Customer Tickets on Goods Marketplace
Whenever a customer places an order on your Goods Marketplace store, they automatically gain the ability to open a “ticket” with you, the merchant, at any moment.
“Tickets” are the official mode of communication Goods Marketplace provides for their merchants and customers. These tickets are housed directly in the Gateway platform, and are used to handle all customer inquiries, refund requests, order errors, etc.
Communication is key to effective customer service. Effective use of our ticketing system plays an important role in maintaining a positive standing on Goods Marketplace.
Navigation
Accessing Your Tickets
To access ticketing, log onto Gateway and select Tickets using the left-hand navigation bar.
Link to "Tickets" page on Gateway
You will be directed to the Tickets mainpage. From here, you can access an overview of all customer tickets associated with your Goods Marketplace store.
Filtering Your Tickets
Whether you’d like to quickly find all of your tickets still awaiting reply, review archived tickets for record-keeping, or track down tickets related to a specific order, the Tickets mainpage provides you with powerful tools to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
Reordering Your Ticket List
On the Tickets mainpage, you can easily sort your available tickets based off of their current status, the date they were initially created, or the date they were last updated (meaning when a message was last sent by either the customer or merchant).
You can achieve this by clicking any of the three corresponding column headers on your list of tickets. Click the header a second time to toggle between ascending/descending order.
Filtering Tickets by Status
On the Tickets mainpage, you can use the “Status” bubbles below the search bar to quickly filter your tickets down only those belonging to the status selected.
Ticket Status Definitions
Filtering Tickets by Reason
Using the search feature on the Tickets mainpage, you can filter based of the reason the tickets were created by customers.
Filtering Tickets by ID #
Using the search feature on the Tickets mainpage, you can use any existing ID numbers to filter for associated tickets. Type the number into the search field, then select the appropriate ID type from the drop-down menu options generated below.
Responding to Customer Tickets
Once you have identified the ticket on the Tickets mainpage, please click on the blue hyperlinked ticket ID number to open that ticket up in the Ticketing Portal.
From the Ticketing Portal, you can view any existing messages between you and your customer, download any attachments provided, and of course reply to their ticket.
Attaching a File
Click the “Attachments” tab next to “Messages” to use the Ticketing Portal’s attachment tool.
At this time, the 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. There are four different reply options provided in the Ticketing 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 additional discourse, select this option. Once the customer replies, the ticket status will automatically shift to “Open”, and require another response within 24 business hours.
“send and hold”
When sending your customer a reply that does not require an immediate response, but instead indicates you need additional time to properly address their issue, select this option. You must then follow up within 3 days or your ticket will be transferred to Customer Service.
“send and resolve”
If you have successfully resolved your customer’s issue, write a reply confirming the actions that have been taken, and 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, at that time, 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, and any inappropriate responses or conduct by the merchant may negatively impact your account standing.
Acceptable Response vs. Unacceptable Response
Communication plays a vital role in customer experience. When responding to customer tickets, you are directly representing your brand, as well as Goods Marketplace as a whole. We hold our merchants to a high standard when communicating with their customers.
Merchants unable to consistently meet Goods Marketplace’s standards for acceptable responses may have their account activity suspended, or even disabled entirely.
Ticketing Best Practices
Impact On Merchant Scorecard
In addition to your tickets being manually evaluated for quality by the Groupon Customer Service team, your ability to respond to tickets within our 24 hour time window also factors heavily into your Merchant Scorecard.
95% of your tickets must be answered within 24 hours, or your account will automatically be flagged by our system. This leaves you a thin margin for error, so it is imperative you take your Customer-to-Merchant on Time Response Rate seriously.
For more information, see "Understanding Your Merchant Scorecard"
Handling Order Refunds/Returns/Cancellations
If you choose to cancel an order or offer a refund, that decision will be executed using CommerceInterface. However, keep in mind that taking action on CI will not automatically close your ticket on Gateway. Respond to your customer’s ticket, let them know the refund/cancellation has been issued, then select “Send and Resolve”.
You must honor the return policy listed on your deal page. It’s important to note that a FINAL SALE policy does not apply to products that are broken or defective.
If you and your customer agree to have a product sent back to you, the merchant, do not ask the customer to ship the order at their own cost. Per Goods Marketplace policy, it is your obligation to provide them with a return label. Attach this return label to a response in your customer ticket.
Helpful Tips
Please note that all tickets are monitored by Groupon Customer Service, and any unresponded or inappropriately handled tickets will be escalated directly to the Customer Service team. This may negatively impact your account standing.
Proofread your message before sending. Use spell check, etc.
Check your tickets daily. If you’re unavailable, arrange for someone to reply to tickets in your absence.
If you’re waiting for more information before responding to a customer’s request, send them a message assuring them you’re working on a solution. Use the “Send and Hold” option, and you will be allotted 3 more days before you must follow up.
