Rethinking Customer Support: 3 Essential Insights From Over 10 Years of Shopify Experience

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from a decade in Shopify ecommerce, it’s that customer support can make—or break—your brand.”

That might sound dramatic, but it’s the truth. We’ve poured countless hours into scaling online brands — experimenting with marketing campaigns and launching new products — only to realize that those efforts fall flat if customers aren’t truly taken care of. When shoppers run into confusion or disappointment, or they can’t find quick, empathetic help, the trust you’ve worked so hard to build can unravel overnight.

So what if customer support was more than a necessary chore to keep angry emails at bay? What if it was the key to unlocking higher profits, stronger loyalty, and insights that fuel better decisions across your entire business? At OpenDesk, we've spent years rethinking the entire support process from this angle, and the lessons we learned changed everything about how we interact with customers — and how we built our AI-powered platform to help others do the same.

In this article, we’ll walk through three essential insights we gained from our own experiences running Shopify brands — and helping them grow by offering industry-leading customer support. If you’re ready to start using support as a growth engine instead of just another item on your to-do list, read on.

Our journey to an "aha" moment

Before we dive into the three insights, let's set the stage. We didn't stumble upon these ideas overnight — we started as Shopify entrepreneurs ourselves, acquiring brands from successful founders and helping them scale to new levels of success. But like so many Shopify business owners, we found ourselves struggling to keep up with customer support, painstakingly responding to the same questions over and over, and losing valuable time (and sales) in the process.

Eventually, it clicked: if we could handle support more intelligently, we could do more than just “keep customers from leaving.” We could increase repeat purchases, gain critical feedback to shape our products, and cut the chaos that was holding back our growth. That shift in perspective — from reactive problem-solvers to proactive opportunity-seekers — spurred us to develop an AI-driven solution that would transform support into a core part of our business strategy.

With that context in mind, let’s jump into the three essential lessons we’ve learned along the way. Each one represents a key turning point in our own journey and, we believe, could spark a turning point for yours, too.

1. New customers don't grow your business — profitable customers do

Let’s start by busting one of the biggest myths in the ecommerce world: “Just keep acquiring new customers and you’ll grow.” Sure, new buyers bring in revenue, but growth isn’t just about pushing your top line higher. It’s about creating loyal, profitable customers who stick around and become your biggest ambassadors.

Our realization came from running several brands where we poured thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of dollars into social media ads and influencer partnerships. Yes, we got traffic, and yes, we had sales, but our overall profit didn’t always mirror the rising revenue. A closer look revealed the truth: We were losing customers as quickly as we gained them. They might have bought once, but small issues — like slow responses to support tickets or confusing return policies — drove them away.

Why profitable customers matter

1. They return. Repeat buyers spend more over time, saving you on acquisition costs.
2. They refer. Word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied repeat customers is far more valuable than any paid ad.
3. They protect your margins. Reduced churn and fewer refunds mean less lost revenue.

Eventually, we realized that focusing solely on acquisition was a hamster wheel, not a growth trajectory. By investing in solving customers’ problems effectively, you can keep them in your ecosystem, sell to them again, and rely less on costly ads. That’s what we aimed to address with OpenDesk — giving brands the ability to fix recurring issues and build lasting customer relationships, not just make quick sales.

What you can do

Take a look at your repeat purchase rate. If it’s not climbing, dig into your support interactions. Are they impersonal? Slow? Dismissive? Make at least one improvement — faster response times, better policies, or proactive follow-ups — to encourage existing customers to come back.

2. The #1 metric is Tickets Per Order (TPO)

Most of us start out tracking the usual suspects: average resolution time, first-response time, or even customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. But as we scaled, we found ourselves asking, “Is there one metric that truly shows us whether we’re getting better or worse at delighting customers?” The answer turned out to be Tickets Per Order (TPO): the ratio of support tickets to the total number of orders.

Why is TPO so powerful? Because it quickly reveals if there’s a growing rift between what you promise and what your customers experience. If your TPO is rising, that suggests your user base is encountering more friction — maybe shipping delays or product quality issues. If it’s declining, that means fewer people need to complain or clarify things, likely a sign that your operations are improving.

How TPO works for ecommerce brands

Say an apparel brand notices a spike in complaints about sizing. Their average handle time isn't alarmingly high, and their CSAT score is okay, but their TSO keeps climbing. That metric is their red flag that something isn't right and they need to dig deeper.

Upon further analysis, they find that their product descriptions are vague, leading to fits that disappoint shoppers. With that insight, they update their size charts, add detailed photos, and build a better FAQ section. A few weeks later, TPO drops dramatically — and so do returns and refunds.

