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

Okay, chances are you're not that interested in the barbecue pizza I ordered from Pizza Hut on Sunday evening (I can feel your esteem for this blog dropping significantly). So I'll try to keep it brief. So, Sunday evening, I order a barbecue pizza (and garlic bread) from the Belgian site of Pizza Hut. Everything went very smoothly, the site was pleasant to use and the order went through without a 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 sign of a delivery time = frustration!

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

When it's 7:33pm and you order food, chances are you're hungry. Here, beyond the order summary, the order number, the delivery address, the price you still have to pay, ... what you're interested in is the time at which you'll be delivered and at which you'll be able to eat. The purchase confirmation email isn't just technical information you're going to send to your customers, it's an essential part of the shopping experience. When you buy something on the Internet, what's the first thing you do as soon as the confirmation page appears before your eyes? Check that you've received the confirmation email. To ensure that the right information is present in your email, and that it is correctly prioritized, there are a number of things you shouldn't forget:

• 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're addressing all the ones your customers might have. More importantly, in the buying context, what questions are your customers most likely to have? It's essential to prioritize information, as this 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 accessible from your confirmation emails. In the case of the pizza we mentioned, there was no phone number available to contact Pizza Hut Delivery. No doubt a missed opportunity to generate upsell. In another context, on a flight booking for example, ticket printing or 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, while it's never pleasant for a customer to cancel an order, making it easy for them to do so directly from the confirmation email, without having to search the depths of your website or your call center, will be excellent for their image of you. What's more, by minimizing your customers' frustration over service cancellations, you'll 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.