorgias account. Access your Gorgias and Magento data from one dashboard. 

The simplistic interface will enable you to display customers, orders, shipments, and credit memo data from your Magento eCommerce store next to your Gorgias support tickets. Learn more about the features you can take advantage of. 

Magento 2 users can leverage the benefits of Gorgias

Magento users now have access to the fundamental and performance-boosting advantages of the Gorgias help desk platform. 

• Display Magento customer profiles next to your support tickets. 

• View orders, shipments, and credit memos for each customer. 

• Centralize all customer communications like email, live chat, and social messaging and comments in one place.  
• Connect to Magento store and other third-party extensions to empower your support agents to reply to tickets quickly and within context. 
• Leverage key automation features like phrase prediction or intent detection to create productive and revenue-generating conversations. 
• Save up to 50% of your time spent managing support requests across all support communication channels. 

• Insert Magento 2 variables like the last order’s tracking URL, into macros.

• Use Magento 2 data as a filter for rules. For example, to add conditions on the price of the last order of a customer.

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Soon, we will add actions like ‘refund’ or ‘cancel order’ to the dashboard as well.

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Note: The Gorgias Extension is Compatible with Magento 2.3

Our extension was created for compatibility with the updated Magento 2 platform. So, Magento 2.2 users may need to upgrade to version 2.3 to properly access all of Gorgias’ help desk features.

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How to Install the Extension to Your Magento 2 Store

By integrating with Magento 2, we are excited to serve a new rank of online sellers. We hope to recreate the satisfaction we’ve given our existing users. Here’s what you can do now. 

1. Check out the Gorgias extension in the Magento Marketplace. 
2. Learn how to connect your Magento 2 store to your Gorgias account. 
3. Tell us how you like the new integration and what we can do to improve. 

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Cheers!

For the past 4 years, we've been building Gorgias with Alex and our amazing team. Both of us are automation nerds and our initial idea was to automatically respond to simple support questions. Over the last 2 years, we've been focusing heavily on helping Shopify merchants manage all their customer service in one place. We've grown from 0 to 2000 customers, including fast-growing brands like Rothys, MVMT and Steve Madden.

Today, we're raising a $14M series A to transform customer service into a profit center using conversational commerce.

I'm not a fan of celebrating fundraising events too much, as it's more of a promise than an achievement in itself, but I want to take advantage of this milestone to reflect on what we've learned:

The direct-to-consumer revolution has only started

Over the last 10 years, Amazon has reached an impressive 50% market share in eCommerce. They were able to do it thanks to 3 key pillars: customer experience, logistics and pricing. As a result, they grew 10x in the last 10 years.

However, as we've been building Gorgias, we've witnessed a second trend that has been quieter until last year: brands are going direct to consumers. It happened because of two key factors. One, millennials want to buy from brands they can relate with. For instance, Rothy's makes shoes out of recycled plastic bottles. Two, brands want to build an experience that they control. That's why Nike decided to pull out from Amazon last week.

This direct-to-consumer shift actually started around 2013. Around that time, Shopify started empowering more and more entrepreneurs to launch their own brand online. Ad costs on Facebook, Instagram and Google were relatively low, which allowed for lots of eCommerce entrepreneurial success stories like MVMT Watches.

As more and more brands launched, competition on ad buying has become fierce. The new battleground is no longer Cost of Acquisition but Lifetime Value.

Lots of merchants using Gorgias are now focusing on building a brand. They create differentiated products, they want to interact directly with their customers over online communities like the 310 Nutrition Facebook group with 300,000 members.

Brands are bringing Main Street back, and want to offer a real alternative to Amazon. Apps like Shopify (storefront and soon fulfillment), Klaviyo (email marketing), Yotpo (reviews) and us too at Gorgias have been working on empowering merchants to build large scale and independent businesses.

The future of customer service: use customer service to sell

Here's how we want to help merchants with customer service. The pillar value proposition of Gorgias has been to allow to provide the best customer experience through a 360 degree view of the customer. Agents can respond to chats, emails, Instagram comments while seeing previous conversations, and order data. This way, customers get assistance faster. Everyone wins.

