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Email Marketing for Each Customer Lifecycle Stage

Build relationships with your audience at every step—from prospect to purchase.

Understanding your customers’ journey is key to sending them the right message at the right moment. It’s essential for building relationships with your audience, and it helps you pinpoint when, how, and why key performance indicators (KPIs) fluctuate.

The customer journey tells the story of a prospect encountering your business and the steps they take toward conversion, or purchase, and beyond. It’s not necessarily a linear journey—not all customers follow the same path from one step to another. They may encounter obstacles that delay or prevent them from making a purchase. They might also receive marketing content that propels them toward a purchase, subscription, brand loyalty, or another end goal for your business.

When crafting an email marketing strategy , it’s essential to understand your business’s customer journey.

Start with these 5 stages

Customer journeys often align with the 5 key stages in lifecycle marketing, and this can be a great place to begin mapping:

• Acquisition. Acquiring customers is vital for any business, and it's essential to attract contacts to your audience . Signing up for your email marketing or following one of your social media pages typically comes after a customer has learned about your business. At this point, they may be researching your brand alongside several others. So, it’s vital to make a good impression with an automated welcome series. Use this moment to share what your business offers, set expectations about what you’ll send them, provide discount codes, and gather more information about them (like their birthday or preferences). Here are some more email marketing campaign tips to get you started.
• Consideration. The consideration stage is when a person thinks about moving from a prospect to a customer. For example, a customer may browse your e-commerce store, adding items to their basket. Then, for whatever reason, they close the tab and abandon their cart. Adding items to their basket brings them close to a potential transaction, and that sale can still happen with a timely reminder. Automated abandoned cart emails are a highly effective way to bring customers back at this stage in their journey. If items in the basket are going out of stock, create a sense of urgency by telling them that there are only a few left, or include customer reviews to convince them.
• Purchase. Marketing doesn’t end when a customer makes a purchase. Marketing is about communication and communication is very important at the point of sale . Be sure to send order notifications, thank you notes (especially to first time shoppers), and product follow-up emails. Include product recommendations in personalized emails.
• Retention. Keeping customers is essential for all businesses. There are many ways to build loyalty , like offering discounts to your best customers, acknowledging important dates like birthdays , and asking customers for their feedback. If you want customer feedback, send emails that remind them to provide it and thank them when they do. These engaged customers are extremely valuable, so you should treat them accordingly. Consider offering them exclusive content, like the latest offers and sneak previews.
• Re-engagement. Even inactivity can be a touchpoint on a customer’s journey. There are many opportunities to strengthen your relationship with your audience, even when some contacts haven’t interacted with your business lately (or ever). Highlighting the anniversary of a contact’s subscription can help bring them back. You can also re-engage a customer by sending them special offers. It’s important to remind unengaged customers how important they are to your business.

Use data to identify your customers’ journey

Understanding, mapping, and engaging with customer journeys requires analyzing data about your market and audience. The right data can tell you a lot about behavioral patterns that lead customers toward (or away from) the actions you’d like them to take.

The first step is to divide your audience into segments using data. You can identify common touchpoints at which different audience segments interact with your business, and then use those touchpoints to map out customer journeys.

Customer journeys will differ widely, depending on factors as varied as your business model and the particular circumstances of each customer. However, with the right data and segmentation, you can map customer journeys which will align with the behaviors and motivations of your segments.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools that log website interactions are invaluable when gathering the kind of data which tells a brand how customers behave on their site. CRO data can provide information on which content gets the most engagement, and where customers are likely to drop off. This information can also be found through your website analytics or in your all-in-one Marketing Platform . Use this data, as well as your email marketing reports , to maximize interest at points of engagement and to improve the user experience or increase engagement where it seems to decline.

Identifying obstacles on the path to purchase is vital. Barriers can be:

• Motivational. Motivational obstacles occur when customers lose interest in the product or have second thoughts about their purchase. Sometimes, motivational obstacles can be fixed with more engaging content at drop-off points. At others, marketing is key. Well-timed marketing emails, targeted at points in the journey when the customer starts to lose motivation—like abandoned cart emails—can make all the difference.
• Experiential . User experience (UX) is the key to a smooth customer journey. A clunky website or a dysfunctional email is likely to make prospects look elsewhere. Customer feedback is important to understand your business’s UX, and marketing is important for gaining feedback. For example, customers who leave items in their basket for a certain length of time may do so because they found the payment process too slow, involved, or frustrating. Email these customers to ask for feedback so that you can improve and potentially re-engage them.
• Temptation. If customers aren’t concentrating their efforts solely upon your business, there are points at which they may start to think that they could get a better deal from a competitor. Matching up data on customer drop-off points with data from competitor research may provide some insights into this obstacle, as will customer feedback.

Keep a close eye on your data and reference customer feedback for a clear idea of what is (and is not) working for each segment. When you identify obstacles on your business’s customer journey, you’ll know where to concentrate your attention.

Treat customers like people.

At all times, it’s important to remember that customers are people. It’s easy to get lost in the data and think of them as statistics and goals rather than the humans that they are. When working on customer journeys, it’s vital that you put yourself in their shoes . Data and automation provide much insight into when and where obstacles to the customer journey occur, but they can’t provide that human insight into why they occur. Data is key to defining customer journeys, but without human insight into what the data reveals, it’s useless.

But with customer feedback, robust data, and defined customer journeys, you’re on your way to the perfect email campaign.

Written by Jenna Tiffany for Mailchimp. Jenna is an expert in digital marketing strategies.

Related Topics

• Email Automations
• CRM Automations
• Transactional Email
• Map Customer Journeys

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The complete guide to customer journey management.

14 min read Effective customer journey management requires a keen understanding of how your customers move from touchpoint to touchpoint. Here’s how to understand and optimize every customer’s journey – and how to make proactive changes that boost the entire customer experience.

The interactions your customers have with you are never one-off moments, and they don’t happen in a vacuum. Instead, they form part of an overarching customer journey, which incorporates every single stage of each customer’s road to purchase – and beyond.

Understanding those customer journeys, and building experiences with every step in mind, is how you’ll create interactions that people love, remember, and recommend.

Delivering on those next-level customer journeys requires a deep understanding of how people discover your brand and buy your products, and that means working on a few core practices:

Customer journey mapping

Customer journey orchestration, customer journey optimization, customer journey analytics.

In this article, we’ll be going through the what, why, and how of customer journey management – as well as what mastering it will mean for your customers.

Deliver next-level customer journeys with Customer Journey Optimizer

What is customer journey management?

Customer journey management is the art of being able to understand, map, design, and improve the interactions and processes that make up the entire customer experience.

It’s a discipline stemming from the idea that no matter how a customer interacts with your brand, that interaction is one part of a larger journey and not just an individual event.

It doesn’t matter if a customer is actively researching your products, passively encountering a social media post, browsing in a physical store, or contacting customer support – whatever the interaction, it’s happening as part of an overall journey.

Managing that journey really just means making those isolated moments better, but also ensuring that they’re interconnected and aligned.

When exploring and visualizing customer journey data, we are assessing:

• Customer behavior What is your customer trying to do?
• Customer attitudes What is your customer feeling/saying?
• The on-stage experience Who/what is your customer directly interacting with? (This includes various channels, such as TV ads or social media)
• The off-stage experience Who/what needs to be in place but which your customer is NOT directly aware of?

The purpose of customer journey management is ultimately to finetune the customer experience until it’s as seamless as possible, that the path towards purchase is frictionless, and that each touchpoint works as part of a broader CX strategy.

Successfully managing customer journeys, then, requires that you can master a mixture of customer data, behavioral science, customer feedback, industry insight, and a dash of business instinct.

Customer journey management: A mindset shift

Building customer journey management processes into your business requires a mindset shift. It’s not something that you can do once and forget about, and nor is it something that’s a quick change. That’s because customer journey management is a multi-faceted task that asks a little bit of every department.

Instead of siloed teams looking after their individual touchpoints or KPIs, true customer journey management needs to have an omnichannel focus. You’ll need to work across departments to deliver more a seamless customer experience no matter how your customers choose to interact with you.

Customer journey management is about pooling your resources to answer the following questions:

• What journeys are your different customer segments taking?
• Are customers able to get the answers and solutions they need?
• Can you track and pinpoint where experience gaps lie?
• How can you work to proactively fix those pain points?
• Are you able to monitor the results of those changes?

Customer expectations are higher than ever, and people are much more careful with where they spend their hard-earned money. So it’s vital to be able to offer them journeys that offer zero resistance.

In that sense, customer journey management needs full company buy-in. It’s top-down, as well as bottom-up – where customer journey data informs both individual channels as well as your overarching business strategy.

The benefits of customer journey management

There are two core benefits to customer journey management: stronger business outcomes, and a better customer experience. But you needn’t just take our word for it; there’s strong evidence for both.

PwC , for example, cites that 65% of consumers are likely to become long-term customers if the entire customer journey offers a positive experience, while some 86% will leave a brand after two poor interactions, according to Emplifi. In fact, that same research says that 49% of consumers have done just that, with poor customer experience being the key driver of churn.

From a business outcomes perspective, there are plenty of reasons to ensure that your customer journeys are as polished as possible. Customer journey management means being able to offer customers a more personalized experience, for example, which is a great way to grow an audience of loyal customers.

Some 60% of consumers will become repeat buyers if the experience on offer is a personalized one, and 66% are willing to share personal data if it helps them get that. That shows an appetite for journeys that work better on an individual level. In our own 2022 research , we found that:

• 63% of consumers said companies need to get better at listening to their feedback
• 62% of consumers said that businesses need to care more about them
• 60% of consumers would buy more if businesses treated them better

And then there’s the fact that orchestrating and fine-tuning the customer journey will result in a stronger omnichannel experience – which also boosts sales. Omnisend research found that omnichannel campaigns and experiences can drive as much as 494% more orders than single-channel ones.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: customer journey management is an incredibly worthwhile practice to build into your business for three main reasons:

1. You become more customer-focused Customer journey management is about putting your customers at the forefront of your business practices and processes. 2. You can offer more personalized experiences You’ll know more about what makes your customers tick, which will let you tailor your offering to them in a more bespoke way. 3. You’ll break down siloes Customer journey management requires total transparency and teams that talk regularly to one another.

The building blocks of customer journey management

Let’s take a look at each part of the customer journey management framework:

A customer journey map is a theoretical version of the steps a customer persona or segment will take to achieve what they’re trying to do. That might be making their first purchase, making a repeat purchase, or seeking customer support.

The idea, then, is to create multiple customer journey maps for all of these different experiences and list out the steps and touchpoints along the way. This’ll give you an idea of the various processes that take place in any given journey.

You’ll normally create these maps as a team, as part of a journey mapping workshop. There are two stages here: defining your audience personas and outlining their various journeys.

Fo audience personas, you’re really asking who your customers are. What’s their age and location? What do they do for a living? What’s their family status? And what are their goals in relation to your product?

Their journeys can be understood by answering a series of behavioral questions. Who’s involved in the journey? What are the processes and stages? What does the customer think during these stages? What’s the greatest moment of emotional load? What are your customer needs at this moment? How do their needs change if this experience goes badly?

For the most part, this is an experience-driven process, rather than a data-driven one – in that your team should be able to create a customer journey map for a range of customer journeys based on instinct and understanding. These assumptions can then be tested by asking customers as part of your workshopping process.

Need more info? We’ve got a full guide to customer journey mapping here.

Customer journey orchestration and optimization

Once you know what your customer journeys look like, you can think about how to design ones that work best. If your customer journey mapping is a top-level exercise, then customer journey orchestration and optimization are more practical. These use customer data and a cross-team approach to ensure that customers can move from touchpoint to touchpoint smoothly.

Customer journey orchestration often relies on a dedicated team made up of marketing, product, and service personnel, who can work together to create more compelling journeys.

Imagine, for example, that you a customer has recently installed your SaaS tool, but now they’re experiencing an issue. Your customer service team will naturally spring into action here, but great customer journey orchestration would also mean that other teams know what’s happening.

Your marketing team, for instance, would know not to bombard that customer with collateral about how great the product is until their issue has been fixed. The product team, meanwhile, would know about the issue the customer is facing and would be proactively working to ensure that the issue doesn’t arise for anyone else.

In other words, orchestration is about designing processes that can be standardized as a ‘best practice’ framework for each and every customer journey.

If orchestration is about designing flows that offer the best possible experience, then optimization is about looking at the ones currently in place, identifying pain points, and working to fix them.

Optimizing customer journeys is a cyclical process, rather than a ‘one and done’ job. Here, you’ll use customer data points, insight from analytics, social listening tools, regular customer feedback, and survey responses to build a picture of both customer behavior and high-priority pain points.

Armed with all that knowledge, you’ll be able to take active steps to improve the customer experience wherever you can.

