Short answer
ChatGPT is useful for customer service work that needs writing, such as drafting replies, rewriting tone and summarising long threads. On its own it can't see a customer's order or your policies, so answers about real orders need ChatGPT connected to your support data or a dedicated AI agent.- Good at
- Drafting, rewriting, translating and summarising support text.
- Doesn't know
- Your customers' orders, tracking or current policies, unless connected.
- Can't do alone
- Refund, cancel or change an order in your store.
- Privacy
- Check your ChatGPT plan's data controls before pasting customer details.
- Connected
- The Aide app lets ChatGPT look up orders and answer conversations.
ChatGPT is already open in a tab on most support teams' screens. Used well, it saves time on writing. Used carelessly, it invents a return policy or a delivery date and an agent pastes it into a reply.
What it does well
ChatGPT is strongest where support work is writing.
- Drafting a first reply from your notes.
- Rewriting a reply to be shorter, warmer or firmer.
- Summarising a long thread before a hand-off.
- Translating a reply into the customer's language.
- Turning a policy document into a short, clear answer.
- Writing and tidying canned responses and help articles.
Where it falls short
On its own, ChatGPT doesn't know anything about your store or your customer.
- No order data. It can't see where order 1042 is, what was in it, or whether it can still be changed.
- Out-of-date policy. It answers from what you paste in, or from general knowledge, which can contradict your actual policy.
- Confident mistakes. It writes a plausible delivery date or refund promise with the same tone as a correct one.
- No actions. It can't refund, cancel or change an address; someone still does that in Shopify.
- Copy and paste. Every answer goes through an agent moving text between tabs.
8 prompts for support teams
Paste the customer's message after each prompt, with personal details removed.
- "Draft a reply to this customer in a friendly, concise tone. Use only the facts I give you and leave [brackets] for anything missing."
- "Rewrite this reply to be shorter and lead with the answer."
- "This customer is upset. Rewrite my reply to acknowledge the problem first without over-apologising."
- "Summarise this conversation in four bullet points for the teammate taking over."
- "Turn this return policy into a three-sentence answer a customer would understand."
- "Translate this reply into French, keeping the tone and the order details unchanged."
- "List the questions I still need to ask this customer before I can process their request."
- "Suggest three subject lines for this support email."
Putting AI in front of customers
There are three common ways to let AI answer customers directly.
- A custom GPT on ChatGPT: quick to make, answers general questions from uploaded documents, but can't verify customers or see orders, and customers have to go to ChatGPT to use it.
- A build on the OpenAI API: full control, but your team writes and maintains the order lookups, identity checks, hand-offs and safety checks.
- An AI customer service agent: answers in your own chat, email and helpdesk, from your knowledge and real orders, with limits your team sets.
The Aide AI Agent is the third kind. It answers from your help center, website and Shopify products, acts on Shopify orders for verified customers, and checks every reply before it is sent.
Connect ChatGPT to your helpdesk
Your team can keep using ChatGPT and give it the context it lacks. With the Aide app for ChatGPT, a teammate signs in with their Aide account and ChatGPT can search your knowledge, look up Shopify orders, read and answer conversations, and refund or cancel within that teammate's role and approval limits, asking before it sends a reply or changes an order.