Writing Matters

Transactional E-Mail: I'm Tim, I'll Be Your Installer

I've gotten excellent customer service from Next Day Blinds. So I wasn’t surprised to receive a transactional e-mail the day before the scheduled appointment to install new shades, reminding me of the date and time.

Somewhat unexpected, however, was the information the company provided about the installer. Along with his name, the e-mail told me he had worked for the company for 12 years. In addition, it included this information:

“Tim is extremely organized. He takes great pride in being efficient and this reflects in his installations. Certified in all Great Windows and Hunter Douglas window treatments, Tim is great for any job!”

I liked that the e-mail included a name. A person, not an “installer,” was doing the work. I was reassured that the man who was showing up at my house, drill in hand, was no Johnny-come-lately to installation. And it reinforced my positive feelings about the company. A company that has long-term employees must treat them right.

But I confess that I was unsure about the “extremely organized” and “efficient” information. It made me feel like I had to tidy up the living room before he arrived. I was apologetic when he found an earring under the sofa he moved. I was grateful that the installation wasn’t in my office! 

In the era of Facebook and MySpace, I shouldn’t find it strange that the e-mail provided personal information about Tim. But the information was edging over the line between installer and friend. Should I stick around and chat while he worked? How are the kids? Or perhaps pick up some tips on being more organized? Gather all your tools before starting the project.

After Tim completed the installation, I had to sign a checklist stating that he had followed installation procedures: removed his shoes, showed me how the new shades worked, cleaned up debris. As he left, I wondered whether he was filling out a form about me: customer was polite, living room was neat, didn't offer me coffee.

And did he tweet when he got back in his van? "Just completed organized and efficient installation of shades in Marilynne’s living room.” 

--Marilynne Rudick

For more of our thoughts on transactional e-mail, take a look at:

• E-Mail Customers Love: Your Order Is On Its Way
• How to Write a Confirmation E-Mail: Don't Take a Lesson from Amazon Advantage
  

 

 

 

The Best Ever Customer Service E-Mail

As I was writing a recent post on hyphens, I noticed that the font on the TypePad edit screen kept getting smaller. Soon my nose was inches from the monitor as I tried to make out almost infinitesimal type. Since the small type was only on this one edit screen—all other web pages and documents looked fine—I assumed it was a TypePad problem. I dashed off an e-mail to TypePad asking how to fix the problem with the font size.

The reply from Kymberlie was the best customer service e-mail that I’ve received. Read on to find out why!

From:    typepadsixapart.com
Sent:    Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:40 PM
To:    [email protected]
Subject: Response to TypePad ticket ‘font size’

Hi Marilynne,

Thanks for the note, but when I view your weblog, I am able to see it without any problems:
http://clip2net.com/page/m0/703755

It sounds like the font sizes have changed within your web browser's settings.  You may want to look through its option and see if there is a way to reset it to the default.

Alternatively, if you have a mouse with a wheel, you can hold down the CTRL button and scroll up or down to decrease or increase your font size (this works on both of the wheel mice I have, though it may depend on your type of mouse).

I hope this helps.  Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

PS  I really enjoyed your post on hyphens!  :-)

To view this ticket, click on the following link: https://www.typepad.com/account/help/tickets/6i01127945899528a4/view

Why was it the best e-mail ever? 
For starters, it met all of the criteria for great customer service e-mail in our Checklist: Ten Traits of a Great Customer Service E-Mail. We developed this checklist  for our Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail workbook. Kymberlie's e-mail inspired me to add an additional trait (see #11 below) for going above and beyond.

Checklist:  Eleven Traits of a Great Customer Service E-Mail

1. Use a helpful subject line.
   The subject line summarized the problem I was having—font size—and let me know that it was a response from TypePad to my help request.
2. Respond promptly.
   Within 12 hours.
   
   
3. Personalize the response.
   Here Kymberlie excelled. She used my name—and spelled it correctly! She showed me that she had personally looked into the problem. (When I view your weblog, I am able to see it without any problems.)
4. Answer all the customer's questions.
   