Imagine, for example, that you know that a lot of your target audience arrives on your website via Instagram ads, but that a high percentage of them bounce without making a purchase. One way to optimize that journey could be to build a series of landing pages that are unique to each segment – with each targeted social ad sending people to a more personalized product offering.

Whatever the case, it’s essential to monitor the success of these initiatives and learn if they’ve worked, or if things still need changing. Optimization is about being holistic and agile, and not ignoring the data and insight available to you.

This brings us to the last part of the journey management process…

While instinct and some level of customer insight will help you map out a range of customer journeys, the ability to orchestrate and optimize things relies on access to customer data.

Customer experience management software is the answer here. The right customer journey management tools can provide masses of insight into the customer experience, help you track KPIs, and offer areas for improvement.

This information can come from a variety of sources. Customer behavior tracking can be baked right into digital products and work across platforms to help you better understand their journeys, while AI and natural language processing can listen to and understand customer effort, intent, and sentiment.

When it comes to customer journey management, software like this can help you:

• Audit journeys you think are happening
• Find ones you didn’t realize were happening
• Hear customer feedback from every touchpoint
• Understand where things need to change
• Measure the success of those change tactics

Information like this, both real-time and historical, can not only help you monitor the success of your customer journey management efforts but also provide a list of next steps to try, in order to attain better business outcomes.

Because of that, you can think of journey analytics as the engine behind an effective customer journey management approach.

Customer behavior: Bringing it all together

The three-part customer journey management framework is really a series of overlapping processes. Mapping informs orchestration and orchestration informs optimization, but the right analytics and data can inform all three.

So, in order to drive your desired business outcomes, you need to adopt the right tools. Customer experience management platforms, like the one offered by Qualtrics, can help you figure out what your customers are doing, saying, and thinking – and why.

That information, alongside a much deeper understanding of who your customers actually are, can help you build personalized customer experiences that allow people to effortlessly float from touchpoint to touchpoint in a way that feels tailored to them.

Qualtrics XM for Customer Experience has been designed to turn customers into fans. It allows you to hear every customer’s voice, fix every broken experience, and increase customer loyalty and spend.

Related resources

Customer Journey

Customer Journey Stages 12 min read

Buyer's journey 16 min read, customer journey analytics 13 min read, how to create a customer journey map 21 min read, b2b customer journey 13 min read, customer interactions 11 min read, consumer decision journey 14 min read, request demo.

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Email Marketing Customer Journey: The Complete Guide

Time to read: 10 minutes

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The email marketing customer journey is the pillar to your email program's success. You probably have an ideal journey for customers in mind—they see your brand, love what you have to offer, make a purchase, and keep coming back for more. But the reality isn’t usually that linear.  That’s where the customer journey can help. It tracks the path your customers actually take as they interact with your business, from encountering your brand for the first time to converting and beyond.  The customer journey is a key marketing framework that uses data from all your channels to understand the customer’s experience. Mapping this journey helps you improve that experience, which extends your relationship with the customer.  Email is one of the most important marketing channels for moving prospects through each stage of the customer journey. That’s because email is one of the most direct ways to nurture customers with personalized communications linked to their actions.  This post will cover how you can use the customer journey to inform your email marketing strategy. 

What is the email marketing customer journey?

Often, we think about the email customer journey as how to get a potential buyer from Point A to Point B—but it's about much more than that. Just like a roadtrip, it's all about the stops and experiences along the way. Focus too much on the end destination, and your customers will never make it.

Your email marketing customer journey is all about creating a series of email interactions that feel less like random pit stops and more like a curated adventure.

Imagine trying to travel without a map or GPS—pretty challenging, right? Without understanding the email marketing customer journey, your messages might end up like a tourist in a new city without Google Maps—lost, confused, and possibly eating at the worst-rated restaurants. The customer journey helps you send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, (with email, of course).

This journey typically unfolds in several stages:

• Awareness: Like catching a glimpse of a billboard for the world’s best coffee just off the next exit, this stage is where potential customers first hear about your brand.
• Consideration: Now they know you exist, but they're reading reviews and checking out your competitors. Your emails here need to dazzle them—like free taste tests at that coffee shop.
• Purchase: They’ve decided to take the exit and visit your shop. Purchase emails are your chance to make the buying experience as smooth as a good espresso.
• Retention: Keep them coming back with loyalty perks, new arrivals, or just a friendly hello. It’s like having their favorite coffee order ready right when they walk in.
• Advocacy: When customers love your brand so much, they can’t stop raving about it to friends. This is the stage where your emails encourage them to share their love for your brand, turning them into your personal brand ambassadors.

Why is the customer journey important?

The customer journey helps you understand customers’ behavioral patterns as they move toward a conversion and the touchpoints along the way. A touchpoint is any interaction with your brand, such as visiting your website, following your social media channels, signing up for your email list, and engaging with marketing emails.  But perhaps more importantly, mapping the customer journey helps you understand any roadblocks that deter a potential customer from taking the desired action. Once you know what’s stopping them, you can clear the way for a more positive customer experience—that hopefully leads to conversion.  

Mapping the email marketing customer journey

Mapping your customers’ journey takes a lot of data across channels, as your customers typically encounter your brand on a variety of platforms.  For this post, we’ll focus on one of these channels—email—and how you can align your strategy to the customer journey map. Using email automation , you can ensure the recipient gets the right message at the right time to help them transition to the next stage .  As you map the customer journey to inform your email marketing strategy, here are some key factors to consider and questions to ask yourself. 

Buying process

Start with the most readily available data—your sales, sign-ups, or whichever conversion metrics you measure. Ask yourself, how are customers purchasing your products or services? Do they go to a store or purchase from social media ads?  Understanding this process can help you tailor your marketing emails. For example, if a customer makes a purchase from an Instagram ad, you can target them with relevant email messaging, such as an influencer campaign, that’s likely to resonate. If, on the other hand, a customer typically purchases in person, send them a coupon to redeem at their preferred location.   

Next, look beyond conversions and dig into the actions customers take at each touchpoint. Do they follow you on social media, peruse your products on your website, or seek online reviews?  The better you understand the user’s actions, the more relevant emails you can send. For example, if users typically search for reviews before making a purchase, you can include customer reviews in your marketing emails. 

Pain points and obstacles 

After discovering what actions your customers take, you’ll need to go a step further to address their pain points.  Pain points are the moments when customers experience negative emotions (e.g., anger, frustration, etc.) that derail them from the action you want them to take. Sure, emotions can be harder to infer from the customer’s actions, but emotions are also crucial to understanding the journey—especially the negative ones.  While it’s great to know when customers have a good experience with your business, it’s more important to understand where they encounter obstacles. Online reviews and customer service interactions are great places to gauge users’ emotions and find the pain points along their journey.  For example, are you getting a lot of complaints about the checkout process? Are customers saying they had a negative experience with customer service? Do orders take too long to ship? These are the types of obstacles that can cut your relationship with the customer short. 

Don’t stop at understanding customers’ pain points. Once you’ve gathered this data, work to resolve the most common issues and clearly communicate your solutions to customers.  For example, say you received a lot of complaints about the complicated checkout process on your website, so you hired a web developer to revamp your website and make the buying process more streamlined. There may be some past customers who haven’t returned to your website since their last bad experience, so let them know that you fixed the issue.  You can do this by promoting your new website in a marketing email and giving recipients an incentive to check it out, such as a discount on their next purchase. 

Aligning your email marketing strategy to the customer journey

Once you have a clear understanding of how customers discover and engage with your brand, you can tailor your email communications to meet them along the different stages of the journey. Let’s look at how you can align your email marketing strategy to the customer journey. 

Brand awareness

Consideration

At this stage, users consider whether they want to do business with you. They might read reviews, compare your product to a competitor’s offering, and do additional research to make their decision.  If a customer signs up for your email list in the previous stage, you can use a welcome series to get them up to speed on what you have to offer. Do this by sharing customer testimonials, showcasing the features that differentiate your business from the competition, and offering incentives like a free trial for your service.  Some prospects at this stage might get close to making a purchase but back out at the last moment. But you haven’t lost them yet—a well-timed abandoned cart email nudging the recipient to finalize the purchase can get them back on track. 

A purchase or conversion is a win worth celebrating, but it’s not the end goal. This is your opportunity to turn a one-time buyer into a loyal customer and advocate.  But first, make sure the purchase process is a positive experience for the customer using the following email tactics: 

• Send customers effective transactional emails with all the information they need and a way to track their purchase. 
• Send a thank you email and consider including an incentive to become a repeat customer, such as a discount on their next purchase. 

Once a customer has done business with you, turn your efforts to keep them engaged with your brand. You can use email in a few ways to do this: 

• Send them an email with a tutorial on how to use or care for the product after a customer makes a purchase. This can also be a good opportunity to cross-sell other items or upsell a subscription (but don’t overdo it—the primary focus should be to provide value to the recipient). 
• Send personalized marketing emails with product recommendations based on their previous purchases. 

Customers in the advocacy stage are such big fans of your business that they willingly recommend it to others. But one of the biggest obstacles at this stage is that, most of the time, satisfied customers don’t go out of their way to leave a review. So make it easier for them to become your advocates with these email marketing tactics:  

• Send customers an email requesting a review after they make a purchase. Make this as convenient as possible by including a review form right in the email or a button that takes them to the right page. Many brands also include an incentive for leaving a review, such as a promo code, points toward a loyalty program, or entrance into a giveaway. 
• Send customers a referral program promotion to encourage recipients to share your brand with their friends. These typically include a benefit for both the recipient and their referred friend, such as a discount or credit.  
• Send customers an invite to follow you on social media and post about your product using a particular hashtag. This can also help you gather user-generated content to use in future campaigns. 

Customer journey email examples

Let’s take a look at a few examples from my inbox of brand emails that aligned to my stage in the customer journey. 

A warm welcome from Brooklinen

Retention incentive from Denver Botanic Gardens

Easy advocacy from Girlfriend Collective 

Follow the customer journey with Twilio SendGrid

When aligning your email marketing strategy with the customer journey, data and automation are your best friends. We can help with both.  Twilio Segment helps you collect the data you need to map the customer journey. And Twilio SendGrid helps you send personalized emails using time-saving automation that allows you to meet the customer wherever they are in their journey.  Sign up for free today to start sending emails for each stage of the customer journey.   

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The Email Customer Journey: A Complete Guide for Marketing Strategy

They say a thousand mile journey begins with a single step. The customer journey often begins with a single email.

Every interaction you have with someone is a chance to build a relationship. Some people will follow you on social media. Some might grab a business card at an in-person event or attend a webinar. Others will make a purchase, or five. Do you know what encourages them to go from “met someone at a conference one time” to devoted customer? 

That’s the customer journey. And no surprises here: It’s email that is an important marketing channel to move customers along the path to purchase and beyond. As email marketers, it’s your job to find pressure points, proactively answer objections, and nudge someone toward making a purchase. Here’s how to do it:

Table of content

What is customer journey mapping?

What is an email journey, who are your buyer personas, 1. brand awareness, 2. lead acquisition, 3. research, 4. consideration and comparison, 5. purchase, 6. onboarding and education, 7. upsells and crosssells, 8. retention and loyalty, 9. advocacy, 10. re-engagement, what is a customer journey.

The customer journey is the touch points a buyer goes through as they learn, engage, and purchase from your brand. It’s the entire customer experience from start to finish. While “journey” makes it sound like a quick and linear process, it can be anything but. A prospect may spend years at the top of the funnel, reading your newsletter or commenting on the occasional social media post. Or they may visit your website based on a recommendation from a friend and immediately request a demo. 

What the customer journey looks like varies wildly based on your products, sales and marketing strategy, and customer demographic. We’ll talk more about traditional customer journey stages in a minute.

Marketers visualize the customer journey through a process called customer journey mapping. There are multiple ways to illustrate a customer journey map, from the traditional marketing funnel to cyclical loops to complex diagrams. Regardless of what it looks like, it’s important to bring in reliable data and audience research to tell a story about the many ways customers and contacts interact with your brand. 

Customer journey map examples

It’s important to keep in mind that your customers are the heroes of this story. It’s their journey, not the brand’s or the product’s. Journey mapping helps you get inside the heads of your customers and prospects. This improves your understanding of what people think, how they feel, and why they make certain decisions.

A customer journey mapping exercise typically encompasses every touchpoint, though you can do a customer journey map of just the emails you send for clarity as well. Once you understand your overall customer journey, you can create an email journey. 

An email journey uses email, including automations, to reach targeted prospects via the inbox at specific points in the path to purchase and beyond. This is where you determine where you’ll set up a little nudge to get someone moving in the right direction, remind them of what they’re missing, or encourage them to get more involved with you, depending on their buyer persona.

