Unify your data
Start early
Offer self-service options
Train your AI agents
Go omnichannel
Scale during peak periods
Build your team
Measure KPIs

1. Set a strong data foundation

According to our state of customer service research, 67% of most customer service teams use 1–7 technology tools to power their operations, and 33% use 8 or more. Customer service tech stacks tend to include:

• CRMs: 62%
• Social media management tools: 54%
• Live chat capabilities: 46%
• Shared inboxes: 46%
• AI agents and assistants: 45%
• Self-service knowledge bases: 36%

Our research also found that 67% of companies plan to increase their technology budgets in 2026. But considering only about a third of customer service teams (36%) are “very satisfied” with their tech stacks, the state of customer service tech may be a question of quality vs. quantity. 

Unlike more tools, which tend to require more money, good customer service doesn’t necessarily require a higher budget. It requires unified data and a streamlined, consolidated tech stack so that your strategy is always data-informed.

Unifying marketing and service data and functionality in a single source of truth means you can enrich every marketing message and customer touchpoint with relevant information that makes people feel seen. Any B2C customer service stack, then, should contain the following:

• CRM with a built-in customer data platform (CDP): collects, unifies, and stores customer data from multiple sources and makes it available for manipulation and distribution to systems of insight and activation channels
• Personalization engines: analyze data and provide valuable customer insights
• Omnichannel marketing automation tools: allow you to coordinate and automate mobile, web, brand app, email, text messaging, WhatsApp, and more communications from one place
• AI-powered helpdesk: streamlines customer inquiries across all channels into a single unified inbox for customer service management
• Self-service customer hub: empowers customers to manage their orders, returns, and support from one on-site account
• AI customer agent: answers questions, recommends products, and resolves issues instantly while adapting to buyer behavior in real time 

Above all, choose technology that will scale with your business. B2C businesses have high-volume, short sales cycles, and your tech stack should be able to handle tens of thousands, or even millions, of transactions and customer profiles.so gained the ability to build better automated review flows and improve customer segmentation.

2. Remember service starts early, from the first interaction

Imagine a customer orders a sweatshirt but receives the wrong size. Frustrated, they reach out to customer service for a resolution—only to receive an email promoting matching sweatpants. The disconnect is both glaring and damaging.

The traditional view of support as something that starts after a purchase is outdated. In B2C, service isn’t just about solving problems. It’s about creating an exceptional experience from the very first moment a customer engages with your brand—and that requires a unified data foundation that makes it possible to deliver personalized experiences not just in marketing or in customer service, but across the entire customer journey.

According to our state of customer service research, 76% of service leaders say their teams have access to high-quality data for personalized interactions. But 23% predict service will become even more personalized through better data and technology integration in the next 2–3 years.

Pre-purchase, integrated service and marketing data empowers you to help customers make better decisions, proactively address issues before they occur, and ultimately drive conversions. That means investing in:

• Product pages with details and FAQs about product features that pre-empt common sales objections or customer service inquiries
• An AI customer agent that answers common customer questions via web chat, text messaging, and other channels, 24/7
• A self-service hub where customers can access information on returns, shipping, and other store policies
• Reviews and feedback that showcase real customers’ experiences

Service interactions can also turn into new sales opportunities. You might, for example:

• Trigger a follow-up flow offering a free gift or discount after a customer initiates a return through your AI customer agent.
• Pause marketing campaigns for customers who have open support tickets, reducing the likelihood that they’ll unsubscribe from your lists and maintaining a connection with them for future promotional efforts.
• Include personalized product recommendations in the same self-service hub where customers sign in to track order information and initiate returns.

Intimates brand Thirdlove, for example, displays individualized “For You” pages in their self-service customer hub, where customers can also track and redeem loyalty points. In 2025, the customer hub drove over $200,000 in revenue for Thirdlove.

