After a customer places and order and sends his or her credit card number to you via a (hopefully!) secure server, many wonder what happens next. Will they get a reply form letter letting them know their order was received? Will they receive a note saying thank you for the order? Will they be informed of a ship date? Or will the next contact from the company be when the package arrives a couple of weeks later? If it is the latter, you need to brush up on your customer service emails.

Especially if your business caters to those who may have never placed a single order online before, the personal touch is very important. Sending a follow up email, a PERSONAL follow up email, is extremely important for customer satisfaction.

As soon as an order is placed, the credit card processor often has their own version of an automatic email that is sent to the customer upon credit card approval. But in addition to this email, you should also send your own email as well.

When you send your own email, this does wonders for putting a customer at ease, and it will do wonders for your in box. How many times have you received an email "I placed an order, when will it ship?" with no name, address or order details given, other than hotrodgirl932543@hotmail.com, which doesn't match up to any placed orders. So then there are more emails back and forth while you try to get additional details out of the customer, while the customer feels less important since you didn't know exactly what she ordered and when it will ship.

As soon as you receive an order confirmation, you should send a reply with the following details:

• Any order/receipt/reference number from the order
• Items that were on the order
• Name and shipping address of customer
• Expected ship date and how it will ship
• Total amount of the order, including shipping/handling/tax
• Your own contact information for customer service inquiries

Never include a credit card number in your emails, as email is not a secure way of transfering this kind of information. If you MUST include something, only ever include the last four digits of the credit card number, but nothing more.

You can also send a second email informing the customer that her package shipped, and include any relevant tracking # and tracking URL.

By following these simple steps, you will provide a higher level of customer service, and you will cut down on all the following up with "where is my order" emails from customers.

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