How Do I Handle Customer Support When My Store Grows Past Me?
Hand the repetitive jobs to AeroChat and keep your own time for the conversations that need you. AeroChat answers order-status questions from Shopify, changes addresses before shipping, opens return requests, cancels unfulfilled orders and refunds within the limits you set. It does this on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat and email, in one inbox, and hands anything outside your rules to you or your team.
Why support outgrows the owner
Store owners on the Shopify Community tell a familiar story. At the start, the owner answers every message. As orders grow, support becomes a full-time job. A two-person store with hundreds of orders a month answers email from the order page and has no record of who said what. The same questions come back every day: where is my order, when will it ship, can I return this, can I change my address, can I cancel.
The options look expensive. Merchants describe a choice between hiring a virtual assistant, outsourcing support, or paying for a helpdesk whose bill grows with every ticket. Many also say that each request takes several steps across systems: find the order, check the status, check the courier, then write the reply.
The usual fixes and their limits
- Hire help. A virtual assistant or an outsourced team takes the load. It costs a salary or a monthly fee, and you still need to train them on every policy and give them access to your admin.
- A helpdesk. Tools such as Zendesk, Gorgias or Help Scout give you ticketing and shared replies. Your team still works through each ticket, and small stores on the Shopify Community say the cost climbs as volume grows.
- Automation you build yourself. Some merchants wire up Shopify Flow or an automation tool to auto-answer one kind of email. It works for that one case and needs maintaining.
- An FAQ chatbot. It answers policy questions. It cannot look up an order or change one, so the jobs that take the most time still reach you.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
Start with the jobs that repeat. AeroChat verifies the customer against the order in Shopify before it does anything. It answers where-is-my-order with the status and tracking link. It changes a shipping address if the order has not shipped. It opens a return request with the reason and photos. It cancels an unfulfilled order on request. It refunds up to the amount you set and passes anything bigger to your team with the order details. Every conversation, from every channel, lands in one AeroChat inbox, so you see what the AI did and can take over at any time.
Customer: Hi, I ordered yesterday and want to cancel. Order #6020, mia@example.com (example)
AeroChat: Thanks, Mia. Order #6020 hasn’t shipped yet, so I can cancel it. That’s 1 x Linen throw, US$48 (example). Shall I cancel it and refund your card?
Customer: Yes please.
AeroChat: Done. Order #6020 is canceled and US$48 is refunded to your original payment method. Your bank decides how fast it shows on your statement.
In Shopify: order #6020 is canceled with the reason “customer request”, the stock is returned and the refund is issued to the original payment method.
Copy this into AeroChat
Before you look up or change any order, ask for the order number and the email or phone number it was placed with, and verify them against the order in Shopify.
- Where is my order: give the fulfillment status, carrier and tracking link. Never promise a delivery date the order does not show.
- Address change: only if the order is unfulfilled. Read the new address back before you change it.
- Cancel: only if the order is unfulfilled. Confirm the items and total, cancel it, restock the items and refund to the original payment method.
- Return: check our 30-day return window (example), ask for the reason and a photo if the item is damaged, and open a return request for our team to approve.
- Refund: you may refund up to US$50 (example) for a damaged or missing item after the customer sends a photo. Anything more goes to our team.
Hand the conversation to our team for anything else, or if the customer is upset after two replies, with a short summary. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the return window, the refund limit and the hand-over rules to match your store before you paste it.
Start with the job that takes most of your time
- Stop customers asking where their order is
- Let customers change their shipping address
- Let customers start a return in chat
- Handle refund requests and refund status
- Stop an AI chatbot giving wrong answers
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store in the dashboard. AeroChat syncs your products, pages and shipping rules and looks up orders. Changes such as cancellations, refunds and address updates run through Shopify’s Admin API in the workflows you describe.
- Your channels. Add WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram and your Gmail or Office 365 address, so every message lands in one inbox.
- Your team. Add your team as admin users and set your business hours, so AeroChat knows when someone is there to take over.
Questions
Will AeroChat refund customers without asking me?
Only within the limit you write into the recipe. Anything above it, or outside your rules, goes to your team with the order details.
Do I need a helpdesk as well?
Many small stores don’t. AeroChat has one inbox for every channel, with assignment, tags, notes and search. If you already use a helpdesk such as Zendesk or Freshdesk, AeroChat can open and update tickets there through its API.
How do I know what the AI did?
Every conversation is in the AeroChat inbox. You can see which ones the AI handled and which went to your team, and you can switch the AI off on any conversation.
How is this priced compared with a helpdesk?
AeroChat plans include unlimited admin users, and your team’s replies are not charged per ticket. See Gorgias vs AeroChat for a worked comparison.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Get your evenings back
Install AeroChat, paste the recipe for the job that takes most of your time, and test it on a recent order.
7-day free trial.