Why WISMO tickets keep coming back, and how to settle them the first time

What WISMO means for a support team#

It means a queue full of the same question. Malomo's 2024 Shipping Experience Report puts WISMO at 30 to 50% of ecommerce support volume. The range is wide because it follows your shipping: slow carriers and vague delivery windows push you to the top of it.

It's also expensive for what it is. A person handling a WISMO ticket costs somewhere between $5 and $15 depending on the channel, and calls sit at the top of that range. The same lookup done by software costs a few cents.

Why tracking links don't fix WISMO#

The usual fix is to send a tracking link and call the ticket deflected. We think that's the wrong goal.

A customer on day six of a three-day delivery has usually seen the tracking page already. It's said "in transit" since Tuesday. What they want to know is whether the parcel's lost, and whether it's too late to change or cancel the order.

A tracking link doesn't answer either question, so they ask again, often on a different channel, and now you've got two tickets. That's why we measure WISMO resolution instead: did the conversation end with the question settled, and no repeat contact in the next couple of days? Deflection only tells you the bot replied.

How Hay.chat handles WISMO#

Hay.chat connects to your store, so it checks the order itself instead of pointing at a page. With Shopify connected it looks the order up by number or email, reads the fulfilment and tracking status, and tells the customer what's going on.

Sometimes the right answer is a change to the order, and Hay.chat can make it within the rules you've set. It can update the address on an order that hasn't shipped yet, or cancel the order and issue the refund. The full list is on the actions page.

When it isn't sure (a parcel that's been stuck for two weeks, a customer who's clearly had enough), it hands the conversation to your team with the order details attached. Hay.chat scores its confidence in every reply. When the score's middling it looks for more information first, and when it's low (under 50% by default, and you can change that) it hands over instead of guessing.

Measuring WISMO properly#

Two numbers do most of the work. WISMO's share of your total volume tells you whether your shipping updates are doing their job. The share of WISMO conversations that end without a follow-up within 48 hours tells you whether the answers were any good.

If the share of volume is high, fix your notifications before you hire. If too many customers come back, whatever's answering them can't see enough of the order. Our guide to customer service KPIs covers where WISMO sits alongside the rest.