There are few companies the size of Shopify that can boast such a solid customer satisfaction rating. The reason for this is the tremendous range of resources and channels that are available to users.

Shopify offers true 24/7 free support regardless of weekends or holidays. These systems are in place to ensure that you feel secure in your decision to be a Shopify client, and that you can trust the company to have your back regardless of your e-commerce needs.

In this article I’ll show you how to access the resources available via Shopify support, and the effectiveness of Shopify help when you need assistance with your online store.

The Era of Internet Critics

Nowadays, the internet has enabled anyone to become a critic. Even near-flawless businesses often receive an almost equal amount of negative feedback from individuals as they receive responses from those who sing their praises.

Because of this, we often get a skewed representation of the true quality of a service or product, so it is important to do the research to formulate an educated opinion for yourself. Thankfully, we have done exactly that for Shopify Support.

The “customer is always right” attitude can hold a business accountable and motivate them to improve their quality and relationships with their customers, however it can also have a negative effect.

So many times I’ve seen 1-star reviews based on minor inconveniences with an abrupt, seemingly disingenuous sentence summarizing a mundane issue that person may have had. This is largely due to the fact that customers often feel more compelled to write a scathing account in response to something they may have taken personally.

Now, I’m absolutely not attempting to discredit any sincere faults in a service that cause an individual to genuinely offer feedback in the hopes that the business will correct it in order to prevent future mishaps. My point is just this:

A 1-star, non-specific review often has a greater impact than a glowing, lengthy, 5-star description of a satisfactory interaction.

So how can a multinational business hope to keep an overall positive, or even outstanding rating? Shopify Support network is a great example.

The Shopify support experience enables the user to access a breadth of knowledge from experts, encyclopedia for all things e-commerce, blog posts and tutorials for every Shopify feature and theme available, and the Shopify Help Center, where one can receive personal assistance from the Shopify team.

Shopify’s Helpful Spirit

Shopify, with approximately 2000 employees and 600k+ merchants, manages to maintain exceptional customer satisfaction scores for Shopify Support and Shopify Help Center. This is more impressive when considering the immense scope being that these users all operate in distinct industries and have unique individual needs and questions.

It’s normal for a person to feel enthusiastic about significant achievements from their home country, so I’d be lying if I didn’t claim to feel a slight pride that this e-commerce titan is of Canadian origin. I’ve also felt a compulsion to be both more intrigued and critical of their services because of this.

[Image source: sufio.com]

Canadians, for the most part, enjoy a reputation as friendly, polite and helpful people. Of course this cannot be accurate for every single person, but those values are certainly inherent in a lot of Canadian businesses and policies.

I can’t help but suspect that this influence and identity may be a contributing factor in why Shopify support goes out of their way to offer such an extensive, intricate network of resources to their users that enable them to become more successful.

Of course I need to take an objective approach to my final opinion on the Shopify support system, so I’ll put my cultural affiliations aside as we take a look through what Shopify Support offers their users.

Shopify Support Channels

Language Support

Shopify expanded throughout the global market this year, with websites in languages including German, French, Spanish and Japanese. Based on a quick look at the French site, the support resources are slightly more limited than the English option at this time, but they do still offer personal assistance through email, telephone, Twitter and active forums.

As the communities using other languages grow, so will the support systems included in those regions. If you’re looking for more information on how to make your own store multilingual, take a look at this forum discussion summarizing the methods in which to do so.

Support channels nowadays are referred to as “static” or “dynamic”:

“static, e.g. a knowledge base prepared to provide instant access to the popular customers’ questions or a chatbot answering the questions with predefined answers

dynamic, e.g. a live chat support (letting you answer through a conversation on your website), call center or email support [Pliszka, 2018]”

Shopify Help Center

The static resources mainly exist in the Shopify Help Center. Following the link will take you to this page:

 

From here you can search documentation pertaining to each feature and theme from Shopify.

Click here for an example of documentation on the Brooklyn Shopify theme that we previously reviewed.

From the dashboard of the Shopify Help Center, you can be redirected to a huge amount of content including blog posts, videos, tutorials, reviews, FAQs, selling tips, marketing tips, and many, many more.

The drop down menu at the top allows you to quickly access solutions to common issues:

 

These resources are impressively extensive and should provide solutions for any problems you may encounter. The themes drop down menu provides theme tutorial, videos, reviews and more:

Finally, if you are unable to find a solution in the Shopify Help Center, you have several options to receive personal support for whatever issue you may have encountered.

To contact Shopify Support, simply follow this link or navigate to the “support” dropdown menu at the top of the page.

Ask a Question, Suggestions, and Contact

You will be presented with this screen when getting in touch with the Shopify support team:

There is now a 3-step process to follow:

1. Type a question regarding what you need assistance with
2. Review the suggestions that appear regarding your question
3. If the suggestions are not sufficient, you can reach out for personal support from a Shopify representative

The channels with which to get personal support include email, phone support, Twitter and live chat support. Below is a brief run-through of the three steps.

First, ask a question and receive suggestions. If not satisfied, click on the “Get Help from the Shopify Support Team” button.

 

Now you are presented with the options for support.

Shopify Live Chat Support

To my slight disappointment, I was required to install an application to my Shopify Admin in order to use the Live Chat support.

Thankfully, this process took no more than a few second by clicking the “Install app” button. I was then automatically redirected to a queue screen that updates my spot in line in real time. My question was how to apply the PageFly website builder application to my Shopify store.

I had heard great things about the response times for the live chat support, however….

 

15 minutes later I was still waiting…

 

After approximately 25 minutes I was greeted enthusiastically by a representative, Victoria. She was able to give me quick and effective advice on how to resolve my question.

 

After answering my question, she was sure to ask if I needed any additional information while we were still online together.

