Replying to Customer Tickets
Types of Ticket Statuses
New | Unread tickets, customer awaiting merchant response. |
Open | Active tickets, customer awaiting merchant response. |
Pending | Active tickets, merchant awaiting customer response. |
Hold | Use this if your ticket is not yet ready to be resolved, but do not want your ticket escalated to Customer Service. This hold expires after 4 business days, or after a new customer reply-- whichever comes first. |
ESCALATED | When a ticket does not receive a response within 24 business hours, it is automatically escalated to Customer Service, who will attempt to assist the customer in your absence. |
Solved | Issue has been resolved. Following 2 business days with no further customer response, ticket will automatically become “Closed”. |
Closed* | Archived tickets no longer visible or actionable by merchants. Issue resolved, or customer failed to respond in reasonable timeframe. |
Reply Expectations
As noted in section 5.6 of the Merchant Agreement, customer tickets submitted through the Gateway ticketing portal should be responded to within one (1) Business Day, and fully resolved within seven (7) Business Days. If merchants are out unexpectedly, or there is a warehouse closure, customer tickets are still expected to be replied to promptly.
Return Labels
When uploading a return label for your customer’s product return, you are able to send an accompanying message to the customer. At this time, that message accompanying an attachment will not update that ticket’s status and so it may become escalated to Groupon Customer Service resulting in a non-compliance fee for having a Customer to Merchant Ticket Escalation. To avoid this, please be sure to send a standard message using the status update buttons following any attachment message where the ticket’s status should be updated.
Reply Types
When sending a reply, it’s important you select the correct option to avoid ticket Escalations to Customer Service. There are four different reply options provided in the "Tickets" portal, all with their own distinct function.
“send and pending”
When sending your customer a reply that does not effectively resolve the customer’s issue, but instead necessitates their prompt reply, select this option.
Once the customer replies, the ticket status will automatically shift to “Open”, and require another response within 24 business hours.
Please note if a customer requests a return label and you send it via ticket, you do not need to leave the ticket in pending while you await the returned item. Instead, you can resolve the ticket. Once the return is received at your warehouse, you can go into Commerce Interface and issue the refund to the customer. More information on the refunding process can be found here.
“send and hold”
Use this when your ticket is not yet ready to be resolved, but you do not want your ticket escalated to Customer Service. This “hold” expires after 4 business days, or after a new customer reply-- whichever comes first.
This reply option may be ideal when…
merchant is preparing to process a refund
merchant needs to contact their carrier for more information
merchant wishes to consult with Merchant Support before moving forward.
“send and resolve”
If you have successfully resolved your customer’s issue, write a reply confirming the actions that have been taken, then select this option.
Keep in mind, even if you cancel an order or issue a refund, a customer’s ticket won’t be processed by our system as “Resolved” until you reply using this option.
“Escalate”
In situations where you do not feel that you are able to successfully resolve a customer’s issue, you may select this option to escalate the ticket to Groupon Customer Service. However, you should always first attempt to solve your customer’s problem on your own.
Keep in mind that the Groupon Customer Service team will fully review your ticket. Any inappropriate responses or conduct by the merchant may negatively impact your account standing, or result in a reversal of your payment for the order.
Responding to Inappropriate Language in Customer Tickets
From time to time, you may receive a customer ticket that contains hostile, offensive, or inappropriate language. In these circumstances, we ask that your team:
- Assist the customer to resolve their issue as they normally would until the order issue is resolved
- Does not respond back with any inappropriate or offensive remarks
If all possible actions have already been taken to resolve the issue with the customer, and they continue to send inappropriate messages or re-open additional tickets containing the same language, please escalate the ticket to the Groupon Customer Support team so that they can intervene and prevent further harmful messages.
