The complete guide automating the unseen in CX using Gladly Sidekick

Gladly Team

Gladly Team

13 minute read

CX agent talking on a headset with overlaid screenshot of a voice conversation with a customer

Customer loyalty is built one interaction at a time. Brands invest heavily in visible touch points—polished websites, friendly agents, and seamless checkouts—but the real magic often happens behind the scenes. The manual, repetitive, and often invisible tasks that power every customer interaction can make or break the experience.

AI-driven customer service automation has led to a 30% decrease in customer service operational costs, with some organizations reporting labor cost savings of up to 90% by automating routine tasks such as FAQs and order tracking. But that sort of automation is only the tip of the iceberg.

Enter Sidekick, Gladly’s self-service AI.

Sidekick is a powerful tool designed to automate these manual processes and so much more, freeing up CX teams to focus on what truly matters—delivering memorable, revenue-driving experiences that customers love. It uniquely combines conversational, agentic, and contextual AI, so companies can deliver radically personal experiences at scale.

We’ll take you through why automating back-end CX tasks is critical for support teams today, how to kick off a new customer support automation strategy, and the tangible benefits for customers, agents, and the bottom line. Plus, we’ll share how Sidekick takes CX automation to new levels, giving teams like yours a dedicated support resource for nurturing customer relationships and driving cost savings, while keeping the customer journey perfectly seamless.

Sidekick Answer and Actions

Customer Context — What Is It?

Out of sight does not mean out of mind

Every time a customer tracks an order, requests a return, or asks about product compatibility, a series of manual steps gets triggered behind the scenes. Agents check systems, update records, verify policies, and ensure overall CX strategy alignment. While essential, these invisible processes are time-consuming and prone to error.

When these tasks are handled manually, even the most customer-centric teams struggle to keep up, especially during peak periods or as the business scales, resulting in longer wait times, inconsistent answers, and frustrated agents. These are all outcomes customers feel, even if they never see the work behind the curtain.

Customer service automation: automating the 'unseen' is a competitive advantage

Smooth customer experience is shaped by several processes that happen out of sight. Yet these invisible workflows, like updating records or processing returns, can slow teams down. Automating this behind-the-scenes work not only boosts efficiency, but also frees up agents to focus on high-value interactions that drive loyalty.

Do more with the team you have

By letting AI handle a large volume of issues and resolve many of those conversations on its own, businesses can dramatically lower operational costs, with some seeing an average cost reduction of up to 40%. Automation, like Sidekick, takes over high-volume jobs, allowing your agents to handle more complex problems without increasing headcount. When plugged into a team’s external systems (like a CRM or payment system), Sidekick can even handle complex tasks like recognizing customer intent, taking meaningful actions, resolving issues, and recommending next steps.

Key benefits:

  • Faster response and resolution times

  • Agents can focus on complex, relationship-building conversations

  • Ability to scale support during seasonal peaks

Sidekick example:

A tech company faces a surge in order status requests during a launch. Sidekick instantly delivers updates and only escalates the most complex cases, allowing the business to handle the spike without hiring extra staff.

Improve consistency and reduce mistakes

Humans make mistakes, especially when juggling repetitive tasks. Manual data entry error rates can reach as high as 5%. Automated workflows ensure every inquiry is handled according to your latest policies, delivering consistent, on-brand responses across every channel.

Key benefits:

  • Reduced risk of mistakes and misinformation

  • Uniform customer experience, regardless of channel

  • Easier compliance with regulatory and brand standards

Sidekick example:

When a B2C company launches a new service, Sidekick provides on-brand, up-to-date answers about pricing and features to every customer seeking to learn about it or buy it. Sidekick can also manage updates directly through the company’s integrated systems, so that every customer gets the right information—on time, every time.

Offer intelligent self-service

Customers often want quick answers. By letting AI handle these common inquiries through self-service, businesses can help customers find solutions on their own, quickly and easily. Gladly Sidekick can offer a great self-service experience because it understands naturally. This means it recognizes what customers mean, their feelings, and important details across the channels they use to communicate, like chat or email. This allows Sidekick to provide relevant answers without needing a human agent right away, if at all.

