Project Overview
Dell launched a redesign of their transactional post-purchase communications this past April. The goal was to update the look and feel of their emails, adhere to updated accessibility standards, and encourage customers to self-service before calling support.
My peer Nicole and I sought to understand how our customers feel about the redesigns, identify areas for improvement, and provide recommendations for further enhancements.
SPOILERS! A SNEAK PEAK…
We Conducted Research & Proposed New Changes
Below are the changes we made 🡣
To understand the reasons behind these decisions, keep reading.
1 | MOTIVATION
Image: An example of one of the post purchase transaction emails (pre-re-launch)
What's the Background?
My team was asked to revamp Dell's post purchase transaction emails because
Dell's online post-purchase experience changed
They do not meet new accessibility guidelines
They miss out on providing a personalized experience
They do not encourage self-service
Improvements we made:
Included more specific call to actions that encourage users to go to the online experience
Adjusted sections for accessibility and improved readability by using fewer sentences to convey messages
Created a more personalized experience by addressing customers' names
Added self-service call to actions to decrease call volume
Our Goal
It's been a few months since the launch of these new communications. Our goal was to understand how customers feel about our new emails, whether they achieved the business' goals, and how they could be strengthened.
Thus, we asked
How might we strengthen our new communications to resonate more effectively with our customers and drive business success?
2 | UNDERSTANDING
Digging Deeper Through Research
We gathered insights using 6 different methods. I looked at past research that was collected on order communications, sent out a survey to customers to gather new insights, and conducted a competitive analysis. Nicole dove deeper into data from Power BI, Glassbox, and our internal tool that is used to send out the emails.
Power BI Analytics
Analyzed dashboards to see whether the new emails reduced call volume and increased self-service
Past Research Surveys
Reviewed 6 past surveys to understand customers' overall thoughts surrounding post-purchase communications
Glassbox Analytics
Uncovered how customers feel about the transition between emails and the online experience
Rival Technologies Survey
Sent out a survey to ask more specific questions and gather new feedback
Competitive Analysis
Learned how 6 other companies approach transaction emails
Email Analytics
Gathered insights on how customers interact with the emails
While I can't speak to Nicole's research, I'll share more about the research I conducted.
Reviewing Existing Research
People love reminders
People like emails that are informational, but not too wordy where it becomes overwhelming
Creating A Survey
I sent out a survey to a panel of Dell customers to gather new data on this topic. I was curious to hear if any customers had noticed our new emails and had any feedback for them.
Overall, how helpful would you say your email communication from Dell is?
Have you ever needed to refer to an order email when calling customer service at Dell or somewhere else?
Thinking back, was the information you needed to provide the customer service representative available in the email?
What do you use most when it comes to emails about your order? Is there specific information you save or refer to? What's most useful?
Is there a company you can think of that really gets order communication right? Anyone who stands out to you and provides the best information when it comes to orders?
Survey Findings
1
There were generally positive reactions to Dell's communications.
In response to "Overall, how helpful would you say your email communication from Dell is?"
77.1%
Answered "Very Helpful"
A few shared feedback on how Dell could improve their emails:
"Only really missing a link to the product page."
"Dell can be a little too technical at times on orders."
2
People tend to save order confirmation emails to reference in the future for tax purposes
"I keep the receipt to refer to warranty information. Also required for tax purposes as I use my laptop for business too."
"I also use these emails for tax purposes."
"Email is saved and archived for tax purposes including all attachments and invoices."
3
Some customers expressed how they found it difficult to find information they needed in our emails
"The information is usually there but not as straightforward as it could be."
"Order number wouldn't always be in the body."
Overall, people think it's helpful when they are able to easily identify information online support would ask for immediately
"I like to have all the information that anybody in customer service might ask for. I like to have it readily available, and I like it to be obvious in the email."
Competitive Analysis
Our respondents identified companies that they think do a great job with order communications. I gathered emails I had received after placing an order in the past from some of the companies that were mentioned and highlighted different approaches and interesting features.
Learnings From Research
After reviewing the research we collected, Nicole and I sat down to discuss how we should move forward. We identified a few areas that could be improved and refined our goals in the beginning.
🡪
New Goals*
If many of our customers are
1. Using our transaction emails for support and/or tax purposes
2. Having difficulty with finding pieces of information in our emails…
How might we make it easier for customers to find the information they need for support, taxes, and other purposes in our emails?
If some customers reported difficulty understanding our emails and provided suggestions for improvements…
How might we tailor our messaging to better align with customer expectations and increase clarity?
*We had other goals that pertained to the research Nicole collected. For privacy, I will be only sharing the goals that came out of my research and my design work that addressed these goals.
3 | IDEATION
ADDRESSING THE FIRST NEW GOAL
Reflecting on Research
Keeping the first goal above in mind, I brainstormed different ways we could make it easier for customers to find the information they need quickly.
