What is Transactional Email and How is it Used?

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Transactional Email|What is transactional email and how is it used?What is transactional email and how is it used?

Definition

“A transactional email is an automatic email sent to a single recipient to confirm a transaction or an event.”

Transactional emails have the highest opening rates because they are a direct response to a previous action; the user is somehow already waiting for them. In general, the click-through rates are incredibly high.

Transactional email is a service email that is sent after a user’s action, for example, a welcome message after registering on a website, a reset password confirmation, an auto-responder, a purchase receipt, etc.

Transactional emails are functional, and they are necessary for the normal functioning of your activity. If they are no longer sent, the function they perform ceases to be fulfilled, which can have severe consequences and cause you to lose many customers. Since transactional emails are so good for marketing, it is vital to ensure that they are delivered correctly to recipients and to trace it accurately.

Difference between email marketing and transactional email

Unlike marketing emails (newsletter type), which are sent in mass, transactional emails are sent to a specific recipient to confirm an action or notify them of an event. Typically, transactional emails include order confirmations, invoices, etc.

Types of Transactional Email

Invoices and receipts

Invoices and receipts can be integrated directly into confirmation emails but are sometimes the subject of a dedicated transactional email.

This kind of transactional email is particularly the case for:

  • Services not requiring delivery tracking
  • Subscriptions requiring the sending of an invoice at regular intervals

Tracking control

Your communication after a sale should not stop at the confirmation email. The various order follow-up emails have a crucial role in managing the wait.

You can send an email to notify your customers of the different stages of the order:

  • Order preparation
  • Shipped
  • Arrival order

Order confirmation

Your customer expects the transactional email the most. It is essential if you sell products or services online.
Pledge of seriousness and confidence for your customers; it must fulfil several objectives:

  • Confirm that the order has been taken into account
  • Reassure the customer
  • Send him all the information necessary for follow-up (order reference, access to his account, customer service contact, etc.)
  • Give him an estimate of the delivery time

This email plays a vital reinsurance role, and it often happens that the user has doubts about taking into account his actions, hence the importance of confirmation emails.

For some customers, ordering online is still something unusual and sometimes anxiety-provoking: a particular order confirmation email should reassure them that you are serious.

Password reset

The password reset email allows you to configure a new password via a single link. It is one of the essential transactional emails to set up: without it, your users who have forgotten their password have no way of being able to access their account!

How to set up your transactional emails?

Transactional emails are based on the SMTP protocol and require a specialised solution to ensure constant and reliable deliverability.

Use a dedicated and reliable solution

The best option is to go through a specialised transactional email services to manage your transactional shipments, such as sendgrid transactional email.

Sendgrid indeed offers many advantages compared to transactional emails included in CMS such as Prestashop, Magento, Woocommerce:

  • Real-time monitoring of performance indicators: deliverability, openings, etc.
  • Ability to customise your templates
  • Optimal and instant deliverability

Using the native solutions of most CMSs, you have no way of knowing if your transactional emails have arrived at their destination!

Separate your transactional mailings from your marketing campaigns

It is also essential to choose a solution that allows the routing of transactional emails to be separated from marketing emails.

Transactional emails are a vital point on your site and should not be penalised by the necessarily lower deliverability of your marketing mailings.

A problem in a marketing campaign can quickly lead to a decline in your reputation with email providers. You must, at all costs, avoid this impacting your transactional mailings.

Tips to Improve Your Transactional Emails

Finally, here are some tips to improve your transactional emails:

  • Keep the email concise and very clear. The user already knows what he expects, so be synthetic.
  • Send them a few seconds after the user action.
  • Use the most beautiful and most uncomplicated model to encourage clicks.
  • Place your contact details at the bottom of the page (footer).
  • Always send from an active address, better if authenticated.
  • Pay attention to the subject, and it must indicate the content of the transactional email to make it immediately recognisable in the inbox.

How To Deal With Unpaid Invoices In Business

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Unpaid Invoices|How To Deal With Unpaid Invoices In BusinessManaging cash flow is so important in business, which is why unpaid invoices are such a huge problem. If you have a lot of customers that are not paying up on time, that will soon lead to cash flow issues and it could mean the end of your business if you are not careful. All businesses deal with a few tricky clients at some point, but if it is becoming a regular occurrence, you need to do something about it. The good news is, there are some simple ways that you can get your customers to pay up on time. These are some of the best ways to avoid unpaid invoices and improve your cash flow.

Provide Clear Invoices

If a customer doesn’t want to pay up, they will try all sorts of tricks to avoid the invoice. They may say that they didn’t know that the invoice was due or they might challenge some of the items on the bill to delay payment and try to get a discount. You can avoid that by writing a detailed and clear invoice that breaks down exactly what they are paying for and when the invoice is due. It’s also important that you keep a clear paper trail when negotiating the price and sending them quotes so they cannot claim that the invoice is higher than agreed.

