Guide: Selecting the Best Ecommerce Helpdesk for Your Store
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 9:26 am
The ecommerce landscape is jampacked with competition.
And it’s hard competing with big brands that can offer rock-bottom prices and instant returns.
However, if there’s one area that’ll help you stand out denmark mobile phone number list and shine it’s customer service.
But to provide your customers with the best support possible, you need to have the right software to do so.
And with multiple ecommerce helpdesk solutions out there it can be hard to pick the right one for your store.
Which is why we created this guide covering:
What an ecommerce helpdesk is
Why and when you need one
Criteria and features to consider while selecting your tool
And the best ecommerce support software in the market
Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
What is an ecommerce helpdesk?
Benefits of an Ecommerce Customer Service Tool
When do you need an ecommerce helpdesk?
What are the main features you want your tool to have?
Which are the best ecommerce customer service tools?
Conclusion
What is an ecommerce helpdesk?
An ecommerce helpdesk is software that helps you streamline your customer service by allowing you to:
manage customer queries from across channels.
view all your customer information in one place.
edit and modify orders directly from your dashboard.
collaborate internally with your team on queries.
gain insights on how your team is performing.
Benefits of an Ecommerce Customer Service Tool
Benefits of an Ecommerce Helpdesk
Using the right support solution ultimately helps you deliver the best service possible to your customers.
Let’s take a closer look at how it does that.
Centralize support tickets from multiple channels
Your customers are present on several channels. Be it email, phone, live chat, text, social media, or any other.
Providing the best customer experience possible means meeting them on their terms.
And doing so without dedicated software means constantly switching between tabs. From your store dashboard and your different support channels.
Which results in manual errors, queries being responded to late, or missed completely.
But with an ecommerce helpdesk, you can view and reply to queries from all your channels on one single screen. And deep integration with your ecommerce platform takes manual errors out of the equation completely.
Helping you save countless hours. And giving you peace of mind.
Engage your customers with more context
Have you ever had this experience:
You’re on a call with customer support trying to get something resolved. You explain your problem to the minutest detail. When you finish, you’re put on hold and passed on to another agent.
And have to repeat the same thing from the start. All over again.
Pretty annoying right?
The same goes for online shopping. Customers don’t want to be constantly asked the same questions.
And with a helpdesk that integrates with your ecommerce platform, you won’t have to. You’ll have all their order information readily available. Allowing you to have conversations with more context.
Collaborate internally seamlessly
Customer support is a team sport.
Different members of your team handle different areas of your operations. And you’ll want to rope in the relevant team member, best equipped to deal with a certain problem, whenever you need to.
An ecommerce customer service software allows you to collaborate with your team in real-time. Allowing you to assign tickets, leave private notes, and tag conversations.
This let your agents cut unnecessary back & forth conversations they'd usually have. Resulting in improved agent efficiency and faster response times. All while boosting customer satisfaction.
Respond to customer queries faster
A lot of the queries your store deals with are repetitive in nature.
Ones related to price, returns, and order status.
And having to manually respond to each of these queries is extremely time-consuming and tedious.
But most ecommerce helpdesks will allow you to handle such queries more efficiently.
How exactly varies. But it’s usually some combination of:
Fast replies (AKA canned responses): A feature that allows you to customize pre-made templates and respond with two clicks.
Self-serve widget: This allows your customers to search and resolve their own queries without any external support.
Automation rules: Sends automatic responses to customers when queries match certain pre-made conditions that you’ve set.
Manage multiple stores from one dashboard
We’ve spoken about several problems arising from managing ecommerce support without a tool.
Now imagine all of them compounded to multiple stores? What a disaster!
But luckily most ecommerce helpdesks allow you to manage multiple stores from one single account. So you can enjoy all the benefits listed above for all the brands you manage!
When do you need an ecommerce helpdesk?
When you don't need an ecommerce helpdesk
So, if you’re managing support manually, you’re probably wondering when is the right time to look for an ecommerce customer service software.
Well, here are some questions you can ask yourself to figure out if you need a dedicated tool:
Do you receive a low volume (<300/month) of support tickets?
Are you providing support on just one or two channels?
Do you have a small team where you always know who’s responding to a customer?
Can you respond quickly and effectively to all customer queries?
Is all your customer information organized and accessible?
