What online shoppers contact you about
Store support is mostly the same handful of questions: how long does shipping take, is shipping free over a certain amount, how do I return something, how long do I have, does this jacket run small. Then there are order-specific questions — where is my order, has my refund gone through — which need someone who can see the order.
What the assistant does
- Answers product, shipping and returns questions from your shipping policy, returns policy and Knowledge Base. Import your FAQ or returns page, approve the sections, and the assistant answers from them.
- Collects order queries. For anything about a specific order, it takes the order number, the customer's name and email, and says the team will reply.
- Works across channels. It answers phone calls on your RingMind number, texts and WhatsApp messages, and chat on your website through the text chat widget, all from the same approved information. Conversations land in one inbox.
- Checks orders when you connect your store. With Shopify connected, it can look up an order and its fulfillment status after verifying the customer.
- Opens tickets. With Zendesk connected, it can create a ticket from the conversation, and gives ticket status only after the requester's email matches.
What it won't do
- No guesses about orders. Without a store connection it never confirms order status, refunds or delivery dates, because it can't see them. Asked "where is order 10452, has it shipped?", it takes the details for your team. This is one of the brain's required tests.
- No card details. It never asks for the full card number, and doesn't need the last four digits either.
- No refunds on its own. Anything involving money, such as a payment link through Stripe, waits for an owner or admin to approve it in Approvals.
- It tells customers it's an AI if they ask.
Setting it up
- Choose the e-commerce customer support assistant in the Brain Marketplace.
- Enter your support hours, products, shipping policy and returns policy (the last two are required).
- Import your FAQ, shipping and returns pages into the Knowledge Base, review the sections and approve them.
- Publish, run the automatic tests and try a few questions in the playground.
- Get a RingMind number for phone and text support, and turn on web chat if you want the chat widget on your site.
Following up on order questions
Order queries arrive as messages with the order number and email, ready for someone with access to your store. You can turn them into tasks or reply from the inbox by SMS or WhatsApp. On WhatsApp, free-form replies are possible for 24 hours after the customer's last message; after that, an approved template is needed.
Tools it can connect
Shopify, Zendesk and Stripe as above, plus Intercom for handing conversations to your support team. All integrations are in Beta. See pricing for plans.