How to detect when your Gorgias macros stopped working

Macros are the workhorses of a Gorgias support team. The refund macro, the address change macro, the shipping status macro. Agents click them dozens of times a day. The macros work invisibly. Until they don't.

Gorgias macros break for boring reasons. Shopify ships an integration update and the refund action stops firing. A team member edits the macro template and introduces a syntax error in a variable. The macro still appears in the agent's panel, agents still click it, but the underlying action fails silently or sends with broken merge tags.

This post is the audit I run to catch broken macros before customers do.

How macros break silently

Three flavors of macro breakage, in order of frequency:

1. Integration breakage. Shopify or Stripe ships an API change. The refund action in your macro fires but returns a silent error. Agent thinks the refund processed, customer doesn't get it.
2. Variable breakage. Someone edited the macro template and broke a merge tag. The email goes out with literal `{{customer.first_name}}` text instead of the customer's name.
3. Logic drift. The macro was set up for a policy that's since changed. Refund window was 30 days, now it's 45, but the macro still says 30. Agents follow the macro and quote the old policy.

The 5-step macro audit

Run this quarterly. Most teams find 2-4 issues per audit.

Step 1: Pull macro usage data

Gorgias reports show usage frequency per macro. Pull the last 90 days. Sort by volume.

Step 2: Test the top 10 most-used macros

For each macro: create a test ticket, run the macro end-to-end. Check that:

• All merge tags render correctly (customer name, order number, refund amount, etc.)
• Linked actions fire (refund processed, order tagged, status changed)
• The customer-facing email arrives intact
• Internal notes get added if the macro should add them

Step 3: Spot-check 5 real recent uses

For each top macro, pull 5 recent tickets where the macro was used. Check what actually happened. Are merge tags right? Did actions complete? Did customer respond positively?

Step 4: Compare macro content to current policy

Open the macro template. Read the policy reference. Compare to your current documented policy. Discrepancies = update the macro that day.

Step 5: Check unused macros

Macros with zero usage in 90 days are either broken, hidden, or obsolete. Delete or fix.

Drift signals to watch in usage data

Even without a full audit, certain usage patterns indicate drift:

• Macro usage suddenly dropped 30+ percent. Agents stopped using it because something broke.
• Same macro used 10x more than expected. Often means agents are using it for the wrong scenario because the right macro broke.
• Manual responses spiking on tickets that should use macros. Agents bypassing because the macros don't work.
• CSAT drops on macro-handled tickets. The macro is shipping a bad experience.

How often to audit

Quarterly for most brands. Monthly during high-change periods (BFCM, major product launches, helpdesk migrations). The audit takes 2-3 hours for a typical Gorgias account with 30-50 macros.

Where to start

Pull your Gorgias macro usage report. Identify your top 5. Test each end-to-end this week. Document what you find. Fix the worst issue first.

If you want help building maintainable Gorgias workflows, ReccordSOP records the actual macro setup process and detects when it diverges from documented.