Shopify Tips: The Top 4 All Time Best Customer Support Apps

There’s no denying that when businesses start accumulating customers, it needs an effective way in managing and providing after-order support to help in building up confidence among customers. Reputation is something that every business can’t afford to be slack about. Especially in our time of e-commerce and almost everything being moved to the Internet, any negative word about your business will easily spread in an exponential manner. That is something that will definitely deliver a big blow on your business, something that will cause it to fail in the near future when not solved quickly.

Thankfully for Shopify, there’s a host of apps that are available that can help in accomplishing this. And the good thing is that most will provide more than just customer management and customer support. Some would even go as far as providing a way for business owners to do further efforts and strategies to promote the business and spread the word about it in order to reach much more prospective customers as possible.

That is why in this article, we are going to talk about the best customer support apps that you’ll find in the Shopify App Store and see what each one can offer in improving your overall business performance and assist in taking growth and development to the next level.  But before that, let’s get familiar with the issues that can occur within the journey that your customers will go through as they transact and make business with your shop.

Possible Issues You Would Be Facing

Murphy’s law states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” and as a business owner, you need to put that in mind all the time so you can be ready for the worst that may come! Nothing beats those who are prepared and keeping your business ready will keep you at the top of everything so that failing will never be a possibility and not even an option. But you need to be mindful of the issues that you may face which includes the following:

- There are times that you would encounter customers who would ask about the exact size of a particular product. At times, others would want to learn more about the material used or inquire on a certain feature. These are not issue with the product itself but probably with the description on the product page.

- At times, you will also encounter customers complaining about your payment channel. They might not be able to proceed to checkout or the checkout process might be confusing to them. Such issues are common and when you receive such issues, you will need to look into the checkout process or design.

- Issues with the product are another common issue that customers complain about. It is either the product quality is poor or maybe it got damaged while it was in transit. No matter what the reason is, you will need a way to communicate with customers so they’ll know what caused the problem and what the solution that you can offer to them is.

- This is probably the most common one and it’s something that you and your customer support agents need to learn how to deal with. It’s the refund and return thing and you can ask anyone who’s been into Shopify to learn just how common this issue is. In fact, it’s been one of the culprits that caused hundreds if not thousands of Shopify businesses to fail. That is why making sure that you have a customer management suite that includes customer support and many other tools needed by your support team is really crucial.

There still are plenty of other issues and we’ve only pointed out the common ones here. So now that you have an idea of what kind of problems customers may be throwing at you and your customer support team from time to time, let’s know some of the apps that you can use to deliver great customer service every time. We’re going to give you the top 4 here so just read on to get acquainted with each one of them.

The Top 4 Best Customer Support Apps of All Time

Customer support is an important part of every business that is why picking the best app that would offer almost everything you need to get every customer issue and concern sorted out. Here are the top performing suites so far which you can look into so you can see if it’s the best fit for the kind of business that you have.

1. Zendesk

If you’re looking for a customer support tool that truly lives up to its promise of providing not just the customer management aspect but also in integrating the different channels where customers can contact your business then Zendesk is going to be a great choice. It is one of the pioneers in the customer management and support category and has been successful through the years. It is so successful that it’s been duplicated already by other brands but nothing has really equaled its awesomeness in many different aspects. Here are some of the highlight features that Zendesk possesses.

- Keeps your business in sync with every tool that’s important in ensuring overall success. What’s great about Zendesk is its continued commitment towards making customer service better both to merchants who are using it and the customers being served by those merchants. It’s a win-win tool that will help ensure your business is in shape every time.

- It’s a suite that has almost everything you would need to make customer service better both for your support agents and the people they are serving. It helps in creating the best customer support team that are capable in delivering only the best customer service to every single person that they get an opportunity to serve.

- They strive to build customer confidence by continuing the development of their software suite and apps so that it is able to address the ever-evolving needs of online merchants and even offline businesses. With it, you can be confident that you’re going to cope up with every challenge as they come.

- It makes creating meaningful business to customer interactions possible as it provides seamless syncing of conversations across different customer support channels. You can be confident that every single customer query is addressed by your team as they come so that customers becomes more loyal and confident with your business

- Winning prospects is another one of Zendesk’s assets. They’ve got powerful sales solutions that encourage customer loyalty and increases repeat orders. Building relationship with customers is also made easier because of the different tools and strategies that the suite helps to build without the need of any complex procedures which is common among traditional CRM tools. It truly is a tool that’s designed to encourage growth and overall business development.