Can you create meaningful reports to gain insights into the quality of your service?
Is this setup scalable as your operations grow?
Did you answer yes to all of the questions above?
Then you’re probably good for now!
On the flip side if you answered no to most, then you definitely should consider looking for a dedicated support solution.
So keep on reading friend.
What are the criteria you need to consider while selecting an ecommerce helpdesk?
Criteria for selecting an ecommerce helpdesk for your store
Channels you use
One of the main reasons to switch from managing support to a dedicated tool is to handle queries from all the channels your customers are active on.
The most common channels include:
Email
Live Chat
SMS
Phone
Social Media channels like Facebook, Instagram etc.
Instant Messaging Platforms like Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.
So you’ll want to make sure the helpdesk you choose integrates with the different communication channels you use. As well as those you plan to use in the future.
Number of support agents
If you currently have just one or two people managing all your ecommerce support, you may not need a dedicated tool.
But if you have multiple agents handling support, you should be using a helpdesk software.
This will ensure your team can collaborate on tickets using features like ticket assignment, private notes, and tags.
Plus you’ll be able to view all the tickets your team is handling in an organized manner with a shared inbox.
Many tools charge based on the number of agents using the product. So if you want multiple members using a helpdesk, go for one which charges based on ticket volume.
Volume of support tickets
If your ticket volume is extremely low (<10 tickets/day), you might be alright managing support manually.
However, even in this case, a helpdesk will allow you to easily keep track of different tickets and the status of each.
As the number of support queries grows, you’ll realize it’s near impossible to keep track of everything and manage efficiently. Which will ultimately lead to a poor customer experience.
If you have just one or two people managing a very large volume of tickets, you might be better off going for software that charges on a per-agent basis.
Existing tech stack you use
You want to make sure that the helpdesk you select has integrations with the software you use on a day-to-day basis.
Some common integrations used by ecommerce companies include:
Ecommerce platforms: Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce
Email marketing: Gmail, Klaviyo
Social media: Facebook, Instagram
Instant messaging: Whatsapp, Slack
SMS marketing: Postscript, SMSBump
Phone: Aircall, cloudtalk
And a host of others for shipping & fulfillment, payment management, returns, customer loyalty, and automation, etc.
Go through the integrations page or check with the provider to see if they already have integrations with whatever software your team uses regularly.
Ease of use
Your agents are going to be using your helpdesk on a daily basis.
So you’ll want to make sure that they enjoy operating on the platform.
The best way to find out if a helpdesk is easy to use is by requesting a free trial. And checking it out firsthand.
After your trial ask yourself:
If the tool was easy to figure out while getting started
If it Is fast and intuitive
How much training your team will need to get up to speed with the tool
What are the training and onboarding resources available
If a tool is too slow or difficult to operate, your team will not be able to make the most out of it. Which will ultimately reflect in the quality of support they provide.
Take a free trial and personally go through the helpdesk to learn firsthand if it’s fast, easy to understand and simple to use.
Amount of automation available
Your store, like most, probably receives a ton of repetitive queries.
Tickets related to prices, order status, and returns policy, etc. For example, messages you receive like “How much does this cost” or “Where is my order”.
Manually responding to each of these is time-consuming and inefficient.
Therefore you’ll want to automate such tickets so that your agents can focus on other important tasks.
A feature like canned responses allows your agents to customize pre-made templates to common queries and respond with just a few clicks.
And others like automation rules ensure anytime a query contains certain variables or meets certain conditions, an automatic response is sent.
Consider how much automation you’d want available in your helpdesk to narrow down your list to the ones which have such features available.
You may also wan to to check out our guide on 10 easy ways to automate customer service for ecommerce businesses.
Amount of self-service available
Another way to tackle repetitive queries is by allowing your customers to find solutions to their problems themselves.
This could be something as simple as a knowledge base where customers can search for articles that answer FAQs.
Or taken a step further with a self-serve widget. Where in addition to the above, they can also track the live status of their order directly, without having to speak to an agent.
Analytics and reports
It’s hard to improve your ecommerce support if you don’t know how you’re performing.
Therefore you’ll want your helpdesk to provide you with analytics on:
Total ticket volume
Response times
Resolution times
Resolution rates
Replies/resolution
CSAT
A breakdown of how your team is performing individually as well as collectively will help you take the necessary steps to deliver the best ecommerce customer experience possible.
