How We Automated 70% of Customer Support (And Kept a 92% CSAT)

It's 2 a.m., and you’re finally catching up on emails after a long day of managing orders. Your inbox is flooded with customer inquiries: questions about ingredients or materials, shipping times, and return policies. You want to provide excellent service, but the sheer volume of messages is overwhelming.

Sound familiar? The truth is that for many ecommerce brands, scaling customer support feels like a mission impossible.

Sure, you could outsource customer service or hire an in-house team, but the costs would run thousands of dollars per month. The alternative is to leave things as they are, resulting in slow response times and poor customer satisfaction.

Our customer, Regen Health, a fast-growing wellness brand, faced this exact issue. As their sales increased, so did the number of support tickets they received.

Instead of hiring more people, as most companies would do, they went the automation route. Not only did this move allow them to keep costs down, but it also preserved a 92%+ customer satisfaction score.

Regen Health is proof that automation doesn't mean sacrificing quality, personalization, or the human touch. In this article, we'll break down exactly how they did it without cutting corners or frustrating customers.

Growing pains: The challenges of scaling customer support

In a HubSpot survey, 66% of consumers said they expect a live chat response within five minutes. Another 22% would wait up to 30 minutes, and only 4% would wait one hour.

What about other communication channels, like email or social media?

According to The Sprout Social Index, nearly three-quarters of shoppers who reach out to a brand on social platforms expect to hear back within 24 hours. Around 73% of those who don't get a reply will buy from a competitor.

Statista research has similar findings. In one survey, 70% of consumers said they expect a same-day response from the brands they contact. Around 46% would wait until the next day, and 16% said they wouldn't wait longer than three days.

In today's digital age, shoppers want to reach you anytime, from anywhere — and they don't like to wait. What's more, 58% would pay extra for better customer service.

However, meeting these expectations can be challenging, even for large enterprises. It's not just about costs but also about response speed, accuracy, and the growing demand for personalization.

Scaling customer support is difficult, but the benefits are worth it

A spike in sales isn't always good news. On the one hand, it translates into more revenue and increased brand awareness. On the other hand, it requires scaling production, inventory, customer support, and other business activities — calling for major investments.

As far as customer service goes, hiring more agents is expensive and time-consuming. The costs are even higher if you want to provide support around the clock, which is something consumers expect.

One solution is to outsource these operations, but you may fall short on personalization. Outsourcing companies often have hundreds, if not thousands, of clients and may not take the time to understand your brand's voice, products, and target audience.

The result? A generic approach to customer interactions.

According to Salesforce's State of the AI Connected Customer, nearly one-third of shoppers feel like companies treat them as numbers. This can erode their trust in a business, leading to poor reviews and increased churn.

Negative reviews spread fast and can take a toll on your brand's reputation and bottom line. Since nine out of 10 buyers consider reviews before purchasing, you can't afford to compromise on customer service.

As your business grows, scaling support becomes a necessity. If you do it right, you should see an increase in average order value (AOV), customer retention, and profit margins. Great support also contributes to long-term loyalty and, consequently, lower churn rates.

Think of customer service as a revenue driver, not just a cost center. While offering excellent support isn't cheap, the costs of not doing it are much higher.

The cost of bad customer experiences

In 2023, Qualtrics XM Institute surveyed 28,400 consumers in 26 countries to see how their spending has changed after a bad experience. Here's what the researchers found:

• Online retail businesses deliver "very poor" experiences 14% of the time. By comparison, only 7% of consumers have had such an experience with a department store.
• 40% of online shoppers spend less with a brand after one bad experience, and 14% stop buying from that brand.
• Ecommerce retail businesses risk losing 5.9% of all customer sales due to poor experiences.

Per Qualtrics XM Institute, bad customer experiences could cost organizations a staggering $3.7 trillion annually. While subpar customer support isn't the only cause of poor CX, it has a ripple effect that could harm your brand's reputation and profitability.

Let's say someone who purchased protein powder from your Shopify brand reaches out with questions about an ingredient on the label.

Your team takes too long to reply or gives a vague response that leaves the customer feeling frustrated. Here's what could happen next:

• The customer starts questioning your brand's transparency and reliability
• They return the product and stop doing business with you
• Your public image takes a hit after the customer vents on social media or leaves negative reviews on Google, Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and other platforms
• Their feedback discourages others from buying your products, resulting in revenue loss

This is just one example of how a simple product inquiry can turn into a problem that impacts overall customer retention and trust.

However, there’s no reason to go into panic, hire an army of agents, and micromanage their every move. Instead, automate common inquiries to free up your team to focus on complex cases.

That’s what Regen Health did, and the results were worth it. As the demand for their products increased, they couldn't afford to let potential customers slip through the cracks. Hiring more agents wasn't sustainable, so they decided to turn to OpenDesk.

