How to Contact Your Customer

In some instances, merchants may need to initiate communication without waiting for a customer to open a ticket. In these situations, merchants can use the Gateway system to proactively open tickets with their customers after receiving an order.

Below you will find instructions for opening a customer ticket, as well as guidelines outlining situations appropriate for merchant-initiated contacts.

Opening a Ticket with Your Customer

You can open a new ticket with your customer by navigating to the Tickets page on Gateway and clicking "Contact Customer" at the bottom of the page.

You will then be required to input a Support ID, designating the order your new ticket is regarding. This should match the Order ID as it’s listed in CommerceInterface, and begin with “GG-...".

Be sure to provide your customer with a subject line and details that clearly explain your reason for reaching out, as well as any steps needed on their end.

Once a ticket is created, all customer responses must receive a merchant reply within 1 business day. Any ticket with a customer should always comply fully with our Merchant Standards for Communication.

Appropriate Situations to Contact Your Customer

INVALID SHIPPING ADDRESS provided by a customer (missing suite #, unit, etc.). You can reach out to request additional address details so you can complete the order.
ISSUES WITH DELIVERY SCHEDULING affecting an order. You may inform your customer of potential delays to improve their customer experience. Keep in mind this will not excuse the merchant from usual SLA standards.
ORDERS RETURNED TO SENDER are an appropriate situation to reach out to your customer and determine an appropriate course of action.
CANCELLATIONS DUE TO INVENTORY SHORTAGE can be followed by a message to your customer explaining why their order has been canceled. If you have alternate product options available, you can take this opportunity to let them know they are welcome to place a new order for one of your available options.

Inappropriate Situations to Contact Your Customer

ARRANGING A PRODUCT SUBSTITUTE in the case of an inventory shortage is NOT permissible merchant conduct. If you don't have the product your customer ordered in stock, you must cancel the order.
QUESTIONS re: CUSTOMER CANCELLATION are not permitted. If a customer cancels their order, merchants may NOT attempt to contact the customer asking why they canceled the order, or attempt to convince them to place another order, etc.

Metric	Description	Score	Goal
Overall Performance	Overall Scorecard Health		100%
Tracking Uploaded On-Time Rate	The rate at which orders receive a tracking number upload from the merchant within 2 business days of the order being placed.		>98%
Tracking Movement On-Time Rate	The rate at which an order's tracking number shows movement on the carrier's website within 3 business days of the order being placed.		>97%
Cycle Time	Average time elapsed between the date an order is placed, and the date that order is marked delivered.	Days	<6 Days
Customer to Merchant On-Time Response Rate	The rate at which tickets and messages created by customers receive a response within 1 business day.		>95%
Cancellation Rate	The rate at which orders placed are then cancelled by the merchant prior to tracking upload.		<0.5%
Return Rate	The rate at which successfully placed orders are returned/refunded after tracking has been uploaded.		<0.5%
Customer to Groupon Contact Rate	The rate at which orders received by the merchant result in customers contacting Groupon Customer Service.		<1.4%
Customer to Merchant Contact Rate	The rate at which orders received by the merchant result in customers opening a ticket to contact the merchant directly.		<3.6%
Customer Satisfaction Score	The rate of customers indicating satisfaction with their merchant’s customer service following a ticket being marked “Solved”.		>70%

How to Contact Your Customer

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