Though, we think there's a larger opportunity for merchants. As a visitor is going to browse a online store during Black Friday, some objections are going to pop up in their mind. Is this shoe the right size? Will it fit?

In 2020, we want to empower merchants to grow through conversational commerce. Support teams can now leverage all the context they have about the customer to guide them toward the buying journey.

One of the challenges here is that support teams are already under a lot of pressure during the holiday season. People wonder if their order will arrive on time for Christmas, or how they can return this gift that was not the right size. That's why we're also focusing on automating the first response to these questions. This way, agents have more time to assist visitors with their purchase.

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We're super grateful to the whole team that has joined the adventure, it's been a hell of a ride from the first customer to the 2000th. Jason has been incredibly helpful as our main investor so far. Today we're excited to welcome Auren, Tod and Jeff from Flex Capital, along with François from Alven, Andrew from Klaviyo as part of the team.

At each stage of the journey, there's a new product-market fit to find and new challenges ahead, this fundraising is the beginning of this new chapter to generate more sales through conversational commerce.

PS: if you run an eCommerce store, give Gorgias a try and let me know whats you think

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I recorded this episode of the Ecomm Swipe File with Eric Banholz, CEO and Co-Founder of Beardbrand, one item we talked about was their decision to move off of Amazon, and what the results were. With the news of Nike moving off of Amazon this week, I thought it would be interesting to share these results. Watch the full interview below, with Eric talking about moving off of Amazon at the 3:27 mark.

The Decision to Move off of Amazon

Eric and the Beardbrand team found that even though they were working with Amazon, they still had to compete. Rather than Amazon bringing them more customers, they were cannibalizing their own business.

The one area they could compete with Amazon was customer value adds. This mean product knowledge, style advice (as talked about in the first part of the video using SMS)

Everyone told Eric that moving off of Amazon would be the worst business decision they could make, and it was a risk that they knew they were taking. What happened next, couldn’t have been better for Beardbrand.

What happened after leaving Amazon?

• Beardbrand saw an increase in their average order value doubling from $25 on Amazon to $50 on Beardbrand.com
• Significant increase to the number of sales on the website
• Reduced costs by not having to manage multiple channels, and competing with blackhat Amazon sellers.

Why did this happen?

We will never know the exact product behaviour, but just as the theme of Klaviyo Boston was owning everything around your customer experience, you can’t own that customer experience on Amazon. On your website, or when someone talks to one of your customer service agents, it’s easy to suggest the products that you know go well together. For example, if you’ve bought a balm from Beardbrand, they may suggest one of their beard oils because they know the ingredients don’t impact one another, and the fragrances smell nice and work well with one another.

On Amazon, these recommendations are automatically generated - most likely based on what the data shows will sell best. Regardless if this is one of your products. In addition to losing out on revenue, this can impact your brand experience. If your purchase comes with a premium product like Beardbrand makes, and a low cost accessory, such as a beard oil made with alcohol that dries out your skin, it can have a negative impact on the overall Beardbrand experience.

Ultimately, Amazon is a very viable channel for many sellers and brands, but Eric and Beardbrand chose to be more in-control of their of their entire customer journey. From answering product questions nested in their instagram ad comments, to providing post purchase style advice.

The Full Conversation 

View a full transcript below. Please note, that this was generated, so we cannot gaurantee 100% accuracy in transcriptions.

Lucas Walker: Hey, what's up everyone? It's Lucas here. Another episode of the Ecommerce Swipe File. I'm in Llandudno Wales, and I just happened to see a barber shop I've been to before called Harry's. I noticed that they had a couple ring lights. I asked if I could pop in, film a bit of content, and he said, "Absolutely." They said, "What are you filming?" I said, "So I'm watching this vlog podcast featuring a lot of brands including Beardbrand. One of the lads who's actually just right over there, I don't know if you can hear the clippers, he's cutting hair right now, but it was Beardbrand that really inspired him and really taught him how to start cutting hair."