I was first curious to understand what pieces of information customers typically search for and find important.
Our research showed that the three pieces of information customers mainly search for are*:
Order Date
Purchase ID
Order Total
*Typically, agents will ask customers for their order date and purchase ID. Customers will search for their order date in emails for return and warranty purposes. Many have also shared they search for the order total for tax purposes.
ADDRESSING THE FIRST NEW GOAL
Reviewing Existing Designs
All customers who place an order on Dell.com receive a series of transactional emails from Dell. Unless there is a concern like a shipping delay or payment error, customers should expect the following emails in this order: Order Acknowledgement, Order Confirmation, Order Shipped, Order Out for Delivery, and Order Delivered.
Order Date, Purchase ID, and Order Total are only found in the first two emails: Order Acknowledgement and Order Confirmation.
Below is what the relaunched Order Acknowledgement email looks like (Order Confirmation follows the same format) 🡣
EXISTING DESIGN
ADDRESSING THE FIRST NEW GOAL
Brainstorming Solutions
My hypothesis was that it was difficult for customers to find Order Date, Purchase ID, and Order Total in the existing design due to how they were formatted and not included in every email. Customers may end up clicking through several emails before finding those pieces of information.
I thought of ways to summarize the information customers need at the top of every email in a format that is easy to read and find, similar to Walmart and Chewy's emails.
Option 1
Order Date, Purchase ID, and Order Total are in a table format at the top below the Dell Technologies logo
Option 2
Order Date, Purchase ID, Order Total are aligned horizontally in the gray banner
Option 3
Order Date, Purchase ID, and Order Total are summarized in a table format under "Order Summary"
Option 4
Similar design as Option 3, but there is an extra line that tells customers what to do with the information
I presented these 4 ideas to Nicole and our project manager, Ana. We moved forward with Option 3 for testing because it solved our issue with minimal UI changes to the existing design (therefore minimal effort for engineering) and follows how information is displayed in the online experience.
ADDRESSING THE SECOND NEW GOAL
Evaluating Value
Our second goal was to think of ways to improve the clarity of our emails. In the survey we sent out, a few customers shared features they wanted the emails to have and/or thoughts surrounding the clarity of our emails.
Customer 1
"Only really missing a link to the product page."
Customer 6
"The email should show the exact components of the component."
Above are a few things people mentioned.
I brainstormed ideas on how we could incorporate these suggestions in our designs, but we decided to not pursue any of these changes for the next iteration of the emails due to a few different reasons including but not limited to: not a priority, lack of space, email logistics (ex: too many links in an email can potentially mark it as spam).
We documented these ideas for use in future iterations.
4 | TESTING
HOW DO CUSTOMERS FEEL ABOUT OUR IDEAS?
Creating a Testing Plan
We tested our designs using UserTesting.com to better understand whether the changes we are recommending will improve our communications.
One of our goals was to see whether displaying order details in a table-like format improves the email to online support journey.
To test this, we showed our test participants 4 updated emails with the new table-like format (Order Acknowledgement, Order Confirmation, Order Shipped and Order Delayed) and asked the following questions:
1
When did you place your order?
2
What is your Purchase ID? What does this mean to you?
3
How much was your purchase?
4
What are the most important details of this email? Why?
TEST RESULTS
5-7 seconds 🡢 3-4 seconds
Previously, it took users ~5-7 seconds to find the Order Date, Purchase ID, and Order Total. The test showed that it takes users ~3-4 seconds to find these pieces of information with the new format.
We also had other goals we tested that led to a few other design suggestions we made. I will not be sharing them as they pertain to Nicole's research.
5 | EXECUTION
Our Proposal
at the
top of every email
we send out.
No more scrolling through inboxes and skimming every email to find the information you need.
to make email 🡢 online a more seamless experience
6 | REFLECTION
One of my goals was to strengthen my research skills and this project allowed me to be hands-on with the research from start to finish. In past projects, I typically worked with a dedicated researcher who managed the end-to-end process and overall strategy while I contributed ideas. I wanted to build my research skills to be more self-reliant in the future.
I LEARNED TO…
Reduce Biases
After sharing my first draft of survey questions, I learned how to word them to avoid leading respondents.
I also recognized the importance of being attentive to and identifying biases while reviewing survey responses. While it’s impossible to eliminate biases entirely, we should still strive to reduce them as much as possible
Uncover Themes
A mistake I made early on was trying to fix every problem a person mentioned. I’ve realized that it’s important to take a step back and consider the big picture, focusing on uncovering consistent themes.
A Big Thank You
To my co-designer Nicole, my PM Ana, and the rest of the Customer Communications Group for introducing me to the communications space and helping me strengthen my research skills.
MY OTHER PROJECTS:
Designed UI kits to enable rapid concept development for all teams at Dell Technologies.
Redesigned existing product registration experience to drive registration rates.
Holly Lee 2024