How Rinkit Crushes Customer Support Goals

Rinkit Company Profile

• Selling on: Amazon (UK & Worldwide), Rinkit.com, eBay, Etsy, Others
• Annual sales: Using these platforms has helped us to become a multi-million pound company
• Previous helpdesk: eDesk
• Messages per month: 20,000
• Support team: 10

Sales throughout the eCommerce industry have absolutely exploded in recent years. That means sellers are inundated by customer messages. Not only that, but keeping up with those enquiries is more important now than ever before in order to handle the rush and remain competitive.

Few companies know these facts better than Rinkit. Responding to approximately 20,000 messages per month, the online homeware seller fully understands both how important and how complicated great customer support can be. 

That’s why we were thrilled to sit down with Rinkit customer service manager Danielle Andrews to learn more about the online shop’s approach to messaging. Keep reading to discover the story behind this multi-million pound company, including how Rinkit uses Replyco to keep customer support on point.

About Rinkit

Rinkit was founded in 2008 as Sussex Supplies. The company began with its wildly popular “Rink Drink” gin glasses, but quickly grew to include a wide range of homewares, crafting supplies, and more. 

In addition to supplying customers with high-quality products at great prices, Rinkit also provides top-notch items for businesses, including:

• Scoops for sweet shops. 
• Glasses for restaurants and bars.
• Sun loungers to hotels.

According to Andrews: 

“We want to source high quality products from around the world. And we’ve sold these products since 2008, delighting our customers across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world. Our customer satisfaction scores continue today at 99.8% and above. And that’s really important to us. We’re committed to sourcing stylish and dependable products that offer a great value for the money and helping our customers transform their houses into homes.”

“Our customer satisfaction scores continue today at 99.8% and above.”
– Danielle Andrews, Rinkit Customer Service Manager

Switching from eDesk to Replyco

Obviously, a big part of providing such amazing service is keeping up with customer inquiries. When asked about Rinkit’s top challenges when it comes to customer support, Andrews said: 

“Since the start of the pandemic, online sales went through the roof. What we learned was that, along with the  increased number of customer inquiries, it was really important to see all of the contacts in one place so that we could determine the best response in the quickest number of emails.” 

Andrews says her team does this by utilising helpdesk software in order to centralise, organise and assign messages. Prior to switching to Replyco, Rinkit was using eDesk, but they were not satisfied that they were getting good value for the money.  

At this point, a colleague and friend told Andrews about Replyco, and even shared a short demo video with her. Upon looking into the helpdesk herself, she felt it offered great value for the money, as well as impressive support along with the features her team needed.

“It’s really important to see all of the contacts in one place so that we could determine the best response in the quickest number of emails.”
– Danielle Andrews, Rinkit Customer Service Manager

Great Onboarding + Amazing Customer Support

So how was onboarding with Replyco? Andrews says the process was seamless and a very positive experience from start to finish. 

According to Andrews:

“The onboarding and sales teams were incredibly knowledgeable and helped us to make any necessary changes as quickly as possible. They also did a lot of the harder bits for us, such as making sure the integrations were set up properly, and even created labels so we could easily see the reasons customers were contacting us.” 

“Being able to actually get in touch with someone if something’s not quite right is absolutely fantastic. ”
– Danielle Andrews, Rinkit Customer Service Manager

Andrews went on to say: 

“Starting with a new team and a new journey can be quite daunting, especially understanding how things work and how to make things happen. But the Replyco team was amazing in sending videos with examples on how to do things, hopping on Zoom calls and Google Meet catch ups with us, and even inviting feedback on how they could improve things. They just have a service that’s so adaptable and so flexible, which has just been fantastic for us.” 

We also wanted to know how the Rinkit team believes Replyco differs from their previous helpdesk provider. According to Andrews, Replyco’s customer support and development speed / flexibility make all the difference.

“I would say that the support is there pretty much all hours. Being able to actually get in touch with someone if something’s not quite right is absolutely fantastic. And like I said before, the fact that processes can be changed so quickly. If you make a suggestion, all you need to do is add this to the Roadmap and once it gets top votes, it gets added to the list to be done.” 

The Right Tools Make All the Difference

Rinkit at the Sussex Business Awards. Picture by Simon Callaghan Photography. Source: Littlehampton Gazette.

Going beyond onboarding, we were curious about what features and tools the Rinkit team uses the most to provide such a high level of customer support. 

“The label feature has been amazing. Being able to add labels so that when you’re going through the inbox and assigning tickets, it makes things so much easier. Especially if you’re trying to encourage someone into a specialisation in that service,” explains Andrews. “Being able to see which country our customers are contacting us from has been really, really good. We have some multi-language speakers on our team, so it helps to be able to see that up front.”

Andrews goes on to share that the reporting features and ticket assignments  are very easy things to do and are continually being worked on by the Replyco development team, which she loves. 

“Replyco makes sure that our team members are reaching their targets consistently.”
– Danielle Andrews, Rinkit Customer Service Manager

“Replyco makes sure that our team members are reaching their targets consistently. Not only that, you can run a report for the number of customer messages that have been sent to us over a certain time period. This helps us to understand just how many emails are required to resolve issues for that many customers.”

Final Thoughts

Finally, we asked Andrews for her last bit of advice for eCommerce sellers who might be struggling to keep up with customer messages. She said: 

“Ultimately, I just want to say that having a centralised mailbox is the most simple and effective way to respond to customers efficiently and in order of the time received. If you are a multi-channel seller and you’re just starting out, I can highly recommend Replyco for all of your customer service needs. I also highly recommend their reporting features, because they give you the insights that you otherwise wouldn’t have on those multi-channels.” 

“I can highly recommend Replyco for all of your customer service needs.”
– Danielle Andrews, Rinkit Customer Service Manager

Want to learn more about Rinkit’s wide selection of top-quality items at fair prices? Visit their website today. 

Ready to reduce time and effort spent on customer messaging while delighting shoppers? Start your free Replyco trial today!