Lucas: In this episode I chat with Eric, who I've known for a few years now. He gave me some great advice. We talk about ways to make money online, what a great website looks like, what you should strive for, why he got off Amazon. That's actually a trend that we're seeing a lot of. There's a lot of brands looking to really own their marketing, own their customer relationships. The last thing we talked about is the power of brand, which as we see here, I'm from Toronto, Beardbrand's based out of Washington and Austin in the US. Here in the United Kingdom, he's inspired others to get into the male grooming industry. That's the power of a brand that goes so far beyond any sort of a financial or monetary gain and really going into the legacy. Enjoy.

Lucas: I'm with the Beardbrand founder, Eric Bandholz. If you're watching this video, you've probably seen Beardbrand either on Reddit on the internet, in the shop [inaudible 00:01:30] on Shark Tank, everywhere. I've been following Eric for a long time before I launched Treats Happen, Eric actually did a site review and gave me some great feedback, which I still take to heart today. What I share with a lot of people in that was would you buy from this website? Does this website look like something that you would purchase from?

Lucas: Also, we were trying to do little $1 add on products. You pretty much told me fuck that shit. You're working really, really hard to get people to your website and they'll put in their credit card to buy something with that's a dollar. They get five bucks or 10 bucks, you're not losing money on that. It's really just that add on item. You throw it in as a bonus if they come back later. They like it, especially when you're first starting out. Thanks so much for those tips. I have a whole bunch of questions. Let's start off with the typical blog format. What's sort of one thing that you'd done with your brand lately that really helped you out that any other merchant could kind of take and replicate with themselves?

Eric Bandholz: Yeah, I mean for us it's the most important thing that we do is focus on our brand and our core values and what we're trying to do and bringing it back to the mission. We're very mission oriented and by having that mission it allows us to focus on how we create emails, how we write blog posts, how we write social media tweets, and things like that and how we engage with our customers, improve customers.

Eric: Probably the most exciting thing that's going on right now is our SMS program. Customers who buy from us, they have the option to opt into text messaging. When they opt in, we'll send them a text message that says, "Hey, thanks for your order. We provide style consulting. Take a picture of a selfie. Send it to us and we'll tell you how to do your hair and beard."

Lucas: Oh, that's awesome.

Eric: Yeah, so we want to do more customer value add to our customers right now and really kind of create this moat around our customers.

Lucas: That's really fun. If you're thinking out loud, you could almost do that with anything. If you buy a poster, "Hey, send a picture of your living room and we'll show you the best place to hang it or whatever else."

Eric: Oh, yeah.

Lucas: That's really cool. The other thing that we've chatted a little bit about on Friday night was moving away from Amazon, which I've seen a lot of brands kind of trying to do under the radar. We used Amazon the most as our abandonment strategy. If people just want a single unit, but I mean if you can share what happened when you came off Amazon and really why you have that disdained for Amazon.

Eric: Yeah.

Lucas: Don't hold back.

Eric: Okay.

Lucas: You can swear. You can do whatever you want in the video.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not too fond of Amazon. The strategy I just talked about, what we think about in house is a consumer is considering Amazon as a valid option and to really compete against Amazon, you have to figure out what can you do that Amazon can't do? One of those is customer value adds. Last year at the beginning last year we actually pulled off Amazon. Everyone told us that that's the worst decision. You just make so much money on Amazon. By not being on Amazon, you're a fool, but we actually saw an increase on their sales significantly on our website by pulling off Amazon. What I think was happening was people would shop on Beardbrand. They would go to Amazon and buy. Then on Amazon, Amazon would recommend generic brush or comb, so our AOV on Amazon is 25 bucks, whereas our AOV on our website's 50 bucks.

Lucas: You're not paying the 30% Amazon referral.

Eric: Yeah. Then we don't have to manage a different channel, manage listings, worry about black hat people, or fake reviews, and all that stuff.

Lucas: Yeah. Yeah.

Eric: Amazon is getting the data on your sales and if you're successful enough brand, they're eventually going to make their own product, AmazonBasics and rip off your product and push their product ahead of yours.

Lucas: Yeah.

Eric: There's a lot of risk as to building your business on somebody else's back. I've just always been a big fan of being in control of our destiny and our future. It's a lot harder. It's harder to drive traffic to Beardbrand.com, but once you start doing it, it makes it a lot more stable. I sleep really well at night.

