Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 8, 2003:
Confirmation Email, Automated Customer Service Email, and Transactional Messages
Summary:
Transactional email can be a website's customer service ambassador, but messages must first survive a ruthless selection process in the user's in-box. Differentiating your message from spam is thus the first duty of email design.
Email is one of a website's most powerful tools for strengthening customer service and increasing users' confidence and trust in the site. Confirmation messages and other automated transactional email can complete the user experience: they reach out to customers in ways that are otherwise impossible for websites, which must sit still and wait for users to approach.
For email to fulfill this potential, messages must be designed for optimal usability, with a user interface that works in the context of a crowded in-box and the user's typically hectic approach to reading mail. Unfortunately, most companies don't seem to view email creation as a user interface design activity, possibly because most messages are text-only, and thus don't seem "designy."
Judging by many of the messages we tested, email design is often a side effect of the software implementation and consists of copy written by the programmer late at night. Alternatively (and even worse), some emails are hard-hitting, written by aggressive sales people whose main marketing experience might well have been as barkers for Crazy Eddie, an electronics chain known for its overexcited sales pitch. Such messages are barely distinguishable from spam and are often deleted unread. The company thus loses an opportunity to build up its reputation for good customer service.
User Research
We user tested 40 transactional email messages, observing users as they interacted with the email in the in-box view and read individual messages. The messages belonged to the following categories:- order and service confirmations
- shipment notifications
- reservation confirmations and e-tickets
- available-now notices
- billing and payment notices
- cancellations, returns, refunds, rebates, and bonuses
- information-request responses
- government responses
- customer service messages
- failure notices
- registration and account information
A striking conclusion from the study is that processing email is a stressful burden on people. Users frequently told us that they were too busy to deal with certain email messages and that they considered any fluff in messages a waste of time. When users "check their email," they're dealing with multiple requests for their time, including messages from their boss, colleagues, and family. People just want to be done with most email, and quickly move past anything that is not absolutely essential.
It has long been a strong usability guideline to be brief when writing for the Web; email writers must be even briefer.
Surviving Spam-Filled In-Boxes
Transactional email has three goals:- Avoid being mistaken for spam. Email must survive users' ruthless pruning of in-box messages.
- Be a customer service ambassador. Email should enhance a company's reputation for customer service and increase users' confidence in their dealings with the company.
- Prevent customers from calling in. Telephone call centers are expensive. However, rather than simply eliminating contact information (which undermines goal number two), ensure that your email answers all common questions in easily understandable terms.
To avoid having messages summarily deleted from the in-box, email designers are restricted to working with two design elements in the form of microcontent: the from field and the subject line. To maximize impact, designers must optimize both.
In most cases, the from field should clearly show two things: a recognizable brand name (if available), and a function that clearly distinguishes the message as a transaction rather than an advertisement. In our study, effective senders included reservations@hilton, tickets@amtrack.com, and ship-confirm@amazon. Note that most of these from lines were truncated by the in-box view: you typically have no more than 20 characters to convince users that you're legitimate.
We saw many subject lines that worked and many that didn't. The main differentiator was the degree to which the subject line explicitly related to a customer-initiated transaction. Emails with subject lines that seemed too much like spam (e.g., "Important information") were deleted.
The very best subject line in the study was "Order has shipped." In fact, it was so good that many users didn't open the message. This is fine if your message contains no additional information that requires the user's immediate attention. Users typically saved such messages and said they would open it if the package didn't arrive and they needed the tracking number.
A good subject line is gold. Invest accordingly in writing the copy.
Avoid or Minimize Message Sequences
Companies that scattered a transaction across too many messages caused several usability problems. Users had difficulty keeping track of the messages, which contributed to in-box overload. This in turn increased the odds that users would overlook a message or think that they'd already read it.For transactions that involve the shipment of physical products, it's usually best to send two messages:
- A transaction confirmation immediately after the user has completed the online order process. If such a message doesn't arrive within a few minutes, users often suspect that something went wrong.
- A shipping confirmation with the tracking number once the package has been sent.
Tell Users What They Want to Know
We asked users to make a prioritized list of the content they wanted to see inside email messages. The specific lists are different for each message type, but the general guideline is simple: start with the information that matters most to users in the context of the transaction. In particular, almost everyone looked for tracking numbers, even if they never track packages. The tracking number seems to serve as comforting evidence that there's an actual package and that it's on its way.Not surprisingly, the most requested information was a simple description of specifics: exactly what was ordered (or done, for non-e-commerce transactions). Users requested this 58% more frequently than the second most popular information.
Lower on the priority lists, but still important for most transactions, was information about what to do if things go wrong.
In general, you should write the message according to users' priorities, starting with the information they're usually looking for. Email that begins with marketing messages or other seemingly irrelevant information runs a major risk of being deleted, because people might never scroll down to see the information they need.
Confirmation Email Builds Trust
Good email that respects users' time and quickly tells them what they need to know can do wonders for your customer service reputation. People don't really trust websites, but when they get a confirmation message, it seems like something is actually happening.At the same time, poorly designed email can erode a company's credibility. We asked users to rate their level of trust in each sender on a 1 to 7 scale; poor design elements decreased a company's ratings by up to two points. Lack of contact information was a primary concern, as was sending too much email, but even things like not getting to the point quickly could hurt a company. Remember, users are extremely busy and stressed when reading email. Wasting their time makes them feel like you don't care. Worse, you become part of the problem, not the solution.
Confirmation email and automated messages are great for connecting a website with its customers and for closing the loop in e-commerce and other transactions. Just remember: email is a user interface. Design your messages accordingly, aiming for maximum usability.
Learn More
110-page report on the usability of confirmation email and transactional messages is available for download.> See also: Usability of email newsletters (additional research on email usability)