I recently read a post from Chris Baggott on the importance of confirmation emails. “I place an order. Some system confirms my order and triggers an email.
The problem is that these emails are normally complete wastes of opportunity. Typical of this genre is a simple text email with a link for tracking my order.
What’s normally missed is the opportunity to seal the relationship, to invite feedback or questions…and don’t forget the opportunity to upsell.
Transactional emails are going to be read! Don’t miss the opportuntiy.”
I completely agree that most companies overlook the importance of transactional communications. This usually stems from these communications being triggered by the website and therefore in the hands of an Operations group as opposed to a fully thought out communication that falls into a consumer contact stream.
The biggest miss that Chris doesn’t speak to is that these communications can be sent to opted-out users, and it’s a communication that the user expects to receive. Additionally, a second communication when the product ships that includes tracking information and estimated ship times can also be a missed opportunity for most companies. Think of the incoming the number of incoming calls that can be avoided when a customer wants to know when their product is going to ship. A company that comes to mind as doing a great job at this? Amazon.com Although they do lose points for having the order confirmation in html and then the ship notification in plain text.
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