Lucas: Yeah. My last question on that is, you are probably one of the first, if not the first, really making beard oil a common product that men like us need.

Eric: Yeah.

Lucas: How have you dealt with the increased competition of both just more supply out there for customers, but also lower quality driving down prices, so people might not want to pay 29 or $39 for your product when they see it for 14.99 elsewhere?

Eric: No matter what business you have, you're going to have competition. Even if you don't have competition, then your competition is typically ignorance towards your product.

Lucas: Yeah.

Eric: We always knew there was going to be competition and subsequently I can't control the compensation. I can't control what they do. All I can control is what we do.

Lucas: Yeah.

Eric: We just focus on our customer and how we can bring value to our customer's lives.

Lucas: I like that. Build trust.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. We've got, in my opinion, the best product. With the best product, there's always room at the top.

Lucas: Even, like you were saying, the utility bar, I'm sure people look at and say, "Oh, it's just a bar of soap." They don't realize there's no palm oil. There's three years of research and development that went into that product.

Eric: Yeah. You don't have to worry about TSA and the liquid. Our utility bar, it works on your hair. It's a shampoo. It's a beard wash, body wash. You can use it as a shave soap as well, so you can keep tidy in all one product and just travel light. I mean we've tried to make products that aren't available on the marketplace and sand out. Maybe they don't want to appeal to everyone and that's okay. You know, we're not trying to be the next Proctor and Gamble. We're not trying to be L'Oreal. We're not trying to appeal to everyone. We're trying to appeal to our customers who are looking for these types of products.

Lucas: Well, on that note, I normally keep these at two, three minutes. We're over seven already, so I really appreciate it.

Eric: [crosstalk 00:06:55].

Lucas: My arms are getting sore, so I'm going to have to wrap this one up. Thanks so much for being a part of it and I'm glad that we could finally meet in person.

Eric: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Lucas: I actually mention the product in this vlog with Eric, the utility bar. I'm on the road all the time. I've been on the road sort of 36 of 58 days, almost two thirds of my time is travel. Love that the utility bar is great, hassle-free, can be used for a lot of different things. Actually, the best leather I've ever had in a soap, so I'm going to give away a three pack of those. To enter to win, leave a comment below where we were seeing this video. Maybe take a friend, or if you're listening to the podcast, take a screenshot of your review. Send it to me in an email, lucas@gorgeous.io. That's gorgeous, like the philosopher, not my gorgeous good looks. Enjoy

‍Gorgias’ partnership with Attentive improves customer experiences and drives even more revenue for retail and e-commerce brands by allowing customer support teams to answer customers’ questions via text message. 

With this integration, retail and e-commerce brands on Shopify can ensure their customers are getting the best support experience possible, as customer support teams can now directly answer customers’ requests sent via text message. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Gorgias to empower our clients to directly and instantly resolve customer needs, resulting in more revenue,” said Jordan Sucher, Product Manager at Attentive. 

“We’ve found that Attentive clients who quickly respond to shoppers’ inquiries received via text messaging are driving 31% more spend from customers who receive replies vs. those who do not.”

How it works:

Brands can choose between automatically forwarding all messages to their customer support team, or having shoppers confirm they would like assistance.

• Message forwarding: All text messages received from a customer are automatically forwarded to Gorgias so they can quickly assist the customer with their request.
• Support confirmation: Help shoppers when they need it most: After a customer responds with a text message, they will be prompted to confirm they want a customer service representative for assistance.

More best practices and examples from Attentive here.

“Our team at Gorgias is excited to expand our partnership with Attentive. Through this integration, we’re strengthening the relationship between brands and their consumers and empowering them to communicate more easily, quickly, and effectively, creating a more seamless mobile shopping experience”

• Philippe Roireau, Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Gorgias.

Want to learn how to personalized mobile messaging can help your brand?

Request a demo with Attentive →  

Want to learn how to create your helpdesk in minutes to start offering support in SMS, social media, email, WhatsApp, and beyond? Request a demo with Gorgias → 

The Peak Season is a stressful period for most merchants. According to a recent study, 75% of them are concerned about the rising customer service needs during that time of the year. Let’s walk through some of the best practices to make the most out this increase in customer service needs.

