Customer support automation for a small team

Short answer: Customer support automation means the routine work, like first answers, reminders and follow-ups, runs on its own while your team handles the requests that need a person. Alori already automates a good part of it: a website chat bot, automatic tasks and automations you describe in plain words. Requests that need more than one reply become tickets, with an assignee and a response time per priority.

The problem: support work that never ends

In a small business, support is everyone's second job. The same person who books visits or ships the product also answers "where is my order?" and "how do I reset this?". The routine parts eat the day:

Answering the same five questions again.
Remembering to follow up when a customer goes quiet.
Telling the right teammate that a request came in.
Sending the weekly "here is what happened" summary to the owner.

Big helpdesks automate this with rules engines that take a consultant to set up. Most small teams never get there.

How support automation works in Alori today

1. A bot takes the first answer. Turn on the website chat in Front desk. The bot answers from your help center articles, price list, services and hours. When it cannot help, the chat goes under New messages in Conversations with the reason, and the bot's suggested answer waits in the reply box. See AI customer support bot.

2. Alori makes tasks for what slips. Automatic tasks watch for common gaps and close by themselves when the reason goes away. For example:

Website request: a task 2 hours after it came in, closed when someone writes to or calls the customer.
Message from an unknown sender: off at first, closed when the number gets a name or joins a customer.
Quote with no answer and Late invoice, for the money side of a customer relationship.

The owner can turn each rule on or off, set the delay and pick who gets it, in Settings › Automatic tasks.

3. You describe automations in plain words. Open your bot and say what should keep happening. The bot sets it up and turns it on. Ideas for support:

"Each time a text comes in from a customer, post it in our #support channel on Slack."
"Every Friday, send me a summary of the week."
"Remind me Friday at 3 to call Bob."

An automation can start when a customer, task, booking, text, email or call is added or changes status, on a schedule, or once at a set time. It can post in Slack or Discord, send a text or email, call someone, add a task or a note, call a webhook, wait, or run an AI step, up to 10 steps. Messages to customers wait for your yes first: the bot shows the exact words.

4. Drafts instead of blank pages. Turn on Draft my replies on your Email page, and Alori writes a reply to each email that needs one and leaves it in your Drafts.

5. Support emails answered too. Forward your support@ inbox to Alori. Each email opens a conversation, and the bot can answer it by email, or only suggest an answer for your team.

6. Customers rate you without you asking. After you close a conversation, Alori can email a one-click survey. Happy customers are asked for a Google review, and an unhappy answer makes a call-back task for whoever closed it.

Tickets for requests that take longer

File a ticket from a customer's conversation in one click. It gets a number, an assignee and a status, and moves through your team's steps on a list or a board. Each team sets a response time per priority, and a customer's ticket past its time turns red and counts on the menu. When the ticket moves to in progress, done or closed, Alori emails the customer. See ticket SLA tracking.

Everything in one app

Website chat bot with handoff, take over and chat ratings.
Help center with articles your bot answers from. See help center.
Shared inbox for texts, emails and website chats, one thread per customer.
Tickets with response times per priority.
Front desk › KPIs: how fast your team gives a first reply, and what the bot handled alone.
Automatic tasks and plain-language automations, including Slack and Discord posts.
AI-drafted email replies.
Unlimited users on every plan.

Who it is for

SaaS companies with a small team answering a growing customer base. See Alori for SaaS.
Managed IT providers that need every client request seen fast.
Service businesses where the office answers calls, texts and chats all day.

FAQ

Is there a ticketing system? Yes. Tickets with assignees, statuses and response times per priority are live, next to the chat bot, automatic tasks, automations and drafted replies. A ticket does not open by itself: you file it from the conversation.

Do I need to write rules or code? No. You tell your bot what to keep doing, in your own words, and it builds the automation. You can test it, pause it or delete it from the bot's page.

Will automations message my customers without asking? No. Before an automation sends anything to a customer, the bot shows you the exact words and waits for your yes.

Does automation use credits? AI steps, texts and calls use credits. Starting is free, no card needed. See pricing.