Budget
There are ecommerce helpdesks to suit every budget.
From free to ones which can cost over $1000/month.
For context, let’s take a look at the pricing of two popular ecommerce helpdesks: DelightChat and Gorgias.
DelightChat has a free plan and the most expensive plan starts at $249/month. On the other hand, Gorgias plans start at $60/month going up to $750/month for their most expensive offering.
Eliminating the ones which don’t match your budget is a quick way to narrow down your list.
Security and compliance
Have the makers of the product taken the necessary steps to ensure that your data is safe?
Are they compliant with regulations like GDPR?
Find out how they use and collect data, the infrastructure they use, their incident response plan, etc. to better understand the security measures they have in place.
Reliability and Support
You’re looking for a tool to try and deliver excellent customer service.
So the least you’d expect from such a tool is prompt and reliable support.
You’ll want to find out:
The different avenues they provide support on
How long they usually take to respond
And how open they are to customer feedback and suggestions
Scalability
Every store is looking to scale its operations eventually. And I’m guessing yours is no different.
So you’ll want to make sure the ecommerce helpdesk you select not only fits your needs currently but can do so as your store grows.
Go through their different case studies to see how it’s helped brands in your position as well as the position you hope to be in.
Reputation
Finally, you’ll want to look at the experience of prospective, past and loyal customers of the helpdesk. To understand the main pros and cons of using such software. And their overall impression of interacting with their team.
Go through their reviews on their website, their store listing, and review sites like G2, Capterra, etc.
Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself while selecting an ecommerce helpdesk.
Looking for a tool that kills it on all these parameters?
Then your search ends here.
Try DelightChat for free!
What are the main features you want your tool to have?
Main features of an ecommerce helpdesk
Shared Inbox and Omnichannel support
A shared inbox is one where multiple users can use simultaneously to read and send messages.
It allows you to respond to your customers across channels and seamlessly collaborate with your customer support team.
Deep integration with your ecommerce platform
Deep integration allows you to view and edit orders on your ecommerce platform (whether that’s Shopify, Magento, or any other) directly from your dashboard.
This means you always have access to customer information as soon as they message you. So you won’t have to ask customers repetitive questions and can instead have conversations with more context.
Plus it leaves no room for manual errors that might normally arise when you copy-paste order details, tracking information, and other data while managing support manually.
Internal collaboration
Internal collaboration features allow you to cut the back & forth from conversations you would normally have with your customer service team. Allowing you to manage support in an organized manner.
Here are the main collaboration features you’d want your ecommerce support software to have:
Ticket assignment
Assign tickets to the agent best equipped to handle a particular query. Every time.
Each agent will be able to view all the tickets assigned to them at a glance on the dashboard.
Private comments
Many tickets will require back and forth communication between multiple team members.
With private comments, this conversation can take place as a thread on the relevant ticket which can only be viewed by your team.
Tags
Tags allow you to keep track of important conversations without a hitch by labeling them as “refund”, “VIP”, “exchange”, or whatever the situation demands.
Collision detection
You don’t want multiple agents responding to the same ticket.
And that’s where collision detection comes in.
You are always aware of who’s viewing or replying to a particular ticket thereby preventing duplicate replies.
Follow-up reminders
This feature lets you schedule a date & time to follow up with customers.
You can use the snooze and follow up feature:
while waiting on a customer response and don’t hear back.
to proactively check in with new customers after a purchase.
as you dig for details to investigate a customer issue.
Automation
Automation features help your agents save time while ensuring responses to tickets are extremely fast. It includes:
Fast reply (Canned response)
One of the best ways to delight online shoppers is to respond to their support queries with lightning speed.
Fast replies help you achieve this by responding to a customer in two clicks.
You can create pre-made templates for your most frequently asked questions. When your agents receive a query of this nature, they can simply select the template, customize it and respond in seconds.
This not only results in faster response times but also saves your agents’ time and mental bandwidth, all while taking typos out of the equation completely.
Automation rules
Another way to manage repetitive queries is by using automation rules.
So anytime you receive a ticket that matches certain parameters, an automatic response is sent.
For example, if you receive a message asking for their order status, you can send an instant automated response with all the order details and tracking information synced directly from your ecommerce platform.