   
5. Make it possible for the customer to take action.
   
   
6. Solve the customer's problem.
   She was right about font size being a browser issue and provided two possible fixes—including ones she had tried herself.
7. Use a polite, positive, personal tone.
   Her opening (Thanks for your note) set the tone. She used personal pronouns throughout (I, you). Her tone was conversational (It sounds like… You may want to look through… ). The closing (I hope this helps) reinforced the tone.
8. Write clearly and simply.
   She used plain language to explain several possible solutions.
9. Proofread for mechanical errors.
   Not proofreader-perfect, but no glaring spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
10. Make it easy for the customer to contact you.
    She provided a link to the trouble ticket form with a text block for a response. The form—which includes the entire communication thread—means you won’t have to start over if you need further help.
    
    And #11—which made it the best ever!
11. Make the customer feel great!
    PS  I really enjoyed your post on hyphens!  :-)

--Marilynne Rudick

For more of our advice on writing customer service e-mail, take a look at:

• Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents
• Sampler of Customer DIS-Service E-Mail
• Answering E-Mail from Angry Customers: How to Turn Furious People into Fans
• Our blog posts on customer service e-mail, including E-Mail from Orbitz: Four Kinds of Bad

How to Write a Confirmation E-Mail: Don't Take a Lesson from Amazon Advantage

Confirmation e-mails may be the workhorses of the e-commerce world, but when done right they can do more than let customers know the order's been shipped or the question's been received. Confirmation e-mails offer an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your customer, increase brand loyalty and sales, and stave off calls or e-mails to customer service.

What Not to Do
Poor confirmation e-mails are a wasted opportunity and can damage the customer-company relationship. Here's a disappointing confirmation e-mail I recently received from Amazon Advantage, the program that authors enroll in to sell their books on Amazon.com. Here's why this confirmation e-mail fails to measure up:

• Impersonal greeting.  There's nothing wrong with the salutation greetings, but if Amit had greeted me by name, it would have increased my confidence that he had read my question and hadn't sent me a generic canned response.
• Imprecise language. Twice, Amit refers to the concerned department. Specifically, I had asked about selling an Edoc (PDF) on Amazon.com.  He should have referred to my specific question and, if necessary, named the specific department he alerted.  On a related topic, Amit's diction reveals a British English background.  American customers simply don't refer to concerned departments. Amit should strive to use precise wording in an effort to write global English, or English that doesn't reveal how remote the customer service group is from the customer.
• Inexact time frame for follow-up.  Amit assures me that someone else (who?) will get back to me as soon as possible (when?).  Thus, this e-mail confirms very little.  I'm likely to e-mail again because I don't know how long I should wait for a response.
• Typo. "Do you have all of your title enrolled in the Advantage program?"  This mechanical error makes me wonder whether my question will receive careful attention. 

Confirmation E-Mail from Amazon Advantage

From: Amazon.com Advantage Member Services
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Case 1234567] Item Management - Other

Greetings,

I am sorry to hear that you have not yet received any reply from the concerned department. I have alerted the concerned department to look into this issue and get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and participation in Amazon.com Advantage.

Best regards,

Amit, Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
Do you have all of your title enrolled in the Advantage program?  Enroll them all today! http://www.amazon.com/advantage

How to Write a Confirmation E-Mail

• Answer all the customer's questions.  A confirmation e-mail should be a question-answering machine! Let the customer know what has happened, what will happen, who is responsible, what to expect, when to expect it, and what to do if she needs more help.
• Write in a friendly tone. Convey the feeling that doing business with your company will be pleasant, even if your e-mail is handling a menial task.  Set the tone of your e-mail a little bit warmer than absolutely necessary.  So, instead of writing "Order #1234 has been shipped and will arrive by February 15" try "We have shipped your order #1234, and you should receive it by February 15."
• Make it personal. Use the customer's name.  Restate or refer to the customer's query, if possible.  Cite the customer's account or order number.  And sign the e-mail with an actual name whenever possible.
• Make it informative.  Include complete contact information for your business. Deep link to FAQs or other content that customers might need at the point of confirmation.
• Provide additional info, but keep it relevant.  A confirmation e-mail is not the place for unfettered up-selling and cross-selling, but if you keep it brief and relevant, you might mention additional information. For example, if you're offering a new downloadable users' guide on a product the customer has ordered, you might mention it in the confirmation e-mail.

Interested in customer service e-mail?  Read past posts "E-Mail Customers Love: Your Order Is On Its Way" and "E-Mail from Orbitz: Four Kinds of Bad." Also check out our articles "Teaching Offshore Agents To Write 'American' E-Mail" and "Answering E-Mail From Angry Customers: How To Turn Furious People Into Fans."