Buyer personas give marketers an idea of the type of people that purchase from them. This includes demographic data such as age, gender, and marital status, but also general interests and hobbies, whether or not they need to discuss the buying decision with someone else, and what frustrations or pain points they have in their everyday life that your product solves. 

You may have different journeys for different personas, or need to tweak your messaging in your emails at different points based on their needs. Either way, a persona can guide you toward stronger segmentation and personalization strategies in your email marketing.

The 10 email journey stages (plus email examples and strategies for each one)

As email marketers, we talk a lot about “the right message to the right customers at the right time.” That’s where email marketing and customer journeys form the perfect partnership to create the best possible customer experience. Email has a role to play in each stage of the customer journey to improve your conversion rates - here’s how:

In general, and for obvious reasons, email usually isn’t considered a “top of funnel” tactic. You can’t exactly subscribe to a newsletter if you’re unaware of a brand. Still, email can play a role in the beginning stages of a customer journey.

The email marketing strategy for brand awareness

Consider partnering with the social media team to work together to grow your newsletter subscribers . You can promote a branded industry newsletter to the right audience or identify an online publisher in your industry that offers email newsletter sponsorship opportunities. When you think about this stage in the funnel, it’s more about getting your email brand out there as worth subscribing to.

One of the great things about email is that it’s an extremely affordable marketing channel. But sometimes, you have to spend a little money to earn attention, attract visitors to your website or blog, and get that initial awareness. Then, the real journey can get started.

A valid email address is the foot in the door you need to move prospects from the brand awareness stage into becoming marketing qualified leads (MQLs). After that, your email nurture tracks do a lot of the heavy lifting involved with turning MQLs into sales qualified leads (SQLs).

To capture leads, email strategy needs to connect with content marketing strategy. What can you offer of value to prospects that builds trust? How can your nurture tracks show the sales team these MQLs are warming up?

The email marketing strategy for lead acquisition

Once you’ve got quality content in place, focus on landing page copy and optimizing your forms. While the email address is the key to it all, qualifying questions help you segment new contacts, putting people with certain roles or interests into specific email nurture campaigns that are relevant to their journey.

Then, take a look at your welcome email series for new subscribers. 

Your approach depends on your audience, of course. You may want to send a discount to new subscribers or welcome them with a more personal letter, like this one:

Either way, ask yourself: Are you providing a balance of value-added content with information about your company’s products and services? Could you benefit from separate welcome series with email strategies for different personas? Are you introducing the right employees to prospects using friendly from names? This is the first impression of your emails for these prospects, so make it count. 

The majority of research takes place on search engines and social media. Unfortunately, you can’t optimize email campaigns to rank on Google. However, once you’ve turned prospects into email subscribers, you can deliver helpful content directly to their inboxes.

The time between researching and purchasing will vary greatly depending on the purchase being made. Consumers will spend a lot more time researching a new car purchase than their options for ordering dinner. A B2B prospect will likely conduct more research for a cloud storage provider than an office supply vendor. In most cases, the more risk there is, the more research is involved.

The email marketing strategy for research

This is a stage in which understanding the customer journey is crucial. You need to know what questions people are asking as they conduct research for a potential purchase.

Think about what potential customers ask about the most. If you’re not sure, reach out to your sales or customer support teams. This email shows off new artificial intelligence features and explains them, which could be very useful to a prospect researching AI.

Your leads could be trying to overcome fears and objections or chasing an aspiration. As you create email campaigns for customers in the research phase of their journey keep this in mind: Humans use logical information and data to justify emotional decisions. In the end, we all tend to go with what feels right.

So, send along useful information to aid in research. But don't forget to go for the feels, too!

As a potential customer creeps closer to making that purchase decision, she’ll start weighing her options. That means your brand is being compared to your competitors. This is a pivotal stage in the customer journey.

Sure, price is going to be on top of the list of considerations. But, if you’re not the cheapest in the bunch, how else can you convince prospects that what you offer is the best choice?

The email marketing strategy for consideration and comparison

This is a vital moment of truth. Your email strategy needs campaigns designed to push prospects across the finish line and prove that you deserve their dollars . This could be including success metrics for your customers or sending them a competitor comparison checklist that puts your brand in a positive light, like this one:

This might be the right time to offer a discount or a free trial without a credit card. Or, you can use social proof through case studies and testimonials that show, rather than tell, how amazing you are. 

Don’t underestimate the potential of making an authentic personal connection via email at this point. It could be the ideal time to prove that your company actually does have “world-class customer service.” Show prospects you’re ready and willing to answer questions and go the extra mile.

Boom. You did it! You’ve just netted a new customer. Good to go, right?

They’ve signed on the dotted line or hit that “Place Your Order” button. They’ve made it to your “thank you” landing page . Now, let’s show your new customers they made the right decision when they clicked on your call-to-action. Everything that happens after the purchase is the time when email has its true opportunity to shine along the customer journey. 

We’ve all had that anxious, slightly queasy feeling after making a purchase. They call it “ buyer’s remorse .” Email is an excellent way to provide some welcomed reassurance.

The email marketing strategy post-purchase

The purchase stage is the most critical, since this is where your buyers finally make the decision to buy. That said, they may need one final push, like with an abandoned cart email .

Once the purchase goes through, your transactional emails should be a priority. Consumers want to promptly receive a notification that their order was received. Then, they want to know where their shipment is and when they can expect it.

Savvy email marketers are using package tracking emails with live updates , which show real-time info when a customer opens an email. It also updates if they go back to it later. This type of email is quickly becoming an expectation rather than an innovation.

Even if you’re not shipping a physical product, customers want to hear from you at this vulnerable step. Subscription and service-based businesses, SaaS companies, and those selling digital products can also send confirmation emails even if there isn’t a physical order being shipped.

There’s a lot to be said about using email to say, “Thank You!” after anyone becomes a new customer.

Did you think the customer journey was over after that initial purchase? Nope. Your customers are starting a new adventure with your brand at their side. 

Now is the time to show your customers how to get the most out of their purchase with onboarding help and informative content.

The email marketing strategy for onboarding and education

Your company may have excellent support resources and a full content library. But email marketers can add even more value by delivering this content to new customers at the right time in an onboarding email sequence , especially if using your product comes with a learning curve.

This email is a step-by-step guide to getting started:

You can also can use this step in the customer journey to show a variety of features someone might be interested in, or show off how other people are using the same product.

Work with customer support to understand when and where people run into roadblocks. Develop a welcome email series that guides people through everything they need to know to get started and be successful.

There’s a 60% to 70% chance of closing a sale to an existing customer. That’s compared to a 5% to 20% chance of selling something to a prospect. I know which one I’d choose.

If you’re doing it well, your emails may even be welcomed and anticipated. But whatever you do … don’t destroy your trust and reputation by overdoing it. Your customers won’t go for an upsell or crossell immediately. Give it a little time before you encourage customers to explore new products, go to a higher-tiered plan, or offer supplementary services that complement their ongoing customer journey.

The email marketing strategy for upsells and crosssells

Now you’re a regular fixture in the inbox and you have tons of data about what they interact with, what features they use, and their overall customer sentiment. This is your chance to use segmentation to your advantage by sending more personalized, relationship-building emails that encourage them to go deeper with you.

The better your segmentation and personalization, the more powerful and effective your email strategy for upselling and cross-selling will be. Likewise, the more you understand the customer journey up to this point, the easier it will be to craft these campaigns. The more you know about your customer, the more you can send personalized emails.

Others could be based on seasonality, life events, or the amount of time someone has used your product, like this email from Warby Parker advertising check-ups on their one-year anniversary.

To keep customers on a continuous journey, you’ll need to boost retention and reduce churn. 

All those email touchpoints help create loyal customers as your relationships with customers improve. Don’t forget to continue to provide value with every email send through more information, discounts, or customer service. 

Email marketing keeps customers engaged and informed at this stage, though you don’t need to be in touch all the time . Let your customers decide how and when they want to hear from you with a subscription management page or something similar. 

The email marketing strategy for retention and loyalty

Sooner or later, customers will reconsider the choice to purchase from you. Or a new problem that prompts a purchase decision will arise, and they’ll start a new journey. Smart email marketers have a strategy that anticipates these moments in a customer journey. 

Some of these emails will be automations, which get triggered by actions your customers take or milestones they reach. If you’re able to collect birthday data, a birthday-themed email or gift for ecommerce customers goes a long way.

Another way to build brand loyalty is to create exclusivity and urgency by giving your customers access to sales or special events early. You want your emails to reinforce the connection between customers and your brand and remind them why they like working with you or purchasing from you in the first place.

When you turn prospects into customers, and loyal customers into brand advocates, you create a virtuous cycle. It constantly brings new people into a journey pointing to a shortcut that leads straight to your company. People trust advice and referrals from their peers, colleagues, family, and friends.

Social media and review sites are the channels that often come to mind for encouraging brand advocacy. They are digital word of mouth. However, email can participate in this part of the journey too.

The email strategy for advocacy

Here are a few ways to encourage customers to become brand advocates using email:

You can also use email in this stage to encourage more touchpoints between you and your customer, like adding social media info , joining an online community or signing up for texts.

Develop an email campaign that pushes participation in a referral program, or use a common ecommerce tactic of including customer reviews, with a CTA to ask your customers to give them.

You can also ask your subscribers to forward your email to a friend - extending your word-of-mouth. That’s where a forward to a friend tool comes in handy. According to Email Uplers, this method can also help email marketers avoid rendering issues when emails are forwarded from Outlook or Thunderbird. Tip: You can use Sinch Email on Acid Analytics to track forwards on your campaigns.

Sometimes customer engagement disappears. They stop using your product, stop re-ordering, and stop opening your emails. It happens. Maybe they’re dissatisfied, or maybe they just forgot about you. Use email to re-engage them … But if you need to let them go, that’s okay, too.

The email marketing strategy for re-engagement

You may want to stretch your creativity beyond the standard “We’ve Missed You!” subject line for your engagement email. But optimizing inbox display is going to be important if you want disengaged customers to start opening your emails again.

When they do open your next email marketing campaign, don’t be afraid to ask what’s going on:

You may need a discount to bring them back into the fold. Sometimes, they may have been interrupted, or something else got in the way. Bring them back with a gentle nudge.

If it’s time to let a subscriber go, don’t be afraid to unsubscribe them from your email list. It’s much better to have a slightly smaller list of highly engaged folks than a large list of people who rarely interact with your emails. Your deliverability will thank you (and hopefully, you can get a little customer feedback on the way out so you can improve in the future.)

The email customer journey and automation

If this all sounds like it’s a lot, it is. That’s why mapping out the entire customer experience ahead of time, including all of the email marketing campaigns you send and when, is so important. Once you know exactly which emails you want to send, you can set up a series of marketing automations so you can guide customers through the path to purchase without being on 24/7.

Avoid email customer journey roadblocks

From your welcome series to your re-engagement campaign, Sinch Email on Acid has your back , helping you deliver email perfection every time. Check your content for errors, optimize for deliverability and accessibility, and preview your campaigns on dozens of clients and devices. Plus, our free email testing templates make it easy to send the right emails, at the right time, to the right person - gently nudging them in the right direction, too. 

If you want to nerd out on all the details about customer journeys, our friends at Sinch Mailjet wrote a stellar ebook on omnichannel marketing . Download it for free to find out how to make your customers the hero of their own journey while you stay in touch through the inbox and other communication channels.

Even Great Emails Need to Be Tested

It’s true: Even well-designed emails can break from time to time. That’s why email testing is an important part of sending a successful campaign. Sinch Email on Acid tests your email code quickly and accurately, allowing you to preview your design across more than 100 of the most popular email clients and devices . Try us free and start delivering email perfection!

Check Out Our Free Trial

Author: The Email on Acid Team

The Email on Acid content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and straight-up email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn , follow us on Facebook , and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more sweet stuff and great convos on email marketing.

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32 Customer Service Email Templates to Support, Renew, & Refund Customers

Published: March 27, 2024

Just as important as handling a furious customer over the phone is sending an email to calm an upset customer. Using the right customer service email template can amp up the resolution process and improve customer satisfaction.

In this guide, we’ll go over a list of best practices for writing customer service emails, tips to respond to angry messages, and a collection of the best customer service email templates for various scenarios. 

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

50 Free Customer Service Email Templates

Templates to communicate price increases, apologies, thanks, and notifications to your customers with sincere, on-brand messaging.

• Price Increase Letter Templates
• Customer Apology Email Templates
• Referral Email Templates

Download Free

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Best Practices for Writing Customer Service Emails

Though using a customer service email template will make your job much easier, you should still follow a few best practices.

The following tips apply especially when you use a pre-written email. They can help you personalize your response so that it doesn‘t seem canned, which in turn strengthens your company’s customer retention strategy .