Self-serve
A self-serve widget will allow your customers to get the tracking URL and information of their last order or find solutions from your help center without any external support.
Manual ticket creation
You may sometimes receive queries outside of your support channels. And this feature will allow you to manually create tickets which you can then track and manage on your helpdesk.
Mobile app
You may not always be on your computer or laptop to respond to queries.
But a mobile app will allow you to manage your ecommerce store’s customer support while on the go.
Here’s a checklist of the main features you want your ecommerce helpdesk to have. Make a copy and use as you please!
Which are the best ecommerce customer service tools?
The 15 best helpdesks for ecommerce stores
Alright, great!
Time to jump into the best ecommerce support software out there in the market today.
We’ve broken down 15 of the best with:
A brief description
A highlight of key features
Notable pros and cons
Let’s take a look!
15 Best Helpdesks built for Ecommerce
The software listed below are helpdesks specifically built for ecommerce.
This means they take into account the specific needs of an online store with regards to features, integrations, workflows, etc.
DelightChat
DelightChat is an ecommerce customer support tool built for SME brands that enables them to deliver out-of-the-box customer service. It’s designed with a conversation-first approach that enables you to manage your store’s support & painlessly resolve customer queries - all from a single screen.
Pros:
Omnichannel inbox that helps you manage WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Emails & Live Chat.
DelightChat enables you to respond to customer queries & collaborate with your team, all from a single screen.
DelightChat offers great value for money being significantly cheaper than the other options on this list.
DelightChat doesn’t penalize you when you add more users to scale up your customer support operations.
Most importantly, you can collaborate with your team right within the app itself. There is no need to toggle between tabs, which leads to a loss in productivity & loss of work hours.
Cons:
For now, DelightChat only integrates with Shopify that allows it to access your Shopify admin dashboard data. However, it will soon be available for other ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce & Magento.
Check out how DelightChat’s pricing plans or check out what customers have to say about their experience.
Gorgias
Gorgias is a customer service tool designed for ecommerce stores. They integrate with Shopify, BigCommerce & WooCommerce. They have a great integration with Shopify that helps support agents to deliver great customer support seamlessly.
Gorgias dashboard
And it’s hard competing with big brands that can offer rock-bottom prices and instant returns.
However, if there’s one area that’ll help you stand out denmark mobile phone number list and shine it’s customer service.
But to provide your customers with the best support possible, you need to have the right software to do so.
And with multiple ecommerce helpdesk solutions out there it can be hard to pick the right one for your store.
Which is why we created this guide covering:
What an ecommerce helpdesk is
Why and when you need one
Criteria and features to consider while selecting your tool
And the best ecommerce support software in the market
Let’s get into it!
Table of Contents
What is an ecommerce helpdesk?
Benefits of an Ecommerce Customer Service Tool
When do you need an ecommerce helpdesk?
What are the main features you want your tool to have?
Which are the best ecommerce customer service tools?
Conclusion
What is an ecommerce helpdesk?
An ecommerce helpdesk is software that helps you streamline your customer service by allowing you to:
manage customer queries from across channels.
view all your customer information in one place.
edit and modify orders directly from your dashboard.
collaborate internally with your team on queries.
gain insights on how your team is performing.
Benefits of an Ecommerce Customer Service Tool
Benefits of an Ecommerce Helpdesk
Using the right support solution ultimately helps you deliver the best service possible to your customers.
Let’s take a closer look at how it does that.
Centralize support tickets from multiple channels
Your customers are present on several channels. Be it email, phone, live chat, text, social media, or any other.
Providing the best customer experience possible means meeting them on their terms.
And doing so without dedicated software means constantly switching between tabs. From your store dashboard and your different support channels.
Which results in manual errors, queries being responded to late, or missed completely.
But with an ecommerce helpdesk, you can view and reply to queries from all your channels on one single screen. And deep integration with your ecommerce platform takes manual errors out of the equation completely.
Helping you save countless hours. And giving you peace of mind.
Engage your customers with more context
Have you ever had this experience:
You’re on a call with customer support trying to get something resolved. You explain your problem to the minutest detail. When you finish, you’re put on hold and passed on to another agent.
And have to repeat the same thing from the start. All over again.
Pretty annoying right?
