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This article is to provide some advice on one of the more important features of your website - The automatic sending of an email for the confirmation of orders, received payments and shipment of orders. To edit your order statuses navigate to Administration > Order Statuses, then click on the name of the order status to edit. Explanation of the main Order StatusesSo first, an explanation of the three main Order Statuses you'll be dealing with is needed and are explained below. Whilst they may seem self explanatory at first glance, it is worthwhile knowing exactly what the developers had in mind for the intended use for each of these. Open: Order has been placed, but the payment has not yet been received. This is the Order Status that will result from Orders placed with the Phone Ordering and Direct Debit / Bank Transfer payment methods, as the payment is not received at the same time as the order - The customer either has to call you with their credit card details, or send the Bank Transfer. Processed: Order has been placed, payment has been received and the order is waiting to be shipped. This is the case for orders where the payment has been received through Phone Ordering or Direct Debit / Bank Transfer, or for orders which the payment was made before the order was finalised, such as through the automated PayPal or eWAY payment gateways. Complete: Order placed, payment received, order has been shipped. Once you have shipped the order, you should set it to Complete so that the customer is aware that they should receive the package soon. As your order progresses through these Order Statuses, an email will be sent to the customer (by default) with the contents of Open (if applicable - Direct Debit, etc), Processed and Completed Order Statuses. What should be in each of the Order Statuses content areas?Note: It is strongly recommended you leave the 'E-mail subject' as is. The email automatically has 'Your order ' before the content in this area, so if you wish to edit the E-mail subject, this is something to take note of. Eg, Your order has been placed successfully. OpenSince the customer has already placed the order, they might forget to note down the Direct Debit or Phone Ordering details. These details should be provided a second time in an email which they will receive as soon as they've placed the order in case it was not written down. This way, the customer will always have a copy of your details to send the Bank Transfer through, or the number to call to arrange a credit card payment. Some customers like to place orders, then pay on the day they get paid, so do not expect all payments to be received within 1-3 days after the order has been placed. You would also want to add an email address for them to contact you on if they have any questions, or if you're open to them calling you on your Landline and/or Mobile Number, providing that too would be great too. Recommended content is something along the lines of: Thank you for the order! Please make your payment at your earliest convenience through to the below bank account, and in the Transaction Description, please use your last name so that we can link the order with the payment. If you are intending to pay by providing us with your credit card details over the phone, please contact us on (##) #### #### or on (mobile) #### ### ### within the hours of 9am and 7pm AEST. Bank Name: (eg, Commonwealth Bank) Bank Account Name: BSB: Account Number: Thanks again, The Your Website/Business Name Here Team ProcessedUsed for orders where the payment has been received through Direct Debit / Bank Transfer, Phone Ordering, or through the automated payment methods of PayPal / eWAY, you will want to provide some information to the customer still in case they would like to get in contact with you, along with advising them of the approximated delivery timeframes and then thanking them for the payment and the order. Recommended content is something along the lines of: Thank you for the payment! We will process your order shortly. Depending on which shipping method you've chosen at checkout will determine the time before you should receive your package. Just a reminder, the delivery timeframes are: Australia Post - Regular - 3-5 days Australia Post - Express - 1-2 days If you would like an update for when your order will be shipped, or if you have any questions, feel free to contact us on (##) #### #### or on (mobile) #### ### ###, or by email on Your Email Address Here. Thanks again, The Your Website/Business Name Here Team CompleteUsed for orders where you have shipped all the items in the order. Let the customer know that you've shipped the order, they should receive it shortly, provide them some contact details if they have any questions or have not received their parcel within X days, and finally provide them a final thank you message. This is also considered a great section to place some marketing or promotional material, such as providing 5-15% off their next order with a coupon code provided to them (for more info on coupon codes, click here) and/or to provide a link to your social media or sign up for your newsletters for special promotions and discounts. You may also want to send a separate email to the customer letting them know of the tracking code if you are sending your parcels with tracking. Recommended content is something along the lines of: Thank you for shopping with Your Website / Business Name Here! Your order has been shipped, and you should receive it within a few days. Just a reminder, the delivery timeframes are: Australia Post - Regular - 3-5 days Australia Post - Express - 1-2 days If you have any questions, feel free to contact us on (##) #### #### or on (mobile) #### ### ###, or by email on Your Email Address Here. OPTIONAL: We'd like to offer you 5/10/15% off your next order with us! Use the coupon code CODEHERE to redeem. OPTIONAL: You can sign up for our newsletter below to receive special promotions and discounts at our store. MAILCHIMP SIGN UP FORM HERE Thanks again, The Your Website/Business Name Here Team Important note: It is very strongly recommended that after making your edits, that you do a test run to see what the customer will receive in emails. You can create a test product with the price of $1, with free shipping selected in the Shipping Properties tab so that you can test that the three emails are now on longer or are now going to the correct email addresses, and to also take a look at what content you've received in case it needs revision. Disable automatic emails for a specific order statusIf you'd like, you can disable the automatic emails from being sent to either or both of the Customers' Email Address or the Orders Department Email address (set in Settings > Company). Whilst this is not recommended, as it is preferably and great customer service to keep customers in the loop of where their order is up to, to disable these for specific order statuses, follow the below: Navigate to Adminstration > Order Statuses. Click on the name of the Order Status you wish to edit. If you want to disable the automatic emails going to the customer for the chosen order status, click to uncheck the box for 'Notify customer'. If you want to disable the automatic emails going to your Orders Department email address, click to uncheck the box for 'Notify orders department'. Click Save. It is hugely important after making any change like this to do a test run through. You can create a test product with the price of $1, with free shipping selected in the Shipping Properties tab so that you can test that the three emails are now on longer or are now going to the correct email addresses, and to also take a look at what content you've received in case it needs revision.
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