But first, let’s read about a customer support story that happened a while ago.

The Black Fridge Story

Dan is hanging-out in his kitchen when he realizes that his fridge is no longer working. He decides to contact the customer support team of the fridge merchant and waits for an answer. Unfortunately for Dan, this happens a week before Black Friday and the merchant team is lost under the huge spike in tickets.

So Dan waits three days before his request is taken care of by a contractor hired two days ago to help with the workload. Dan gets redirected to the manufacturer of the fridge and, also after 3 days, gets a first answer.

Dan gets into what is called ‘the maze’ and gets redirected to another person. Seven days after he first contacted the merchant, he finally gets a technician to come at his place fix his fridge. The technician comes over but realizes he need some parts to fix the fridge that take another 7 days to be delivered. The parts that arrive are not the right ones and a new order needs to be made.

It’s been more than two weeks since Dan first tried to get help and this makes him crazy. He goes back to the fridge merchant to ask for a fridge replacement and gets a response after 4 days. He gets told that replacements cannot be made as it goes against the merchant policy.

Dan starts telling the story on social media to kill the merchant reputation. The story goes viral and eventually Dan gets his fridge replaced.

Nobody wins in this story, and this terrible situation could have been avoided with a few of the coming tips.

Tip #1: Leverage support to promote your marketing efforts

What’s the open rate of your email promotions? 5, 10, 20%? And what’s the open rate of customer service messages? Probably close to 100%. So what if you made these promotions in those customer support tickets to leverage on the support you’re making?

Tip #2: Your support staff should be your sales associates

Make sure your customer support heroes provide the same experience to your potential customers as if they were physically going to a store and being advised. You’ll end up making relationships with your customers and turning them into ambassadors for your brand.

Tip #3: Create macros for the most common Peak Season questions

We pulled out the tickets of 600 customers to understand some of the most common questions that your team can expect to receive. Here are the results we got.

Those make up for 40% of your requests. You can actually prepare for it to decrease your response time. There are three ways to do so:

1. Make sure you have one macro for each question. If you are not familiar yet with macros, check this out.
2. Make sure your FAQ sectionis up to date to answer these questions.
3. Set up automatic responses so they get answers straight away to these common questions.

Tip #4: Respond faster to wow your customers

People usually expect you to answer within two hours if not more. By responding in a few minutes you’ll make your customers amazed by your efficiency and will prevent them from going to your competitors. Best, they’ll spread the word on how professional you are and you might end up gaining a few more customers on the way. Here’s an interesting graph we came up with using our customer service statistics.

The repeat rate is the % of your customers who are going to make a new purchase after they already made an order. As you can see, people who already called for the customer service help and got a good experience out of it are way more likely to make a new purchase.

Tip #5: Staff to handle the support spike

You might want to hire a few temporary people to handle the spike in tickets. Bear in mind however that these guys don’t know your product so make sure to train them a few days before accordingly. Make it a rule that if one of your support guys can’t answer a question within five minutes, then it’s best for them to pass it over to somebody else, instead of rushing into giving a wrong answer and end up like Dan in our fridge story.

Tip #6: Build a wall of love to boost morale and track comment

While your team maybe be stressed out by the workload, make sure you build a system that highlights the best reviews and show them they are making people happy and doing a good work.

Takeaways

By increasing the number of people on your customer support team (tip #5) to handle the tickets spike and focusing on not only answering requests fast to impress them (tip #4) using of macros and other tools (tip #3) but also giving them a proper experience (tip #2), you’ll be sure to turn your customers into ambassadors for your brand but also increase your repeat rate. Make sure to also leverage the support spike by including promotions in your requests answers (tip #1). Finally, don’t forget to cheer up your team by creating a wall of love (tip #6) to let them know about the great reviews they get from happy customers.

Being a support agent has got to be one of the most trying jobs a person can have. Dealing with unhappy customers in your helpdesk isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. So, if you want your team to treat your customers as invited guests, even under tense circumstances, it’s your job to motivate them. These excellent customer service quotes can help. 