The same goes for online shopping. Customers don’t want to be constantly asked the same questions.
And with a helpdesk that integrates with your ecommerce platform, you won’t have to. You’ll have all their order information readily available. Allowing you to have conversations with more context.
Collaborate internally seamlessly
Customer support is a team sport.
Different members of your team handle different areas of your operations. And you’ll want to rope in the relevant team member, best equipped to deal with a certain problem, whenever you need to.
An ecommerce customer service software allows you to collaborate with your team in real-time. Allowing you to assign tickets, leave private notes, and tag conversations.
This let your agents cut unnecessary back & forth conversations they'd usually have. Resulting in improved agent efficiency and faster response times. All while boosting customer satisfaction.
Respond to customer queries faster
A lot of the queries your store deals with are repetitive in nature.
Ones related to price, returns, and order status.
And having to manually respond to each of these queries is extremely time-consuming and tedious.
But most ecommerce helpdesks will allow you to handle such queries more efficiently.
How exactly varies. But it’s usually some combination of:
Fast replies (AKA canned responses): A feature that allows you to customize pre-made templates and respond with two clicks.
Self-serve widget: This allows your customers to search and resolve their own queries without any external support.
Automation rules: Sends automatic responses to customers when queries match certain pre-made conditions that you’ve set.
Manage multiple stores from one dashboard
We’ve spoken about several problems arising from managing ecommerce support without a tool.
Now imagine all of them compounded to multiple stores? What a disaster!
But luckily most ecommerce helpdesks allow you to manage multiple stores from one single account. So you can enjoy all the benefits listed above for all the brands you manage!
When do you need an ecommerce helpdesk?
When you don't need an ecommerce helpdesk
So, if you’re managing support manually, you’re probably wondering when is the right time to look for an ecommerce customer service software.
Well, here are some questions you can ask yourself to figure out if you need a dedicated tool:
Do you receive a low volume (<300/month) of support tickets?
Are you providing support on just one or two channels?
Do you have a small team where you always know who’s responding to a customer?
Can you respond quickly and effectively to all customer queries?
Is all your customer information organized and accessible?
Can you create meaningful reports to gain insights into the quality of your service?
Is this setup scalable as your operations grow?
Did you answer yes to all of the questions above?
Then you’re probably good for now!
On the flip side if you answered no to most, then you definitely should consider looking for a dedicated support solution.
So keep on reading friend.
What are the criteria you need to consider while selecting an ecommerce helpdesk?
Criteria for selecting an ecommerce helpdesk for your store
Channels you use
One of the main reasons to switch from managing support to a dedicated tool is to handle queries from all the channels your customers are active on.
The most common channels include:
Live Chat
SMS
Phone
Social Media channels like Facebook, Instagram etc.
Instant Messaging Platforms like Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.
So you’ll want to make sure the helpdesk you choose integrates with the different communication channels you use. As well as those you plan to use in the future.
Number of support agents
If you currently have just one or two people managing all your ecommerce support, you may not need a dedicated tool.
But if you have multiple agents handling support, you should be using a helpdesk software.
This will ensure your team can collaborate on tickets using features like ticket assignment, private notes, and tags.
Plus you’ll be able to view all the tickets your team is handling in an organized manner with a shared inbox.
Many tools charge based on the number of agents using the product. So if you want multiple members using a helpdesk, go for one which charges based on ticket volume. Volume of support tickets
If your ticket volume is extremely low (<10 tickets/day), you might be alright managing support manually.
However, even in this case, a helpdesk will allow you to easily keep track of different tickets and the status of each.
As the number of support queries grows, you’ll realize it’s near impossible to keep track of everything and manage efficiently. Which will ultimately lead to a poor customer experience.
If you have just one or two people managing a very large volume of tickets, you might be better off going for software that charges on a per-agent basis. Existing tech stack you use
You want to make sure that the helpdesk you select has integrations with the software you use on a day-to-day basis.
Some common integrations used by ecommerce companies include:
Ecommerce platforms: Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce
Email marketing: Gmail, Klaviyo
Social media: Facebook, Instagram
Instant messaging: Whatsapp, Slack
SMS marketing: Postscript, SMSBump
Phone: Aircall, cloudtalk
And a host of others for shipping & fulfillment, payment management, returns, customer loyalty, and automation, etc.