Key benefits:

  • Instant answers to customer questions

  • Customers can help themselves for a wide range of issues

  • Human agents are only brought in when they’re most needed

Sidekick example:

A customer realizes they need to change their shipping address right after placing an order. Instead of making them wait for an agent, Sidekick asks for the new address, checks if the change is still possible, and updates everything instantly. If the package has already left the warehouse, Sidekick smoothly connects them to a real person who already knows the full story. No starting over, no explaining the situation twice.

Drive revenue with customer service automation

Automation isn’t at odds with agents. It empowers them to help VIP customers, resolve edge cases, or drive upsell opportunities. Agents become strategic CX partners with AI, growing more productive in the process. In fact, agents who use AI in their daily roles can handle 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour, increasing efficiency and customer personalization without increasing staffing costs.

Key benefits:

  • Higher job satisfaction and lower turnover

  • Agents become revenue generators

  • More time for proactive customer engagement

Sidekick example:

During peak return seasons, Sidekick handles the bulk of return requests, verifying eligibility and generating labels automatically. Agents are free to focus on high-value tasks, like assisting VIPs or resolving unique exceptions.

Get more seamless no matter the day or time

Customers want quick and accurate answers 24/7, without being bounced between agents or waiting hours for a response. While 98% of CX leaders say smooth AI-to-human handoffs are critical, 90% still struggle to make it seamless. Poor handoffs can disrupt the customer experience, making it worse than not using AI at all. By automating behind-the-scenes work around the clock, Sidekick delivers instant resolutions for customers exactly when they need it.

Key benefits:

  • 24/7 availability and higher first-contact resolution rates

  • Frictionless experiences, even for complex requests

  • Higher CSAT and NPS scores

Sidekick example:

A customer reaches out at night to ask about a return. If the product is still eligible for a return, Sidekick processes the request instantly. If the item is no longer eligible, Sidekick flags for exceptions, checks the customer’s history to determine what would benefit the relations, and compiles the information for follow-up by a human agent once the CX team is back online. After-hours availability is key to businesses success now, as a Harris Interactive study found that 60% of purchases happen in the evening and on weekends. This is further supported by Klarna’s 2024 survey, which noted that the peak traffic time for e-commerce websites was 10pm.

GUIDE

The 2025 guide to AI customer service

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How to kick off a new customer support automation strategy

Starting with a smart automation plan can change how your business helps customers. It's about using AI, like Gladly Sidekick, to continuously act and build relationships for you in the background so your team can reap the benefits of its knowledge in new and better ways. By following these steps, you can make sure your automation performs successful actions, keeps customers happy, and helps you drive growth.

1. Start with high-volume, low-complexity tasks

When implementing an AI strategy in customer service, it's best to automate high-volume, low-complexity tasks first. This includes tasks like answering common questions about recent orders or product stock. As your AI becomes a more integrated part of your customer experience, you can introduce it to more complex issues. Sidekick will grow to understand customer intent, sentiment, and nuances across various channels, allowing it to efficiently handle these common questions and provide immediate impact. However, Sidekick's power goes beyond simple tasks; because every conversation and feedback loop adds to its intelligence over time. This ongoing learning means Sidekick improves its response quality and expands its automation capabilities, making it smarter today than it was yesterday.

2. Integrate with core systems

For AI to work its best, it needs to be connected to all your important systems. Sidekick is designed to link up with your order management systems, CRM tools, and knowledge bases. This means Sidekick can get all the right, up-to-date information to answer questions and take actions, like processing refunds or updating orders. Sidekick also "remembers relationships" by using past conversations, customer preferences, and purchase history. This helps it give personalized answers and makes things smoother for customers.

3. Maintain your knowledge sources

Just like a student needs updated textbooks, your AI needs updated information. Sidekick continuously learns from customer conversations and feedback, so it's always getting better. But it's still important to regularly check and update the information your AI uses. Start by checking your company's FAQs and guides. AI should also align with your brand identity by operating within your company's rules and guidelines so the responses it gives are correct in content and correct in tone. When you update your rules or information in Sidekick, it learns and adapts to your brand authenticity changes.