Here’s How to Leverage Customer Service Quotes to Inspire Your Support Team 

Whether you’re a support team manager or the owner of your company, you know that keeping your staff encouraged and upbeat at work is crucial to efficient customer service operations, especially in the face of challenging interactions with frustrated customers. It’s one way to reduce the load on your support team. So, you need to do what you can to keep your environment cheerful. 

Think of your team as a group of football players and yourself their cheerleader. You need to use positive language, words of affirmation, and other motivational tactics to keep your support machine well-oiled and increase customer loyalty. So, where do customer service quotes come in? 

Chalkboard/Whiteboard

Yes, offices still use whiteboards or chalkboards. If you’re one of them, this might be the best way to deliver your quotes. If you work in an office with your team, you can use a chalkboard or whiteboard, posted in a visible place, to display your motivational tidbits for the month. You don’t need any animations or tricks to get the point across — just make sure the quote is written legibly.  

Email

Email is one of the most commonly used communication channels in every business. So, alternatively, if you work with a remote team, a monthly email with a quote followed by your own thoughts can help promote an optimistic vibe within your operations. Your staff is likely checking emails all day anyway. So, you can be sure they’ll see your message, and they can save it to their personal desktop if they want to. (By the way, check out these 16 email templates to help your agents deliver quality service quickly.)

Desk Reminder

Everyone has a desk, right? If this is true, and if your team is small enough, you can give (by hand or mail, depending on where your staff works) each employee a poster or card to display at their own desk. They can pin it to the wall behind their workspace or keep it in a drawer to remind them each time they open it. 

Custom Calendars

And, if you’re feeling creative, you can create custom desk calendars with a new quote displayed for each month of the year. This idea is nice because it’s functional as well as fun. Plus, it gives staff the feeling that they’ve gotten a gift. Gifts in themselves are pretty effective workplace motivators. 

Mass Text Messages

Finally, if you want to leverage technology, consider setting up a staff opt-in for an SMS campaign wherein you send the quotes directly to the mobile phones of your support agents. Or, send a text message to each support agent individually. The great thing about this idea is that your agents are likely on their phones when they’re not working, so it keeps your operations at the front of their minds. 

A Customer Service Quote for Each Month of the Year

Now, let’s look at a year’s worth of quotes to keep your team feeling like their perky, happy selves. Whether you’re sending out a monthly email all year long, or posting your quote next to the portrait on the wall of your employee of the month, you’ll need twelve of them -- one for each month of the year. So, here you go! 

1. January: “A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.”

• David J. Greer

January is the beginning of a new year. In most places, it’s still cold outside, the holidays are over, and your staff are just getting back into the swing of things after the holiday rush at work and festivities at home. When it comes to an inspiring customer service quote, you need one that sets the stage for the rest of the year. 

What better place to start than reminding your staff that their performance at work will affect the entire company. The above quote is from David J. Greer, coach and author of Wind in Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth. In this book, Greer uses sailing metaphors and experiential wisdom to convey some powerful business messages. 

The above quote should warm your team up nicely. And, it should remind them that, at the end of the day, a review can make or break your business. So, their job is to deliver the kind of experience that enhances your company’s word-of-mouth marketing, not harms it. 

1. February: “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”  

• Steve Jobs

The second month of the year is a time of romance. February 14th is Valentine’s Day. At this time, most people across the globe celebrate their love in remembrance of St. Valentine, the patron of affianced couples. So, your quote for the month should at least attempt to reflect this. And, it should inspire the team to want to lean-in more intimately to customers’ needs. 

Fortunately for you, the late Steve Jobs, magnate, entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Apple, said just what your team needs to hear. His advice is to get close to the customer. You and your team can use the tokens of affection you see around you as reminders of how to treat shoppers that come to you with their problems. 

This customer service quote serves as a reminder that the relationship between your brand and your shoppers should feel like a personal one -- there should be a spark ready to ignite. And, when you really care about people, you naturally want what’s best for them. Since you’re theoretically the experts in everything related to your product offering, you should know what to offer before their questions are even asked. 

1. March: “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

• Jeff Bezos

March is the month for St. Patrick’s Day (and my great grandmother’s birthday) celebrations and Spring Equinox. In a nutshell, festivities and fun happen in March. People are getting out and having a good time. So, this month’s customer service quote should reflect this. 