Go through the integrations page or check with the provider to see if they already have integrations with whatever software your team uses regularly.
Ease of use
Your agents are going to be using your helpdesk on a daily basis.
So you’ll want to make sure that they enjoy operating on the platform.
The best way to find out if a helpdesk is easy to use is by requesting a free trial. And checking it out firsthand.
After your trial ask yourself:
If the tool was easy to figure out while getting started
If it Is fast and intuitive
How much training your team will need to get up to speed with the tool
What are the training and onboarding resources available
If a tool is too slow or difficult to operate, your team will not be able to make the most out of it. Which will ultimately reflect in the quality of support they provide.
Take a free trial and personally go through the helpdesk to learn firsthand if it’s fast, easy to understand and simple to use. Amount of automation available
Your store, like most, probably receives a ton of repetitive queries.
Tickets related to prices, order status, and returns policy, etc. For example, messages you receive like “How much does this cost” or “Where is my order”.
Manually responding to each of these is time-consuming and inefficient.
Therefore you’ll want to automate such tickets so that your agents can focus on other important tasks.
A feature like canned responses allows your agents to customize pre-made templates to common queries and respond with just a few clicks.
And others like automation rules ensure anytime a query contains certain variables or meets certain conditions, an automatic response is sent.
Consider how much automation you’d want available in your helpdesk to narrow down your list to the ones which have such features available.
You may also wan to to check out our guide on 10 easy ways to automate customer service for ecommerce businesses.Amount of self-service available
Another way to tackle repetitive queries is by allowing your customers to find solutions to their problems themselves.
This could be something as simple as a knowledge base where customers can search for articles that answer FAQs.
Or taken a step further with a self-serve widget. Where in addition to the above, they can also track the live status of their order directly, without having to speak to an agent.
Analytics and reports
It’s hard to improve your ecommerce support if you don’t know how you’re performing.
Therefore you’ll want your helpdesk to provide you with analytics on:
Total ticket volume
Response times
Resolution times
Resolution rates
Replies/resolution
CSAT
A breakdown of how your team is performing individually as well as collectively will help you take the necessary steps to deliver the best ecommerce customer experience possible.
Budget
There are ecommerce helpdesks to suit every budget.
From free to ones which can cost over $1000/month.
For context, let’s take a look at the pricing of two popular ecommerce helpdesks: DelightChat and Gorgias.
DelightChat has a free plan and the most expensive plan starts at $249/month. On the other hand, Gorgias plans start at $60/month going up to $750/month for their most expensive offering.
Eliminating the ones which don’t match your budget is a quick way to narrow down your list.
Security and compliance
Have the makers of the product taken the necessary steps to ensure that your data is safe?
Are they compliant with regulations like GDPR?
Find out how they use and collect data, the infrastructure they use, their incident response plan, etc. to better understand the security measures they have in place.
Reliability and Support
You’re looking for a tool to try and deliver excellent customer service.
So the least you’d expect from such a tool is prompt and reliable support.
You’ll want to find out:
The different avenues they provide support on
How long they usually take to respond
And how open they are to customer feedback and suggestions
Scalability
Every store is looking to scale its operations eventually. And I’m guessing yours is no different.
So you’ll want to make sure the ecommerce helpdesk you select not only fits your needs currently but can do so as your store grows.
Go through their different case studies to see how it’s helped brands in your position as well as the position you hope to be in.
Reputation
Finally, you’ll want to look at the experience of prospective, past and loyal customers of the helpdesk. To understand the main pros and cons of using such software. And their overall impression of interacting with their team.
Go through their reviews on their website, their store listing, and review sites like G2, Capterra, etc.
Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself while selecting an ecommerce helpdesk. Looking for a tool that kills it on all these parameters?
Then your search ends here.
Try DelightChat for free!
What are the main features you want your tool to have?
Main features of an ecommerce helpdesk
Shared Inbox and Omnichannel support
A shared inbox is one where multiple users can use simultaneously to read and send messages.
It allows you to respond to your customers across channels and seamlessly collaborate with your customer support team.
Deep integration with your ecommerce platform
Deep integration allows you to view and edit orders on your ecommerce platform (whether that’s Shopify, Magento, or any other) directly from your dashboard.
