Scaling Customer Service in eCommerce: A Case Study on Hickies

Hickies is an eCommerce startup founded by Gaston Frydlewski and Mariquel Waingarten. The company sells an innovative elastic lacing system that turns sneakers into slip-ons. The founders launched their product on Kickstarter, where they received support from over 3,300 backers who contributed more than $150,000, six times their goal. This allowed them to start their business and begin shipping their product. A year later, the company had an office in New York City, a team of six employees, and was on track to ship over one million packs by the end of 2013. Hickies prioritizes customer service and aims to provide prompt, knowledgeable responses to customer queries.

Hickies, an eCommerce startup that sells an innovative elastic lacing system, faced a significant challenge as they rapidly scaled their business. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the company was on track to ship over one million packs by the end of 2013. However, this rapid growth brought with it the challenge of managing thousands of new customers. The company prioritized customer service, aiming to provide prompt, knowledgeable responses to customer queries. To achieve this, they needed tools to track and interact with customers. They used Shopify to run their online store and Desk.com to manage their customer service. However, the process of manually transferring customer data from Shopify to Desk.com was time-consuming and inefficient. The company sought a solution to automate this process and improve their customer service efficiency.

Carla Martinez, Hickies' user experience manager, proposed building a new app that combined the best features of Shopify and Desk.com. However, the company's tech team estimated that building such an app would take 100 hours and be very complicated. Instead, Carla discovered Zapier, a service that automates work processes. Zapier allowed Hickies to automate the transfer of customer data between Shopify and Desk.com, saving the company significant time and money. In addition to automating the new customer process, Carla used Zapier to connect Shopify with MailChimp, automating a one-month follow-up email to new customers. This proactive approach to customer service allowed Hickies to gather continuous feedback from their customers, enhancing the 'Hickies experience' and making customers feel part of a community.

• The automation of customer data transfer and follow-up emails significantly improved Hickies' operational efficiency and customer service. The company was able to provide prompt, knowledgeable responses to customer queries, enhancing customer trust in the company. The automated follow-up emails allowed Hickies to gather continuous feedback from their customers, enhancing the 'Hickies experience' and making customers feel part of a community. This feedback also led to product improvements, with the company's second generation of Hickies featuring brighter colors and more elasticity based on customer suggestions. The automation also allowed Hickies to better serve their customers by having all necessary customer information readily available when a support ticket came in.

• Saved significant time and money by automating the transfer of customer data between Shopify and Desk.com using Zapier.

• 24% increase in returning customers since implementing the automation.

• 46% increase in customer engagement since implementing the automation.