2. Gorgias

Another tool that delivers great results both in the management and customer support areas is Gorgias. It may be the younger one but development and innovation-wise, it doesn’t lag behind the top 1 on this list. Just like Zendesk, it also allows the syncing of customer conversations and interactions so that support agents are able to solve any issues being reported by customers in the fastest way possible. Here are some other features that Gorgias has:

- Saving of templates in the form of “macros” is possible within the suite itself so your support agents will have access to it as they deal with different issues being reported by customers. When response templates are available and are made accessible to all your support agents, answering queries and offering resolutions to different issues become easier. Time is money as they say and with macros, your team will surely be able to serve and answer more customer queries in a single day. That is a big boost in productivity and a good way of encouraging customer confidence over your product or brand.

- Providing a central place for support tickets coming from different channels is just another advantage that Gorgias offers. This is not to say that Zendesk don’t do the same but you know there will always be differences in the implementation of similar features. We just think that Gorgias did better in this aspect but of course, you may think differently. The best way to find out which one does better is to take advantage of the free trial period so you can see which customer support suite really matches your business industry and structure.

- Gorgias also assists in turning website visitors into avid shoppers then eventually loyal customers. The suite includes many different tools that can make your job easier in every aspect. One of the cited concerns which Shopify merchants often point out is the fact that most customer management tools don’t have the best implementation of the features that are aimed at customer retention. Gorgias stands out from the others in many different aspects but we’ll reserve that topic for a future post.

3. FreshDesk

A new comer but definitely not the least is FreshDesk. Just like the first two we’ve listed above, this customer support suite also offers more than just customer support. With it, you can enjoy seamless syncing of customer to business communication across many different channels which you have made available for your customers to choose from. Its simplicity makes it the best choice for businesses who want the basic customer support tool along with other integrated aspects that can take customer service to the next level. Here are some of the features that this customer support suite possesses.

- It turns every single one of your support agents into customer champions as it offers continuity of communication across different channels. Some customers may contact your business using different communication channels and having a tool that allows easy syncing of such communications like FreshDesk is really a good thing.

- When your agents get common centralized access to every customer who has submitted a query or inquiry about a particular issue, the resolution time of every issue becomes shorter. And when this happens, customer satisfaction becomes a sure reward. FreshDesk makes this possible from every aspect that’s available that is why most businesses who are seeking simplicity and speed really make it their customer support app of choice.

- FreshDesk also offers other integrations and continues to innovate its products so that your business can cope up with the ongoing evolution that happens at a fast pace all over the e-commerce space. It may be the simplest of the tools listed here but it’s also one of the best in terms of innovation and development. Having a tool that prioritizes improvements and further development puts your business in a good place as it ensures that you are a step ahead of your competitors in many aspects.

4. Tidio – Live Chat & Chatbots

Lastly, we come to a customer support app which provides essential 24/7 assistance to customers. Tidio may be on a different spectrum and is even focused at Live chat and providing automated responses through chatbots but it’s efficiency is being proven by the many positive reviews that it has not to mention the over 1,000 merchants that’s using it in their businesses. What’s great about this app is that it offers a free plan so you can easily see and out it to the test. Here are the other features that it has:

- It allows responding of customer queries and inquiries through chat and messenger. That means that your agents are going to be able to solve customer issues in real time. But aside from live customer support, Tidio also provides a place for email communication and ensures that they can be managed in the most effective way.

- With intelligent bots, you can be sure that your business remains on track both in making more loyal customers and bringing in more of the new ones. There are plenty of possibilities that you can explore. From reclaiming abandoned carts and following up with customers using automated communication, you’ll have the best options and features from this app.

- One of the best things about Tidio is that it is very easy to set up. The site even claims that you can get it up and running in less than 30 seconds but that is assuming you have prior computer and/or software experience. We have tried setting it up and it truly is very easy!

Put It To The Test by Taking Advantage of the Free Trial Offer

Every single tool that we’ve given above offers a free trial and that’s a great thing! Most customer support apps require a monthly fee so you and your customer support team can continue using it in managing customer communication and implementing some other customer retention strategies that is why you need to choose the one that is going to be the best fit for the kind of business that you have.

So don’t just go for the paid version right away but instead, get the tool tested by using its free trial version. Some would give you up to 14 days so you can see how well it works. Sometimes, the app that’s topping every list that you’ll find over the Internet won’t be the perfect tool for your business that is why putting each one to the test is crucial. When you do, you can have a better informed decision and you can be sure that you’re spending the money on the tool that will really bring growth and development to your business.

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