Customer Service Rep

• Work the views in order: Unassigned (knock out easy/macro tickets first) → My Tickets (ongoing conversations) → Open Tickets (help if appropriate).
• Use TWO macros per response: one to respond, one to sign off. If a macro fires a Shopify action, double-check it before executing. Correct any misspelled names macros pull in.
• Replacements = duplicate the order, 100% discount, and leave an internal note.
• Phone calls: no voicemail → assign to Phone Support. With voicemail → listen, leave an internal note, merge customer info, handle by email if possible.
• No macro fits? Email: start nice → solve the issue → end nice. Social: casual, quick replies are fine.
• Check the Spam view, review closed tickets to learn, offer coupons when needed, and run the cycle 2–3 times per shift.

The six steps, in order

• Greet: "Ciao" + the customer's name.
• Thank them sincerely — there is always a genuine reason, no matter how frustrated they are ("Thank you for your order!", "Thank you for bringing this to our attention!").
• Confirm you understand the problem ("I understand you're having problems with X").
• Solve it — give the real answer and fix it in Shopify.
• Offer future help — you're available for any questions.
• Sign off warm, seasonal when it fits ("Wear It Proud," "Buon Natale,") with your name.

Space the steps apart, sandwich every response (nice → solve → nice), and represent Hardcore the way we want to be represented. AI bot responses get reviewed and improved against this same standard.

• Review every Shopify filter daily: Open (flag anything >48 hours), Shirt Club Welcome and Recurring (checked manually — they don't show in Open), Amazon (72-hour ship SLA — account risk), TikTok (late = penalties), Chargebacks (new ones same day), O&F (archive orders that didn't auto-fulfill).
• Marketplace audit: log into TikTok, Amazon, and Walmart seller portals each morning; anything Unshipped 24+ hours gets investigated — backorder? active PO? system error?
• In-stock but unshipped → email Zipscale: "PRIORITY SHIPMENT REQUEST: [Marketplace] - Order #". Out of stock → contact the customer with an alternative or refund (or cancel if the marketplace forbids OOS messaging — protect account health).
• TikTok tracking sync fails after 4–8 hours → add tracking manually in Seller Center (approved carriers only: USPS via TikTok 4PL, UPS, FedEx, DHL, OnTrac). Escalate unapproved carriers to Zipscale; open a TikTok support ticket if manual entry fails.

• At 7 days unfulfilled: confirm the cause and check ShipHero → Purchase Orders for an active PO.
• On a PO: proactive update — item is incoming, no exact dates unless confirmed, you'll notify when it ships. Follow up weekly, and within 24 hours of any PO change. ETA past 3 weeks → strongly recommend alternatives.
• Not on a PO: high priority — offer alternatives immediately. The safe general line: "most products are restocked within 30 business days of sellout" plus a Back in Stock signup, never a specific date.
• The outreach ladder: Email → 48 hours → second email → 48 hours → phone call (voicemail + summary email if no answer). Document every attempt in Shopify and Gorgias.

Offering alternatives

• Always at least three options: swap variant (size/color/similar item), switch product (discount code covers a higher price, refund the difference on lower), store credit (gift card), refund (always available, least-promoted).
• Process swaps as a new order at 100% discount with notes. Document the delay reason, options offered, choice, and actions.

• When: only a handful of backorders for a SKU, no reorder planned, or the incoming PO won't cover this order — and the customer would otherwise wait more than a week.
• Recreate the order exactly in Printful (product, color, size, print file, customer address), best shipping speed.
• Mark fulfilled in Shopify when Printful confirms, add tracking, and note why it was dropshipped.
• Tell the customer their order is "being fulfilled through our production partner" — never say dropshipping.
• The gift-card alternative: when there is no plan to restock and the customer would rather not wait, cancel the order and issue a gift card for $5–$10 more than they paid — customers often take it and order something else. When canceling, be careful not to click the refund option (store credit replaces it); if the customer wants a refund instead, give the full refund.
• Gift cards: Shopify → Products → Gift cards → Create. Set the expiration 3 years from today, search the customer, and always note why it was issued.
• Either way, alert the warehouse team in Slack to check inventory on the item so the same hold doesn't happen again.