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

Government Customer Service Conference: Download Presentations

On December 10, I was a presenter at the Digital Government Institute’s seventh annual Government Customer Service Conference & Expo. My topic: "How to Measure the Quality of Customer Service E-Mail." The entire event was a success. The hall was crowded, the presentations were excellent, and the attendees' questions were focused and important.

Now, I won't stand for any sniggering out in cyberspace about the whole idea of government customer service. I've worked with contact centers in the corporate world and in the government; they're all striving to serve customers well on the phone, by e-mail, or on the web. And government customer service agents may have the hardest jobs of all. They field questions from everyone: actual customers and mere prospects, domestics and internationals, experts and novices. And satisfaction with government customer service can be very high.  Conference presenters Dee Clark and Debra Velasquez of the Environmental Protection Agency reported that their contact center earned a 95% on a recent customer satisfaction survey.

I thought you might like to download presentations and handouts from the December 10th conference.  Some of my favorites:

• Citizen Service Award Case Study by Mary Anne Bright of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).  NCI's Cancer Information Service is a 2008 winner of the USA Services 2008 Citizen Service Award and a leading scorer on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
• A form for assessing how easily your customers can contact you - provided by Kevin Paschuck of RightNow Technologies
• The EPA's Call Center's Path to Success - a brief story of how a call center that handles 5,000 calls, 3,000 e-mails, and 400 faxes per month does a great job.

Do you have a good or bad government customer service story to tell?  Let us know and we'll feature it here.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

E-Mail Customers Love: Your Order Is On Its Way

A nightmare from Christmas past: two days before my family’s holiday gathering, I realized that I hadn’t received the many books and CDs I’d ordered from Amazon. When I called Amazon to check, I found out there was a problem with the order and it hadn’t been shipped.

Worse, Amazon told me that I wouldn’t get the gifts in time for my holiday celebration. I angrily canceled the order and scurried to a jam-packed mall for some power shopping.

Now I look for—and welcome—transactional e-mails that confirm my purchase and track my packages. But while these e-mails are now ubiquitous, they are not as useful as they could be. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen called transactional e-mail a powerful tool for “strengthening customer service and increasing user confidence and trust. ” But his  research (Alertbox, October 20,2008, “Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages”) found “appallingly low” scores on transactional e-mail usability.

The problems: e-mails from unrecognizable senders with vague subject lines, body text that is too long and difficult to scan, and content that doesn’t provide the information users want. So how can you write transactional e-mail that your customers welcome and find useful? 

1. Identify the brand and purpose in the “From” field
Bottomline: “People don’t open messages from senders they don’t recognize,” says Nielsen. Use “From” to let your customer identify the sender and know why it was sent. For example, “Best Buy Online Store” identifies the seller’s brand and lets the user know the mail is about an online transaction.

2. Write e-mails with specific “what about” subject lines
The best subject lines are specific to the customer transaction. A winner in Nielsen’s user testing was the simple and direct: “Order has shipped.” This subject line—coupled with a recognizable “From”—was so useful that many customers didn’t open the e-mail. They  saved these messages in case the package didn’t arrive. (And to use to place future orders with the company!)

3. Be brief
Customers are turned off by transactional e-mails that begin with marketing messages or have other irrelevant information. Write and format the message so that users can quickly find the information they need. 

4. Provide information customers want

• Tracking number. Almost all users looked for this.  Even if they didn’t track the order, users found the tracking number “comforting evidence that a package was on the way.”
• Order summary. Provide a simple description of what was actually ordered. This helps users verify their purchase and notify the company right away if the order is incorrect.
• Contact information. Provide a phone number, e-mail, web address and procedures for contacting the company if there’s a problem.

Nielsen also advises against sending too many e-mails. Sending a confirmation message immediately after the order is processed, then a second e-mail when the item has shipped, works best. More e-mails confuse customers; they may overlook an important message, thinking they’ve already read it.

I love transactional e-mail—the confirmation that arrives within seconds of placing the order. (This company is efficient!) And I like tracking the package through the process of order packed for shipment through delivered.  In a disorderly world where I can’t find my eye glasses on my desk, it’s comforting that someone (okay, a computer) knows exactly where my package is at any time. 

--Marilynne Rudick