This means you always have access to customer information as soon as they message you. So you won’t have to ask customers repetitive questions and can instead have conversations with more context.
Plus it leaves no room for manual errors that might normally arise when you copy-paste order details, tracking information, and other data while managing support manually.
Internal collaboration
Internal collaboration features allow you to cut the back & forth from conversations you would normally have with your customer service team. Allowing you to manage support in an organized manner.
Here are the main collaboration features you’d want your ecommerce support software to have:
Ticket assignment
Assign tickets to the agent best equipped to handle a particular query. Every time.
Each agent will be able to view all the tickets assigned to them at a glance on the dashboard.
Private comments
Many tickets will require back and forth communication between multiple team members.
With private comments, this conversation can take place as a thread on the relevant ticket which can only be viewed by your team.
Tags
Tags allow you to keep track of important conversations without a hitch by labeling them as “refund”, “VIP”, “exchange”, or whatever the situation demands.
Collision detection
You don’t want multiple agents responding to the same ticket.
And that’s where collision detection comes in.
You are always aware of who’s viewing or replying to a particular ticket thereby preventing duplicate replies.
Follow-up reminders
This feature lets you schedule a date & time to follow up with customers.
You can use the snooze and follow up feature:
while waiting on a customer response and don’t hear back.
to proactively check in with new customers after a purchase.
as you dig for details to investigate a customer issue.
Automation
Automation features help your agents save time while ensuring responses to tickets are extremely fast. It includes:
Fast reply (Canned response)
One of the best ways to delight online shoppers is to respond to their support queries with lightning speed.
Fast replies help you achieve this by responding to a customer in two clicks.
You can create pre-made templates for your most frequently asked questions. When your agents receive a query of this nature, they can simply select the template, customize it and respond in seconds.
This not only results in faster response times but also saves your agents’ time and mental bandwidth, all while taking typos out of the equation completely.
Automation rules
Another way to manage repetitive queries is by using automation rules.
So anytime you receive a ticket that matches certain parameters, an automatic response is sent.
For example, if you receive a message asking for their order status, you can send an instant automated response with all the order details and tracking information synced directly from your ecommerce platform.
Self-serve
A self-serve widget will allow your customers to get the tracking URL and information of their last order or find solutions from your help center without any external support.
Manual ticket creation
You may sometimes receive queries outside of your support channels. And this feature will allow you to manually create tickets which you can then track and manage on your helpdesk.
Mobile app
You may not always be on your computer or laptop to respond to queries.
But a mobile app will allow you to manage your ecommerce store’s customer support while on the go.
Here’s a checklist of the main features you want your ecommerce helpdesk to have. Make a copy and use as you please! Which are the best ecommerce customer service tools?
The 15 best helpdesks for ecommerce stores
Alright, great!
Time to jump into the best ecommerce support software out there in the market today.
We’ve broken down 15 of the best with:
A brief description
A highlight of key features
Notable pros and cons
Let’s take a look!
15 Best Helpdesks built for Ecommerce
The software listed below are helpdesks specifically built for ecommerce.
This means they take into account the specific needs of an online store with regards to features, integrations, workflows, etc.
DelightChat
DelightChat is an ecommerce customer support tool built for SME brands that enables them to deliver out-of-the-box customer service. It’s designed with a conversation-first approach that enables you to manage your store’s support & painlessly resolve customer queries - all from a single screen.
Pros:
Omnichannel inbox that helps you manage WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Emails & Live Chat.
DelightChat enables you to respond to customer queries & collaborate with your team, all from a single screen.
DelightChat offers great value for money being significantly cheaper than the other options on this list.
DelightChat doesn’t penalize you when you add more users to scale up your customer support operations.
Most importantly, you can collaborate with your team right within the app itself. There is no need to toggle between tabs, which leads to a loss in productivity & loss of work hours.
Cons:
For now, DelightChat only integrates with Shopify that allows it to access your Shopify admin dashboard data. However, it will soon be available for other ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce & Magento.
Check out how DelightChat’s pricing plans or check out what customers have to say about their experience. Gorgias
Gorgias is a customer service tool designed for ecommerce stores. They integrate with Shopify, BigCommerce & WooCommerce. They have a great integration with Shopify that helps support agents to deliver great customer support seamlessly.
Gorgias dashboard