And, guess what? Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur, investor, and CEO/ founder of Amazon, can shine some light on what you need. Follow his lead and be amazing hosts to your party guests. You can’t offer your shoppers drinks, but you can give them an experience that they won’t forget. And, if your team is having fun, so will your customers. Make each day better than the last. 

Help you support team imagine that your brand is a party and everyone on the other end of the line is a welcomed friend. Cultivating a great shopping and support experience is a surefire way to increase your eCommerce conversion rates and make every day more enjoyable. When everyone is having fun, everyone wins! 

1. April: “Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!”

• Gene Buckley

April showers bring May flowers. The word April is derived from Latin aperit, which means “open.” And, one of the most important customer service skills your agents can possess is the ability to be open to the needs of your shoppers. At the very least, the needs of the customer must come before those of the support staff. So, remind your team with the perfect customer service quote. 

Gene Buckley has you covered. The senior director of customer success, health, and life sciences at Microsoft knows the right time to be smart -- in the shower. The right time to be smart is not when your customer needs you. Actually, when you’re working, you need to be humble. 

Here’s a brighter, more emotional way to say the customer is always right. Save your critical thinking for the moments when you’re alone -- before you fall asleep at night and in the shower. When you’re serving, be present and serve. Listen and make sure the customer knows you’re listening. 

1. May: “Make a customer, not a sale.” 

• Katherine Barchetti

In May, flowers are starting to bloom, Spring is officially in the air, and people are experiencing more happiness in general. For some people, life seems more colorful. So, this month, you might want to keep things simpler than usual. You might want to inspire agents with a quote that gets straight to the point.  

The retail success story, Katherine Barchetti was Pittsburgh’s retail success story. While her stores are no longer open, her wisdom lives on. She built an empire based on the idea that the customer was much more important to success than sales. In reality, the two go hand-in-hand. But, her words are a great reminder for any support agent. 

Envision your customer as a person, not a series of dollar signs. You don’t like being treated like a thing, and neither do your shoppers. Help your agents remember this wisdom with the above quote. In the end, this is the simplest idea at the core of every successful customer service ecosystem. 

1. June: “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”

• Henry Ford

June is the first month of Summer. Children are getting out of school, barbecues are starting, and people are getting outdoors more. They’re also spending. And, if you focus on the right things, you could be a major player in where they spend. And, the right things aren’t what most people think. How can you remind your agents what the right frame of mind is at this time of year? 

Henry Ford, the magnate behind Ford motors, requires no introduction, as his empire is strong even decades after his passing. What did Ford have to say about customer service? Basically, he said it is everything. Absolute devotion to service is his idea of the key ingredient for success. And, it would be unwise to disagree. So, share his wisdom with your agents in June. 

Let this serve as a reminder of how truly important the job of a support agent is in the big picture. Service is the heart of a thriving brand. 

1. July: “Customers want positive, consistent experiences. Consistency creates confidence, which can lead to retention and loyalty.” 

• Shep Hyken

July is when freedom rings. In the United States, independence day falls in July, when people are getting together playing games and lighting off fireworks. Hint: this happens every year, consistently. And, people continue to celebrate the same way each time. So, it might be a helpful idea to share a reminder with your staff about the value of consistencye, potentially with the help of call scripts. But, how? 

Take a look at this quote from Shep Hyken, who speaks nationwide to expert audiences about customer service and experience. He says that consistent positivity is what drives retention and loyalty from shoppers. Hyken has been featured on major television channels and is trusted and endorsed by enterprise brands. His advice is worthwhile for any support team. 

Not only is the job of a support agent to be positive and make customers happy -- true satisfaction also stems from a consistent experience of your brand. When people know what to expect from you, they begin to trust you. And, when people trust you, they want to put effort into maintaining a relationship. 

Your support agents, by delivering a consistent, positive experience, play a major role in the success of your company. Share this quote to remind them. 

1. August: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

• Bill Gates

August is the time of year when parents are getting ready to send their kids back to school. Schedules are being rattled yet again. And, it’s the time of year when people are soaking up the last of their Summer vacations, which might cause a bit of anxiety. There’s so much going on that consumers might be a bit more on-edge than usual. How can you help your agents cope? 