With this approach, Regen Health managed to meet or exceed customer expectations while scaling efficiently. What happened next proved that automation, when done right, could be the key to ecommerce success.

Unlock value with customer service automation

Scaling customer support doesn't necessarily mean hiring more people. The goal is to increase efficiency, not headcount, so you can improve response times, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, profitability.

One option is to deploy an AI agent or chatbot for 24/7 support.

Per Salesforce's State of the AI Connected Customer, 47% of business buyers and 35% of consumers would work with an AI agent instead of a person to avoid repeating themselves. Nearly 30% of consumers and 46% of business buyers would do the same to get faster service.

However, chatbots alone are not enough to manage customer support. They often give generic, unhelpful responses and can’t handle interactions that require a human touch.

Let's say a customer requests a different shipping method than the default. Following strict rules, chatbots deny the request, causing the customer to abandon their cart. A human agent could have made an exception and prevented this from happening.

On top of that, chatbots often frustrate customers, forcing them into endless loops of pre-programmed responses. This kind of situation can hurt your brand's image and increase churn, no matter how great your products are.

A better option? Use an AI-powered customer platform like OpenDesk. Designed for Shopify entrepreneurs, OpenDesk brings all your support tickets into one place and prioritizes time-sensitive messages. Plus, it leverages AI to automate common inquiries and deliver actionable insights.

At OpenDesk, we recognize that fully automated responses cannot deliver the same quality of support as a human agent. That's why we created a platform where Shopify businesses can choose which tickets to automate and which ones to escalate to a customer service rep.

OpenDesk in action: The Regen Health success story

Regen Health, a Shopify company founded in 2019, experienced fast growth, becoming a trusted manufacturer and retailer of dietary supplements. As its operations expanded, the brand needed a smarter and more cost-effective way to manage support.

With OpenDesk, they automated responses to common inquiries like, "Where do you source your ingredients from?" and "How do I track my order?" The company increased its automation rate from 35% to 70% without losing the personal touch.

As proof, it maintained a 92%+ customer satisfaction score (CSAT) despite the increase in ticket volume. A CSAT score of 92% is way above the industry average of 79%.

Regen Health could have turned to chatbots or overloaded its team, but instead, it chose OpenDesk to automate repetitive inquiries. With this approach, they trained the AI using their product information, policies, and past interactions to ensure accurate, human-like responses.

By integrating OpenDesk, the company significantly reduced manual workload while keeping customers happy.

Its team can now focus on high-value interactions and complex cases that require human input, resulting in lower operating costs. Buyers receive fast, helpful responses around the clock, contributing to a better shopping experience.

How OpenDesk enables Shopify brands to streamline customer support

With OpenDesk, Shopify brands like Regen Health can manage all their inboxes from a single platform and identify high-priority issues at a glance. You can see your emails alongside any social media or live chat messages.

OpenDesk also displays inquiries that require follow-up, ensuring no message goes unanswered. What's more, it automatically categorizes incoming tickets by topic (e.g., "Fulfillment," "Discount Code," or "Item Replacement") so you can quickly decide which ones to address first.

For each ticket, you can see the channel it came from, how long ago it arrived, and other data, such as customer sentiment. Then, your support team can quickly identify and address urgent or negative issues.

However, a good support platform should do more than keep your business running — it should also deliver actionable insights to improve your operations. That's another area where OpenDesk shines.

Our Analytics dashboard enables Shopify brands to track CSAT and other helpful metrics, such as Tickets Per Order (TPO).

The latter is a proprietary OpenDesk metric that tracks the number of tickets generated per order, allowing users to identify recurring issues before they turn into bigger problems. Unlike traditional key performance indicators (KPIs), TPO isn’t subject to response bias and can’t be manipulated.

This customer satisfaction metric shows exactly which problems require immediate attention and helps you uncover their root causes. You can see how many tickets are related to product quality, missing items, return issues, and other operational bottlenecks — and take action instead of waiting for the negative reviews to start rolling in.

Turn customer support into a competitive advantage

OpenDesk was designed specifically for Shopify brands needing an affordable, user-friendly customer support tool.

What sets it apart is its ease of use and distinct features, such as the Tickets Per Order metric and AI-driven auto-categorization capabilities, which let you quickly identify operational issues.

Another standout feature is OpenDesk's Analytics dashboard. Not only does it provide insights you can act on, but it also displays them in an easy-to-grasp manner.

With OpenDesk, you can automate and scale customer support without compromising quality. Our platform is not meant to replace human interaction but to enhance it and help you achieve sustainable growth.

Level up your customer service to gain a competitive edge. Try OpenDesk for free to see what it can do for your business.