Consider Recurring Payments

If you have clients that use your services on a regular basis, consider asking them to set up a direct debit for recurring payments rather than issuing a new invoice every month. It makes life easier for you and for the customer and if you use recurring billing software, it’s simple to manage. You can make the prospect more attractive to customers if you offer them a small discount in exchange for making recurring payments every month. This gives you a good steady income, which makes managing your cash flow a lot easier.

Build Good Relationships With Customers

If your customers like you, they’ll be more willing to pay up on time, but if you don’t have a good relationship with you then they will be far more likely to leave invoices unpaid. It’s important that you build good relationships with your customers from the outset, and if you do, you will find that you don’t have an issue with unpaid invoices.

Don’t Be Afraid To Chase People Up

Sometimes, business owners are afraid to chase people up because they don’t want to damage their relationship with customers. However, if you allow people to get away with paying invoices late, they will take advantage of you and the problem will only get worse. It’s best to be clear from the beginning and if people have not paid, call them up and ask them where the money is. In most cases, people will pay up and if they decide that they don’t want to work with you again in the future, you just have to accept that and consider it a win because you don’t have to deal with a tricky customer anymore.

Follow these steps and you should be able to avoid any unpaid invoices in the future.

Preparing Your Small Business For A Disaster

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Disaster Recovery Plan|Preparing Your Small Business For A DisasterSmall business owners wear many hats. They are marketers, IT specialists, inventors, accountants, security experts, website designers, human resources, and much more. There are so many different things to think about every single day, so it is little wonder that occasionally, something gets overlooked. For many businesses, that is a plan for what you would do to get your business back up and running after a disaster strikes. Almost three-quarters of small business owners do not have a written disaster recovery plan. While it is something that you hope you never have to use, having one in place is imperative.

Depending on where your business is based, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and fires are just some of the things that pose a risk to your company and your livelihood. Here, we look at some of the things that you can do to mitigate the risk, and if the worst should happen, what you can do to get back on your feet as soon as safely possible.

Before a disaster strikes

Identify responsibilities

Every person within your company has a role to play and responsibilities to handle, but often these can become blurred. It is important to note down in your disaster plan and make sure every person is aware of their responsibilities, and should there be a disaster, they know what they need to do.

Back up documents

The last thing that you want to do when your premises have been damaged or destroyed, or if conditions have made it unsafe to travel is to have to worry about finding out important documents. It is essential that you have at least one copy of all your relevant documents – insurance details, inventories, employee details, etc. Store these somewhere secure, and that is easily accessible.

Install security cameras

These might be damaged in the event of a disaster, but they are still worth having in to see what happened. They may be useful if you have to claim on your insurance as well.

Have secondary power sources available

Sometimes, the whole premises might not be damaged or destroyed, but the electrics blow or a storm knocks out your power. Give yourself a chance of trading, or at least make sure anything that relies on electricity such as fridges, freezers, tanks for animals etc. are kept running and protect your stock by having a secondary source of power available, such as industrial engines and generators.

Inventory

For both stick purposes and insurance purposes, an inventory is essential. Where possible, keep receipts and invoices as you may be asked to hand these to insurance companies as proof of costs, but having an up to date inventory of stock, machinery, and equipment is useful.

When a disaster strikes

Inform your employees

One of the first things that you need to do is inform any employees who might be due to work that day so that they know exactly what to expect. It is important to have a contact list accessible at all times. You also need to have a contingency plan fr paying your staff – it is vital that you try to keep paying staff as normally as possible, as you may find that you do not have a workforce when you are back up and running.

Work remotely

You may need to work remotely for a while, as may your staff. Ensure that you have access to the technology and tools you need – this is where cloud services are a good idea, as you and your team can access any documents required to continue working from anywhere in the world. Ensure that any confidential information is encrypted to prevent any hacks in the transfer of information – the last thing you want to be dealing with at this point is a huge data breach!

Let your customers know

Your customers keep your business going, so it is imperative to let them know what is going on as soon as possible. Pop a note on the door if it is safe or appropriate to do so, informing them of the situation and when you expect to be open again, as well as any contact details. Put a note on your website and a post out on your social media platforms.

Talk to lenders

If you have any loans or finance on anything, talk to your lenders and creditors. In a situation such as this, many will be willing to work with you to give you a payment holiday and catch up when things are back to normal, but if you don’t ask, you won’t get!

You can’t stop a disaster from happening, but the steps you take to prepare for one and how you deal with it afterwards can make the situation a little less stressful and get you back up and running as soon as possible.

Benefits of Help Desk for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Benefits of Help Desk for Your BusinessMany companies do not realize the benefits of IT help desk software until they are in a reactive mode trying to fix issues with hardware and software that continue to compound.