50 Customer Service Email Templates

Tell us about yourself to access the templates., 1. use the customer's name..

I always want to make customers feel comfortable and well taken care of.

I’ve found that starting emails with the customer’s name is the first step in creating a genuine customer interaction with a personal touch. This tip is a no-brainer, but that doesn’t mean you can forget about it! I’ve certainly made the mistake of leaving the top of the email as:

Hi [Customer Name],

So don’t be like me, and double-check each email to ensure you’re starting off on the right foot by addressing the customer by name.

2. Have the customer's conversation history handy.

I always want to be prepared, especially when responding to a customer complaint. In my experience, knowing as much of a customer’s history as possible is vital when corresponding via email.

Have they had this same issue in the past? Or have they only been a customer with you for a short time?

This information can help you choose the appropriate tone for your email — whether profusely apologetic or cheery and helpful.

Additionally, if you have the customer's conversation history, you can personalize any template by including background information and context. In my experience, customers appreciate when they can tell you’ve done your homework to understand their past issues and customer support history.

This is where a dedicated customer service tool comes in particularly useful. It helps check each customer’s conversation history, previous support tickets, and whether there was any feedback from past interactions — details that let you determine the right approach for each specific customer. 

3. Brush up on key facts about their business or buyer persona.

Similarly, I’ve also found it helpful to understand the customer’s business, what they do, and their needs. I spoke with Daniel Gallager , customer relationship manager at IBISWorld, who shared some insight on the importance of doing the homework to understand customers and gain their trust.

“Sigging into a client’s quarterly statements, annual reports, or even blog posts goes further than any generic check-in or marketing email possibly could. Let the client know you researched them with a detailed email, and you’ll differentiate yourself from 75% of their vendors,” he says.

Here are some things to consider when brushing up on customer details: Are they users of your product? Or are they top-level stakeholders in their organization? Do you know why they chose to do business with you? 

I’ve discovered that even a cursory understanding of a customer’s organization makes them feel well taken care of and more than just a number.

We recommend collecting this information using CRM software .

4. Try to understand their problem inside and out.

When reading over the email, try to understand the problem a customer is encountering before crafting a response. Then, if you still need clarity, your response would be the place to ask questions.

In my experience as a customer service rep, I always had the most tremendous success when coming from a place of empathy and understanding - especially when dealing with an angry or difficult customer.

Empathy is the key to pleasing frustrated customers and decreasing the chances they‘ll leave you for a competitor. 

I know it can be challenging, but keep reading, and I’ll take you through a step-by-step guide to responding to an angry customer email.

5. Use a customer service tool with built-in templates.

A tool with built-in email templates like Service Hub can simplify your customer service email process and make it more effective. With pre-designed and pre-approved templates, you can make sure your customer service emails are clear, consistent, and professional.

Built-in templates have saved me a lot of time and effort. Using built-in templates, your team won't have to search for the right template or copy and paste an outdated template saved in a Drafts folder somewhere.

Templates offer a framework for common scenarios and feature customizable fields for personalization, making it easy to tailor each message to each customer's needs.

6. Offer specific solutions or steps to resolve the issue.

As you personalize your response, be specific about your understanding of the customer problem.

Then, offer clear instructions. Break down complex processes into simple and actionable steps so that the customer can follow along easily.

Pro tip : Use bullet points and numbered lists to outline the sequence of actions required. This makes it easier for a frustrated customer to understand and try your solution.

7. Anticipate extra questions or concerns.

When working with customers, I always want to stay one step ahead. Use what you know about your customer’s pain points and history to anticipate any questions they may have after reading your email.

8. Bring up additional contact details. 

After a couple of years as a service rep for HubSpot, I noticed that not all customers want to continue the conversation over email — some would prefer talking over the phone, others through SMS, and some even on social media.

Occasionally, people reach out via email because they’re simply unaware of your other contact methods. Since great service is all about providing tailored experiences to each customer, make sure you give customers the option to move the conversion elsewhere if they wish.

Plugging in your other contact details, like your phone number or social links, in a customized email signature is the best place to let customers know about it. It doesn’t distract from the body copy, but the signature and contact icons are still visible enough to attract attention.

Add responses to those potential follow-up questions to your email. This will improve the customer experience because they won‘t have to reach out again. It will also show them you’re committed to their satisfaction.

How to Respond to an Angry Customer Email

• Respond as soon as possible.
• Apologize for their negative experience.
• Explain what may have gone wrong.
• Provide context for what happened.
• Reassure the customer that this won't happen again.
• Offer an incentive, refund, or discount.
• Allow them to respond with further questions, comments, or concerns.
• Follow up with the customer.

1. Respond as soon as possible.

Everyone appreciates a timely customer service response. I know I do.

Sometimes, you receive a complicated issue or pointed complaint, and you just want to put it on the back burner while you deal with easier tickets first. Take it from me: that’s not the right move.

The longer you wait to respond to a customer complaint, the more likely they will take it to a public platform where other consumers can form opinions about your company.

It's best to tackle problems within an hour, as this will likely keep the conversation going over email and reduce the chance of a follow-up call. 

Even if it was a difficult issue I didn’t have a solution for right away, I would immediately let the customer know I was aware of the problem and looking into it. I succeeded greatly in taking an honest, empathetic, and timely customer service approach. 

2. Apologize for their negative experience.

The first line in your response should be a genuine apology.

I’ve received customer emails that felt hurtful and unfair, and it’s no fun. However, I’ve found the key is approaching the situation from a place of empathy. Recognize that the customer had a negative experience with your company, and you’ll be better able to remove ego from the situation and work together to craft a solution.

I reached out to Alexander Watling , a former HubSpotter and current manager of customer success at Coveo, for some insight on the topic.

"Above all, and all the more so in escalated scenarios, remember there's another human on the other end. If you use templates, make the words your own, and speak to that other human who is just trying to do what's best for their company and customers,”

Watling speaks to the humanity at the core of service. We’re all just people trying to do our best, so always keep that in mind and meet your customers accordingly.

It‘s also important to acknowledge your mistakes. I’ve found that taking responsibility for something that went wrong, even if it's not your fault, will go a long way in rebuilding trust with the customer.

When apologizing to a customer, an empathetic, apologetic tone works best. Make it clear to the customer that you are genuinely committed to help, and they will appreciate it.

3. Explain what may have gone wrong.

Customers care about getting clear explanations and complete solutions for their problems — not just for their own well-being but for other customers as well.

They care about not letting the same issue happen to others. Offering the customer an explanation for the situation can help them understand any unexpected factors in play.

If you explain to them that the situation was a one-time event or rare occurrence — like their package getting lost in the mail — it will help ease the tension and potentially get them to empathize with your company.

4. Provide context for what happened.

Customer interactions don’t happen in a vacuum. You must consider a customer's history with your company, including past support tickets, interactions with CS, and more. Understanding a customer’s history with your company allows you to anticipate their needs and shows them your commitment to providing excellent service.

Demonstrating your understanding of a situation’s context helps strengthen the customer relationship with empathy and understanding. In my experience, saying something like, "I see you ran into this issue a few months ago. “I’m sorry you’re experiencing this again, but we’ll resolve it immediately” goes a long way in building trust and turning a negative customer experience into a positive one.

5. Reassure the customer that this won't happen again.

Sometimes, issues happen, and it isn’t even your fault. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it’s not great. However, as we used to say on my old team, “the buck stops with you.” 

It’s your responsibility as a service representative to own all problems that come your way and assure the customer that they won’t happen again.

Let’s say your logistics partner lost a customer’s package. Even though you didn’t physically misplace their package, you are the face of your organization at that moment, and it’s up to you to rebuild trust and assure the customer that your organization is doing everything possible to rectify the situation and prevent it from happening again.

In a difficult situation like the one above, you must clarify to the customer that their negative experience has resulted in company-wide action on their behalf.

This will reassure them that they won‘t have this experience again and thus make it less likely that they’ll leave you for a competitor.

6. Offer an incentive, refund, or discount.

As a former support professional, I’ve encountered customer issues that are so severe that offering a refund, discount, or other incentive is the only option. Of course, this isn’t ideal. However,  I think salvaging a damaged customer relationship is worth the financial pain of the incentive.

When customers are reasonable, understanding, and polite during a difficult interaction, I’ve found that offering them a discount as a show of thanks can be an excellent move. 

If a complaint stemmed from an error on our end, we did everything possible to rectify the situation and offered incentives where appropriate.

In the case of widespread issues that affect many customers, you may be unable to compensate everyone involved. Instead, own your mistake , apologize sincerely, and take steps to prevent the problem from happening again.

7. Allow them to respond with further questions, comments, or concerns.

Before ending your email, always ask the customer whether they have any more questions, comments, or concerns. You want to show you‘re still open to further feedback, and it’s on them to end the conversation.

I found that most of the time, customers don’t offer much follow-up. However, those who do appreciate the openness and eagerness to serve. 

The more opportunities you give a customer to interact with you, the higher the chance their temper will subside, and they will come to respect your company again.

8. Follow up with the customer.

During my time in support, I always followed up with customers with a final status update on their issues. I also found that expressing gratitude was always a great option when wrapping up a service interaction, especially if it was difficult. 

No matter the issue, your goal should be to reassure the customer that you‘ve finished taking the necessary steps to ensure it won’t happen again. You also want to show them your appreciation for being a customer and working through a tough situation with you.

I believe that customers want to feel understood and heard, not like a number in a spreadsheet. Following up with customers after you’ve resolved their issues is an excellent way to show your commitment to their success with your company. My goal has always been to show customers that I care about them and their problems and not just about closing their tickets.

Best Sample Email for Responding to an Angry Customer

Using the tips above, we've written a sample email that you can use to respond to an angry email from a customer.

Hi [Customer],

I‘m so sorry that you had a negative experience with [product, service, or company department]. I’ve looked into the issue, and it seems that [briefly explain the reason for their bad experience, if applicable].

I‘ve forwarded this issue to [head of the appropriate department], our [person’s job title]. In the meantime, I'd like to offer a [discount/refund] for the inconvenience and will be checking in with you in a few days to update you on the status of [issue].

Once more, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Please let me know if I can answer any questions, and I'd be happy to help!

[Your name]

Sample Email Reply to Customer Complaint

We've also written a sample email that you can use to respond to a customer complaint.

I sincerely apologize for your negative experience with our [product/service/company department]. Here at [your company], customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance, and we genuinely regret falling short of that expectation in [brief description of customer issue].

I understand how frustrating it is to face this problem and how your business is affected. I’ve dug into the issue and discovered that [explanation of the reason behind customer’s negative experience]. I can assure you that this issue will not happen again. I’ve already alerted [head of the appropriate department], and our team is working to ensure that you and other customers won't experience this problem in the future.

Thank you for your patience in this matter. As a token of our appreciation, here is an exclusive [discount code or other incentive] you can apply to your next purchase:

[Discount Code or Offer]

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. I’ll be checking in with you in a few days to update you on the status of [the issue]. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to help in any way that I can!

Don‘t stop here. Below, we’ve curated a list of the best customer service email templates for every support situation.

Download Now: 50 Customer Service Email Templates

The best customer service email templates.

Let's take a look at some of the best customer service email templates you can lean on when in various situations with customers.

Customer Service Response Templates

• Thank You Email Template
• Questionnaire Email Template
• Feedback Appreciation Email Template
• Angry Customer Response Email Template
• Customer Complaint Response Email Template
• Customer Service Follow-Up Email Template
• Customer Loyalty Program Email Template
• Technical Support Email Template
• Keep In Touch Email Template
• Customer Birthday Email Template
• Account Manager Introduction Email Template
• Account Manager Transition Email Template
• Product Update Announcement Email Template
• Free Trial Email Template
• Renewal Reminder Email Template
• Customer Referral Email Template
• Customer Onboarding Email Template
• Customer Data Privacy Notification Email Template
• Service Disruption Notification Email Template
• Broken Product or Service Email Template
• Service Upgrade Notification Email Template
• Customer Review Request Email Template

1. Thank You Email Template

Once in a while, it's nice to send your customers a little thank you. After all, your company would be nowhere without the loyalty of your customers.

You can send this email in several instances. For instance, right after they make a purchase, when you notice it's their anniversary with your company, or when they refer another customer.

Pro Tip: You should never try to sell them something in a thank you email. It's simply an opportunity to show your appreciation .

Thank you so much for referring your friend [Friend‘s name] to us. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them and doing business with them. I‘m glad that you’ve stuck around with us for this long and brought your friend to share the experience with you.

We‘re lucky to have you. Thanks again for being such a fantastic customer! As a token of our appreciation, here’s a [coupon/discount] for you to enjoy.

2. Questionnaire Email Template

There are several kinds of questionnaires you may send your customers. Each questionnaire offers valuable data to your company, from customer satisfaction surveys to demographics to Customer Effort Score (CES).

