Confirmation email: I ordered a pizza on the internet! (I know, nobody cares)

Ok, chances are you're not that interested in the barbecue pizza I ordered Sunday night at Pizza Hut (I can feel your esteem for this blog dropping significantly). So I'll try to keep it short.

So, Sunday night, I order a barbecue pizza (and garlic bread) on the Belgian website of Pizza Hut. Everything goes very well, the site is pleasant to use and the order is done without any hitch. On the confirmation page, I find this sentence: "Please find the delivery time in the confirmation email that will be sent to you." (or more or less, I forgot to take a screenshot).

A few seconds later, I receive a confirmation email from Pizza Hut, but no mention of a delivery time = frustration!

The order confirmation email: the context must define the information to be presented to your customer

When it's 7:33 pm and you order food, it's likely that you are hungry. Here, beyond the summary of the order, the order number, the delivery address, the price you still have to pay, ... what you are interested in is the time at which you will be delivered and at which you will be able to eat.

The purchase confirmation email is not only a technical information that you will send to your customers, it is an essential part of the shopping experience. When you buy something on the Internet, what is your first instinct when the confirmation page appears in front of your eyes? Go and see if you have received the confirmation email.

In order to ensure that the right information is present in your email and that it is properly prioritized, there are several things you should keep in mind:

• Time When can I expect delivery? For a trip, are the departure and arrival dates correct?
• Payment How much did I pay? Is there anything left to pay? How can I pay the balance? Has my discount code been applied?
• Delivery Is the delivery address correct? Where can I pick up my package? How do I print my tickets ? How do I track my package ?
• References Where is my order number? Do I have a customer number?
• Products What products have I ordered? Are the quantities correct?

You need to ask yourself these questions to make sure you address all the questions your customers might have. More importantly, in the context of the purchase, what are the questions your customers are most likely to have?

It is essential to prioritize the information, it is the key to a successful transactional email.

Services related to your order

Before concluding, don't forget to think about the ancillary services that should be available from your confirmation emails. In the case of the pizza we talked about, no phone number was available to reach the "Pizza Hut Delivery". Probably a missed opportunity to generate upsell.

In another context, on a flight reservation for example, the printing of tickets or the check-in should also be available directly from the confirmation email. In general, think about making life easier for your customers in their "after-sales" relations by providing them with direct access from the confirmation email.

This is a good opportunity for you to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. For example, if it is never pleasant for a customer to cancel an order, making it easier for them to do so directly from the confirmation email without having to search through the depths of your website or via your call center will be excellent for the image they will have of you. In addition, by minimizing your customers' frustration about service cancellation, you will limit negative comments on social networks and elsewhere. Who says email can't be used to build a good reputation?

See also the analysis article of an order confirmation email of the FNAC.