CLIENT OVERVIEW
An e-commerce brand struggling with high support volume and growing customer expectations turned to AI to streamline operations.
By training a custom chatbot on its internal help docs, FAQs, and policy pages, the company automated over 70% of its support interactions, leading to faster response times, fewer tickets, and happier customers.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Like many fast-scaling e-commerce businesses, the brand faced a common but critical challenge: an overwhelming number of repetitive support inquiries—often about topics already covered in their help center, such as:
- “Where is my order?”
- “How do I return an item?”
- “Do you ship internationally?”
- “How long do refunds take?”
The support team was spending most of its time answering the same questions every day. This led to:
⏳ Delays in response times, especially during peak sales periods
💸 Rising support costs as more agents were hired to manage volume
😕 Customer frustration with wait times and inconsistent answers
💤 No support outside business hours, affecting global buyers
The brand needed a scalable, cost-effective way to handle high volumes of straightforward questions—without sacrificing service quality.
THE SOLUTION: AI CHATBOT TRAINED ON INTERNAL E-COMMERCE DOCS
To tackle this, a custom AI chatbot was built and trained using the brand’s existing internal documentation, including:
- Shipping and returns policies
- Order tracking guides
- Product FAQs
- Customer service scripts
- Store terms and conditions
The chatbot was designed to:
- Understand and respond in natural, conversational language
- Pull answers directly from verified internal sources
- Escalate to a human agent when needed
- Be available 24/7 across the website, help center, and mobile app
IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
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📚 Step 1: Curating and Structuring Content
The first step was a full audit of customer-facing documentation. Policy pages, help center articles, and internal macros used by support reps were reviewed and updated for clarity and completeness. -
🧠 Step 2: Training the Chatbot
Using this content, the AI chatbot was trained to recognize common customer intents—such as checking order status or initiating a return—and respond with accurate, brand-aligned answers. -
🧪 Step 3: Pilot Launch and Testing
The chatbot was initially rolled out to 10% of web traffic. Data was collected on response accuracy, customer satisfaction, and how often the bot needed to escalate to a human. -
🚀 Step 4: Full Deployment
Following strong pilot results, the chatbot was launched site-wide, including in:- Live chat on the storefront
- The contact form and support widget
- Order tracking pages
A feedback loop was established so that real conversations could be used to improve responses and close documentation gaps.
RESULTS AFTER 3 MONTHS
The launch of “Shop the Store” delivered measurable improvements across key customer engagement and business metrics.
| Impact | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| ✅ | 71% Auto-Resolved | Most customer questions resolved automatically without agent help. |
| 📉 | 48% Fewer Tickets | Support ticket volume significantly reduced. |
| 🕒 | Fast Replies | Average response time dropped from 6 hours to under 2 minutes. |
| 🛍️ | +22% CSAT | Customer satisfaction rose, especially among repeat shoppers. |
| 🌎 | 24/7 Global Support | Instant help available across time zones, anytime. |
| 💰 | Lower Costs | Support costs dropped without sacrificing service quality. |
IMPACT ON THE BUSINESS
- Faster Resolutions
Customers got instant answers to common questions, reducing cart abandonment and post-purchase anxiety
- More Productive Support Team
Human agents focused on escalations and high-value customers instead of answering repetitive queries
- Increased Trust
Consistent, accurate responses improved customer trust and reduced friction at key buying moments
- Operational Scalability
The support function scaled effortlessly with promotions, product launches, and seasonal spikes
NEXT PHASE
Based on the chatbot’s success, the brand is now expanding its use to:
- Answer product-specific questions (e.g., sizing, compatibility)
- Guide users during checkout and upsell complementary items
- Send proactive order updates via chat
- Automate parts of loyalty and refund workflows
WANT TO AUUTOMATE YOUR E-COMMERCE SUPPORT?
Whether you’re managing 1,000 orders a week or 100,000, support can quickly become a bottleneck.
If your business is looking to enhance its digital commerce experience, contact us today!
Our team brings deep expertise in Salesforce Commerce Cloud and a proven track record of delivering measurable results.
👉 Get in touch with ForkPoint to start building your next digital success story!
