How to Turn Your Help Desk Into a Profit Center

This post was contributed by Rachel Fefer, Enterprise Partnership Director for Gorgias

Customer service is often viewed by brands as a reactive measure – a necessary cost to answer customers when they have a problem. But with the right tools and processes in place, it can be an effective way to retain customers and find new customers to drive revenue. 

In fact, 73% of customers say they stay loyal to brands because of friendly customer service reps. This shows that customers are willing to come back, and spend more, for a brand that treats them well and creates a human connection…which REALLY pays off, as loyal customers are 9x more likely to convert compared to a first-time shopper.

Below we’ll look at 5 ways eCommerce brands can make the most of that and quickly turn their help desk into a revenue-generating machine. 

1. Start by Meeting Your Customers Where They Are

In order to be there for your customers or potential customers, you have to, well, be there. That means being present and responsive on all the channels they use to communicate with you. 

But keeping track of communications across all channels (such as Facebook messenger, Instagram DMs, email, SMS, live chat, phone) can be a challenge for your support team. Easily solve that by leveraging an omnichannel help desk like Gorgias, which funnels all your customer communication channels into one place. This helps save your team time flipping between tabs, and helps ensure they’re available to help existing and new customers quickly when they need it to drive sales. 

2. Personalize Every Experience

As a brand, it’s important to recognize your returning customers (remember the aforementioned 9X MORE LIKELY TO CONVERT stat above). It can help create an exceptional experience that your customers will remember, and keep them coming back.

You can use your help desk to easily pull in data from your eCommerce store, such as first name, shipping address, and order information. This way, you have all the information you need to personalize your responses quickly, and ensure your customers don’t have to repeat themselves if they reach out to your team on different channels.

3. Reply Fast Using Automations

One of the most commonly asked questions eCommerce brands face is … 

Drum roll please … 

“Where is my order?” 

Answering this question and other repetitive questions over and over each day can be really time consuming and distracting for your team. Precious time that they could be spending on tickets that can drive revenue (more on that in point 4 below). 

Save your team time by leveraging a machine learning help desk that automatically replies to frequently asked questions. For example, Gorgias can detect when a customer asks things like “Where is my order?”, and automatically sends them a personalized response (pulling in their first name, tracking URL, and shipping address), and then closes that ticket for you.

4. Track Sentiments to Find Leads

Your help desk can also help you find potential customers by tracking intent. For example, say a customer comments on your most recent Instagram post saying they love a backpack you sell. You can set tags so that comment is put into the “social leads” folder, so your team can reply with a sales opportunity in mind.

5. Incentivize your CS team like a sales team

To encourage your customer service agents to drive sales, you can motivate them similar to how you might motivate a sales team. For example, in Gorgias you can track individual statistics and see how much revenue each agent drives. That means you can set revenue goals for the team, recognize and reward agents that surpass that goal, and help your team learn from each other on how they can drive more sales. 

If you want to learn more about how to turn your help desk into a profit center, click here.

About the Author:

Rachel Fefer is a 12-year veteran of the e-commerce and customer support industries, now disrupting the space as the Enterprise Partnership Director at Gorgias, the #1, machine learning helpdesk for e-commerce brands. Prior to Gorgias, Rachel led the North America Commercial Partner Sales organization at Adobe, where she helped lead Magento to acquisition. Rachel has an MBA from Bar Ilan University in Israel, and a BA from the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. In her spare time, you’ll find Rachel kickboxing, eating chocolate, drinking coffee or baileys or walking her dog, Bailey.