Platforms: Gorgias Helpdesk
Overview
The Support Cost Dashboard helps you understand how AfterShip reduces your customer support workload and estimates the cost savings for your business.
The dashboard compares your support ticket volume before and after you started using AfterShip, then uses your configured cost per support ticket to estimate how much you've saved.
How to access the dashboard?
Log in to the AfterShip Tracking admin.
Go to Analytics > click Support Cost Dashboard.
Before you begin
The Support Cost Dashboard uses data from your connected helpdesk. Before you can view metrics, you must connect and authorize a supported helpdesk.
Learn how to connect Gorgias with AfterShip Tracking.
Currently supported:
Gorgias
If you've already connected Gorgias
If you connected your Gorgias account before 25 May, you'll need to re-authorize the integration so AfterShip can access your historical ticket data. Here’s how:
Go to Organization > Apps.
Open your Gorgias connection.
Click ⋯ (More options) > Reauthorize.
Complete the authorization flow.
When your data becomes available
After you connect and authorize your helpdesk, your ticket data will appear on the dashboard the following day (D+1).
How the dashboard works
Understanding a few key concepts will help you interpret every metric on the dashboard.
Before vs. after comparison
For each supported ticket type, the dashboard compares your current ticket performance with a baseline period from before the related AfterShip feature was enabled.
Any reduction in support tickets is credited to the AfterShip feature.
How the baseline is calculated
The baseline is based on when the corresponding AfterShip feature became available for your account.
For WISMO, the feature is considered enabled when your first shipment is imported into AfterShip Tracking.
For Order Editing, the feature is considered enabled when Order Editing is enabled.
The dashboard uses the 30 days before the feature was enabled as the baseline period.
Baseline limitations
Ticket history is available for up to 3 years.
If the feature was enabled more than three years ago, AfterShip uses the earliest available 30 days of ticket data as the baseline instead.
The baseline is calculated only once and is reused consistently throughout every chart and table on the dashboard. Changing the date range or filters doesn't recalculate the baseline.
Current ticket data: The dashboard analyzes current ticket data from the most recent one month, up to a maximum of 50k tickets. Tickets outside this period aren't processed and won't appear in the dashboard.
Reading the dashboard
Choose a ticket type
Use the Ticket type selector at the top of the dashboard to switch between supported ticket categories.
Currently available ticket types include:
WISMO
These are “Where is my order?” enquiries, where customers ask about:
Package location
Shipment status
Expected delivery date
Order Editing
These are requests made after checkout to modify an order, such as:
Updating the shipping address
Cancelling an order
Changing products or variants
Applying a discount code
Edit contact information
What counts as an Order Editing ticket?
Order Editing tickets are grouped into the following sub-categories. If a ticket can't be confidently classified, it's placed under Others.
Sub-category | What the customer wants | Example customer messages |
Address Editing | Update the shipping address after placing an order | "I entered the wrong address. Can you fix it?"
"It went to my old address"
"Tracking says address undeliverable"
"Can I change the delivery address?" |
Cancel Order | Cancel an order | "Cancel my order — won't arrive in time"
"Need to cancel, found it locally faster" |
Item Modification | Change products or variants after placing the order | "Can I change the size from M to L?"
"I want to swap this for a different color"
"Can I add another item to my order?"
"I ordered the wrong variant" |
Add Discount Code | Apply a discount or promo code retroactively after checkout | "Can you apply SUMMER20 to my order?"
"I just saw a promo code after checking out. Can you add it?" |
Edit Contact Info | Update the email address or phone number linked to the order | "Can you update the email on my order? I used the wrong one"
"Can you switch the contact to my new phone number?" |
Others | Tickets that can't be confidently classified into the sub-categories above. | – |
Key metrics
The dashboard displays the following metrics:
Metric | What it tells you |
Estimated cost saved | The dollar value of the tickets you avoided, based on your ticket-rate improvement and current order volume. |
Ticket rate | The number of support tickets per 100 orders. The indicator shows how much the ticket rate has changed compared with your baseline |
Ticket volume | The raw count of support tickets during the current period. |
Note: Metrics are measured using ticket rate (tickets per 100 orders) rather than ticket volume alone. This ensures changes in order volume don't affect the comparison.
