How RaceTI Slashed Time Spent on Customer Messaging in Half

RaceTI Company Profile

• Selling on:  RaceTI Website (WooCommerce), eBay, (Formerly Sold on Amazon)
• Annual sales: £400K
• Previous helpdesk: None
• Messages per month: Around 600
• Support team: 1

To say that customer messaging keeps eCommerce sellers busy would be a massive understatement. And along with tending to shoppers’ questions and needs, company runners must also stay on top of inventory, fulfilment, requirements from various selling channels and a laundry list of other responsibilities. 

RaceTI founder and owner Rauf Baig knows these facts all too well. As the sole proprietor of a fast-growing eCommerce business, Baig single-handedly maintains every facet of his company (along with one other person who handles order packing). So when he said that he only spends around 1 hour per day on customer messaging, despite receiving approximately 600 messages per month, our interest was certainly piqued. 

How does he keep up with all of those customer inquiries alone? And how in the world does he manage to do so with such expediency? We learned the answers to those questions and much more in an illuminating interview. Keep reading to explore the story behind the RaceTI founder’s success, time-saving techniques and tips for other sellers… 

What Is RaceTI & How Did It Get Started?

RaceTI is pronounced “Race” followed by the letter “T” and the letter “I.” The “TI” in the name stands for titanium, as RaceTI sells titanium fasteners for use in motorsports and cycling. 

The reason behind the company’s inception will sound quite familiar and relatable to many eCommerce pros. According to Baig, he began his online business because he simply wasn’t making as much money as he would have liked in his previous career (teaching). So, with an investment of only £500, he started RaceTI in 2015. 

“Quite simply, I was working as a teacher and I didn’t have enough money. So, I started this business with an investment of £500.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

While growth was slow at first, sales really began to take off approximately two years ago and Baig left his teaching position to focus on RaceTI full-time. Today, the company’s annual revenue is around £400K. 

Cutting Time Spent on Customer Messaging in Half

As we stated earlier, Baig told us that he had recently slashed time spent on customer service in half — down to around 1 hour per day (or 1.5 hours tops during busier times). And the way he’s done so will likely serve as a sort of “aha moment” for many sellers. That’s because he’s using a handful of simple yet highly effective tools to really streamline his entire approach. Here’s how… 

To stay on top of RaceTI’s customer messaging, Baig uses Replyco helpdesk software for eCommerce. Prior to subscribing to the software, he says he was spending somewhere around 2 hours (or sometimes a bit more) on customer support. But after joining, Baig quickly discovered a few great tools that now help him save loads of time. 

“Now I’m spending around 1 hour per day (and then sometimes a half hour later on) handling customer messages. But before joining Replyco, I was spending more like 2 hours a day and then maybe 30 to 45 minutes later on to clear everything.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Templates

When you run a business that sells highly technical products (such as titanium fasteners in all types and sizes), you are sure to receive the same questions over and over. As someone with an educational background in engineering, the answers to these questions seem quite simple to Baig, but for customers who may not have a technical or professional mechanical background, the options and specs can be overwhelming. 

Prior to becoming a Replyco user, Baig was manually typing out the answers to the same basic questions over and over again every day. But now, he’s able to create message templates for these FAQs and simply drop in the correct response whenever a customer asks about a certain item. 

“Even though I’ve tried to include detailed product information in the listings, and on photographs and diagrams and so forth, I still get the same questions every day. So being able to use message templates for answering these frequently asked questions has saved me loads of time and effort.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Attachments in Templates

Baig has also used templates to include attachments of images (such as a screenshot that explains eBay combined shipping) to better respond to commonly asked questions without having to manually create the same reply multiple times. 

“A Lot of the questions I receive are specifically about combined shipping. It used to be difficult to explain how to do combined shipping for my customers on eBay. But now I’ve included a screenshot that’s permanently attached to that template, and it’s really helpful. Before, I just had a standard answer that I put out. But this one generates a lot fewer second questions.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Clickable Order, Customer, Tracking & Item Numbers

Next up, having access to clickable data within all customer messaging has been massively convenient for Baig. With Replyco, he can click on any order, customer, tracking or item number and immediately see all the details he needs to know when he receives a message. 

Again, prior to Replyco, he would often receive messages from customers (especially on eBay) who didn’t reference the exact item they were asking about. So he would have to search back through transactions or conduct additional research to make sure he provided a relevant response. 