Imagine that you are an employee who has just spent hours working on a report when suddenly, your computer crashes. All your work is gone, and you are unable to get your computer to operate. In this technological era, most daily work functions depend on an internet connection and electronic appliances. When troubles arise, employees are dependent on the IT experts of the company to get their system back up and running. Implementing IT help desk software and best practices allows end-users to request and receive assistance as quickly as possible. Help desk software automates and streamlines IT support so that your support staff can efficiently handle tickets.

Improve Employee Productivity and Satisfaction

Employees rely on IT support staff to troubleshoot and mitigate technical issues. Employees can quickly open up a ticket using help desk software instead of spending time tracking down IT staff. This reduces employee downtime, and work can resume. Employees tend to become disgruntled when there are problems that result in wasted effort. Knowing that there is a team dedicated to preventing such problems will reduce frustrations. When frustrations are low and satisfaction is high, the company is in a better position.

Automated Support Ticket Management

Some companies use email to report technical issues. However, as the quantity of tickets increases, it becomes harder to manage and prioritize critical issues. Help desks organize, prioritize, and distribute tickets efficiently for the IT help desk staff.

Automated ticket management can improve your IT team’s performance and help them stay on top of all incoming tickets. It will distribute tickets based on location or type of issue. If many issues are originating from users located in the same area, a team member can be assigned all of those tickets. This reduces traveling back and forth from one person to another.

Another way ticket management can maximize efficiency is to delegate all similar tickets to one person. That team member will be able to work faster since they are in charge of one specific task.

IT Documentation and Analytics

A very useful benefit of help desks is the retention of all the different tickets, as well as the implemented solutions. Recurring problems can be dealt with promptly even if it is a new team member who is working on it.

Another benefit is being able to analyze the data and history that the system is saving. Many help desk software can generate reports so you can easily detect trends or bugs in the system. This information offers crucial insight into any holes within your company’s IT infrastructure. For example, if many employees are repeatedly reporting the same problem, then you know that you need to spend resources to correct it.

One Resource for All Answers

Tracking via help desk allows IT staff to manage and maintain resources for the whole company. This will build the company’s knowledge base and free up IT staff to troubleshoot more serious issues.

Once common issues are identified, staff can compile solutions that employees can easily follow on their own. This provides a single tool for the entire company to utilize when they need help, but assistance is unavailable immediately.

Another way to use help desk is to quickly provide office-wide announcements as soon as an issue is known to be happening all across the system. For instance, if a specific application is having problems, the IT team can broadcast to everyone that a solution is in the works. This will reduce confusion, as well as the number of tickets in the help desk system.

Help desks can be valuable to your company and its employees. It provides a way for the support team and employees to communicate with each other and to work together to bring the company onto the path of success.

The Benefits of the Best Equipment In Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Equipment|The Benefits of the Best Equipment In BusinessBusiness equipment, whether computers, cloud storage systems or freight shipping trucks, are always an investment that is worth it. But only if you know how to use it. However, for some companies, especially smaller businesses still unsure of their [place in the corporate world, it can be difficult to justify spending the money.

This shouldn’t be the case, though. Often, investing in the best equipment can be the first step towards your company experiencing better luck and improved fortunes. It’s not just about the potential benefits that it can bring in the future, though. You can also consider how it will appear immediately, especially if you want to understand whether it was genuinely worth it.

Increased Efficiency

The best equipment will also provide the most efficient performance, which is essential for a range of companies, whether you are office-based and require speedy processors, to a company that works on the road and requires a fast DC fuel transfer pump to stay on schedule.

This efficiency won’t just mean that the day finishes faster; it also means you can squeeze more tasks, contracts, and projects into a single workday. Doing too much in a short space of time can be stressful. It can affect your staff negatively and lead to overworking and burnout. However, by investing in equipment and tools that promote efficiency, you will find better results and less anxiety over what needs to be done every day.

User-Friendly Designs

Efficiency is not the only place where you will see improvements, though. A lot of the time, companies try to stick to the systems and tools they are used to as it saves them needing to retrain their employees. Retraining requires extra time they often don’t have,m and it can grind productivity to a halt.

However, with the best business equipment available, such training is often minimal. Much of the modern business tools and systems are so intuitive that there is less manual input or operation than ever while maintaining excellent quality.

Innovative Appearance

Optics are a massive part of attracting new clients and boosting your reputation. If you take advantage of the broad range of new technologies on offer, you can demonstrate to customers and investors that you are an innovative business that looks towards the future.

Too many companies get stuck in the past and set in their ways. However, this will only harm them in the long run. Instead of accepting that there is one way of doing things, it’s always beneficial to seek out upgraded technologies that could improve your business’ overall operation. Whether you’re looking to free up time, streamline, or generate more usable data, the industry’s best equipment will make that possible.

Best Benefits

Profit margins, budgets, and return on investments are all things that are hammered into business owners’ heads daily. While there is a good reason for this, it can be beneficial to invest in the best equipment available, especially if you are hoping to present your business as an efficient, intelligent, and innovative company that is prepared for the future.