10 FREE Shopify Apps for Building Customer Relationships

Free Shopify apps are abundantly available on the internet. The catch is, not all are worth your time.

Customer service is at the center of your eCommerce store’s success. A substandard strategy can drive customers away and impact business adversely.

Therefore,  you need apps that provide tangible value for your customer relationship efforts.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 10 free Shopify apps that will help you take your customer relationships to the next level.

Some of these free Shopify apps are completely free for use, while some have a free plan that still offers a lot of value.

When deployed as part of a well-thought strategy, they can make it easy for you to build and nurture customer relationships.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the best free Shopify apps you can add to your store for building customer relationships.

Tidio Chat

Tidio helps you consolidate your customer support initiatives into a single interface by bringing live chat, messenger communication, and email in a single panel.

Not only does it act as your assistant for responding to customer support queries, but it also compiles essential information about customers (think email, phone number, email, etc.) through a brief pre-chat survey.

The stand-out feature though is that you can view the customers browsing your website in real-time. Tidio allows you to start a conversation with visitors and offer assistance while they’re using your Shopify store.

Tidio does offer a plan, though it’s a bare-bones version of its feature-rich interface. You get the chatbot and email features on the free plan, but that’s about it.

If you’re considering going for a more powerful, paid chat assistant, consider the world’s first AI chat assistant Limechat.

Smile.io

Smile is a free Shopify app that allows you to generate loyalty programs. Loyalty programs have been astonishingly successful with customers across the globe.

For instance, 75% of consumers prefer to choose brands that offer a loyalty program, 43% of customers are encouraged to spend more on brands that they are loyal to, and customers that are able to establish an emotional connection with a brand have a 306% (no, this isn’t a typo) higher lifetime value.

Smile offers loyalty as well as affiliate programs. You can set up a points system, VIP system, or a referrals system.

When the app is deployed on your Shopify store, it will add a placeholder at the bottom of the customer’s screen where they can look at the number of points they earn from shopping.

The points may be redeemed for discounts or free add-on, but this is really up to you and how you want to structure your loyalty program.

Customer.guru

Customer.guru is a unique, free Shopify app that allows you to create simple surveys for your customers. The free version allows you to create 100 surveys each month; ample for new Shopify stores.

It’s essentially a tool that enables your customers to rate the level of satisfaction with your service.

You can embed reviews and ratings on your Shopify store. As you keep receiving responses from your customers, you can use the data to improve your customer relationship-building strategy.

It seamlessly integrates with other tools like Google Analytics and Slack, so the collection, presentation, and interpretation of data are fairly simple.

Plus, Customer.guru allows customers to leave reviews and testimonials, which function as social proof for your website and boost customer confidence.

Route

Route, too, is a completely free Shopify app that offers shipping insurance and allows customers to track orders. While it’s free for merchants, customers can choose to insure their package for a small amount.

Route also offers a full basket of features for a terrific post-purchase experience for your customers. It includes visual order tracking and protection and real-time responses.

Plus, the app also has a set of engagement tools for the customer during the delivery process. Collectively, these features facilitate a strong relationship with your customers.

Thank You Email by Autoketing

Sometimes the most basic apps turn out to be extremely effective in building relationships with your customers. Customers appreciate simplicity rather than complicated, long interactions.

Thank You Email by Autoketing is a completely free Shopify app that automates thank you emails to your customers. You can customize the body of the email to include some best-selling products or new arrivals.

However, since most stores take this route, it’s a good practice to thank the customer for signing up to your emails or Shopify store with a personalized note.

Have your customer representative include an introduction in the email. Let the customer know that they can reach out to the representative personally for any queries they may have.

Thank You Email also has a dashboard where you can view the customers who have opened your email and those who haven’t.

This is a simple app that works rather well for building customer relationships. It allows personalization and helps you initiate a pleasant first interaction with a potential customer.

Email and Popup by Automizely

This is another email marketing tool that is, again, a completely free Shopify app. With the email marketing ROI of an impressive $42 for every $1 spent, it’s a no-brainer for all eCommerce stores.

However, this differs from Thank You Email in terms of scope.

Think of Track You Email as a “welcome email”-only app. On the contrary, Email and Popup by Automizely is capable of running full-fledged marketing campaigns.

While there is a cap of 3,000 emails on the free version, it’s unlikely you will utilize the full 3,000 emails unless your store has already scaled significantly.

In addition to welcome emails, Email and Popup also lets you send emails for abandoned carts, birthdays, and follow-ups.

All these features for free are free. The paid versions don’t add new features, they just increase the cap. This is excellent, especially for new stores, because you get access to all features without spending anything.

Back in Stock

Even if you monitor your inventory well, sometimes, you may still have to deal with an occasional stock out. This is why it pays off to have an app like Back in Stock. It’s not a completely free Shopify app, but does have a free plan.

Back in Stock notifies your customers via email or SMS when an item they’re interested in is back in stock. Although it may seem as such, Back in Stock isn’t like other bare-bones notification apps.

The app is loaded with marketing features such as retargeting integration, email marketing templates, and quantity-specific notifications.

Trackhive

If you don’t already have a way for customers to track their orders on your eCommerce store, you are voluntarily increasing the load on your support desk.

You’re probably familiar with the thrill of receiving the package at the door when you order something online.

Online orders inherently hook customers, and if you don’t provide a way for them to track orders, they’ll try and get in touch. This certainly isn’t a good customer experience.

It’s a good practice to use a tracking system on your eCommerce store. This offers two-fold benefits of building a good relationship with their customer by allowing them to track their order in real-time, and minimizing your support desk workload.

Trackhive is a free Shopify app that allows your customers to track orders. It’s also easy to set up. All you need to do is create a page and copy-paste the HTML provided by the app into the page.

When you’re done, your Shopify store will have a page with a field where the customer can enter their tracking number and track the order on the go.

Clicksit Return Center

Clicksit Return Center is a free Shopify app that offers an elaborate returns management platform. The platform’s seamless returns service allows customers an easy way to initiate and track returns.

With as many as 20% order return rate on COD orders, this app is especially helpful if you offer COD.

Poor returns management is often a common issue, especially with new eCommerce stores. If you don’t provide customers a way to return products as per the stated policy, they’re unlikely to make subsequent purchases.

Clicksit simplifies return management through its interface and eliminates the need to go through each return request individually. Essentially, it’s a win-win for you and your customers.

Storemapper

Nothing beats the in-person customer experience. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, invite customers over to your store.

Storemapper is a free Shopify app that helps customers locate your physical store. Face-to-face interaction allows you to immerse the customer in your brand experience.

Plus, if you sell something like clothing, an in-person visit will allow customers to try the clothes on.

If you have multiple stores, the app will also give you data to analyze your most frequently visited locations. This allows you to manage and route inventory efficiently.

Wrapping Up

Shopify is easily the most popular eCommerce platform. Its growing popularity has invited attention from developers, and there are many free and paid Shopify apps for customer relationship building and management.

Not every app is worth your time or relevant to your eCommerce store, so consider the apps we discussed and see if they work for you before you consider a paid app.

If you want to incorporate a futuristic, level-3 AI chat assistant, consider Limechat.

Our team has helped many eCommerce businesses such as yours. If we’ve piqued your interest, Book a Free Demo now.