Conducting a survey can help you get into the minds of your customers and make effective changes to your service experience.

But it's easy for customers to see a link to a questionnaire and immediately close the tab. So, entice them into taking the questionnaire by mentioning its briefness or perhaps offering an incentive.

Pro tip : Consider using one of these "thank you in advance" alternatives for a more polite approach.

Hey [Customer],

Thanks for your recent purchase with us! I hope you're enjoying your [product/service].

I‘d love to hear more about your experience working with our team. So please fill out the following survey and give us your honest feedback. I promise it’s short, and it‘ll help improve customers’ experiences in the future.

I know your time is valuable, and I appreciate your attention.

<< Attach questionnaire >>

3. Feedback Appreciation Email Template

If your customers take the time to respond to your questionnaire, then the least you can do is appreciate them. A quick thank you email can make them happy and foster stronger customer relationships.

Here’s an email template you can use:

Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out our questionnaire. We’re always looking to improve the quality of our offerings, and we’re happy that you’re a part of that.

Thanks again,

[Your Brand/Service]

4. Angry Customer Response Email Template

Uh oh. You've got an angry customer , and they want to leave your business. This could have happened for a range of reasons. They might even be mad about external factors and not necessarily your business.

Stay calm and think rationally. The worst possible thing you could do is fight fire with fire.

It‘s okay to take some time to cool down before typing a response. But, don’t take their email to heart. Sometimes, a customer is so upset that there isn't much damage control you can do. The best move is to wave the white flag and move forward.

Pro Tip: This template is best used when the customer has indicated that they're taking their business elsewhere. If the customer is complaining but will remain with your business, you should use template #5.

[Customer],

I am so sorry to hear that you have had such a poor experience that you no longer want to work with us.

Customer satisfaction is always a number one priority for us. I‘m deeply sorry that that wasn’t clearly demonstrated to you.

As much as I hate to see you go, I completely understand how upset you must feel. I apologize again for any trouble we may have caused you. Good luck with your business, and I wish you all the best.

Let me know if you have any more questions, comments, or concerns.

5. Customer Complaint Response Email Template

Like an angry customer, a complaining customer isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine on your workday. Sometimes they can be almost worse than an angry customer.

Anger can often be displaced or without reason, while a complaint is typically well-crafted and based on truth. Incidentally, there's usually a more significant opportunity of turning a complaining customer into a satisfied one.

Just as they have probably put a reasonable amount of time into writing their email, you, too, should do the same. It's essential to remain eloquent and polite, even if the complaint frustrates you.

Pro Tip: Remember, the complaint is not against you personally. Try to stay detached and remain professional while being empathetic to the customer’s situation.

I am so sorry to hear that [provide a summary of their bad experience]. That should never have happened, and I completely understand how frustrating this must be for you. I will relay this message to the appropriate department.

We are prioritizing resolving [the issue they faced with your product, company, or service]. Our team is jumping on that problem right away, and I will let you know as soon as it's fixed.

I appreciate you letting me know about your negative experience. We strive to ensure every customer is satisfied with our business, and I apologize for any way we may have inconvenienced you.

6. Customer Service Follow-up Email Template

When a customer reaches out to you for support, that shouldn‘t be the beginning and end of your interaction. A customer might not be expecting a follow-up, but that’s what will make them appreciate it even more.

Plus, it also shows your company is dedicated to fostering positive customer relationships, not just sales.

Pro Tip: Be sincere, not pushy, in your follow-up emails so your customers feel genuinely cared for.

I hope you're enjoying your new product. I remember you were torn between two versions, but I firmly believe you went with the perfect choice for you.

If you‘re interested, I’d love to hear more about how you‘re liking the product. Let me know some pros and cons and if there’s any way I can be of assistance to guide you through this process. I'm here for whatever you need and look forward to hearing from you soon.

7. Customer Loyalty Program Email Template

Every time you send an email to a customer you have a chance to build customer trust. Customer loyalty emails take the relationship one step further by sharing the benefits of your loyalty program.

Use this email to explain how the program works, the rewards they can earn, and any exclusive perks or discounts available. This email can boost repeat business, and deepen customer relationships with your brand.

Pro Tip: If you don’t have one already, discover ways to build your customer loyalty program here .

We mean it. Thank you!

When reflecting on the past year, we just wanted to take a moment to let you know how much your business truly means to us. To thank you for your continued loyalty, we wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity.

Introducing our exclusive [Rewards Club] — a program designed to reward customers like you who have been with us every step of the way. As a member of our [Rewards Club], you'll enjoy a range of benefits, including:

• [List key benefits and perks of the loyalty program]

To show our appreciation, we would like to invite you to join the [Rewards Club] as a VIP member. As a VIP member, you'll receive extra benefits such as [special offers, early access to new products, etc.].

To join, just click on the link below and follow the easy registration process. It only takes a minute!

[Include a link/button to join the loyalty program]

We would not be half the company we are today without your trust and support. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don‘t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help!

Here’s to another great year,

8. Technical Support Email Template

While it‘s more common for customer support engineers to provide technical support over live chat , phone, or another quicker form of communication, they’ll sometimes handle support inquiries over email.

Since email is not meant to be an immediate channel for communication, customers may use this method when addressing an issue that isn't urgent.

Pro Tip: Email also allows you to get a lot more information about the situation because customers can take their time to write out thorough responses to your questions. Take advantage of this and ask several in-depth questions in a single email to find a solution as quickly as possible.

Thanks for reaching out! I'd be more than happy to help you.

Before we dive in, can you give me a little more context on the situation? When did this issue begin happening? Has it been occurring consistently, or does it happen on and off? Have you tried any solutions on your own?

These questions will help me find a more personalized solution to your problem.

9. Keep in Touch Email Template

It‘s sad to see a customer go — especially one who has been loyal to your company for a while. Once you’ve built a real relationship with a customer, the last thing you want to do is break off ties as soon as they decide to take a different path.

You want to show them that, no matter what, you still care about them and want what‘s best for them. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll come back to you in the future.

I‘m sorry to see you go. Doing business with you in the past [amount of years they’ve been with you] has been great. I‘ve learned so much from you and have made several updates to our products based on your thorough, thoughtful feedback. I appreciate everything you’ve done to make our company the best it can be.

As you set onto a new path, don‘t forget about us! I’d love to hear about your successes in the future and the exciting growth your company inevitably will have.

Please keep in touch. Good luck with everything!

10. Customer Birthday Email Template

Another great way to create a positive connection with your customers is celebrating their birthday. Personalized birthday wishes, offers, or discounts are a powerful show of appreciation. It can also encourage repeat purchases during their birthday month.

The team at [Company Name] wants to wish you the happiest of birthdays. We hope your day is filled with joy, laughter, and bright memories.

To add something special to your day, we'd like to treat you to a [discount/gift].

[Include details of the offer or gift, along with any redemption instructions.]

Again, happy birthday! We‘re grateful to have you as a customer. And if there’s anything we can do to make your day even better, don't hesitate to let us know.

11. Account Manager Introduction Email Template

It can be tricky to send out that first email as an account manager. Your new client has probably been speaking with one or more other employees at your company and has gotten relatively acquainted with them.

As you will be working directly with them from now on, it's essential to develop an even stronger relationship with them that will continue into the foreseeable future.

Make it clear that you will be their direct contact from now on. Then, you can take on a friendly, more comfortable tone. You want them to know that you're someone they can trust.

I‘m [Your name], and I’m very excited to be your new Account Manager at [Your company]! I‘ve heard great things about you from my teammates, and I’m hoping they've said some good things about me, too.

My role will be to guide you through anything you need. If you ever have questions, run into problems, consider an upgrade, or anything at all, I‘m the one for the job. We will be working closely together, and I’ll be helping you navigate your new product.

I'm looking forward to meeting you. Do you have a few minutes this week to chat?

12. Account Manager Transition Email Template

As much as you might love your company, you may get to the point where it‘s time to move on. Once you get a job offer that you can’t refuse, it can be challenging to relay it to your employer but even harder to tell your loyal customers.

Since you have been an integral part of their professional lives, you need to notify your clients of the change. Doing so will help them prepare for the shift, as this change will affect them, too.

Dear [Customer],

After eight incredible years at [Your company], I‘m excited to inform you that I have just accepted an offer to move on to [New company]. This new role will be an essential player in advancing my career, and I couldn’t feel more grateful for the opportunity.

However, that means that I will no longer be your Account Manager here. I have enjoyed watching you grow and cheering on your successes. Working with you has taught me so much, and I will carry this knowledge on to this next chapter in my life.

Luckily, I have an incredible replacement for you. [Replacement's name] is an outstanding Account Manager and a dear friend of mine. [She/he/they] has been working here for [amount of years] and has a lot to show for it. I genuinely believe you two will get along well and that [she/he/they] will be a huge support for you.

They will be emailing you in the next couple of days with a warm greeting and plans for you to meet. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

Thank you again for being a great client for [amount of years]. I wish you all the best!

13. Product Update Announcement Email Template

Sharing important information about new products, updates, and features is exciting for a business. This template helps you communicate the latest developments and improvements to your customers. These emails can build trust and boost engagement with your products.

Pro Tip: This is a great strategy for upselling or cross-selling to your current customers.

We hope this email finds you well! We‘re writing to share some exciting news with you — we’ve just launched a new update for [Product Name].

This update includes enhancements and exciting features that we know you‘ll love like [highlighted feature]. We’ve listened to your feedback and worked hard to make [Product Name] even better.

To learn more and how to make the most of this update, we've created [this comprehensive guide].

Thank you for joining us on this journey. We‘re excited to bring you more updates in the future. Until then, if you have any questions or need support, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our customer success team.

14. Free Trial Email Template

If you notice a prospect who seems interested in your products but fails to make a purchase, don't sweep them under the rug. This is a perfect opportunity to mention a free trial.

Prospects might be curious to learn more about your products but nervous to show their cards when they haven‘t gotten a chance to interact with your company thoroughly. By offering a free trial, you’re gaining the prospect‘s trust. Additionally, once a customer gets acquainted with a product during a free trial, it’s harder to turn it down.

Pro Tip: Once a customer gets acquainted with a product during a free trial, it’s harder to turn it down.

Hi [Prospect],

I noticed that you seemed interested in [product name] on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to guide you through the different options.

If you‘re interested, I want to extend an offer for a free trial, as it can be tough to commit to a product from a mere description. Our free trial lasts 30 days and lets you navigate all premium features. It’s a great chance to see which product is right for you and how much it can benefit you and your clients.

If you're interested, email me back or give me a call. I can talk you through all the details and get you set up.

15. Renewal Reminder Email Template

So, your customer purchased an annual subscription to your product? Great.

But it‘s hitting 350 days, and they haven’t mentioned any interest in renewing their subscription. Yikes.

That‘s the perfect opportunity to send a renewal reminder email. There’s a high possibility they simply forgot. Or, it could be that they're on the fence about it. Either way, a gentle reminder could steer them in the right direction.

I hope everything is going well with you and that you've had a great year navigating your product.

I noticed that your annual subscription is expiring on [date of expiration]. Are you interested in renewing your subscription? If you‘re weighing your options, I’d love to chat further with you to help you come to a decision. If you'd like to upgrade to a new product, we can discuss that, as well.

I look forward to hearing from you.

16. Customer Referral Email Template

Now that you‘ve built a solid relationship with a customer, it’s about time to ask them (nicely) for a referral. If they‘ve had a very positive experience with your company, it’s natural that they'll want the same for their family, friends, and colleagues in similar fields.

Pro Tip: For more information on this, check out this post on how to ask for referrals .

I‘m so happy to hear you’re having a great experience with [product/service/company department]. Helping our customers help their customers has always been our goal.

Since I've loved getting to work with you these past few months, I was wondering if there was anyone you know who might benefit in a similar way? It would be a pleasure to help them achieve their goals.

I'm looking forward to it!

17. Customer Onboarding Email Template

As this email sets the tone for your interaction with the customer, it’s best to make it enthusiastic.

It should reassure the customer that they’ve made the right choice with your brand.

Pro Tip: Check out these free customer service email templates for more onboarding templates .

Welcome to [Your brand/service]!

Thanks so much for choosing us. Our goal is to ensure you have a great experience and get the most out of our [product/service/company].

As a first step, please follow these instructions [link] to customize your profile. Also, we’ve provided some resources [link] that can help you enjoy the best experience.

Check out our Blog and the FAQ section for advice and other information.

You can also contact us if you have any questions.

[Your Name]

Check out these free customer service email templates for more onboarding templates.

18. Customer Data Privacy Notification Email Template

Use this template when you want to tell customers about updates or changes to your privacy policy. It explains how your business collects, uses, and protects customer data.

