When TrailMix Games launched their hit game “Love & Pies” in 2021, they didn’t have a proper support system behind it and couldn’t keep pace with their growing player base. With Helpshift they were able to support a thriving community of over 650,000 followers praising their “phenomenal” customer support.
In our latest Player Engagement webinar, Aino Kinnunen, Player Experience Lead at TrailMix Games, shared her team’s journey alongside Jason Copeland, Senior Customer Success Manager at Helpshift (a Keywords Studios technology). Their story offers valuable insights for any gaming studio looking to scale their support operations without sacrificing quality.
The Client’s Challenge: When Manual Support Hit a Wall
When Aino joined TrailMix in 2022, the company was struggling with a support system that simply wasn’t built for scale. Their game “Love & Pies” – originally a match-3 that evolved into a tapper, then a linker, before finally launching as a merge-2 game – had been released without a proper support infrastructure.
The core challenges were stark:
- Fully manual operations: Every ticket required human intervention, creating bottlenecks and delays
- Language barriers: Support was only available in English, alienating international players
- No data insights: The team had no visibility into common issues or player pain points
- Unoptimized resources: FAQs were created by the design team before launch, not based on actual player needs
- Slow response times: Multiple back-and-forth exchanges left players waiting days for resolution
The impact on player sentiment was telling. Store reviews from 2022 painted a clear picture:
“When I tried to message support, they apologized, saying they could only answer requests in English”
“Contacted support twice with new issue, no response. Slow to respond on old issues too.”
“Very upset. I recently got a new phone and my data will not transfer over. I have spent a lot of money on this game and everything is lost!!! Nobody will answer me on support”
As Aino explained during the webinar, “These are all public reviews that are visible in the store. They can actually be the first thing that a player sees when they’re looking into games that they may download to play.”
Solutions for Customer Support Transformation
During the webinar, Aino and Jason outlined the strategic approach that transformed TrailMix’s support operations. The key was taking a data-driven, incremental approach rather than attempting to overhaul everything at once.
Starting with Data Analysis
The transformation began with understanding what players actually needed. TrailMix implemented a comprehensive tagging system to analyze:
- Customer satisfaction scores by issue type
- FAQ views and helpfulness ratings
- Response times and resolution patterns
- Volume trends across different categories
This revealed that gameplay questions were generating the highest ticket volume (979 tickets), while issues like account recovery had poor FAQ satisfaction ratings.
Implementing AI-Powered Language Support
Rather than hiring native speakers for 18 different languages, TrailMix leveraged Helpshift’s Language AI. They started by testing with Google Translate to prove the concept, then upgraded to Helpshift’s more sophisticated and embedded AI translation.
“We were able to onboard the Language AI support from Helpshift, which actually is giving us even better translations. And you can see from the CSAT results that we really actually had great results in solving tickets when we’re using the AI tool.” Aino noted. The key was managing expectations by transparently indicating when machine translation was being used.
Building Smart Automation Incrementally
The team followed Jason’s recommendation to “create a series of small bots, make them modular.” Instead of building one comprehensive system, they developed:
- Basic bots for common game features and frequent topics
- Bespoke bots for specific workflows like lost account recovery
- Smart FAQs that collected necessary information upfront
- Automated tagging integrated into bot interactions
Focusing on Customer Satisfaction Monitoring
Throughout implementation, the team closely monitored CSAT scores for each bot to ensure automation wasn’t degrading the player experience. “It’s super important to continue to monitor your CSAT whilst you are building them to make sure you’re not actually adding bottlenecks,” Aino emphasized.
Results After Implementing Solutions: A Complete Transformation
The results of TrailMix’s support transformation speak for themselves. By 2025, player reviews tell a dramatically different story:
“Customer support was phenomenal at resolving my issue. I will continue to play this game as long as they continue making new content.”
“I really like this game, been playing since last year. It’s fun and easy, cute story, and customer support responds really quickly.”
“There’s an authentic, wholesome, high vibe & kind energy behind this game … it is sweet and visually beautiful and I love this game and the amazing customer support”
Quantifiable Impact Across All Metrics
The transformation delivered impressive results across every key performance indicator:
Automation Excellence:
- 93% automation rate across all support channels
- 92% of issues handled via SDK with automated workflows
- 90%+ of tickets now go through some form of automation
Customer Satisfaction Improvements:
- 4.36 overall CSAT across all issues
- 4.55 CSAT for tickets handled with Language AI (vs 4.23 without)
- 79% FAQ deflection rate through optimized content
Operational Efficiency Gains:
- 32.3% reduction in Human Time to First Response (HTTFR)
- 26.5% decrease in overall time to resolve issues
- 28% reduction in handling time for gameplay-related tickets
- 31.65% decrease in handling time for lost account cases
Cost Savings:
- $50K annual savings through operational efficiencies
- Ability to support 18 languages without hiring additional multilingual staff
Specific Success Stories
Gameplay Bot Implementation: By automating responses to common gameplay questions, TrailMix fully resolved 7% of gameplay tickets automatically while reducing handling time by 28% for the remainder.
Smart FAQ for Account Recovery: The most disliked FAQ (“How can I recover my account?”) was transformed with a Smart FAQ form that reduced the dislike-to-view ratio from 3.74% to 0.90% while cutting handling time by over 30%.
Global Language Support: Supporting 18 languages through AI translation, TrailMix now serves players worldwide without the overhead of hiring multilingual support staff.
Community Growth
Beyond support metrics, TrailMix built a thriving community of over 650,000 followers across social media platforms for Love & Pies, plus 10,000+ followers for the TrailMix studio brand. This growth was supported by their ability to respond to players across multiple channels, including Facebook integration through Helpshift.
So, What’s the Blueprint for Scalable Gaming Support
TrailMix’s transformation demonstrates that exceptional customer support at scale isn’t about having more people – it’s about having smarter systems. By taking a data-driven approach to automation while maintaining a focus on player satisfaction, they achieved what many gaming studios struggle with: providing fast, helpful support that actually enhances the player experience.
The key takeaways for other gaming studios are clear:
- Start with data – Understand what your players actually need before building solutions
- Think modular – Build small, focused bots rather than attempting comprehensive automation overnight
- Monitor satisfaction – Automation should improve, not degrade, the customer experience
- Embrace AI translation – Global support doesn’t require global hiring
- Integrate everything – Connect support across all player touchpoints, from in-game to social media
As Jason noted during the webinar, “We have a team of success managers that are ready to help anybody that’s beginning to go on this journey for the first time.” The transformation is achievable, but having the right partner and platform makes all the difference.
Ready to transform your gaming support operations? TrailMix’s success story could be yours. Schedule a consultation with our customer success team to explore how Helpshift can help you achieve similar results, or download our comprehensive case study for more detailed insights into TrailMix’s implementation strategy or watch the full webinar here..
Don’t let manual support systems hold back your game’s potential. Join the growing number of studios discovering that exceptional support is a competitive advantage, not just a cost center.