4. Monitor, measure, and optimize

It's important to track how your AI is performing. Sidekick helps you do this by being transparent about its decisions and giving you full records of what happened. This lets you see what's working well, what areas need improvement, and how you can make your AI even better over time. Sidekick gets smarter with every customer conversation and every piece of feedback. This helps CX teams keep making customer service more efficient and more personal.

5. Balance automation with a human touch

While automation is great at handling many customer requests, some situations still need a person to intervene. Sidekick is built to know when to hand over a conversation to a human agent. This means your customers get the quick help they need for a range of issues from processing refunds to loyalty program rewards. But it also means that a real person steps in when things get more complicated or sensitive. Sidekick adapts in real time to a customer's feelings or the urgency of their request, which can include handing off to an agent if needed. The goal is to make your agents more powerful, not to replace them.

Why your brand should automate the unseen with Sidekick

Understanding the strategy is one thing; having the right tool is another. Gladly Sidekick is the ultimate AI partner for CX teams at a fundamental level because it turns the automation playbook into reality. It uniquely combines three types of AI—contextual, conversational, and agentic—to automate unseen work while delivering radically personal experiences at scale.

Getting ahead of a turbulent market:

With costs going up, profits getting smaller, and customer needs changing fast, businesses can't afford to waste time on old ways of doing things. Gladly Sidekick saves CX teams tons of time by:

  • Solving problems directly: Sidekick can take action to solve problems , like giving refunds or updating orders.

  • Saving your team time: This ability to take direct action saves your team valuable time.

  • Using modern AI learning: Sidekick runs on Customer AI, an advanced intelligence layer that powers the Gladly platform. It connects the power of AI with deep customer understanding for a competitive advantage.

Meet sky-high customer expectations:

Today's shoppers want quick, personal help every time they reach out. They don't care how complicated things are behind the scenes; they just want fast, correct answers. Gladly Sidekick makes sure you can meet these expectations every single time by:

  • Responding like a human, but faster: This helps Sidekick respond in a way that feels human, but much faster and always on.

  • Remembering relationships: It uses a customer's full history, including past conversations, purchases, and preferences, to provide personalized recommendations and proactive service.

  • Adapting in real-time: It also changes how it talks and acts in real-time based on what's happening in the conversation, like if a customer is upset or is a VIP. This means customers get the right help, right when they need it, making them feel truly understood

Unlock the revenue potential of CX:

Sidekick frees agents to focus on upselling, cross-selling, and building customer loyalty. Every conversation becomes an opportunity to drive revenue, not just resolve a ticket. Gladly Sidekick helps you do this by:

  • Acting intelligently: Sidekick doesn't just talk, it takes secure and defined actions like processing refunds or updating orders. This takes common, time-consuming tasks off your agents' plates, so they can spend their time on more valuable interactions.

  • Empowering agents: This helps agents understand what a customer might need next, turning a simple support call into a chance to offer something new and valuable. When agents are freed from basic tasks and have rich customer information at their fingertips, they can truly nurture customer relationships, leading to increased loyalty and more sales.

Gathering insights for improvement:

Automated systems like Sidekick collect data from every interaction, providing actionable insights into customer needs, agent performance, and work-flow holdups. This data empowers CX leaders to optimize workflows and drive strategic growth. Gladly Sidekick helps you do this because it:

  • Identifies areas for improvement: It learns from conversation outcomes and feedback, and even surfaces insights into gaps or inefficiencies. This constant learning helps your business get smarter over time.

  • Provides transparency and control: Sidekick also has transparent decision logic and full audit trails, which means you can see how it makes decisions. This allows CX leaders to understand not just what happened in a customer interaction, but why it happened, giving them the power to fine-tune processes and drive strategic improvements across the entire customer experience.

Transform your support team today

Great customer service happens when smart technology works alongside your skilled team. Sidekick handles the routine background tasks so your agents can focus on creating memorable experiences that customers actually remember.

When you automate the work customers never see, something powerful happens. Your hidden processes become your secret weapon. Your team stops feeling overwhelmed and starts feeling empowered. Your customers get faster, better service that pays for itself through improved efficiency.

Ready to give your team the support they deserve? Sidekick turns routine tasks into competitive advantages. While your competitors waste time on manual work, you'll be building relationships and driving results that customers will actually notice.

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Revolutionize your CX with Gladly Sidekick

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