Email SOP

Intercom: Process: Customer Experience Email Handling

Purpose

1.    To maintain professionalism and deliver consistent, effective responses to customer emails while ensuring inquiries and concerns are addressed promptly.

2.    The target resolution time is within 12 hours.

General Overview

This SOP applies to all agents handling email responses within PetLabCo., ensuring professionalism, consistent communication, and an elevated customer experience.

Platforms

Platform

Purpose

Intercom

Process requests and inquiries from customers (Calls & Emails)

Shopify

Process OTP orders/replacements, research previous orders, verify customer

Sticky

Process OTP orders, research previous orders, verify customer

Ultracart

Customer Database | Subscription Management [AJK Legacy]

Clickbank

A set of guides outlining how to cancel subscriptions, check customer lifetime value (LTV) before issuing refunds, and manage discount codes used across ClickBank and Shopify. These resources help ensure accurate and consistent handling of customer needs.

Maropost

A collection of guides that explain how to manage customers and email lists in Maropost, including adding new contacts, handling the Do Not Mail list, editing customer details, finding customer records, organizing lists, and viewing customer journeys or sent emails. These resources help ensure accurate and consistent email and contact management.

Klaviyu

A set of guides that explain how to manage customers and communications in Klaviyo, including adding customers to segments, finding customer profiles, handling bounced or spam-marked emails, assisting with subscription issues, re-sending missed messages, and managing the resubscription process. These resources support consistent and accurate email marketing management.

PBS

A set of guides that explain how to perform key tasks in PBS, including placing manual orders, validating addresses, canceling unshipped orders, handling backorders, updating customer addresses, and accessing common FAQs. These resources help ensure accurate and consistent order management.

Conversation Assignment

Intercom uses an auto-assignment system designed to maintain approximately 5 tickets per agent inbox. Please note that you may temporarily have more than 5 tickets due to reopening or manual assignments.

The system will not assign new tickets until you have completed 4 conversations. Manual ticket assignments can be made by SMEs, Team Leads, or the WFM team. (TBD) | 7 TPH (Goal/Hour)

·         At the start of your shift, you must go Online in Intercom and select Availability for Conversations. At the end of your shift, remember to go Offline.

·         If you are a Phone agent, you should only have Phone selected on to receive phone-channel conversations.

·         You only work Your Inbox.

·         Make sure that your inbox is sorted to Waiting Longest. If you change this, be sure to change it back.

Intercom assigns tickets based on your pod (e.g., Ops pod receives Ops tickets). If you receive a ticket that doesn’t belong to your pod, please reassign it to the correct team.

Management may request different actions and processes as required to maintain volume levels and avoid backlog scenarios.   

Procedure

1.    Review the message to determine if it falls under your pod’s responsibilities.

J  If you cannot handle the customer’s request, tag your Team Lead in a Private Note for guidance or to have the ticket reassigned.

J  If you are able to handle the ticket, proceed to the next step.

J  Determine if the person reaching out is a customer.

J  Verify if the email address the person using is associated with a Shopify account and merge with a pre-existing Intercom account if necessary. (me.com and icloud are the same as well as aol.com and aim.com)

·         If the customer account is not located:

J  Send the No Account Found macro (TBD)

J  Add the tag nocsat (TBD)

J  Close the ticket

1.    If the Customer does not respond

▫   No further action is needed

2.    If the customer responds, verify the customer with the information provided to locate the customer and merge with a pre-existing Intercom account.

▫   The customer has to provide the email address associated with the account, the shipping address/billing address, or the order number of the account. (pictures of orders counts)

·         If the customer provides the correct email, but states they no longer have access to email that is used on the account, then we ask to provide the following:

J  Last four digits of the card on file

J  Shipping & Billing Addresses

General Rule: Verify the customer’s identity using at least three pieces of information, such as the email on the account and the shipping and billing addresses. Alternatively, you can use the email on the account, order details, and the last four digits of the payment method.

Note: If the customer provides a screenshot showing they are logged into CAP, no additional verification is required.

Ensure the customer’s information is updated across all platforms Understanding Customer Needs

Understanding Customer Needs

·         Carefully read each email to fully grasp the customer’s question or concern.

Pro Tip: Customers may respond to messages sent by CC or Marketing. Click “See More” within the message to view the full content and gain better context.

·         Identify the primary issue or inquiry raised by the customer.

·         Review Conversations for any previous interactions with the customer.

·         Merge tickets or conversations when appropriate.

Choosing a Macro and Drafting the Response

·         Choose the appropriate macro as your template.

o   INTERCOM MACROS (from Gorgias)

o   Address the customer by their name (if available). 

o   Acknowledge the customer's query or concern directly.

o   Pay attention to any clues that the customer didn’t express (active listening).

§  Check for Orders in transit

§  If the customer requested to cancel an order, check if it is part of a subscription

§  If the customer mentions too many products, check for duplicate subscriptions

o   Address all of the customer’s concerns or issues thoroughly.

o   Show empathy and understanding for the customer’s situation.

o   Offer solutions that require the least effort from the customer.

o   Maintain a professional, courteous, and empathetic tone throughout.

o   Communicate clearly and concisely, avoiding technical jargon or ambiguity.

o   Include contact information or alternative channels for further assistance.

Follow Through

·         Follow through on all requests (refund, cancellation, update, etc.) preventing the customer from having to reach out an additional time.

·         Check to see if any MANUAL TAGS need to be added to the ticket. (TBD)

Documentation

·         Leave appropriate notes

Sending the Email (TBD)

·         If the appropriate macro is used, there is an auto follow-up response and snooze time of 2h. 

o   If the customer doesn’t respond, the ticket will reopen with an internal note to action against the original request. 

o   If the macro doesn’t need any follow-up, then put a “no-response” tag and close the ticket.

§  Please remember that most conversations are going to be one touch. The best practice is --> if we have provided the customer with all the information they asked for on our side of things and we are just waiting for them to provide more information to use to proceed, we can close out this ticket.

§   We have programmed macros with snoozing tickets - we are ONLY snoozing for 4 hours and then reopening because of our 24-hour resolution goal we are trying to reach!

Snoozing Tickets (TBD)

Tickets are snoozed according to the relevant process or SOP. When selecting a macro, it will automatically include a snooze if required by the process.

Examples: Adverse Events, Subscription Cancellations, Quality Issues.

All tickets snoozed as part of a workflow should be set for 2-3 hours.

Snooze Scenarios: (TBD)

·         Subscription Cancellation / Cancel Saves
 All Retention macros that require a snooze have it built in. If a macro doesn’t include a snooze, one is not needed.

·         Adverse Events (AE)
 All AE macros that require a snooze have it included. If a macro doesn’t include a snooze, it is not necessary.

·         Quality Issues
 Each Quality Issue macro has a designated snooze if required. For macros without a snooze, the ticket will reopen automatically if the customer responds.

Non-Snooze Scenarios:

Order Saves
  If a customer requests to cancel an order (not a subscription), offer a 50% solution and close the ticket. If the customer wants a full refund, they can reply to reopen the ticket.

Fulfillment Issues
  For fulfillment-related concerns, provide the customer with a solution immediately or as appropriate. The ticket remains open for any customer response, and snoozing is not applied.

Monitoring and Evaluation

·         Regularly review email responses to ensure quality and adherence to SOPs.

·         Collect feedback from team members to identify areas for improvement.

·         Update the SOP as needed based on feedback and changing circumstances.

·         Conduct regular training and reinforce procedures to maintain consistency and effectiveness among agents.