DealDash is the longest running pay-to-bid auction site, helping millions of customers save money on their favorite brands since 2009. By partnering closely with manufacturers, DealDash makes “deals come true” by facilitating the movement of excess inventory and passing significant savings of 90% or more onto their extremely satisfied bidders.
Driven by an unwavering commitment to putting customers first, every member of the team — from frontline staff to the CEO — engages directly with customers each week. An invaluable tool for growth, this allows DealDash to listen to their customers’ needs and preferences, fostering a culture of understanding that translates into a better product. And it shows: 87% of their sales are from repeat customers.
Dealdash’s Head of Customer Support (CS), Mary Ochs, put it best when she said, “Our ultimate goal is to provide the best customer support in the world.” While already renowned for its world-class customer support, DealDash was looking to implement innovative projects to further elevate their customer experience. Enter Front: the solution that empowered DealDash to seamlessly execute these enhancements, building upon their already exemplary customer support foundation.
We pride ourselves on having the best customer support team in the world, so we needed a solution that could match that level of excellence. The answer was Front.
Challenges
Limited data hinders improvement and innovation
To deliver exceptional customer support, Mary and her team wanted to improve communication, response times, and workflow efficiency. Since being data-driven is a core DealDash value, they sought a customer service platform that could provide a comprehensive view of customer needs, goal fulfillment, and areas for improvement, something that Front was able to provide with minimal setup, and made the transition to Front seamless and immediately beneficial for their team.
Inefficient internal communication prevents transparency
Another area of focus for DealDash is communication, both within the CS team and across the company. Previously, customer conversations were largely siloed to DealDash’s Customer Support Team. This limited visibility at times resulted in inefficient back-and-forth between teams, or caused a lack of full context for customer feedback and experiences. Consequently, this was hindering effectively addressing common pain points and prioritizing product improvements.
“We have the best customer support team in the world, so why don’t we find the best service platform in the world?” asked CEO Mark Streich. The team was inspired to seek a platform that could unlock their full potential.
With Front, you don’t need to compromise: Our team adapted quickly to the intuitive interface, minimizing disruption to our team and customer support during the transition. It also opened up possibilities that other tools don’t provide.
Solutions
A shared inbox ensures nothing falls through the cracks
Any time a customer request comes in, it’s immediately visible in DealDash’s shared Front inbox, then automatically merged. In their previous platform, they manually categorized tickets from the same customer or issue, stealing valuable time from agents who could be helping customers. “Front’s automatic merging feature has largely eliminated this need, freeing up our team to focus on providing top-notch support,” Mary says.
If it’s a straightforward question, they can respond immediately with customized templates or macros. However, they never prioritize speed over quality, and often need to follow up with other teams. For example, a customer asking about product details might prompt the agent to double check with the procurement team, who then contacts a vendor for precise specifications. Front’s interface allows CS to properly document these interactions, and integrations enable external teams to post responses instantaneously in the Front ticket. When new information comes in, the ticket automatically reopens, prompting Mary’s team to circle back with the customer. This ensures faster follow-ups and prevents anything from falling through the cracks.
“With Front, we can manage all our communications in a centralized and efficient way,” Mary says. “Our shared inboxes allow us to respond to customers as quickly as possible.”
Collaborating in real time to provide the best answers
Another one of DealDash’s core values is ownership. Everyone on CS can handle about 99.6% of cases they encounter. But Mary’s team often says that they’re smarter together — and they’ve been able to take that to a new level with Front. “The different collaboration features in Front allow us to quickly bring in expertise from different team members without having to switch platforms,” she says.
The comment feature has been particularly useful for internal discussions about complex cases. They can have detailed conversations about how to best resolve an issue without cluttering the customer-facing communication, ensuring customers only see clear, consistent answers — even when multiple team members have contributed to the solution. When dealing with particularly challenging or sensitive issues, team members can draft responses and share them for review before sending.
“Front has enabled us to create a truly collaborative customer service environment, and ensure that every customer benefits from the collective expertise of our entire team,” says Mary. In Front, teammates from other departments can see full context and offer help without having to be onboarded into the platform.
“And it goes both ways: If another team requires customer support to take action or proactively reach out to customers, the integrations in Front allow us to do that faster and more efficiently.” This allows for efficient collaboration across departments, speeding up resolution times and ensuring alignment on customer needs.
Front helps us maintain a delicate balance between speed and quality in our customer interactions. It empowers our team to work efficiently, collaborate seamlessly, and consistently deliver the exceptional service for which DealDash is known.
Enabling more informed, data-driven decisions
With Front analytics, DealDash now has insights into new conversation counts, average first response times, general resolution times, busiest times, Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT), and more. They carefully review every conversation with a low CSAT, and give shoutouts for high CSATs. In weekly company meetings, they highlight at least one notably positive customer interaction to inspire and motivate all departments.
Mary also stresses the value of stepping back for the big-picture view. For example, if 10 agents are getting the same inquiry 10 different times, that’s worth investigating to see if there’s a bigger issue they can fix upstream. “The ability to centralize customer data and easily access metrics in Front has been a game-changer,” she says.
Results
Using AI to respond twice as fast and exceed 90%+ CSAT
While most industry standards aim for a 24-hour email first response time, DealDash already had a lightning-fast average of mere minutes. “With Front, we’ve managed to respond twice as fast,” says Mary. Part of this is due to a thoughtful implementation of Front’s AI features. For example, when a customer calls or initiates a live chat about a complex issue, they can use the Front AI summarize feature to grasp the essentials much faster than before. “This means we can avoid putting customers on hold while an agent reviews a lengthy conversation history,” says Mary. “Instead, we provide more immediate resolutions, which aligns perfectly with our commitment to high-quality and efficient customer service.”
When it comes to their CSAT, DealDash is comfortably exceeding their historic average of 90% with Front. “Front gives the team the bandwidth to really go above and beyond and provide that personalized touch,” says Mary. For example, they can note and recognize customer birthdays, anniversary celebrations, even emoji favorites. “We recently sent a customer a happy birthday email and included a Snoopy GIF in the message, and the customer wrote back saying how much they love Snoopy,” says Mary. “Small touches like that really go a long way.”
As both companies continue to grow and evolve, Mary believes Front will continue to empower DealDash on its mission to provide world-class customer service. “We believe the best results come from combining the efficiency and analytical power of AI with the empathy and problem-solving skills of our incredible customer support team,” she says. “Front helps us maintain that delicate balance between speed and quality.”
