Customer Service on WeChat, A Practical Playbook

1. Set up your inbox and roles

Decide where messages land and who owns them. For most brands, a Service account with a clear menu and a shared agent inbox is enough. If you use a Mini Program, enable in-app customer service so users can chat from order pages. Define roles, first response, escalation owner, and an ops reviewer who audits conversations weekly.

2. SLA targets that are realistic

• First response, under 5 minutes during business hours, under 30 minutes off-hours with an auto-reply that sets expectations.
• Resolution, 1 business day for standard questions, 3 for cases needing logistics or partner input.
• Handover, internal escalation within 30 minutes when an agent cannot solve it.

3. Auto-replies, menus, and quick actions

Use the welcome auto-reply to offer the top three actions, track order, product FAQs, and human support. Keep the main menu tight, order lookup, coupons or membership, contact support. If you run weekly promos, add a temporary menu item and remove it when done to avoid clutter.

4. Smart routing and tags

• Create queues by topic, pre-sales, order issues, returns, tech.
• Tag every thread once resolved, it powers your reports and product feedback. Keep the tag list short.
• For VIPs or high-value orders, route to a senior agent with a shorter SLA.

5. Macros, snippets, and translations

Prepare short, friendly macros for common questions, shipping times, size guide, warranty, and payment steps. Keep them bilingual when needed. Snippets should be 2–4 sentences, with a link or menu path, and a simple question at the end to confirm the issue is solved.

6. After-sales, refunds, and repairs

• Show a clear path in the menu for returns or support tickets.
• Automate status updates, received, reviewed, approved, refunded or repaired and shipped.
• When refunding, tell users when funds appear in WeChat Pay and how to view the record.
• For hardware, collect photos and a short video up front to cut back-and-forth.

7. Build a lightweight knowledge base

Start with the top 20 repetitive questions and write one-page answers with steps, screenshots if useful, and the exact menu path. Link those answers inside macros and auto-replies so agents and customers stay consistent.

8. Human + bot, a hybrid approach

Use a bot for simple lookups and FAQs, order status, store hours, coupon rules. Hand off to a human quickly on intent words like refund, angry, or cancel. Always show how to reach a person so users never feel trapped.

9. Reporting that drives improvements

• Speed, first response and full resolution times.
• Quality, solved on first reply, re-open rate, short CSAT pulse after resolution.
• Volume by tag, surface product defects or confusing policies to the team that can fix them.

10. Launch checklist