My wife and I decided to try out Logoworks this past week. After starting her order, Logoworks apparently sent her an automated email showing how she could finish the process.
The email even offered help if we needed any. We could simply call their toll free number, listed as “1-800-xxx-xxxx.” The “xxx-xxxx” in the phone number weren’t digits but the letter X.
It appears as though the email designer put those in as a placeholder and no one went back to add in the real number. Now this email is being sent to countless people and Logoworks may never know.
In e-commerce, thorough testing of outgoing emails is a critical part of releasing any new updates to your system. You should test those at the time they are rolled out to your production systems.
Augment your initial roll out testing by signing up for your automated emails. If you are receiving what your customers see, you’ll more quickly spot errors, typos, or any problems. This works well for subscription type emails or even autoresponders.
Your customer should never open an email that you haven’t already seen. Naturally the content of the mail may be customized for the customer. However, the template or copy writing around any personalization must be reviewed and tested.
Your customers may be nice and willing to notify you of problems. However, many customers will never say a word when something goes wrong. If you solely rely on them to test your product, you may hear about trouble or errors after much damage has already occurred.