How TPO shaped OpenDesk

We baked TPO directly into the OpenDesk analytics dashboard. Right away, you can see how many tickets you’re handling per 100 (or 1,000) orders. And by categorizing tickets automatically (shipping, product inquiries, etc.), OpenDesk helps make it crystal clear where the biggest problems lie, so you can fix them at their root.

What you can do

Calculate your TPO for the past month (total support tickets ÷ total orders). Compare it with the prior month. If it’s up, investigate which areas (shipping, product quality, etc.) are causing the spike. Make a targeted improvement — like clarifying your return policy or streamlining your logistics — and check back on TPO in a few weeks to see if your fix worked. Or, to skip the manual math, sign up for a free trial of OpenDesk to gain access to real-time TPO analytics.

3. The power of human-centered AI

When people hear “AI in customer support,” they often imagine cold, robotic chatbots or auto-responses that don’t actually solve problems. We get it — the ecommerce world is full of half-baked solutions that do little more than frustrate shoppers. But we discovered a sweet spot: human-centered AI.

The problem with manual overload

As your Shopify business grows, support volume can easily become a bottleneck. Founders often find themselves drowning in emails, DMs, and live chat pings, especially if they’re still the ones wearing the support hat. Outsourcing can free up your time, but you risk losing control over your brand voice and the quality of responses. Plus, it’s expensive to scale.

The insight: AI as a first line of defense

We asked ourselves: “What if we automate the repetitive stuff but keep humans in the loop for anything that needs a personal touch?” Our answer was to design AI that can:

• Instantly answer FAQs. Shipping statuses, order lookups, return instructions — these can be handled automatically if your system is integrated with Shopify.
• Maintain your brand voice. By training the AI on your actual past interactions and brand guidelines, it can respond in a tone that matches your style.
• Escalate complex or emotional tickets to real people. No one wants a robot to respond to a high-value customer with a sensitive complaint. So we prioritize routing those to a real human.

That approach helped us keep the empathy and nuance that make customers feel valued, without burying founders in mundane tasks.

What you can do

If you’re wary of AI, start by automating just a few common queries. Keep an eye on how customers respond — do they still feel heard? If so, gradually expand your AI usage. Make sure you have clear guidelines for when and how to escalate an issue to a human for a personalized touch.

Transform support into a growth engine

Up to now, you’ve likely treated support as a cost center — a necessary evil to keep complaints from piling up. But from our decade of trial and error, we can tell you that it’s far more than that. When done right, support is a feedback pipeline, a loyalty driver, and a brand differentiator that sets you apart from the competition.

Step 1: Audit your current support flow

Skim through your last 100 tickets. Are 40 of them asking for a shipping update? Another 30 about return policies? That’s prime territory for automation or better self-service resources. Jot down repetitive questions so you can figure out what you should delegate to AI or improve within your customer experience.

Step 2: Calculate your TPO

We recommend tracking TPO monthly. If you see it creeping up, isolate the reasons. Maybe you changed a supplier or ran a new marketing campaign that set unrealistic delivery expectations. TPO can guide you toward the next big fix.

Step 3: Implement human-centered AI

Pick one segment of your support — maybe order status updates — and let AI handle it. If that goes well, expand to more topics. Always keep an escalation path so customers can choose to speak with a human if they’re not satisfied.

Step 4: Monitor, refine, repeat

Customer needs evolve with your product catalog, your marketing strategies, and even the seasonality of your business. Schedule periodic reviews — monthly or quarterly — to reassess your TPO, your most frequent ticket categories, and your overall satisfaction scores.

Embrace the future of Shopify support

We built OpenDesk around these three realizations — focusing on profitable customers rather than raw acquisition, using TPO as the ultimate health metric, and developing AI that respects both your brand voice and your customers’ need for empathy.

Whether you’re a $50K side hustle or a $10M-a-year operation, these insights hold true. The sooner you implement them, the sooner you’ll see support evolve from a drag on your time to a driving force behind your growth.

So what's your next move?

You can manually track your TPO, identify issues that keep cropping up in your tickets, and address them head-on. And you can look for an AI support tool that allows you to dip your toe into automating some aspects of your support. By taking these steps, you’ll not only reduce the chaos of manual support but also unlock an entirely new pathway to profitability and customer loyalty.

But if you’re curious about how an AI-powered system built on real Shopify experience can transform your support, you need OpenDesk. After all, there’s no reason you have to learn these lessons the hard way — let us help you skip the mistakes and go straight to the win.

Ready to see how AI-driven support, built by people who’ve been in your shoes, can elevate your business? Let’s rewrite the story of customer support together. Sign up for a free trial today.