Guide to using Customer Agent on email

Introduction

What is Customer Agent on email?

• A 24/7 AI agent that replies to inbound shopper emails, including replies to your campaigns and flows, to answer questions, recommend products, and resolve common issues
• Supports revenue-driving and service use cases (product recommendations, order tracking/WISMO, returns and exchanges, FAQs)
• Uses the same knowledge, skills, and Guidance as your other channels, and replies in the shopper's language automatically

Why use Customer Agent on email?

• Turn replies to your marketing emails into sales conversations
• Automatically resolve repetitive questions on one of your highest-volume support channels
• Reduce ticket volume and first-response time
• Provide 24/7 assistance, including during launches, holidays, and promotions

Before you get started

Requirements

• Owner, Admin, or Manager role
• Active email plan. Customer Agent's replies are email sends and count toward your plan.
• Inbound email set up in Settings > Email > Inbound settings: turn on Email support, then set your public support address (e.g., support@yourbrand.com) to auto-forward to your Klaviyo forwarding address
• Shopify (or another supported ecommerce integration) recommended for full functionality (order tracking, recommendations)
• Recommended: a service branded sending domain, so agent replies come from your brand's domain

What emails does it handle?

Customer Agent responds to inbound emails that reach your Klaviyo inbound address, including:

• Emails sent to your support address
• Replies to your campaigns and flows, when the message's Reply-To is your support address (see best practice 1)

It won't respond to emails that:

• Are identified as spam or non-support mail, such as vendor solicitations, newsletters, and automated order or shipping notifications. These go to Spam in Helpdesk.
• Come from profiles outside your audience settings (excluded segments or keywords)
• Belong to a conversation that's already been handed off to your team
• Arrived before you turned on the email channel

What happens if the agent can't resolve the issue?

Customer Agent follows your email handoff settings:

• Klaviyo Helpdesk: the conversation moves to your Helpdesk inbox with the full transcript, and your team continues over email
• Third-party support email: Customer Agent sends the transcript and a summary to the address you choose, so any helpdesk that accepts email can pick it up. Native Gorgias and Zendesk handoff isn't available on email.
• Don't hand off: you configure a closeout message to send when the agent can't resolve the shopper's need

Once a conversation is handed off, your team owns the thread. Customer Agent won't jump back in, even if the shopper replies.

Built-in guardrails to protect your inbox and sender reputation

• Spam and non-support emails are filtered out before the agent sees them. If a legitimate sender gets filtered, allowlist it with Intake rules in Helpdesk > Settings > Routing.
• Customer Agent ignores its own handoff emails, so a handoff can't start a new agent conversation or a reply loop.
• Customer Agent replies from the same address the shopper wrote to, keeping one consistent thread.
• When Customer Agent can't resolve the issue, it hands off instead of sending repeated replies.

Best practices for driving revenue with Customer Agent on email

1. Route replies to Customer Agent and invite them in your campaigns and flows

Customer Agent only works if customers reply, and their replies reach your support address.

Set the Reply-To on each message:

• In the campaign or flow email, uncheck Use this as your reply-to address and enter your public support address (the one that forwards to Klaviyo)
• There's no account-level default, so update each message. Start with your highest-intent flows.

Encourage replies in:

• Abandoned cart and browse abandonment messages (e.g., sizing, fit, ingredients, shipping times)
• Welcome series (e.g., shade match, "tell us what you're shopping for")
• Post-purchase messages (e.g., setup, how-to-use, reorder questions)

Include:

• Clear invitation ("Questions? Just reply to this email")
• Context-specific prompts based on funnel friction

Tip: A/B test a short, plain-text variation of your first abandonment email that asks the shopper to reply with what they're looking for.

2. Control which profiles can interact with Customer Agent

You have 3 choices on the email Launch page:

• Let all profiles interact with Customer Agent
• Make Customer Agent exclusive to specific segments, or exclude certain segments
  • Good for: operating Customer Agent as a VIP-only feature (e.g., personal concierge)
  • Good for: excluding wholesale or B2B accounts
• Require certain keywords to initiate Customer Agent conversations, or exclude certain keywords (exact match)
  • Good for: ensuring certain requests (e.g., "wholesale", "press") go straight to your team

3. Plan email + agent usage together

Customer Agent consumes:

• AI resolutions (billed when Customer Agent resolves a conversation; handed-off conversations aren't billed)
• Email sends (standard email billing applies)

Best practices:

• Ensure your email plan limit exceeds expected agent usage. Customer Agent stops replying if you run out of email sends.
• Consider enabling Flex sending or AutoUpgrade to avoid interruptions

4. Protect deliverability for agent replies

• Set up a service branded sending domain. It covers Helpdesk and Customer Agent replies and keeps their reputation separate from your marketing sends.
• Forward directly from the first inbox shoppers contact. Chained forwarding (e.g., info@ to help@ to Klaviyo) and manual forwarding can misidentify the sender or drop the email.
• If you hand off to a third-party support address, don't auto-forward or auto-reply from it back into your Klaviyo forwarding address
• Use Guidance to have Customer Agent write complete replies (greeting, answer, sign-off). Very short replies look automated to inbox providers.

5. Measure performance and identify engaged customers

• Monitor email performance on the Customer Agent Performance page by filtering Key Metrics by channel
• Review handoffs in Conversations by filtering Channel to Email and Status to Routed to team
• Identify and re-target profiles who interacted with Customer Agent by creating a segment
  • Build a segment using "What someone has done"
  • Choose from: Started Customer Agent Conversation, Resolved Customer Agent Conversation, Escalated Customer Agent Conversation

Additional resources