This reassures customers about their privacy rights and helps maintain data regulation compliance. This email can help build trust by offering transparency into how your business handles customer data .

[Business name] is committed to the privacy and security of your personal data. We're writing to inform you about an important update to our privacy policy and data protection practices.

We value your trust and want to give you a clear understanding of how we handle and protect your information. We encourage you to review our updated privacy policy, which outlines:

• How we collect and use your data
• How we store and secure your data
• Your rights and options regarding your personal information

You can find the updated privacy policy at [link to privacy policy page].

If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy or data protection, don't hesitate to contact our customer support team.

Warm regards,

19. Service Disruption Notification Email Template

Service issues happen. But unexpected interruptions can impact customer trust, so it‘s important to reach out and let customers know you’re working to fix it.

This template makes it simple to promptly notify customers about any issues affecting their experience. This offers transparency and shows you're working to resolve the problem. It also gives you a chance to apologize for the inconvenience and offer updates or potential solutions.

We hope this email finds you well. We wanted to let you know about a temporary service disruption that‘s impacted the seamless experience you’re used to.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. We understand the importance of reliable and uninterrupted service and our team is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

We value your patience and understanding during this time. Our team will share updates on service as they become available.

In the meantime, please contact us with any questions or concerns. Our support team is on standby to assist you.

Thank you again for your continued trust and support,

20. Broken Product or Service Email Template

If your product or service is broken, the least you can do is keep your concerned or angry customers in the loop.

Resolving issues related to broken products can sharpen your customer service skills and help you build a better relationship with customers.

Here’s an email template that can help you assuage your customers.

Earlier today, we noticed an issue that affected our service and users' accounts. We are so sorry that you were affected.

We have rectified the issue, and you should be able to access your account now. Be reassured that no data was lost during the downtime.

We will be implementing measures to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us.

[Brand/Service]

21. Service Upgrade Notification Email Template

You can use this template to announce improvements or upgrades to your services. An upgrade might offer an enhanced experience for current customers. Or it could be a chance to change plans and add value.

Either way, it's smart to connect with customers with a quick email. This template can help you build anticipation, create awareness for upcoming changes, and feature benefits of the upgrade.

We're thrilled to announce an exciting upgrade to our [Service Name]. As a valued customer, we wanted to be the first to let you know!

This upgrade includes enhancements inspired by feedback from customers like you. [Service Name] will now offer an even more streamlined and efficient experience for you with [list of upgrade details].

This upgrade is free for [plan name], and users on [other plans] can take advantage of these features with the [plan name] add-on.

To learn more, check out this detailed [Service Name] guide or contact our customer service team.

Thank you for your continued trust and support.

22. Customer Review Request Email Template

If you've worked with a customer for a while and helped them achieve results with your product or service, you may want to ask them to review your product, service, business, or you personally.

Reviews help increase ratings on review sites, which are among the most trustworthy ways prospects research companies or products before making a purchase.

Timing-wise, it might make sense for you to send this email within a chain you've already started with the customer about the good results or a successful project you collaborated with them on.

You can either copy this template directly into a chain or use the exact wording to start a new thread from scratch.

If you sell a physical product that your customer personally uses, you might contact them 10-15 days after the product is delivered to ask them how it's going.

I hope you‘re having a great week so far! I saw you’ve started [details about how they‘re using your product] — it looks like you’ve achieved some impressive [details of the results they've achieved]. How are you enjoying working with the tool?

If you have any feedback or questions, don‘t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email, and I’ll help you out!

If you‘d like to share your experience using [Your company’s tool], here are our pages on [review site] and [review site], where you can give us a rating and share your feedback to help other customers like you.

Thanks for your time, and give me a call if you have any questions!

Customer Refund Letter Templates

Here are a few helpful customer service email templates that you can use for refunds.

23. Refund to Customer Email Template

Sadly, some customers are going to return your products.

Don‘t worry; it’s not you. But it‘s also not them. They aren’t upset or frustrated but simply couldn’t find a good use for the product.

For instances like this, it's good to respond to a refund with an email expressing that there are no hard feelings and that you hope to do business with them again in the future.

I've processed your refund, and you should expect to see the amount appear in your bank account in the next couple of business days.

I‘m sorry to hear that you didn’t love your new product. I completely understand that it isn't for everyone.

If you‘re still searching for the right choice for you, let me know. I’d be happy to talk you through some of our other options and see if any of them feel like a good fit. Thank you for your time and for giving us a try.

I hope to connect with you again soon.

24. Product Exchange Email Template

Fortunately, not every unhappy customer will ask for a refund. Some may regularly purchase your product, so they know that one poor experience doesn't represent your brand.

However, since they know what to expect from your products, they’ll likely be upset when some products don’t meet their standard. They won't be angry enough to churn, but they will expect you to make things right. This is where this letter comes in handy.

Thanks for letting us know about this faulty product. We'll do our best to assess the problem and determine exactly what went wrong with your [product name].

In the meantime, please accept this replacement product [link] that I've personally assessed for performance.

We'd like to offer our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. We hope you continue to enjoy using our product, and we are happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Please feel welcome to contact our support team at [phone number] or reply to this message, and we'd be more than happy to help.

25. Product Discount Email Template

When it comes to refunds, not every company has the same policy. For example, some may not offer product exchanges or full compensation for specific products or services. Others may require proof of purchase to issue a refund and can only provide store credit without it.

For these cases, your business may offer a small promotion so the customer will have a discount the next time they shop at your store. It‘s not the refund the customer is looking for, but it’s better than leaving them empty-handed.

Thanks for reaching out.

Unfortunately, we can't offer a refund at this time. According to our policy, [policy description + explanation of why the policy is in place].

I‘ve checked with my manager to confirm this policy, and while we can’t offer a full refund, we can offer you a discount of [discount amount] for the next time you shop in our stores.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding in this matter. Please feel welcome to reach out to me with any questions you may have, and I would be more than happy to help.

26. Customer Apology Email Template

In some cases, your customer service team won't be able to provide any type of refund or discount. This can lead to an awkward or stressful situation with the customer, especially if they feel like your company is in the wrong.

While you should personalize every apology, this message can be a baseline to work from when you need to take responsibility for your company's mistakes.

Thank you for providing us with this feedback.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused, and we appreciate your understanding in the matter. We know that [problem] has prevented you from achieving [customer's goal] and that we have fallen short of your expectations.

I have relayed this feedback to the rest of my team and can assure you that this mistake won‘t happen in the future. That said, if there’s anything else that I can help you with at the moment, please feel welcome to reach out, and I would be more than happy to help.

27. Account Termination Email Template

Breaking up is hard to do and, whether an account closure starts with your business or the customer, it's a sensitive situation. Personalization is essential for this email to a customer, but the template below can help you get started.

It gives you space to offer clear reasons for the termination and next steps customers may need to take. It also includes contact information for further assistance. This will help you keep any account closure communication empathetic, professional, and respectful.

Thank you for your email. We hope this email finds you well. We are writing to confirm that your account with us will be terminated effective [Termination Date].

Your respect and trust is our first priority and we want to thank you for your past support.

You can find a list of commonly asked questions at [link to FAQ page]. If you have any questions or need help with any next steps, please don't hesitate to contact our customer support team.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation and wish you the best in your future endeavors.

[Your company/name]

28. Return of Overpayment Email Template

Depending on your business model, customers may have to pay for a product or service upfront and are reimbursed later if they paid more than they needed to. This either requires you to send them a check or wire the money with a direct deposit.

Regardless of how it‘s transferred, customers will want to know where this money is coming from. While they’ll be happy to accept the return, they‘ll be dubious of its origin if you don’t notify them ahead of time. You'll also want to take credit for this refund, as it shows your intention to provide an honest transaction.

You can use this letter to alert your customers of an overpayment for these cases.

Thank you for your recent payment of [payment amount].

Upon review of your transaction, we've determined that the amount you have paid is more than what was required for this product or service. The actual amount that was due was [payment amount], thus leaving you with a credit of [credit amount]. Please find a [check amount or notice of deposit] enclosed in this letter.

We strongly believe in providing an honest experience for our customers and can assure you that we are working constantly to prevent potential fraud. We hope this message resolves any concerns you may have about this transaction and are more than happy to answer any additional questions.

29. Refund Notification Email Template

Sometimes, customers are eligible for a refund but just don‘t know it. While you shouldn’t be eager for them to return products, it'd be dishonest not to notify customers when they qualify to do so.

This type of proactive customer service builds trust with your customer base and creates a delightful support experience.

We hope this message finds you well.

We are reaching out because you qualify for a refund for your purchase of [product name]. This refund is eligible for [period of time] and can be initiated by calling or messaging our customer service team.

Please feel welcome to reply to this email with any questions you may have, and I would be more than happy to help.

30. Refund Status Email Template

To avoid any hiccups in the refund process, it‘d be helpful to let your customer know the status of their refund once it’s en route to their account.

If you'd prefer to refer to your company in the plural form, simply swap the "I" for "We."

I'm reaching out about the refund you initiated on [date].

Your refund has been deposited into your card ending in [last four digits of card]. You should see the amount credited to your account in about 3 to 5 business days.

If you don‘t see the refund in your account, respond to this email, and I’ll look into it for you. In the meantime, please let me know if I can answer any additional questions — I'd be happy to help!

31. Refund Not Received Email Template

Suppose your customer hasn‘t received a refund and reached out to you about it. In that case, you should act as if you’re responding to a customer complaint: with empathy, sincerity, and clear intentions to resolve the problem.

Most of the time, the delay is on the bank's end. In this instance, gently remind the customer that a few more business days may pass before processing the refund.

I‘m so sorry to hear that a refund hasn’t been deposited into your card ending in [last four digits of card].

I've contacted our accounting department to look into this issue for you. A refund has been issued, but it may take a few days for your bank to process the funds.

While we work on the delay, I‘ve created a ticket in our system to keep you updated on your refund status. We’ll try to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. In the meantime, feel free to reply to this email with any questions or concerns, and I'd be happy to help.

32. Out-of-Policy Refund Email Template

Sometimes, customers ask for a refund when they're past the date of eligibility.

You have the option of offering store credit or giving them personalized support for getting the most out of their new product.

Thanks so much for reaching out about order #[number]. I‘m so sorry the product hasn’t worked out for you.

Because more than [number of days] days have passed since the date of purchase, you're no longer eligible for a refund.

However, I can give you store credit for your purchase. Alternatively, I can set up a meeting with our customer success department so that you can get the most out of your product.

Let me know which option you‘d prefer. Also, if you have any questions or concerns, I’d be happy to help.

Create a Strong Customer Experience Using Customer Service Email Templates

Excellent service is the cornerstone of creating delightful experiences that keep your customers coming back. Armed with the insights above, we hope you feel inspired to bring customers your A-Game. 

Still, we know you don’t have all the time in the world. That’s why we’ve compiled 50 customer service email templates that cover any situation you might come across. Download them below to save precious time without sacrificing the quality of your customer service interactions.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

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How to Define Your Email Marketing Customer Journey – With Examples and Strategies

The email marketing customer journey shows the methodical steps a prospect takes toward conversion. It includes the potential buyers’ entire lifecycle, from the awareness stage to post-purchase and beyond.

Think of a customer journey like a road trip; it represents the path from the starting point to the destination. At each stage, you tailor the messages and offers to meet their unique needs. 

But it’s not as simple as it sounds — to define your customer’s journey properly, you must track every interaction a prospect takes with your brand, from encountering your brand to conversions. 

Understanding how important the purchase path is, we’ve created a guide to help you accurately map them, show you how to strategize, and give you tips to create viable customer journeys with examples.

What is a Customer Journey?

A customer journey paints the entire experience a prospect goes through with your brand. Multiple touchpoints help you build a strong relationship with recipients as they convert. A touchpoint is any interaction with your brand, such as visiting your website or engaging with your marketing emails.

There’s no timeline for when they will reach the conversion stage and become loyal followers. For example, a prospect might be on the top of the email marketing funnel for years until they decide to purchase. At the same time, someone else could immediately convert after receiving one email from the sender.

Each brand’s email customer journey can look different and depends on the products, marketing methods, and audience demographics. Regardless of how you use it, the email journey is vital to understand your subscribers’ needs and behavior.

The Importance of Customer Journey

Knowing where your potential buyers are in the journey can lead to clarity for users and yourself in terms of customer experience and loyalty.

Customer journey is critical for several reasons such as:

• To enhance customer experience : By mapping the journey, you can gain insights into customer interactions and tailor your brand messages accordingly.
• To improve customer engagement : A well-designed email customer journey encourages active engagement throughout their lifecycle stage.
• To increase conversions and sales : Guiding recipients through their journey can avoid friction, address pain points, and incentivize them to act, increasing conversions .
• To build brand loyalty : Solving customers’ pain points and being there for them helps increase brand credibility.
• To gain a competitive advantage : Brands prioritizing purchasers can gain an upper hand in the market. 