• Orders → filter Chargeback = Open. Call and email the customer first — many resolve directly, and a written reply from the customer confirming delivery is the best evidence there is.
• No response → Submit Response: upload the shipping label (Reprint Label → download PDF), link hardcoreitalians.com/pages/terms, and add screenshots of the terms and the delivery confirmation.
• Write the response professionally in the standard format: address the bank, thank them for a proper investigation, lay out the sequence (ordered on X, shipped X, delivered X, alerted at every step), and quote the terms that apply — accurate address is the customer's responsibility, and we are not responsible for lost or stolen packages.
• The bank wants a reason to keep the money — thorough, professional, evidence-heavy responses win cases. Watch the dispute deadline (typically ~30 days) and submit before it expires either way.

• The daily order of operations: answer new questions first, then the scheduled-to-publish queue, then the total-reviews check.
• Questions: public reply if other shoppers benefit ("all our tees are 100% cotton"); private reply if it's customer-specific or negative — about 90% of the time private is right. When unsure whether something should be public on the website, ask before posting.
• Positive product reviews that fit the site → save as both Product AND Website review.
• The scheduled-to-publish queue is Yotpo's AI holding back reviews it suspects you don't want live. If nobody acts within 30 days they auto-publish to the website — that is why this queue must hit zero daily. Reject 1–3 star reviews and handle the customer privately like any CS ticket; a mild low-star review can be let through occasionally (roughly one a month) so the reviews look real. Catch the traps: a 5-star review with a negative comment gets rejected too, and so does anything with profanity.
• Total reviews: read every review that comes in — the AI misses negatives ("looks cheaper in person" once made it to the site). Reject those and reach out to the customer to make it right.
• Pictures: Yotpo never auto-approves photos. Filter Total Reviews by media and approve the good ones — social proof sells. Careful: the media filter breaks date sorting, so checking daily beats digging through a random-order backlog.

• Recharge → Order Errors → All Active Errors, checked daily or every other day. The system retries a maximum of 5 times before auto-canceling.
• Temporary declines or unexpected errors → manual Retry. Invalid payment method → reach out via Gorgias to update billing first.
• Failed payment + last successful order 6+ months ago → cancel the subscription (reason: abandoned account). Check Gorgias for recent contact first.
• At exactly 5 attempts → create a Gorgias ticket and send the approved outreach email ("Action Required: Update your payment method...") with the account portal link. Tag it Payment Failure.

• Test outbound and inbound on the contact@ address (check Spam/Promotions folders on the receiving end).
• Run Mail-Tester or MXToolbox for blacklist flags and SPF/DKIM errors.
• Failures → ticket with Gorgias Support including the ticket ID and test results.
• Urgent customer needs meanwhile: email them directly from your @hardcoreitalians.com address, explain why, and link it back to the Gorgias ticket.

• Shopify → Apps → Marketplace Connect → Amazon tab. Unlist ghost listings, use Link Listings → Match to fix SKU mismatches, fix titles/descriptions in Attribute Mapping. Verify in Seller Central afterward.
• Seller Support: Help → Get Support → Selling on Amazon. Don't type your issue into the search — click "Browse for your issue in the menu" to reach real categories. Lead with the ASIN/Order ID and a clear action request.
• Phone/chat for urgent, email for documentation. Always record the Case ID in internal notes.

Faire is our wholesale channel — Italian delis, restaurants, and shops stocking Hardcore Italians merch. The workflow covers prompt acceptance, personalized retailer onboarding with a social media collaboration invite, and shipping communication matched to the inventory type.

The workflow

• Log into the Faire portal daily at the start of each shift. Accept incoming orders within 24 hours of placement.
• Categorize the order's SKUs: Ready-to-Ship (in-stock warehouse inventory), Mixed (stock + custom printed-on-demand), or Printed-on-Demand only.
• Send the matching onboarding macro via Faire direct messaging the moment you accept.
• Log the retailer's details and any photos they send in the Faire Social Media Outreach Tracker for feature scheduling.
• Dispatch: Ready-to-Ship processes for fulfillment; Mixed dispatches the in-stock items immediately with POD following separately; POD-only goes straight to the production partners.

The three macros and their promises

• Macro 1 — Ready-to-Ship only: order ships within 5 days (depending on bulk), tracking to follow.
• Macro 2 — Mixed order: in-stock items dispatch immediately; the printed-on-demand portion ships separately and arrives within 12 days of order acceptance.
• Macro 3 — POD only: items are custom-made in production and arrive within 12 days of order acceptance.

Every macro opens "Ciao [Retailer Name]", thanks them for bringing us into their shop, and invites them to be featured on our Instagram stories and reels — asking for a photo or two of their in-store Hardcore Italians displays plus a brief note on their business story (founders, Italian roots, what makes the shop unique). The full copy-paste macro text lives in the Faire SOP in the SOP library.