3. Treat self-service as the default customer experience

According to Microsoft, 90% of customers prefer to self-serve. And 62% of consumers would prefer to shop with AI that remembers their purchase history over explaining their preferences to sales associates, according to Klaviyo’s 2025 BFCM forecast.

A reactive approach to customer service won’t keep pace with these expectations. But our state of customer service research reveals that there’s plenty of opportunity for customer service teams to expand more into self-service in 2026:

To keep pace with consumer demands around self-service, make sure your brand invests in these essential self-service components in 2026:

• Knowledge base and FAQ: YouTube videos, blog content, usage instructions, and other informative resources that are easily accessible to customers
• Order tracking and management: a signed-in customer experience where customers can find full order history and offers
• Return initiation and processing: a signed-in customer experience where customers can initiate returns with a single click from their accounts
• Subscription management: a signed-in customer experience where customers can modify their recurring subscriptions
• Data-based experiences: recommendations, special discounts, replenishment reminders, dynamic on-site content, and loyalty program reminders, all based on browsing and purchase history

These self-service resources deflect common and repetitive requests, freeing up time for team members to focus on high-complexity scenarios. Home fragrance brand Happy Wax, for example, reduced order tracking tickets by 75% after implementing a self-service customer hub. Self-service is “now a central part of our customer retention strategy,” says Rachel Fagan, VP of marketing at Happy Wax.

But self-service has the potential to improve more than just team efficiencies. It can also directly increase revenue. Happy Wax, for example, saw a 5% boost in average order value (AOV) after adopting their self-service customer hub. Apparel brand Ministry of Supply, similarly, uses their hub to surface product recommendations that boost cross-selling, helping them lift a north star metric: revenue per session.

For Aman Advani, CEO of Ministry of Supply, the self-service hub represents “what we think of as the future of shopping—a very curated one-to-one experience, unlike traditional ecomm, which is one-to-many. It’s not just our customer service tool—it’s one-to-one access to Ministry of Supply. That’s really powerful.”

4. Train AI agents on storefront and customer marketing data

AI agents have been part of a standard B2C customer service strategy for some time: nearly a third of customer service teams have partially implemented AI, and a fifth have fully implemented it, according to our state of customer service research. And 63% of teams that AI has already improved quality and efficiency.

But traditional AI chatbots are siloed away from storefront and customer marketing data, which means they’re not operating at their full potential. When AI customer agents are instead trained on product and customer data, they’re in a much better position to start generating sales while serving customers more effectively. 

Let’s say someone places an item in their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. A properly trained AI customer agent can proactively offer answers to common questions about the product, so the customer feels more confident about a purchase—and your service team has more time to focus on the kinds of complex customer needs that demand human attention.

Here are just a few of the outcomes you can expect when your AI customer agent is trained on all your data:

• Faster, higher-quality responses: AI customer agents can answer questions in real time about sizing, product materials, and more, because they’re trained on your product catalog and help docs.
• Personalized product recommendations: AI customer agents can recommend products as a chat is happening based on a customer’s past orders and buying intent.
• Smoother escalation: Data-informed AI customer agents can escalate more complex queries to a live agent with complete conversational context.
• Proactive engagement: When a customer is showing high buying intent on your website, an AI customer agent can proactively offer support and help guide a purchase.
• Post-purchase support: An AI customer agent doesn’t disappear after check-out. If a customer needs to track their order, modify a subscription, or initiate a return, the AI agent can solve the problem automatically.

Just 90 days after Happy Wax enabled an AI customer agent, over half of conversations handled by the agent were fully resolved without any service team involvement. “Customers get instant answers, and our team gains bandwidth for high-touch moments,” Fagan says. “That’s setting us up for success.” a more accurate view of their marketing impact.

5. Create a seamless omnichannel service experience

Buyer attention is more fragmented than ever. Our future of consumer marketing report found that:

• 29% of consumers discover new retail or ecommerce brands through organic social media.
• 23% find brands through the web.
• 15% prefer in-person browsing.
• 10% rely on recommendations from social media influencers.
• 7% prefer traditional advertising.
• 6% rely on online marketplaces.
• 5% lean on word-of-mouth recommendations.