Designing a good customer journey will help you tackle weak spots in their brand experience, helping you build effective campaigns that solve common challenges. 

Email Marketing and Email Customer Journey Map

Your customer journey map represents a comprehensive view of subscriber feedback from various steps in their journey, especially in email marketing.

Email marketing and journey mapping work in unity and help:

• Build relationships : Emails can be more personal and help build lasting customer relationships. Personalized and targeted messages foster trust and loyalty.
• Encourage lead nurturing : Different email campaigns help nurture and guide leads through the sales funnel. 
• Drive awareness: Email marketing can help introduce potential buyers to your brand and create a seamless purchase experience.
• Retain customers : Email marketing facilitates constant communication, unlike website pop-ups. You can send email campaigns in intervals and maximize your brand impact.

Email marketing is a straightforward way to nurture your target audience with personalized content based on their actions. Effective email campaigns start with visualizing your customer journey through journey mapping.

Email Customer Journey Map: Everything You Should Know 

A customer journey map helps you visualize the various touchpoints a person goes through with your brand. It helps you get into your customers’ heads and understand what people think, how they react, and what motivates their decisions.

There’s no rule to visualize this data — you can use marketing funnels, circular mapping, or the infinite loop journey map. Optimizing your email marketing campaigns is critical regardless of how you represent this data.

Essential Components of a Customer Journey Map

A customer journey map consists of key components that address the overall recipient experience . You must consider every detail regarding marketing touchpoints in the customer journey.

Here’s a breakdown of the key components you must have in your customer journey map:

• Customer personas : Develop detailed profiles of your target audiences, including demographics, preferences, goals, and pain points. It’s critical to know customer motivation and behavior to craft personalized experiences .
• Stages : The number of stages can vary according to your brand goals and customer profiles. Each stage represents a distinct subscriber interaction with your brand.
• Touchpoints : Take note of touchpoints across channels — it can be social media, website visits, or customer service interactions.
• Pain points : Identify pain points across touchpoints and how to navigate them. It could include product selection, checkout process, or website navigation issues.
• Goals and objectives : Define the goals of the customer journey map — are you aiming to increase conversions or improve subscriber satisfaction? It’s important to align your journey map with specific goals.
• Data and insights : Analyze customer data to understand the behavioral process and common pain points.
• Cross-channel consistency : Ensure consistency across marketing channels and devices. Whether customers interact with your brand online or offline, consistency in messages and branding is key.

Apart from these components, you must know what prevents recipients from moving to the next stage . Maybe they found something better or couldn’t get through to the checkout page. Understand the obstacles to build a proper email marketing customer journey.

Common Barriers to Customer Journey

The following barriers are common for all marketing channels, especially email marketing .

Your customers could face the following:

• Motivational barriers : When they decide they don’t need or want your product, they won’t likely move past the awareness stage. You must build a rapport and show customers that you understand their pain points and that your product can solve them.
• Experiential barriers : Expected buyers might have faced issues with similar products or categories in the past. Even though the barrier is not related to you, you should slowly build confidence in them through proof.
• Temptation barriers : They may constantly be tempted to find a one-click solution — you need to provide enough evidence and showcase competitive advantage . Exclusive offers and time-sensitive promotions may help overcome this barrier.

Understanding these barriers will help you properly utilize customer journey maps in email marketing.

Assessing this data is also vital to deploying the right email marketing strategy . 

A smart customer journey mapping starts with the emotional essence of your brand and extends to the following factors.

What Makes a Good Email Journey Map?

Every customer is different, and so are their journeys — a good email journey map will highlight the various pathways the recipients can take . It should also include potential roadblocks to increase the likelihood of having more people at the destination.

Look at the key characteristics of a customer journey in the table below.

Email marketing and customer journey form the perfect partnership to provide the best customer experience.

To effectively map your subscriber journey, you must consider these 6 stages. We’ll also look at email journey examples for each of them.

Stage 1: Awareness 

The first step is to inform people of your brand’s existence and mention your value proposition. Give them a way to discover their needs for your product or service.

Your potential purchasers could have found you through a Facebook ad, a website pop-up, or through Google. Your job is to get their email addresses to warm them up for a future purchase. For example, if you find that many discover your brand through blog posts, include an email sign-up form on your blog post.

A Warm Welcome From E-commerce Senders

This welcome email from E-commerce Senders is straightforward — it starts with a ‘Thank you’ message and introduces the team behind the scenes. By mentioning the email addresses and contact names, the brand nips customer concerns at an early stage. 

Stage 2: Consideration

At this stage, customers are evaluating their options — they might read reviews, seek more information about your brand, or compare pricing to a competitor.

Buyers typically search Google 2-3 times before making a decision . Customer experience adds weight to buyers’ decision-making — 86% are willing to pay more for a great experience. They are also more willing to pay for expensive items when pricing is concerned. 

VidAngel: Streaming Something This Weekend?

By highlighting the benefits, VidAngel convinces buyers that they deserve their dollars. Although there’s no direct competitor analysis, the brand ensures it provides the best for the price point.

For people new to VidAngel, the platform guides them to the best performing content.

Stage 3: Purchase

The purchase stage is about reassuring recipients about their decision to purchase from you.  

They finally hit the ‘Purchase now’ button and land on the ‘Thank you page.’ From here, you need to provide a pleasant post-purchase experience and invite them to purchase more.

Send them welcome emails, information on how your products solve their pain points, and discounts.

Chatters Salons — Get it Before it’s Gone

The purchase stage is where the buyers make the final decision — abandoned cart emails are a great way to keep customers in line with their favorite items. Chatters Salons uses simple language to communicate about the cart items.

Stage 4: Retention

In this stage, your goal will shift to retaining the customer. Most are particular about speed, convenience, and friendly service, over 70% in importance. They are also more likely to stay engaged when you focus on these core demands through email marketing.

Busuu – It’s Your Busuuversary!

At some point, customers may reconsider their choice to purchase from you. This is a good time to send discounts and special occasion deals to keep them engaged. Busuu gives 60% off for a 3-month anniversary and mentions their premium plan and features.

Stage 5: Advocacy

In this final stage, satisfied customers become your brand advocates ; they become repeat buyers and recommend your brand to others.

However, these buyers don’t make extra efforts to spread the word. So, your email marketing must provide these shoppers with the necessary information to get them to spread the word.

Ghia — If you Prefer to Shop IRL

Encouraging customers to follow you on socials or attend a drinking game increases the chances of them becoming your brand advocates , eventually. Ghia invites purchasers to get outside as well as follow them on their social media channels. 

Stage 6: Re-engagement

Sometimes, customers may have reasons to stop engaging with your brand or using your products. Maybe they’re dissatisfied, or they forgot about your brand. In this case, you need to re-engage them through personalized offers and content.

Koala Eco — Last Day to Save 25% Off

Get creative to encourage disengaged customers to return to your brand, just like Koala Eco. The brand uses urgency techniques to increase interest. A clean email design with a simple CTA helps them gauge the information immediately.

Understanding your customer needs is primary throughout these stages — create relevant touchpoints and deliver personalized content. You can opt for various email marketing methods to provide the best customer experience at each stage.

Strategies For Each Customer Journey Stage

To make it easier for you, we’ve gathered the best marketing strategies for each stage of the customer journey.  

Here’s a neat overview.

Ensure you pay extra attention to customer experience — 17% of customers can leave a brand because of one bad experience . That’s why strategizing according to customer data becomes vital; let’s see how!

How to Use Data to Map an Email Customer Journey

Using correct data can lead to behavioral insights that help increase your email marketing metrics .  

Here’s how you can use data to effectively map an email customer journey.

Segment Your Customers

Segmentation strategies help you send customized email content to each of your audiences, resulting in more targeted communication. You can find common touchpoints that audiences use to interact with your brand and use them to map your customer journeys.

Here’s how you can incorporate segmentation into your email marketing journey:

• Identify segmentation criteria : Whether it’s demographics, psychographics, or behavioral data, choose a criteria for segmenting your audience. 
• Segment customers at each stage of the journey : Segment subscribers based on their familiarity with your brand. Do this for every stage of the customer journey to map out more personalized experiences.
• Create tailored content: Develop targeted email content for each audience segment. For example, send welcome emails to new subscribers and exclusive VIP offers for re-engaging inactive customers .
• Utilize triggered emails : Set up triggered emails based on your segmentation criteria. This way, you can send automated email messages as and when a customer interacts with your brand.
• Test and optimize : Continuously monitor your segmentation strategy based on performance metrics and customer feedback.

Find Your Brand Strength

Email tracking and A/B testing will help you harness the points in customer experience . One stage could work better than the rest, so it’s important to capitalize on these insights to drive better results.

Positive engagement, high click rates, and conversions are signs that your segmentation strategies are working. Focus on these data points to address potential recipient pain points and emotionally connect with them.

Evaluate Competition

Competitor research will tell you which areas need more focus and improvement. Conversion rate optimization is a valuable tool to analyze how customers behave on your site. CRO also tells you which content is more engaging and where they are likely to drop off.

Use competitor analysis along with email marketing reports to improve customer experience and overall returns. Measure your email journey for a more detailed report, such as the ones below.

The Key Metrics to Measure Email Customer Journey

The email customer journey is similar to measuring other email marketing campaigns. 

The 5 basic metrics to measure are:

• Open rates : The open rate shows how well your subject lines perform. A higher open rate indicates that your emails are grabbing customer attention , while a lower rate may signal areas for improvement.
• Click-through rates : This metric shows the effectiveness of your content, links, and CTA. Analyzing CTR shows which content resonates most with your audience.
• Bounce rates : Bounced emails can occur due to invalid email addresses or technical issues. Monitoring this metric shows the accuracy of your email list, ensuring emails reach your intended audiences. It’s critical to keep your email lists updated and clean — Campaign Refinery’s automatic email list cleaning tool eliminates unwanted and harmful email addresses, retaining your email deliverability and sender reputation.
• Subscribe rates : More subscribers means you have high-quality email content that recipients find useful. A high subscribe rate shows that recipients trust you enough to give their email addresses.
• Unsubscribe rates : Monitoring this rate shows the impact of your email content and frequency. High unsubscribe rates could indicate that your content or email timing does not align with your audience’s preferences and expectations.

You can also track website visits, page scroll length, customer lifetime value, and subscriber satisfaction rates to understand your audience better.

How to Utilize Customer Journey Map for Email Marketing?

Email marketing is an ongoing communication with your subscribers, which means your customer journey must align with your email communication. 

Here are 3 best ways to do it:

• Branded email templates : Once you understand what resonates the most with your audience, you can create branded email templates to showcase your strengths. This will also help you show polished brand identity in all your correspondences.
• Automated email campaigns : Customer journey mapping can help you find out the best ways to connect with customers — you can then automate your email campaigns to send relevant and personalized content to subscribers. For example, with Campaign Refinery, you can choose different email marketing campaigns from the campaign library and automate them based on smart goal triggers. You can also set up Evergreen Flash Sales to create scarcity and increase conversions.
• Email tracking : Use tracking tools to gather relevant customer insights and implement the data in your email marketing campaigns. You can use specialized tracking tools or your ESP’s built-in analytics dashboard. Campaign Refinery provides users with a clean and single-view analytics dashboard that contains all the information at a glance.

To make the most of your email marketing, you should learn to tackle customer support and experience. 

How to Make the Most of Email Customer Journeys

The buyer’s journey is never linear — it frequently intertwines with multiple touchpoints . The best way to win customers is to anticipate their needs even before they tell you. This means providing proactive support — solving customary issues before they become problems.

Here’s how reactive and proactive customer service differs.

Further, immediate customer attention can increase interest in your brand. The most important attribute for customer experience is 75% faster response times and 55% consistency across channels.

This means the longer you take to reply, the less likely a recipient will engage. Customer experience can make or break your brand image, and it’s critical to follow all the attributes that lead to a valuable outcome.

For example, Campaign Refinery offers dedicated expert support for issues or concerns the users may have — the reply time is usually within a few hours.

For this reason, use automated email software to schedule and send email campaigns based on each customer touchpoint in the journey map.

Gain Human Insights Into Your Email Marketing Customer Journey

Customers are people, just like you and me. Looking past data and numbers to form a lasting bond with them is important —  you need to put yourself in their shoes to understand their needs better. 

Check for reliability, relevance, and automate your email campaigns for higher conversions . Data and automation are your best friends if you want to align your email marketing strategy with your customer journey.

Campaign Refinery helps you collect relevant data, segment subscribers, map customer journeys, and set up various email marketing funnels. You can also send personalized emails by setting goals to define your desired outcome for your email campaigns.