Your go-to for this month, Bill Gates -- principal founder of the Microsoft corporation -- provides an excellent reminder of the fact that not every learning opportunity comes wrapped in a pretty package. In fact, the dissatisfied customers you come across can be the best teachers. Use this as a reminder to find the silver lining and take everything you can from every situation. 

Not every support experience within your operations is going to feel pleasant. So, use dissatisfaction as an opportunity to learn about products, service tactics, and communication. Your agents should be learning how to transmute tense situations into opportunities to optimize your brand experience. So, this month use the above quote to remind them of this. 

1. September: “Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.” 

• Sally Gronow

Ah, September -- the beginning of Fall and prep time for your final quarter operations. You’re probably getting ready for the busiest season of the year. While you’re trying to figure out how to cut costs, your support agents are still plugging away at their jobs, wondering if they’re going to have to help train the new prospects showing up for your customer service interviews. What’s a good quote to share with your team? 

Sally Gronow is the head of customer service at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water in the UK. And, while you may not have heard of her, she has a simplistic yet genius answer. Your support staff could find great wisdom in the reminder that a crappy experience is going to cost so much more than a great one, even if it takes more effort to provide it; use the idea to keep your service team motivated this month. 

Sometimes, it can feel like a lot of work to help a customer through an emotionally mucky issue. But, in the end, it will take a lot more effort to dig yourself out of the hole created when you fail to help them. Poor reviews, loss of retention, and devastating negative word of mouth can kill your business. The responsibility of going the extra mile to deliver satisfaction falls on your support team. 

1.  October: “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department; it should be the entire company.”

• Tony Hsieh

October is a time for harvest; this is the time of year when people come together to reap the rewards of the past year’s efforts. Community is one of the main themes of the month outside the office. So, you should try to create the same theme inside your company. And, luckily, just the quote exists to remind your support team. 

The CEO of Zappos (an outrageously successful online shoe and clothing retailer), Tony Hsieh, said something that fits perfectly with the idea of community. He said that customer service is more than just one group of people within a company, that it should be everyone in the company. And, his wisdom is the perfect reminder for this time of year. 

You may or may not be able to depend on the other forward-facing departments to have the same level of impact as the service team. But, remember that a support agent’s job is the backbone of the company. And, together, your team can move mountains. In the end, the ability to serve the customers well is the central indicator of a successful company. 

1. November: “Next time you get bad service, speak up. Remember: it’s your money you are defending – money you worked hard for. Tell the company and others. Use the internet and social media. That’s how customer service will improve for all of us.” 

• Larry Winget

For every retailer, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days you’ve been prepping for all year. And, your support team knows this. If you participate in the promotions, these days are going to be your busiest days of the year, especially where customer support is concerned. It might be a good idea to get your team ready by flipping the script -- what are consumers (not CEOs and support experts saying?  

Larry Winget, author and self-proclaimed “Pitbull of Personal Development,™” encourages consumers to speak out when their expectations aren’t met by customer service teams and brands. The people are cheering each other on with empowering words to ‘say something’ when they’re dissatisfied. So, while your team is under enough pressure to succeed already, it’s crucial that they know how a bad experience could affect your operations. 

Just to stir things up a bit, throw in a customer service quote from a consumer. Make sure your support staff knows that everything they say and do will be scrutinized by the customers they are serving. And, it also has the potential to be seen and heard by the public. So, remind your team to give people something positive to talk about! 

1.  December: “Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want - and a little more.”

• Sam Walton

You’ve made it through Black Friday, but your year isn’t over. Consumers are still shopping for last-minute holiday gifts and they’re celebrating. They’re giving each other gifts, sharing time together, and partying it up this time of year. What they’re trying to do is exceed their loved ones’ expectations to express their love. 

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club, said something that fits the sentiment perfectly. He said that companies should go above and beyond the expectations of their shoppers. And, that’s how he grew a small kingdom for himself, from the ground up. 

Here’s a little reminder that the best practice for agents is to take each interaction a step further than expected -- from dissatisfaction to delight. Keep your team reminded of this and you might be able to crown yourself as well. 

What other customer service quotes do you use to motivate your team? 

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