Things are no different when it comes time to make a purchase:

• 53% of consumers shop with their favorite brands on mobile websites.
• 40% prefer desktop websites.
• 33% shop from marketplaces.
• 29% prefer brand mobile apps.

The takeaway is that your customer service strategy needs to meet customers where they are—on multiple channels, with full context about who they are and how they interact with your brand. 

On the back end, you can deliver this experience with an AI-powered helpdesk that keeps every customer conversation—from email, text messaging, web chat, WhatsApp, and even social—in one place. Whereas the customer experiences your service as consistent and personalized across multiple channels, your AI and live agents are accessing all those interactions through a single inbox.

That means no more toggling between tools for complete customer context. It’s all there in one place, along with a customer’s complete profile containing data on purchase history, engagement, preferences, and more. Your agents can solve problems faster because they’re more informed, and your customers spend less time waiting and repeating themselves. and texts proved effective for Laura Geller, boosting revenue and profitability.

6. Scale customer service for high-volume peak periods

Seasonal ticket volume during times like Black Friday Cyber Monday tests even the most solid customer service strategy. According to our state of customer service research, managing high-inquiry volume during these peak periods is the single top challenge for customer service teams.

Teams are divided on the best approach during high-demand times: while 25% focus on handling high-inquiry volumes by expanding staff and automation, another 25% focus on maintaining quality and consistency, even if response times slow down. 

Here are a few ways your customer service team can prepare for high-volume periods:

• Know when to prioritize speed vs. quality. Prioritize speed for simple, transactional inquiries like order status, tracking, and returns, or channels like chat and social media, where customers expect immediate responses. Prioritize quality for complex issues requiring investigation or escalation, high-value customers and at-risk accounts, and sensitive situations that require empathy and judgment.
• Ramp up automation and self-service. Before the rush comes, expand your knowledge base with answers to questions you know customers will ask. Train your AI customer agent to handle the most common inquiries, and create templated responses for your team to customize quickly in conversations.
• Communicate proactively: Get ahead of customer inquiries early by sending messages about shipping deadlines, potential delays, or policy changes before they have to ask.
• Forecast volume based on historical trends. Look at data from previous peak periods to predict when customer service ticket volume will surge. Break it down by channel (email, text, chat) and inquiry type (order status, returns, product questions) so you know where to allocate resources.
• Adjust staffing and scheduling. Bring in temporary staff or cross-train employees to handle the surge. Schedule your most experienced customer service agents during predicted peak hours. If you work with global teams, take advantage of the time differences to extend coverage hours.

7. Build out your customer service team structure

On that note, the best customer service strategy in the world is nothing without the right team. According to our state of customer service research, people are a priority: 42% of companies plan to invest in better agent training, onboarding, and productivity tools in the next year.

While the exact roles you hire for will depend on your brand’s needs, here are some of the main functions that a modern B2C service team handles:

• Frontline support focuses on general customer issues and manages incoming tickets, escalating when necessary.
• Support specialists handle more complex customer issues and often specialize in a particular area or product.
• Enablement supports the service team by creating knowledge bases, FAQs, and training on new products.
• Voice of the customer represents the customer’s perspective by gathering customer insights through user interviews, focus groups, and data analysis.
• The chief customer officer, also known as the “chief experience officer,” owns customer experience strategy. At some organizations, this executive oversees just customer service; at others, they oversee marketing, sales, and service.
• Lifecycle marketers follow the customer through their journey and collaborate with customer service teams to ensure that customers receive the right messaging and marketing.

Prioritize hiring for patience, exceptional communication skills, and adaptability. Every conversation is different, and B2C service teams work in a high-volume environment. Because there’s so much overlap between service interactions and sales opportunities, training protocols should blend both disciplines.

