A couple of years ago, I wrote creating canned emails responses with the FAQ of your website. In recent months, I noticed an influx of emails from customers, and it made me think about how I can update my canned email responses to cut down on back and forth. In addition to that, place the power back into the customer’s hands. Walking you through a step-by-step guide on to creating canned emails for your business to save you time, but always showing your customers, you do care.
Update Your FAQ Page
When was the last time you refreshed your FAQ Page on your website? Well, it’s an excellent time to update your business policies and guidelines. For example, as a product-based business getting your customers ready for holiday shipping policies. Or do you not accept returns on products? Do you require a PayPal address to match the shipping address? Outline that on the FAQ page of your website to help with your canned emails.
You will include a link in your customer; thank you email that directs them to your FAQ page if they have additional questions. A while back, an order went missing from Nasty Gal, and they had links for FAQ and support in the email. I didn’t have to go on their site to find the information. Finally, ensure that your website’s navigation indicates your FAQ, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy in the website’s footer.
Dropped Menu On Contact Form
The next step is making sure on your contact page your form includes a drop-down menu of options for your audience to select from. Here are a couple of examples; Shipping, Sizing, Returns, Digital Downloads, General Questions, Social Media Abamassdors, and so on. You want to make it easier for you to respond to these emails with your canned responses. By placing your top five to eight asked questions in your drop-down menu, you will easily navigate to the proper response faster. Make sure you provide an area for an order number, their email, and phone number on your contact form, so it is easier for you to find a said customer in your database.
Educate Your Customer With Canned Emails
Your response is not the time or place to admonish them for asking questions; however, an informed consumer is the best consumer to have in business. Those consumers are more likely to sing your praises and be a part of those who do word-of-mouth marketing for you, including video content in your canned emails for your business, teaching them how to navigate your website, or look up information in their account. There are four types of learners, and according to Atlassian, 65% of them are visual. Providing this extra step might be tedious at first, but it will save you and your customers later. It’s great to point out you can create these videos to be included on your FAQ page or make it a series on Youtube.
The Very Detailed In Your Response
When responding to your customer, you want to be welcoming and understanding. I know it can be frustrating at times, and you just want them to answer things themselves. However, they keep the lights going. In addition to that, they might see a problem that you don’t. A couple of, years ago I was shopping on a website, and their cart wasn’t working. I emailed the owner, and she thanked me and sent me free stuff. Come to find out, here the website had an issue. Her bounce rate was high, and she couldn’t figure out why. Here is a breakdown of things to include in your response back to your customer:
- Address the customer by their name
- Thank them for reaching out or for their purchase
- Restate the problem they are having
- State the solution either outline in a sentence or two, include bullet points if necessary, and link back to FAQ.
- Thank them for bringing this to your attention.
- Include a discount code of 10% off as a gesture (must be used within x amount of time)
The last point is not always necessary, but it’s about having exemplary service. Most businesses lack customer service skills and disregard their customer’s needs; we want to hone into issues and make sure we are a trusted source for our customers.
If you’re using Google Workspace solutions, Hubspot has outlined a step-by-step guide to creating canned emails for your business in Gmail under the template portion. The goal of creating canned emails for your business is to buy back time. Imagine answering 100+ customer emails daily with personalized responses and details. It would take up a bulk of your time, but if you invested in tools such as this, it would help you and your customers.
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash
