No matter what industry you’re in, the people who interact with your business have an experience – a user experience – that is either positive or negative. This applies whether you’re launching the hottest new iPhone app, offering enterprise software, or whether you’re a public utilities company. Yep, even them. Now, while government services often have little or no competition, the user’s experience should still matter. There’s this little thing called having ‘empathy’ for your users that we UXers talk about all the time. It should apply whether you’re the only game in town, or whether you have a lot of competition.
Getting user experience right – GOV.UK
Take for example the work that was done by Sarah Richards and her team for the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service. They took over 400 separate government websites and through the use of content design, consolidated them down to one website that provided a great user experience. Not only did Richards do what seemed to be impossible, but she created a new discipline – Content Design – in the process. Her book Content Design is a must read for anyone interested in UX writing or content design. What we can learn from GOV.UK is that all industries can and should take user experience into account, whether or not that user can opt for a different service provider.
The UX of transactional emails
One area that I think UX writing could benefit a lot of companies is in their transactional emails. I’m not talking about rewriting every single word either. Sometimes the simplest changes can have a big impact. We’re talking tiny decisions, such as choosing the right punctuation mark. Yes, the right punctuation mark can go a long way in improving a user’s experience. (I’m totally serious.)
Case in point – For the last year, I’ve been a bit irked by the email I get letting me know my water bill is ready. Why? Well, here’s how it starts:
Dear NAME,
Your bill is ready to view online!
So, what’s wrong with that sentence? At a first glance, maybe nothing…and yes, I’m being extra picky, but that one small character – the exclamation point – bugs me. It never fails to annoy me in this particular email.
I’ll be the first to admit that I can be an abuser of the exclamation mark at times – using it like a 5-star rating system to notify the receiver just how excited I am about whatever I’m saying!!! But can we all agree that there’s nothing exciting about a water bill being ready to view online? I’m sure some well-meaning person was trying to be upbeat in an otherwise disappointing situation – money must leave my account and go to the city. Worst case (and unlikely) they are patronizing me…hey fool, your bill is ready! Aren’t you excited? We’re excited to get your money!!! However, even if that’s not the intent, it kinda feels that way sometimes.
Ok, so perhaps I’m being a bit dramatic, but you get the point.
And yes, I realize it isn’t a huge deal, but I can’t help it – it bothers me when I see it. The question is, does it bother others as well? Some user research would answer that question.
What they got right from a UX perspective
The city’s excitement over my bill is annoying, but they have made improvements to the UX of their emails. For example, the email notifying me that my bill was ready did not indicate what amount was due in the email, until they made that change a year ago. Previously, in order to see the amount I had to log-in and click through to my bill. This was annoying, especially if I tried to log-in from my phone and couldn’t remember my password. Add another step to the task…Ugh.
The inclusion of the amount due in the bill notification email is a nice addition. There’s still no due date listed, so that’s an improvement I’d like to see, but they’re heading in the right direction.
How will you upgrade your user experience?
So, why did you have to read a whole exposé on my water bill? Hopefully, you have some ideas to upgrade your transactional emails in the user experience department. If you’ve never thought about the user experience of your transactional emails, now is a great time to start. If you aren’t sure and want some help, you could always get a UX writer to help you out(!!!).
Need a little help giving users the best experience possible? Get in touch with me here and we’ll set up a time to chat.