Here at Shopify we’re always looking for ways to improve the Shopify experience. One of the biggest challenges any business can face is providing fast, effective support for its customers.
Our support tracking system, Tender App, helps us track all of our support tickets and gives us statistics on the average support response time per ticket. We’ve recently passed a new milestone. We were able to reduce the average response time per ticket from approximately 1 day down to just over 5 hours! Here is some background on how support at Shopify works:
Up until this year the majority of support for Shopify was performed by one official Shopify staff (Mike), along with unofficial help from our great community of developers and designers (Thanks Caroline, Jamie, and all the others!). This method of “crowd sourcing” support worked well, but over time demand for support grew to the point where this model started to show its flaws. We’ve recently implemented support changes that we feel work to correct these flaws. We hope you’ll feel that way, too!
Just what has been done at Shopify to beef up support?
1. Support Team grows
We added another dedicated support staff a while back, Peter, to help answer your questions and give direction to your requests. He’s also been busy beefing up the support Knowledge Database as new topics come to light. You can access the knowledge base by using the links at the top of the Shopify support area.
2. Level 2, the next step
We’ve also more recently implemented a rotating Level 2 Support system by which the Shopify developers each take turns addressing problems that require escalation. This is probably the biggest change we’ve made to our support model, and it’s what has allowed us to really speed up support response times. With the old method, questions would be submitted to the developers in a free-for-all type setting, often there would be confusion as to whom the task would go to, leading to slow-downs and dropped-tickets. Now, by working on a weekly cycle with a dedicated developer, it allows our other developers to continue to work on improving Shopify, while still giving you the benefit of dedicated developer support for your tougher problems.
3. Whats next?
As we continue to grow, Shopify support will grow, too. We will be adding new sections to the support system (check out the new API section we’ve just added, and look for more coming soon). We will also be hiring more support staff in the near future to help with these new sections. Also, we will be taking suggestions from you, and others, as to how you feel we can better improve your Shopify experience. Feel free to comment on this article and let us know what you think! With your help, we can make Shopify the friendliest eCommerce solution going.
Happy Selling :-)