Case Study: Rewrite of a Wayfair.com customer email
This email message invites customers to take a satisfaction survey after the customer has dealt with customer service.
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Background: Wayfair.com
Customer satisfaction survey invitation email
Customer satisfaction surveys are a standard part of customer service interaction today. The numbers generated are used in many ways from Net Promoter Scores gauging the likelihood of the customer recommending the company to a friend, to Customer Satisfaction with an individual representative. All of these surveys require the company to ask the customer to participate with an invitation.
This particular email goes out to customers asking them to rate their experience with the customer service agent. In many cases the responses back may praise the individual agent in the comments section while at the same time giving low marks because the overall experience was a poor one due to problems outside of the agent’s control, ie. problems with a carrier.
Original email
Share Your Experience
Hi [CT Name],
You recently interacted with our customer service team — and we’d love to hear about your experience.
Please complete a quick survey to help us ensure you always receive the best support possible.
Start Survey
Thanks for your time!
We look forward to receiving your feedback.
The Wayfair Team
You Interacted With:
[Agent Name] — [Location]
Goals: Increase readablilty, Focus specificity, increase response rate
The following words were highlighted as not being on the Dale-Chall list of simple words: recently, interacted, experience, complete, survey, ensure, support, receiving, and feedback.
Despite this, the email did score fairly well in readability. Scoring from a low required grade level of 3.0 on the Linsear Write scale to a high of 8.7 on the Coleman- Liau scale, with most others falling at 5-6.
As explained in the goals section, often customers would use this survey to vent about the whole of their experience on the order. These satisfaction surveys have a high percentage for determining agent’s rankings and bonuses so low marks here have a drastic result on the agents overall stats. This ‘overall’ experience feel is encouraged by some of the wording of the email.
Response rates for any type of after the fact email is generally poor. regardless of industry. You are asking the customer to take yet more of their time to grade your performance with no benefit, except potential good service, for them. If their service was good, even exemplary, there is little to make it worth their time. As a result, responses to any type of survey like this skew negatively. If people have had a bad experience of any kind they want you and anyone else to know about it.
Result: Better Readabilty Scores, Focused on Customer Service, Customer Centered
With the rewrite, words highlighted as not being on the Dale-Chall simple words list are down to 3, recently, ensure, and survey. Readablility grade levels overall dropped. The low and high stayed about the same but the bell curve moved to 4-5. While it is standard to write to an 8th grade level, when dealing with a population that may include non-native English speakers writing to a 4th grade level is considered standard.
From the opening the new email makes it clear the specific interaction I want them to think about. I mention the agent’s name from the outset. Pointing out the type of interaction they had with the agent adds to the specificity of the encounter.
Adding an additional line calling out the chance to give feedback on other aspects of the overall experience lets the customer know the company is interested in what they have to say and validates that their experience is important. It also subtly cues the customer that the point of this email is their interaction with customer service.
Rewrite
How did [Agent Name] do?
Hi [CT Name],
You recently [talked/chatted/emailed] with [Agent Name] on our customer service team- and we’d love to hear how they did.
Please answer a quick question to help us ensure you always receive the very best customer service possible.
If you have other concerns you can let us know at the end of the survey also.
Start Survey
Thanks for your time!
We look forward to hearing from you.
The Wayfair Customer Service Team