While this interaction was pleasant and satisfactory, I cannot attest to the consistency in live chat support. Asking more complex questions may result in unclear solutions, or high-traffic periods could result in lengthy wait times.

 

Shopify Phone Support

As displayed in the photo, Shopify phone support is currently available in 4 regions:

• North America: 1-855-816-3857
• New Zealand: 07-788-6026
• United Kingdom: 0800-808-5233
• Australia: 03-8400-4750

Shopify Email Support

This method was, in fact, my favourite experience out of all the Shopify support channels. I had emailed them asking which Shopify themes would be most suitable for a business that sells furniture and design services. I promptly received an automated response informing me that my ticket had been submitted and informing me of other resources in the meantime:

Provided your concern is not of utmost urgency, this channel is clear and easy and gets you a detailed answer from a Shopify “Guru”.

I asked a simple question and received an immediate notification of when I could expect to hear a response, then the following day I received a thorough, helpful response to my modest inquiry. I was also able to rate my experience from within the email, this encouraged me to provide honest feedback in relation to my positive experience.

 

To recap, my favourite support channel was email based on thoroughness and usefulness of the response. The phone may be restricted to people in certain regions, and as I only tested the live chat once, I cannot say with certainty that it wouldn’t vary in wait time and quality of support.

Shopify Support Resources

Aside from personal support, Shopify has a massive collection of knowledge and service that users can access for assistance.

Shopify Academy

Shopify Academy if a series of online courses that you can register and take for free. These courses include video content, articles and checklists on a range of topics to assist you build your online business. They also provide free registration and access to some valuable webinars regarding e-commerce. Take a look at our review of the Shopify Academy here.

Shop Class

Shopify Shop Class is a series of events hosted in several locations currently across the United States. The locations and dates are listed on the page, and we can expect to see more added in the future.

At these events you can expect to gain more tools and knowledge through:

• Actionable Takeaways
• Personalized Support
• Shop Class Stories
• Organizing your Schedule Effectively
• Networking

Visit the Shop Class page for more information.

 

Shopify Expert Directory

Now let’s take a look at some of the static resources that are available to you via the Shopify Help Center. First in the Shopify Expert Directory. This is fundamental for anyone who wants to create a highly professional, up-to-modern-standards online store but may lack the skills or knowledge in all the aspects that need to be considered.

 

Here you can search for experts by name, location, or keywords related to the services you require. The “browse experts” dropdown menu provides the following options:

Setup, design, development, marketing and photography.

You can also post a specific job that experts may respond to, or post a small task that needs to be completed on your store.

Shopify Business Encyclopedia

The encyclopedia is an incredibly valuable tool for anyone running an e-commerce business. There is a wealth of knowledge from industry-relevant sources.

 

Take a look at the assistance available to get an idea of the value of this resource:

Shopify Help Center Youtube Tutorials

Shopify has a YouTube channel dedicated to uploading video tutorials of common issues users might encounter. This is in addition to their other supplementary channels: Shopify Partners and Shopify Plus.

Shopify Help Forum

Last but not least, the community section of the Shopify Help Center can help merchants connect with other real users who may be experiencing similar challenges. Check out the Shopify Blog for a variety of some seriously useful information.

Shopify Support Additional Options

As the support features discussed in the earlier sections in this article are all included with any of the available Shopify plans, there are other options to consider.

3rd Party Paid Support

There are companies that offer paid assistance from experts in the field of e-commerce including developing, marketing and application specialization. These companies can often offer quicker results and possibly higher quality support, but typically start at around $65/hr to hire.

Some of the most reputable services are Storetasker, a company that has dedicated staff, or an alternative like Upwork that connects business owners and freelancers. Here is a quick look at the Storetasker page:

 

Shopify Plus 1-on-1 Dedicated Support

Shopify Plus is the premium Shopify plan that includes 1-on-1 support from engineers and managers whose expertise span every facet of the e-commerce industry. These services are designed to expedite the growth of your store and start achieving sales as soon as possible.

These services are most suitable for business owners with proven products that wish to migrate to the e-commerce world as efficiently as possible. Prices for Shopify Plus vary, and an estimate can be requested here.

 

3rd Party Theme and App Support

For themes and applications that are developed by 3rd party companies, support becomes the responsibility of the creators rather than that of Shopify. The best way to gauge whether a theme or app is trustworthy is to focus on testimonials for that specific add-on.

The PageFly page builder app, which allows users to further customize every page of their online store, is an example of an application with excellent dedicated support from it’s developers outside of the Shopify support system.

 

In-person Shopify Support

Opening a physical space almost seems counterintuitive to an online platform. That being said, Shopify has announced that it will be opening its first storefront location sometime in 2018.

There is no confirmation on the location of the new venture, but ostensibly it will serve as yet another effective channel for online retailers to access support from the growing e-commerce company. We shall wait and see if a more traditional approach to customer support will be feasible when coupled with an industry that exists primarily on the web.

All-in-all I got an excellent impression from the support network available from Shopify. As my questions were quite basic, I must acknowledge that more complexity and demand could create the opposite experience.

Based on the level of professionalism in the responses I received, I was very impressed. The wait times - however - left much to be desired. With email, I expected to wait some time, but at a whopping 25 minutes for live chat, especially when I had previously read of users receiving support in as little as 30 seconds... I must remain suspicious of Shopify’s consistency.

Care to try Shopify for yourself? You can sign up for a 14-day risk-free trial at any time. This will give you the opportunity to try the platform, including the support services for yourself at no charge.

Have you had any good or bad experiences with Shopify chat? What about the channels that we hadn’t focussed on in this article (ie Twitter, telephone)? What, in your opinion, is the best option for receiving assistance for you Shopify store?

Tell us a story in the comments below!