Trends
The Trends section helps you compare your current support performance with your baseline over time.
It includes two time-series charts:
Ticket rate over time: This chart shows how your ticket rate changes over time and compares it with your baseline ticket rate. Use it to monitor whether your support ticket rate is improving or increasing.
Before feature enabled vs. actual ticket cost: This chart compares the estimated support ticket cost at the baseline level versus your actual support ticket cost based on your current ticket rate.
Ticket distribution
The Ticket distribution section breaks down your current support tickets to help you identify where tickets are coming from.
Depending on the selected ticket type, the dashboard groups tickets by: Category, Shipment status, Carrier, and Shipping lane.
How are multi-label tickets counted?
A single ticket can have more than one label.
When a ticket belongs to multiple categories, it's divided evenly across each label. For example, if a ticket has two labels, it counts as 0.5 in each category. This ensures the total across all categories matches your overall ticket volume.
Note:
Unmatched tickets will still appear on the dashboard, categorized under "-".
For Order Editing tickets, Shipment-related breakdowns aren't available because these requests happen before an order is fulfilled. Since no shipment, carrier, or tracking status exists yet, these charts display No data.
Cost savings breakdown
The Cost savings breakdown table provides a detailed view of your estimated cost savings across different categories.
For each category, the table displays:
Current ticket volume and rate
Baseline ticket volume and rate
Ticket rate reduction, and
Estimated cost saved
Filters
You can use the following filters to narrow the data view in the dashboard:
Order date
Shipment status
Carrier
Carrier service
Destination country/region
Destination state
Note:
For Order Editing tickets, shipment data-based filters—including Shipment status, Carrier, and Carrier service—aren't available because these orders haven't been fulfilled yet.
Metric formulas
Every metric in the Support Cost Dashboard is calculated using the formulas below. You can also click the ⓘ icon next to a metric in the dashboard to view its formula.
All formulas use the fixed baseline described in How the dashboard works.
Ticket rate
Ticket rate = Ticket volume ÷ Order volume × 100% |
The ticket rate is calculated separately for the current period and baseline period.
Rate change
Rate change = (Baseline rate − Current rate) ÷ Baseline rate |
This value is displayed as the indicator (arrow) on the Ticket rate metric card.
Estimated cost saved
Tickets reduced = (Baseline rate − Current rate) × Current-period orders
Estimated cost saved = Tickets reduced × Cost per ticket |
Because the calculation uses your current order volume, the estimated savings reflect the value of the improvement at your current business scale rather than the smaller order volume before you started using AfterShip.
Cost savings breakdown
The Cost savings breakdown table uses the following calculations for each segment:
Ticket rate reduction = Baseline rate − Current rate
Cost saved = Ticket rate reduction × Current-period orders × Cost per ticket |
Current ticket cost
The distribution views calculate your current ticket cost using the following formula.
Current ticket cost = Current ticket volume × Cost per ticket |
Cost calculation settings
Your estimated cost savings depend on the average cost per support ticket that you configure.
Click ⚙ Cost calculation settings in the upper-right corner of the dashboard.
Enter your cost per ticket. The default value is $3.00, based on an industry-standard estimate.
Click Save.
The configured value is applied across the dashboard, including Estimated cost saved, Trend charts, and Cost savings breakdown tables.
For the most accurate results, set the cost per ticket to reflect your actual support costs, including agent time, tools, and operational overhead.
Important considerations
Order Editing tickets are counted only for unfulfilled orders. Tickets are attributed to Order Editing only while the order is still unfulfilled, which is the scenario currently supported by the feature.
One ticket can carry more than one label. In category-based views, a ticket is split evenly across its assigned labels. For example, a ticket with two labels counts as 0.5 in each category, ensuring the category totals remain consistent with the overall ticket volume.
Data source of the dashboard: Support metrics are calculated using classified helpdesk tickets from your connected helpdesk platform (currently Gorgias) and matched with your AfterShip order and shipment data.