But first, you’ll need to attract the right audience. We can help you with that as our founder Travis Ketchum wrote a stellar guide on increasing open and click rates for your lead magnets.

Download the Lead Magnet Multiplier Course now , and learn to attract newer audiences and boost your sender reputation like never before.

If you want the most out of your email marketing, we’re here to take care of the nitty-gritty details for you — apply to become a Campaign Refinery client and upgrade your email marketing revenue today!

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How to Measure CX with Customer Journey Metrics

Here’s how to choose customer experience metrics and measure the performance of CX to optimize interactions across every touchpoint in the customer journey.

While the term customer experience (CX) represents your customers’ holistic view of their experience with your brand, some moments may stand out more than others to them. An engaging storefront or a kind and thoughtful onboarding can smooth over some rougher edges, while slow page load times or a long call queue can turn someone away from a product they’d otherwise love. To measure success at different stages of the customer journey, CX teams need to be intimately familiar with customer journey metrics.

What are customer journey metrics?

Customer journey metrics are a category of metrics CX teams can use to evaluate the customer journey . They can be derived from any source of customer feedback, direct or indirect , and analyzed to reveal areas for improvement. Using these KPIs in your decision-making can help your team enhance the overall customer experience and customer loyalty.

How to choose the right customer journey metrics for your organization

According to Gartner , most large companies keep track of more than 50 CX metrics, with some monitoring as many as 200 KPIs. However, not all of these measures are created equally — choosing the right customer journey metrics requires identifying your organization’s goals and aligning the data you evaluate with the appropriate KPIs.

Customer journey metrics can be used for a variety of organizational goals and needs, including:

• Improving customer loyalty and satisfaction
• Minimizing churn and improving retention
• Enhancing different aspects of the customer journey

Here’s how to outline your customer journey measurement process.

1. Define your customer journey

Outline the stages of your customer journey , or the steps customers take as they engage with your organization and purchase your goods or services. Typically, customer journey stages include:

• Consideration
• Post-conversion

2. Identify all touchpoints

Determine each stage where customers can interact with your brand. This may include your company’s storefronts, websites, apps, texts, emails, contact center, chatbot, social media channels, surveys, and more.

3. Select metrics for each touchpoint

Choose the appropriate metrics to track for each stage to ensure you’re measuring the right experiences at each moment in the journey. Here are some metrics to consider by stage:

• Awareness: Impressions, click-through rates, form experience score , navigation
• Consideration: Time spent on the page, page views, lead generation, focus rate, multiclick behavior , device rotation, reading, bird’s nest behavior
• Conversion: Conversion rates, average order value, average contract value
• Post-conversion: Customer satisfaction, retention rates, customer sentiment
• Advocacy: NPS,® referrals, customer lifetime value, churn

Tip: Use a behavioral intelligence tool and Digital Experience Score for insights into every digital experience and customer interaction at scale.

4. Implement tracking tools and integrate data sources

When you’ve selected the metrics you want to track, take advantage of a customer experience analytics tool like Medallia’s customer experience platform to reliably gather data from various sources and integrate structured and unstructured data from sources like your CRM, social media channels, online reviews, social listening, customer feedback, market research, and market signals into easy-to-read dashboards and reports. 

5. Analyze and segment data

Regularly analyze and segment your data to generate updated insights and identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement. Consider segmenting data by demographics, product and service lines, and geographic regions. You can even go a layer deeper and look at your data by lifetime value, contract value, and customer loyalty.

6. Compare against benchmarks and consider external factors

Finally, benchmark your CX metrics against industry standards and historical performance . Don’t forget to take into account the impact of economic conditions, market trends, and changes in consumer tastes and behavior. 

Top customer journey metrics in experience management

Although there are many to choose from, we’ve compiled a list of the top metrics that CX teams should track.

Customer experience and engagement metrics

This group of metrics helps identify how customers are reacting to — and how they feel about — your brand throughout their journeys. 

Net Promoter Score ® (NPS®)

NPS is a simple yet reliable metric that companies are able to calculate by surveying customers and asking them to rank on an 11-point scale how likely they are to recommend a company or brand. At a glance, it shows how loyal your customers are, but it also helps identify your promoters — and detractors.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

This metric is a measure of how much revenue a customer generates throughout the course of their relationship with your company. CLV gives you insight into how much your customers are spending with you. This can be combined with other metrics to identify customers that could use additional attention from sales or customer success.

Customer Retention Rate

Retention rate indicates how well you’re retaining customers over a given timeframe. Retaining customers means you’re holding onto their lifetime value, contributing to long-term stability and growth. Evaluating your retention rate can reveal when — and why — customers choose to remain with your organization.

The inverse of the retention rate, churn, is a dreaded word in the world of experience. It indicates the percentage of customers who leave or do not renew their contracts with your organization. Understanding the causes behind churn is crucial to improving customer experience.

User Engagement

This is a measure of how deeply users engage with your websites or apps on a scale of 0 to 10, indicating how much time they spend and how much attention they pay to your digital experiences.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

A simple measure of how much effort a customer expends while interacting with your brand, such as during a purchase or customer service interaction. This can be collected via surveys using the Likert Scale to identify how your customers perceive the process. Less effort typically results in better experiences.

Conversion Rate

An indicator of the success rate of your marketing or sales actions, this metric reflects the percentage of prospects who take a specific action, like signing up for an account, checking out, or becoming a subscriber.

Contact center, customer service, and customer support metrics

On the other end of the customer journey is customer service — the ways in which you’re supporting or delighting customers when they have a problem.

Average First Response Time

This metric describes how quickly, on average, your teams respond to customer inquiries. Using this measurement can help you understand sources of friction in the customer support journey.

Average Resolution Time

This is a success metric for your customer contact centers that assesses their efficiency in closing customer issue tickets. More efficient teams close more tickets faster.

Customer Satisfaction

This metric measures customer sentiment following specific interactions, or as it relates to the brand as a whole. Typically, this data is acquired through surveys and calculated by dividing the number of positive responses by the total number of surveys taken, and multiplied by 100. AI-powered text analytics and speech analytics can also be used to automatically analyze every customer interaction and measure the customer sentiment of these interactions. 

Strategies to improve customer service metrics

Ultimately, the goal of measuring your company’s customer experience is to improve it. Monitoring KPIs like the ones discussed is a great way to generate the insights necessary to identify areas of friction and implement strategies to improve them. 

With the right metrics in place, you’ll be able to:

Identify and alleviate pain points

Identify KPIs that are behind benchmarks and dig into the root cause. For example, if customer feedback suggests service centers are unsatisfactory, look to things like response and resolution times to identify areas for improvement. Similarly, if contract values are high but so are churn rates, evaluate feedback to understand if pricing, customer success, or features are misaligned with the customer experience.

Understand how customer experience is impacting business outcomes

Using tools like Medallia’s AI text and speech analytics , you’ll be able to see how CX is affecting the business in real time.

Personalize customer interactions

Organizations that track customer insights at the 1:1 level are able to personalize customer interactions across the company’s loyalty and reward programs and during customer service interactions, making customers feel welcomed and valued, enhancing loyalty.

Orchestrate smarter journeys

There’s a huge opportunity for brands to use customer insights to better orchestrate customer journeys . Medallia’s experience orchestration tools can help your organization react to customer needs in real time, guiding them through more personalized experiences.

Monitoring customer journey metrics for critical CX insights

The field of customer experience is constantly evolving. With the rapid rise of AI adoption and changing customer expectations, brands that can deliver fresh, meaningful, and personalized experiences are getting ahead of their competitors. A successful CX team needs tools and insights that enable real-time understanding into exactly what customers want, where they want it, and when — and help you take action faster than ever before. Do you suspect your organization might be missing critical insights from your customers? Check out our guide, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your CX Platform , to better understand where your program might be falling short.

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Customer Experience vs. Customer Success: Learn the Key Differences

Going Beyond the Survey: How Meta Reality Labs Operationalized CX

The Modern Approach to Customer Journey Analysis

What is a Chief Experience Officer? The Qualities to Hire the Best CXO to Lead Your Organization

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Azure pricing and billing faq,  where can i find azure product prices and get pricing estimates, what is azure hybrid benefit, what options do i have to save on my azure compute usage, how do i know which pricing option to choose for compute services, what payment options do i have for purchasing azure, in what currency is azure priced, how are non-microsoft products and services priced, how is azure priced under the microsoft customer agreement, under the microsoft customer agreement, in which currency will my payment be processed, what is an azure plan, what exchange rate will be used and how does it work with my bill, can i pay in local currency if my agreement was signed in argentina, hong kong, indonesia, mexico, malaysia, saidi arabia, turkey, or south africa, where can i find additional information on pricing and billing.

Price match only available for newest-generation products in the same comparable geographic region only. Please note that not all services are included and there might be minor pricing variations.  Pricing adjustments in response to price drops by AWS might cause slight delays. [2] Customers may see savings estimated to be between 11 percent and 65 percent. The 65 percent savings is based on one M64dsv2 Azure VM for CentOS or Ubuntu Linux in the East US region running for 36 months at a pay-as-you-go rate of ~$4,868.37/month vs. a reduced rate for a 3-year savings plan of ~$1,703.44/month. Based on Azure pricing as of October 2022. Prices subject to change. Actual savings may vary based on location, instance type, or usage. [3] Savings based on sample of VMs across variety of regions including Dv4 in West Europe. Savings are calculated from full price (license included) for SQL Server Enterprise edition VM against reduced rate (applying Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server and Windows Server), which excludes Software Assurance costs for SQL Server and Windows Server. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, compute family, and EA agreement. Prices as of January 2023, subject to change.

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Products and Services

Configuration engineer

Ben Harting

"I decided to make a career change when I was twenty-four. I chose to pursue Cisco Certifications because I knew it would put me in the best position to start a career in networking."

How it all began

Certifications can improve your ability to do your job

My dad is a systems administrator, so I grew up around computers. Just watching him tinker with them was cool. However, when I went to college, I earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Next, I got a teaching credential, then taught elementary school for a few years. But when I turned 24, I decided I wanted a career change. So, I picked up a book on TCP/IP networking, started studying it, and realized that I really enjoyed it. My dad wasn’t into networking that much, so I didn’t know much about it, and got into it more organically. I considered pursuing Cisco certifications right away since the idea of learning about networking led straight to these credentials. I took a networking class at a local community college, then obtained my Cisco CCNA certification.

I enjoy system administration, I’ve gained communications skills, and I’ve learned tech skills, in Microsoft active directory systems, administration, and networking virtualization. General troubleshooting is a big part of my job, too. Most importantly, I’ve gained the flexibility to work around difficulties and learn new technologies. Just being able to keep up with the constant change in technologies is incredibly valuable.

Certifications

Columbus, OH

Reading Hiking Learning new tech

What does having a Cisco Certification mean to you?

"I’ve gained more knowledge and different skill sets. I’ve opened myself up for more opportunities. And it’s a validation of me and what I’ve learned."

The biggest challenge was where to start, there where a lot of options. A lot of them involved going back to school or spending a lot of money. CCNA was the most cost-effective, and it would put me in the best position to start a career. Cisco is a leader in that. I took a bootcamp course at the local community college that lasted 8 weeks in total.

I was already in my job in IT in tier 1 support, help desk and the CCNA Certification was a catalyst for my first promotion as a second tier support security.

What would you tell your younger self?

Definitely try different things and go all in on whatever interests you the most.

What would you tell a friend?

I’d tell them to go for it. It will open up a lot of opportunities for them. They’ll have all the knowledge they need to go forward in their career.

Ben's journey

Career path.

Current role

Configuration engineers work on systems and network administration.

Previous role

IT Help Desk Support Primary School Educator

Certification path

Most recent certification

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification is the first step toward a career in IT Networking. The CCNA exam covers networking fundamentals, IP services, security fundamentals, automation and programmability.

Read more certification success stories

"The guidance I gained from earning the certification helped— in near real time—to determine what was happening on the job, when I became an SOC operator."

Network security analyst CyberOps Associate

Yasser Auda

"You can do anything. You just need to decide to do it, have the will to do it, and never give up. Be confident in yourself and stop the barriers in your mind."

Network security architect CCNA, CCNP Enterprise, CCNP Security, CyberOps Associate, CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, Cisco Certified DevNet Associate, Cisco Certified DevNet Professional

Olivia Wolf

"The knowledge that I’ve got from studying for those certifications gave me the confidence that I’ll always be able to get a job if I need to."

Systems engineer CCNA, CCNP Enterprise, DevNet Associate

Share your Cisco Certification Success Story

Has earning a Cisco certification positively changed your life or career, or both? Do you think your Cisco certification story would help encourage other people to earn their Cisco certification? If so, we want to talk to you!