But now, whenever a customer messages him, Replyco pulls in everything having to do with their order. Baig can click on the customer, order number, tracking number, item number and other facets to get the full picture. Everything is right at his fingertips, which leads to saved time and effort on every interaction. 

“Typically, people respond with a new message on eBay, and it doesn’t necessarily relate to the product they’ve purchased. But with Replyco, when I get a message from a customer, the eBay order number is right there, which means I can find the info I need easily.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Translation Tools

Finally, outside of Great Britain, RaceTI’s two other largest markets are in Italy and Germany. For Baig, this always meant copying and pasting non-English-speaking customers’ messages into Google in an attempt to translate them. He would then type his own response into Google (a word or two at a time) to try to formulate an appropriate response. 

But this headache is a thing of the past now that he’s a Replyco user. Replyco’s translation functionality automatically translates both his customers’ messages as well as his own replies. Obviously, this not only saves Baig time and effort, but also reduces the risk of his customer service suffering due to any sort of manual translation error. 

“With Replyco, I can translate the message immediately and then send a correctly translated response. Before, what I was doing was copying the message and pasting it into Google Translate, reading it and then creating an answer and pasting it back into eBay. So it was quite a tedious process. So in particular, Replyco saves a lot of time there.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Why Did Baig Choose Replyco & What Was Onboarding Like? 

We were thrilled to hear that Baig has had so much success using Replyco’s tools, but we also wanted to know: what made him choose Replyco and how was the onboarding process? 

According to Baig, the primary reason he went with Replyco was cost effectiveness. He said that while other softwares charged per user (and seemed to be more geared toward larger companies with lots of users), Replyco made a lot of sense for a sole proprietorship such as his — while also being well-equipped to continue supporting him as he grows. 

And when it came to onboarding? Baig said the process was quick and easy. Upon first reaching out about starting his 7-day free trial, Baig received a call from Replyco director of customer success Alex. He was then told that his account would be up and running by the next day, and sure enough, it was! Alex walked him through setting things up for his different integrations (such as eBay) and Baig was actively using Replyco to stay on top of RaceTI’s customer service within 1 day. 

Baig even shared a story in which he experienced a glitch with one of the templates. But he says not only did Replyco’s customer service team (and in particular, his account manager Anna) take care of him quickly, but that it was the first time he can recall a software company ever tending to an issue on his behalf. 

“There was a bit of a glitch with one of Replyco’s templates. And as far as I can see, this is the first time a software company has actually tended to a glitch on my behalf and solved it. That really impressed me.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

Making More Money While Improving Customer Messaging

In addition to saving time, Baig says he has also been able to make more money as the result of joining Replyco. That’s because, in his industry, one of the biggest challenges is having enough of the right stock on hand to keep up with demand. 

As Baig explained, any given bolt is available in a wide variety of sizes and styles. And RaceTI needs to make sure they have all options available to their customers. This type of stock can get quite expensive, and then there’s the need to have enough time to acquire and list the inventory. 

But Baig says the time he’s saved thanks to Replyco has enabled him to allocate more of his time to focusing on RaceTI’s inventory needs. 

“I’m making extra money because Replyco liberates the other parts of my day to add new products, so the value for money is indisputable for me.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

RaceTI Success Story: Final Thoughts

Saving time on customer messaging isn’t just about making more money and growing your business as an eCommerce seller. It’s also about freeing up your off-hours to enjoy some relaxation, spend time with loved ones or even go on vacation / holiday. After all, work / life balance is crucial to both your success and your own happiness.

For Rauf Baig, this balance often comes in the form of taking a skiing holiday. And he says Replyco has helped him enjoy these trips even more.

“When I’m on holiday, I continue running the business when I’m skiing. That means I need to get all messages cleared by 8am. Before Replyco, that time spent on customer service was stretching into more than 2 hours. But now that I can get that time down, I can get on the slopes before the first lift.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

And would he recommend Replyco? Baig says yes, definitely. 

“I know I’ve already said I’m saving an hour or more per day, but it feels like even more than that. Because now when I sit down to go through messages, it doesn’t feel like I have this massive bunch to wade through.”
– Rauf Baig, RaceTI Founder / Owner

To learn more about the titanium bolts, fasteners and other products RaceTI has to offer, visit the company website. Or check them out on eBay here. 

If you’re ready to save loads of time on your own customer messaging, start your 7-day free trial with Replyco today!

You can also visit our features and pricing pages to explore Replyco’s tools and discover the surprising affordability of our helpdesk software.

And as always, happy selling!