Case Study: Smoke Cartel cuts customer service response times 93% and launches 24/7 live chat with Shopify Plus

How Smoke Cartel Used Shopify Plus to Launch 24/7 Live Chat & Slash Customer Service Response Times 93%

Smoke Cartel, an online head shop selling glassware and accessories, faced a crisis during rapid growth and a warehouse move: customer service was down for days due to relocation, staffing churn, lack of internet, and a site error that stopped order confirmations. Backlogs swelled to over 800 emails, chargebacks and refunds spiked, and average response times stretched beyond two days, threatening the company’s future.

Smoke Cartel implemented 24/7 live chat via Smooch.io integrated with its Shopify Plus stack, a custom dashboard and a Chrome plugin to give agents real-time order and shipping visibility. The change cut average response time by 93% (from two days to about one hour), resolved 30% of inquiries in under 15 minutes, lifted customer satisfaction 11% while handling a 58% increase in inquiries, and improved team morale and analytics-driven decision making.

Smokecartel

Darby Cox

Co-Founder