Your email recipients who request service want solutions to their problems, not auto-generated messages written by the tech team. Learn how to do a techno-speak makeover.
It happened to me recently when I tried to change my address for an email newsletter I really wanted to keep:
- I typed in my email address (because the web form didn't load it in when I clicked the address-change link in the newsletter)
- I typed in my account password, or at least the one I think I used when I created the account
- I clicked "submit"
- I was returned a "Failed to Change Email Address" message
Um, okay. Now what? The message, while technically accurate, didn't tell what I had done wrong, how to fix it or who to contact for help.
So, I started over:
- I typed in my email address
- I typed in another shot at the password
- I clicked "submit"
- I again was returned a "Failed to Change Email Address" message
Now, I was mad. I went back to the login page and looked for the link that would help me recover my user name and password. No link! So, I tried a third password, only to again receive:
"Failed to Change Email Address."
I gave up and decided just to end it all and unsubscribe. Then, I glanced in my inbox, and surprise, surprise, there was an email from the newsletter publisher: "Thank you for updating your personal information." So, it worked, but not without aggravation coupled with lack of information.
And that's the lesson emailers need to remember. Only about half of your email program is the content you mail out, whether it's sales alerts, newsletters or the joke of the day. Equally as important is your subscriber's transactional experience.
How you handle requests or resolve problems shapes the way your subscriber feels about you and can affect whether he or she continues the relationship, breaks it off via unsubscribing or takes the easy way out and lodges a protest by clicking the report-spam button the next time the email shows up.
Yes, web pages and email messages are built by designers and coders who understand the technical language of coding. "Failed to change email address" is the logical result when the user enters incorrect data.
For the user, however, it's more than useless. As I noted above, it doesn't help him or her accomplish the task. It just drops the ball.
A day spent on the tech-support desk will show you how unfamiliar or scared off by technology most of your subscribers are. So, put a human face on your interactions with them.
Audit every user-facing page you can find on your website, especially interior pages like confirmations and error pages. Does the page look or sound like a welter of tech-speak? Or does it sound like conversation that helps the user solve a problem or feel good about the choices he just made?
Not only will you make your website and email program more user-friendly, but you can also do your Marketing 101 due diligence like building your brand and reinforcing your value proposition.
3 Quick Tech-Speak Makeovers
1. Error pages
This is most likely where your users will confront pure tech-speak, because technical failures trigger their appearance. Still, the people most likely to be looking at them will be users who have no idea they messed up until they see the error page.
Be as specific as you can about what went wrong, and offer either a solution or someone to contact.
Bad: "Failed to change email address."
Good: "We're sorry, but we were unable to change your email address as you requested because you entered the wrong login information" (or "entered the incorrect password"/"entered the wrong user name" if your system can detect the culprit). "Click here to have your login information emailed to you. If you are certain you entered the correct information, report the problem here."
(Of course, you need to have someone patrolling those reports, too.)
2. Data-entry buttons
What do yours say? Unless you operate a bondage website, "submit" probably doesn't reinforce your brand image or convey the proper value proposition.
Label the buttons either with the actions you want users to take or with a short message explaining the benefits of clicking.
Bad: "Submit." "Enter." "Click here."
Good: "Subscribe Here," "Change Address," "Buy Now!," "Sign up now for email-only offers."
3. Confirmations
When you execute an action, you get either an error message or a confirmation that the execution succeeded. That's not enough information in the real world, however.
Your confirmation should sound warm and reassuring in keeping with your site's language, style or "feel." You want users to feel excited that they signed up or confident that their changes, whether updates or unsubscribes, will be handled correctly.
Bad: "Successfully subscribed to XYZ Newsletter."
Better: "Thank you for subscribing to XYZ Newsletter. Your first issue will be emailed soon. Click here to fill out a personal profile so we can send you the information you most want to receive. Read our privacy policy here."
Even better: "Thanks for subscribing! You have signed up to receive the XYZ weekly newsletter, news bulletins and information about the XYZ Company.
"If this information is incorrect or if you would like to modify your subscription, click here to change it on your personal profile page.
"To read our current issue now, click here.
"We send our mailings from 'newsletter@XYZ.com.' Please add this address to your contact list or address book to be sure the newsletter arrives in your inbox and not your spam or bulk-mail folder.
"We will use your address only to send you the mailings you requested and to communicate with you about your subscription. For more details, read our privacy policy here.
"If you have any questions, or if you encountered any problems while subscribing, contact Customer Service here."
Sure, that's a lot more information. But at such a tender stage of your subscriber relationship, it either starts things off right or keeps your current subscribers happy that they joined up with you.
Wendy Roth is the senior manager of training services for Lyris Technologies.