A Shopify Customer Service SOP Your Team Can Actually Use

Use this Shopify customer service SOP whenever a new message arrives:

1. Identify the customer.
2. Identify the intent and urgency.
3. Check whether live product or order data is required.
4. Resolve a known, low-risk request from an approved source.
5. Escalate any case that needs judgement, permission or investigation.
6. Record the action and owner.
7. Review unresolved conversations until they close.

The procedure is deliberately short. A useful SOP tells the team what to check, what it may do and when responsibility moves to someone else. It should not become a manual that nobody opens during a busy shift.

Define ownership before the next message arrives

Complete this table for your store. Names can be people, roles or external partners, but every decision needs an owner.

Shopify's online customer-service guidance covers channels, self-service and automated replies. Your SOP should turn those options into store-specific ownership rules.

Pre-sale SOP

Use this route for fit, compatibility, stock, delivery coverage and product-comparison questions.

1. Identify the exact product and variant.
2. Use the current product record, size guide or approved policy.
3. Ask one clarifying question if the answer depends on intended use.
4. Do not infer compatibility, medical suitability or performance that the source does not confirm.
5. Offer a relevant alternative only when the catalogue supports it.
6. Record missing product information for the merchandising team.

Close when: the customer receives a supported answer or chooses a product.

Escalate when: the specification is absent, two sources conflict or the customer asks for a guarantee the team cannot support.

Order-status SOP

Order questions require a current record rather than a general delivery estimate.

1. Verify the customer using the store's approved method.
2. Match the correct Shopify order.
3. Read payment, fulfilment and tracking states separately.
4. State the latest confirmed event and its timestamp where useful.
5. Explain the next normal step without inventing a delivery date.
6. Escalate missing scans, split-shipment confusion, delivery disputes or conflicting records.

Shopify defines payment, fulfilment and return states separately in its order-status reference. The AeroChat order-status tracking page shows how connected order information can support customer-facing answers.

Close when: the customer has a verified status and no action remains.

Do not close when: a carrier or warehouse investigation is still open. Assign an owner and follow-up time instead.

Returns SOP

Separate eligibility from approval. A customer may appear eligible under the standard return window but still need a person to assess item condition, exclusions or an exception.

1. Verify the order, item and purchase date.
2. Check the policy version that applies to the order.
3. Confirm whether the request is a return, exchange, damaged item or refund-status question.
4. Explain the standard route and any evidence required.
5. Create or approve the next step only if the agent has authority.
6. Record the decision, amount, destination and expected next update.
7. Escalate disputes, partial remedies and policy exceptions.

Never write “your refund is complete” when the team has only accepted a return. A return, refund decision and bank processing state are separate events.

Complaint SOP

Complaints need ownership before explanation. Repeating a policy to an angry customer is rarely a resolution.

1. Acknowledge the specific failure in plain language.
2. Summarise what the customer wants.
3. Review earlier contacts so the customer does not repeat the story.
4. Separate confirmed facts from disputed points.
5. Identify the person authorised to decide the remedy.
6. Give a realistic next-update time and channel.
7. Keep the conversation open until that update is delivered.

Move immediately to a senior owner when the case involves a chargeback threat, safety concern, discrimination allegation, legal demand, privacy issue or high-value loss under the store's risk rules.

After-hours SOP

An instant reply is useful only if it sets an honest expectation.

1. Identify urgent, time-sensitive intents such as cancellation or address change.
2. Collect the minimum order and contact details.
3. State that the request has been received but not completed.
4. Give the next staffed review time with a time zone.
5. Route urgent cases to an on-call owner if fulfilment continues outside support hours.
6. Answer stable, low-risk questions only from approved sources.

Approved wording:

We’ve received your request and recorded the order details. The action is not confirmed yet because a team member needs to check the current fulfilment state. You can expect our next update by [time, time zone].

The words “received” and “confirmed” should not be used interchangeably.

AI-to-human handoff SOP

A good handoff should give the agent enough context to act, not merely notify them that a chat exists.

Transfer when:

• the customer asks for a person;
• identity verification fails;
• a required source is missing or contradictory;
• the customer disputes the answer;
• an order, payment or policy action needs approval;
• frustration increases after a failed answer;
• the case matches a risk rule.

Pass these fields with the conversation:

The human-handover feature is relevant because AeroChat carries conversation context to the agent. The business still decides its triggers, staffing and authority limits. For a wider operating model, use the guide to AI-first and AI-only customer service.

Copyable Shopify customer service SOP template

Copy this block into the team's knowledge base and replace every bracketed field.

SHOPIFY CUSTOMER SERVICE SOP
Owner: [role]
Backup: [role]
Version: [number]
Effective date: [date]
Review date: [date]

FOR EVERY NEW MESSAGE
1. Verify customer only when order-specific or private data is required.
2. Label intent: [approved categories].
3. Set priority: urgent / standard / low.
4. Check source: product / policy / Shopify order / carrier / other.
5. Answer only if the source is current and the action is within authority.
6. Escalate when: [store-specific triggers].
7. Record answer, action, owner and next-update time.
8. Close only when no customer or internal action remains.

AUTHORITY LIMITS
Support may: [list].
Support lead may: [list].
Store manager must approve: [list].

AFTER HOURS
Automated answers allowed: [list].
Urgent intents: [list].
On-call owner: [role and contact route].
Next staffed period: [days, hours, time zone].

QUALITY REVIEW
Weekly reviewer: [role].
Sample size: [number or percentage].
Record: wrong answers / reopened contacts / failed handoffs / missing sources.

Where AeroChat fits in the SOP

AeroChat is an AI agent platform that helps Shopify merchants run customer service on autopilot. It can support the parts of this SOP that involve suitable product or policy answers, relevant Shopify data retrieval and conversation routing across supported channels.

The AeroChat Shopify integration provides the product and order connection for relevant queries. Its role should be written into the procedure like any other support role: define the sources it may use, the cases it may handle and the triggers that require a person.

This keeps AI customer-service automation inside the operating process instead of adding a bot beside an unmanaged inbox. AeroChat does not replace the store's policy owner or the people authorised to edit orders, issue money or decide exceptions.

Review the SOP every week at first

For the first month, review a small sample from every major category each week. Look for unsupported answers, reopened contacts, missing context, delayed actions and cases closed before the customer outcome was known.

Change one rule at a time and record the version. The best SOP is not the longest document. It is the one the team follows consistently, can audit and improves when real conversations expose a gap.