Ecommerce Customer Service Outsourcing for Online Brands
One good sale fills the inbox faster than any team can read it, let alone reply.
Automation already answers the order-status question in seconds — as it should. What's left is the customer let down twice, one bad reply from writing a public review. GH staffs people trained to handle exactly that, fluent in whatever automated system already runs your front line.
Sound familiar?
The friction we hear most.
A sale email turns into a thousand tickets by lunchtime
Every promotion multiplies the inbox before it multiplies revenue, and the team reading it is the same size it was yesterday.
Where-is-my-order buries the complaint that actually needs you
A hundred routine tracking questions look identical to the one damaged, wrong or missing item that is about to become a public review.
The refund clock keeps ticking while returns sit in a queue
Customers judge you on how fast the refund lands, not on how busy the queue was the week a promotion ran.
A chargeback deadline arrives before anyone builds the evidence file
Every dispute needs the order record, the shipment proof and the delivery confirmation pulled together fast, and a missed deadline is money gone for good.
Who joins your team
Roles we staff.
Customer Experience Associate
Answers chat, email and marketplace messages across every channel you sell on, and separates the routine question from the one that needs a person.
Returns & Exchanges Coordinator
Processes returns, exchanges and refund approvals against your policy, and keeps the queue from becoming the reason a customer never orders again.
Chargeback & Dispute Specialist
Builds the evidence file for every dispute before the deadline, and tracks the patterns worth flagging before they become a trend.
Product & Reviews Associate
Keeps listings, pricing and stock status current across marketplaces, and responds to reviews and social comments in your brand voice.
Day to day
What they handle, every day.
- Answer pre- and post-purchase chat and email across every channel you sell on
- Triage where-is-my-order enquiries away from the returns and damage cases that need attention
- Process returns, exchanges and refund approvals against your policy
- Build the evidence packet for a chargeback before the dispute deadline
- Update product listings, pricing and stock status across every marketplace
- Respond to storefront and social reviews in your brand voice
- Chase a carrier on a shipment exception and notify the customer of the outcome
- Process size, color and fit exchanges through to reshipment
- Flag suspicious order patterns before they turn into a chargeback
- Log recurring complaint themes for the merchandising and product teams
The handoff
Where AI stops. Where we start.
Automation is genuinely faster at the first, predictable touch — that part is not in question. What follows is the moment it runs out of road, and a trained person picks up with the context already in hand.
A customer emails three days after dispatch asking where their order is
Where AI stops
An automated system reads the tracking feed and answers with the current location and delivery window before the customer finishes typing the question. It cannot tell this is her second delayed order this month, or that the reply she gets now decides whether there is a third.
What our team does
Pulls the order history, spots the pattern the tracking page cannot see, and opens the carrier claim while sending an apology that actually accounts for what happened last time.
A promotional email goes out and the inbox fills within the hour
Where AI stops
Automated replies clear the order-status and returns-policy volume as fast as it arrives, and at that speed nothing else keeps up. It cannot separate the routine question from the one buried in the same spike where the item arrived broken.
What our team does
Works the flagged thread first, reads the photo attached to the complaint, and gets a real answer back before it turns into a returned order and a customer who never comes back.
A chargeback notification lands from the payment processor
Where AI stops
An automated system assembles the order record, shipment proof and delivery confirmation into one file within seconds of the alert landing. It cannot argue the case, and a deadline missed because nobody read the file is money gone for good.
What our team does
Reads the evidence against the bank's actual dispute reason, writes the response and files it before the deadline the file only flagged.
A one-star review lands on a marketplace listing at 11pm
Where AI stops
Automated tools draft a reply and flag the sentiment within minutes of the review posting. They cannot judge whether responding publicly protects the listing or hands a competitor free ammunition.
What our team does
Reads what the review is actually about, decides how public the response should be, and posts something that protects the listing instead of restarting the argument.
Outcomes
What changes.
Ticket and chat coverage
First response on a marketplace review
Tickets carried into the next shift
What this could save you
Put a number on it.
The outcomes above are what changes operationally. Here's what a role like this is worth in dollars at Ecommerce brands.
What this could save you on Ecommerce brands
Move the numbers to match the role you're costing. The totals below update as you type — no email needed.
US cost, all-in
$56,600/yr
GH cost, all-in
$20,800/yr
Annual saving
$35,800
63.3% lower than staying in-house
Full itemised breakdown
See the six line items that make up the US-side total — payroll tax, benefits, paid leave, equipment, and recruiting — for the numbers above.
No sales call. We'll just send the same breakdown to your inbox.
Every assumption this rests on
These are conservative public US averages — employer payroll tax, benefits load, paid leave, and the rest — not GH Business Solutions' own measured figures. They're disclosed here in full so you can check the arithmetic yourself rather than take our word for it.
| Assumption | Value |
|---|---|
| Employer payroll tax | 9.15% |
| Benefits load | 25% |
| Paid leave | 20 days |
| Workstation and software | $1,500 |
| Cost per hire | $4,000 |
| Annual turnover | 30% |
| GH rate | $10.00 per billable hour (our range is $9-$10 — we cost the top of it here) |
Ready to talk specifics?
Tell us what's piling up. We'll tell you exactly what we would take off your desk.
Getting started
Two weeks, start to finish.
Week one
We map your workflow
A dedicated team lead learns your systems, protocols and escalation rules before anyone takes a live call or opens a live ticket.
Week two
Supervised live coverage
Your new team works real calls and real tasks alongside your staff, with a safety net until every handoff is clean.
Full handover
Coverage runs on its own
By the end of week two the team runs independently, with reporting you can review each morning rather than a queue you have to check.
Compliance & data handling
Built to be trusted with what matters.
- Customer PII handled under access controls you define
- Payment data never captured, stored or viewed by the team
- Marketplace and platform policy compliance across every channel you sell on
- Chargeback and dispute documentation handled to the evidence standards your processor requires
Related services
Common questions
Before you ask.
Will customers know they are not messaging someone in-house?
Most will assume they are messaging your own staff. The team writes in your tone, applies your return and exchange policy, and never falls back on a generic script that would give the game away.
How do you handle customer payment information?
The team never captures, stores or views payment card data. Checkout and payment stay entirely inside your existing payment processor, and the team works with order records and shipment detail only. Customer PII is handled under access controls you define.
We already have a bot answering order-status questions. What's actually left for your team to do?
Handle what a bot answering order-status was never going to fix: the order that is wrong for the second time, the customer already drafting a public review, the chargeback with a deadline attached. The team picks up mid-thread with the order history already open, so nobody repeats themselves, and anything involving a complaint, a dispute or a damaged item goes to a person by default.
Do you work inside the helpdesk and storefront tools we already use?
Yes. The team works inside whatever helpdesk, storefront and marketplace tools you already run, using logins you issue and permissions you control. Nothing is migrated and nothing new is installed on your side.
What order volume justifies bringing in outside support?
Any brand whose ticket volume swings hard with promotions and peak season, even if the average week is manageable in-house. A single-founder store usually starts with overflow coverage around sale events; larger brands run a dedicated team split across support, returns and disputes.
How quickly can a team be ready before a big sale?
Two weeks is typical, and it can be tightened ahead of a known peak date. The first week maps your policies, tone and escalation rules; the second runs live coverage supervised alongside your own team before full handover.
Also in commerce & operations
We staff the same half of the work here.
Ready to see this running in your business?
Tell us what's piling up right now. We will tell you exactly what we would take off your desk.
Talk to us