3 Ways to Automate Chat Support in Gorgias

Customer support automation isn’t new – automated phone menus and rudimentary chatbots have been around for years. The past few months, however, have seen a massive leap forward in terms of automated customer support.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in particular has made automated solutions far more effective at handling customer inquiries without any human interaction – so much so that some experts are predicting that AI will be able to automate 95% of customer interactions within the next two years.

The communication channel that stands to benefit the most from the AI revolution is the chat, and one of the chat platforms that has advanced chat automation capabilities is Gorgias – a helpdesk software dedicated primarily to the eCommerce category.

Gorgias automation carries a wide range of benefits, and when it comes to the process itself, there are three main methods that we’ll explore in detail in this post:

• Using built-in Gorgias automation chat features
• Installing Automation Add-on
• Plugging an AI chatbot (PerfectBot) into your Gorgias

Let’s explore each in more detail. Each of these methods can be used separately or as a whole after appropriate configuration.

Using built-in Gorgias automation chat features

The primary features that Gorgias makes available to automate chats include:

• Quick replies
• Macros
• Rules

Quick replies are a good solution when your customers are asking similar questions repeatedly. You can create up to 3 text buttons your customers will see when they start a chat. When they click on one of them, they initiate a conversation and create a new ticket in Gorgias. Quick replies can be also configured with the Gorgias rules feature, so that the responses will be sent automatically.

Quick replies in chatbox

Macros are ready-made responses you can use to respond to your customers faster. They are especially useful if many of your customers tend to ask similar questions or comment on similar topics.

• Macros can perform multiple actions on a ticket, including:
• Inserting text into the response area
• Changing the subject of a ticket
• Adding tags
• Adding attachments (20MB file size limit)
• Setting statuses as 'open’ or 'closed’
• Auto-snoozing a ticket
• Setting assignees
• Triggering webhooks in other applications

The macros are designed to be as easy as possible to set up and manage, and they can even be sorted automatically using artificial intelligence.

Macros feature, source: gorgias.com

Rules allow you to perform actions to tickets based on custom triggers, including automating repetitive tasks such as tagging tickets or responding to common questions. For example:

• Automatically closing payment notification emails
• Automatically tagging any emails that include key words or phrases
• Assigning any Facebook or Twitter tickets to a specific team
• Auto replying to any emails received outside business hours

Rules are made up of a trigger, conditions, and actions. The trigger is the event that starts the rule process, conditions are attributes a ticket needs to have in order for the rule to be successfully executed, and actions are events that will occur when the rule is executed.

Gorgias offers pre-made rules in the form of rule templates, or you can build and edit your own unique rules from scratch.

Installing Automation Add-on

An Automation Add-on is a supplementary subscription for Gorgias users. It gives you access to a suite of features to “supercharge” your account.

Automation Add-ons can deflect up to 30% of tickets, letting you focus your support efforts where they’re needed most. The most important features and feature enhancements in automation add-ons are:

Quick response flows. Quick response flows allow you to automate the full support cycle by adding up to 6 rapid response buttons in your widget. When a customer clicks one of these buttons, they instantly receive a reply to their question.

If the customer indicates they are satisfied, the flow is closed and no ticket is created. If they indicate they need more help, a ticket is immediately created for an agent to continue the conversation.

All quick response button text and automated reply messages are fully customizable and can be changed at any time.

Quick responses implemented, source: loadedlifting.com.au

Order management flows. Shipping status requests are some of the most common across all channels. Order management flows can reduce Where Is My Order? (WISMO) questions by providing new shipping information that lets customers track all their orders within order management flows.

You can also make your help center actionable by offering order management flows for tracking, returns, cancellations, and other common issues without needing to chat.

Autoresponder rules. Autoresponders leverage AI to resolve tickets, and the following autoresponders are currently up and running:

Auto-close spam emails. As the name suggests, these automatically detect and close irrelevant emails that don’t require a response in order to save you time filtering through tickets.

Send tracking information emails. This autoresponder detects emails related to order status or tracking, replies with a tracking link for the shopper’s last 3 orders, and auto-closes the ticket. If shoppers reply, the ticket will reopen.

Automate return request emails. This autoresponder detects emails related to return requests and replies with the link to your return portal.

These autoresponder rules are created and managed by Gorgias and can be added in just a few clicks. They can also be customized to suit any business, with bespoke outbound reply copy, variables, and block/allow email lists, which allow you to specify any email addresses you want to always include or exclude.

Plugging PerfectBot into your Gorgias

PerfectBot is a human-like, GPT-powered AI bot that automatically answers customer questions, reducing support volume and resolution times. PerfectBot is the only chatbot on the market that can work inside your Gorgias, which means that it can work in symbiosis with the two previously mentioned methods.

There are multiple benefits of adding PerfectBot to your Gorgias account. PerfectBot can:

• Handle conversations in a chatbox as an always-on agent
• Learn from your existing content (help center, past tickets, macros) to instantly resolve tickets and free up your team
• Replace the Automation Add-on’s “Quick responses” feature – thanks to AI, automated interaction in PerfectBot is more cost effective and better at handling frequently asked questions
• Understand order status, return, and cancellation inquiries and guide customers to the Gorgias Self-Service Widget Portal
• Redirect complex tickets to a specific agent or team for live chat assistance

PerfectBot and Gorgias Quick Responses

You can add PerfectBot to Gorgias in a few easy steps:

• Connect the app. Once you connect the app and authorize it, you will be redirected to the preview page. There, you can test the demo version of PerfectBot and start using an AI chatbot trained specifically on your support content.
• Preview and test PerfectBot. To effectively test PerfectBot, you should test it thoroughly using your help center questions, ask questions that are already covered in the knowledge base, and feel free to try different question formats, such as long sentences or simple phrases.
• Customize handover scenarios. PerfectBot directs more complicated questions to your human support team. By default, the AI bot assigns tickets that need agent assistance to the “unassigned” pool, but there are three different possible scenarios for ticket handover – leaving tickets as “unassigned”, reassigning tickets to specific agents, and assigning tickets to custom teams.
• Connect PerfectBot to your store. Once the Gorgias PerfectBot widget is properly set up, you can connect it to your integrated store. We recommend doing so by connecting the AI bot to your existing Gorgias widget. This will make PerfectBot available for your customers in the Gorgias widget that’s already connected to your store. Simply provide us with your preferred Chat ID, and we’ll connect your bot accordingly.
• Set up Gorgias widget settings. To get the most out of your AI chatbot, it’s worth adjusting certain Gorgias widget features such as widget availability, business hours, quick replies, etc.
• Optimize AI chatbot knowledge. Once your AI bot is live in your Gorgias widget, improving its content is easy. You’ll have access to the chatbot’s knowledge base, which will allow you to edit or add topics as required. We’ll also have access to your tickets, which allows us to analyze them and help you optimize the content.

Gorgias and PerfectBot – the optimal choice

Gorgias chat automation can be done by using its built-in features, taking advantage of Automation Add-on, or installing PerfectBot. If you want maximum benefits and money is no issue, we recommend that you use these three methods in combination. If a balanced budget is important to you, basic Gorgias with PerfectBot is the optimal choice.

All you need to do to start maximizing the potential of Gorgias and PerfectBot is fill out the “Request a Trial” form and enjoy a 30-day free trial of our GPT-powered AI bot with no strings attached.