Over the last two years, the Automation Add-on (AAO) grew from a small experiment to a powerful tool. Today, thousands of merchants use the AAO to instantly support customers, improve the shopping experience, and deflect repetitive questions to focus on the most important conversations. 

Along this journey, the AAO has introduced Order Management Flows, Report An Issue Flows, Quick Response Flows, Article Recommendation Flows, and Autoresponders across the chat widget, Help Center, email, and Contact Form. We also recently made Quick Response Flows multi-step, to make automation more personalized and interactive. 

This is only the beginning: New features, like AI capabilities and more automatable actions, are on the horizon to continuously improve the AAO. Keep an eye on our product roadmap for updates.

Today, we’re announcing a change to the AAO’s billing structure to be more fair and transparent, and want to inform you of how these changes impact you. 

How is the billing structure changing?

Before this change, the AAO had a flat cost based on your helpdesk plan. But this didn’t always reflect how much each merchant actually used the AAO.

Going forward, AAO billing will be based on your individual usage. Mirroring the helpdesk’s billing structure, which is based on your volume of billable tickets, the new AAO billing structure is based on your volume of automated interactions. 

This update gives you merchants more flexibility and control. If automation is a priority, you can opt for a lot of automated interactions (regardless of your helpdesk plan). If it’s not, you can opt for a smaller AAO tier to introduce a little bit of automation at a more accessible price point.

What is an automated interaction?

An automated interaction is a customer request that is resolved without any agent involvement, by using one of the features of the AAO.

Once an agent gets involved, the interaction does not count as successfully automated. For example, if a shopper starts a Quick Response Flow in the Chat widget and messages an agent with a follow-up question within 24 hours, it will count as a billable ticket (and not an automated interaction).

To be clear, a conversation will never be charged as both an automated interaction and a billable ticket.

When will these changes take place?

On your first renewal date after August 14, 2023. Note: All existing discounts on your account will continue to apply, even after the billing changes.

Automate more to save and grow

With this new billing structure, automating more interactions is the best way to reduce costs and improve CX. 

Automated interactions are more affordable than billable tickets

Human agents don’t have to spend time on automated interactions, so they end up at a fraction of the cost of billable tickets. Plus, as you automate more with the AAO, the cost of each interaction goes down.

Automated interactions offer instant answers

When customers ask transactional questions (like “Where is my order?” or “What’s your shipping policy in Canada?”), they’re looking for instant information more than a human touch. (And if they do want a human touch, they’re always a click away from chatting with an agent). 

For these kinds of transactional questions, the best way to satisfy customers is with automation’s 0-second response time. 

Automation frees your team to make a larger impact

Your team has better things to do than answer “Where is my order?” over and over (and over). With automation, you can focus on resolving more complex issues, expand your proactive customer support, and find new ways to make your CX a true advantage for your brand.

Automation can handle the night shift and support during busy seasons

Automation works 24/7 and can handle an influx of ticket volume during BFCM. Instead of adding hours to your team’s schedule or hiring a new agent, leverage automation to deflect your most repetitive tickets.

Curious to see a real example? Topicals uses the AAO to deflect 69% of tickets while maintaining a CSAT of 4.8/5 and boosting sales from support by 78%. See how Topicals does it. 

Reach out with questions

Our team is here to help you understand exactly how these changes impact you. Plus, we’re ready to automate more of your customer support to save time and boost CX.