Your customers expect your team members (including customer-facing marketers) to know who they are, what they’ve purchased, and their history of interactions with your brand. To set your team members up for success, make sure they have access to a unified inbox and unified customer profiles.

As with your broader customer experience strategy, create performance metrics for your service teams that reflect revenue objectives.

8. Measure KPIs for customer service effectiveness

On that note: conventional KPIs like ticket volume and time to resolution don’t capture true customer service impact. And according to our state of customer service research, only 31% of companies strongly agree they have clear metrics that accurately measure service performance and impact.

Rethink your metrics to measure your customer service program’s successes (or shortcomings) based on operational metrics like:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT): a score that represents how satisfied customers are with each service interaction
• Net promoter score (NPS): a close cousin of CSAT that asks how likely buyers are to recommend your business to someone else
• Customer effort score: how easy or difficult it is for customers to resolve their issues
• First response time: how long it takes for a support agent to respond to an incoming customer request (measure overall or by channel for more granular insights)
• Average handle time: tracks the time an agent actively spends working on a ticket, including interactions and follow-up work
• Resolution time: how long it takes your service team to close out a customer ticket, from when the ticket is opened to when it’s fully resolved, including any wait time or follow-ups
• Ticket reopens: how many times a ticket is reopened by a support agent, indicating that the first attempt to solve a customer problem was unsuccessful
• Ticket volume: how many tickets your service team closes within a given window of time

You should also track revenue-focused metrics that show how your service program impacts your business’ bottom line:

• Churn: how many people stop being customers during a set period of time that reflects customer behavior (for example, if your average customer purchases 4x a year, measure churn on a quarterly basis)
• Retention: how many customers stay with your company over a set period of time
• AOV: how much money customers spend in an average order
• Customer lifetime value: the total revenue you can expect from a customer over their entire journey with your brand
• Up-sell/cross-sell: the percentage of orders that include an up- or cross-sell, typically recommended via on-site blocks

Benchmark your goals against other companies in your industry and of a similar size to understand how you measure up against your peers.

To isolate the impact of service on these metrics, run correlations using proxy metrics (i.e., low CSAT vs. high CSAT, logged-in customers vs. guest check-outs). Whatever metric you choose, make sure it separates customers who have benefited from your service program from those who haven’t.

The road to customer service excellence starts here

Implementing all these strategies may seem daunting, but you don’t have to do it all at once. First, audit your service program to identify areas that need improvement or do not currently exist. Then, categorize these initiatives into short, medium, and long-term:

• Short-term: Prioritize low-effort, high-impact changes as quick wins.
• Medium-term: Make structural changes to your service program, such as setting up the infrastructure for better data analysis or   introducing new KPIs.
• Long-term: Pursue strategic initiatives that will set you up for success, such as unifying your customer data on a single platform or  hiring for new roles.

Finally, make a week-by-week implementation plan, assign roles and responsibilities to your core project team, and identify key decision makers for each initiative. These strategies will transform your customer service program from a reactive, ad-hoc function to a proactive, deliberate growth driver. And it all starts with unifying your data on a single platform.

Klaviyo B2C CRM was designed to deliver personalized experiences at scale, so you can create memorable customer experiences by the thousands or millions. Create the ultimate customer experience with the complete Klaviyo Service suite, which includes:

• Customer Hub: a personalized destination where customers can manage orders, redeem offers, discover products, and get support—all in one place
• K:AI Customer Agent: a 24/7 AI assistant that’s trained on your storefront and customer data to answer questions, recommend products, and resolve issues instantly, across web chat, email, text messaging, and WhatsApp*

Helpdesk: brings AI and human agents into a unified workspace across email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and social, providing full customer context for faster response times and more personalized interactions**

*K:AI Customer Agent is currently available in English. Additional languages will be available in 2026.
**Klaviyo Helpdesk supports two-way conversations in any language, as long as both the customer and agent use the same language. Klaviyo does not translate messages between languages. The Helpdesk interface will appear in the language you’ve selected in your Klaviyo account settings.