e-mail review

Hi all,

First, I must say that, overall, I am very happy with the communication with Shapeways.
But I mentionned that I would like to review the different e-mails we received from Shapeways, and suggest some modifications.
So let's begin!

Here is the mail we receive when we sell an item:

and here are the proposed corrections :
Basically, we need the name of the model to be written with no abbreviations, and we need to know the material in the text itself (it is in the attached file, btw). I am very happy to learn that my model was ordered in a new color, for instance.
And, as far as I know, when we order the model for ourself, there is no markup anymore, so we do not receive this e-mail (and this is to be discussed: we have no way to track item offered with no markup).
Any other idea?

[EDIT] "markup" was spelled "mark up", removed extra space after "Hi"
Furthermore "will soon go into production" suggests that the production did not started yet, while "Right now we're making a physical copy of your design" suggests it has actually started. There is a contradiction (or perhaps it began while we were reading the message ) and anyways, the two sentences are redundant: the successive topics are order, production, markup fee, production again, shipping.

Well, there is a whole lot to do in that space .... ... ... 
.... but if you want suggestions for point fixes, here are a few which are easy to implement:

1- Order cancellations & coupons:
Some coupons arrive in messages from "Shapeways Team" with subject "Shapeways | There were rejected models in your order 134500", 
some others from "Christel Hagens" with subject "Your order 36794 at Shapeways", 
yet other subjects read "Shapeways | You've sold models that were rejected by our manufacturer" with no mention of an order number in the message body
To facilitate email sorting and searching

• All messages should reference the same invoice number in the subject line
• Format of the subject line should be consistent with other messages, i.e. "Shapeways | Order 134500 rejection/cancellation"

2- Shipping:
Messages arrive from "Shapeways Team" with subject "Your model has been shipped" with no order number at all, neither in the subject nor body text. To facilitate email sorting and searching

• Format of the subject line should be consistent with other messages, i.e. "Shapeways | Order 134500 shipping notice"
• invoice number should be prominently mentioned in the message body

3- Upload:
"Thanks for uploading ..." is completely redundant, superfluous and comes close to spamming. 

A thorough review of that message flow would definitely be appreciated.

Please .....

... when an order for a private model is rejected, leave the model state and material list alone. Do not remove materials from the list, do not set to "show only".

Because ....

... we already know that the order had failed, there is zero risk of anybody else seeing or ordering it and it's a real annoyance to check and reset everything on each and every new round.

Let's go on with the e-mails...
Once again, sorry if the tone is sometimes ironic, the goal is really to explain what is unclear for me, not to criticize for the pleasure of criticizing

So that's cool. Compared to the previous one (which begin by "Hi [space]," you remembered my first name. Adding the name is great. Not only it make the conversation more personnal, but it proves that this e-mail is not a spam .
Nothing special to say here, the message is quite clear:
- The upload has been sucessful.
- You will do some check.
- If it is ok blabla, if not blabla.
Perhaps there could be some hyperlinks, and the title could be "Shapeways | Your model 'Space Filling' had been uploaded successfully" to be more consistent with the other titles.

Then, you received another e-mail sometimes some seconds after, sometimes some seconds before (which can be confusing). This raises the question: are two e-mails necessary?
But, let's go on.

First I've got now a second name. That's cool also. But if all the messages could be consistent in terms of naming (currently no name/first name/complete name) it would be even cooler.
And from here, the message is a little bit more... confused.
So the processing and the checks are differents things, right? You just finished the processing, so the checks occured before? or were perhaps part of the processing?
Anyways. You did that in order to make sure my product can be print. And so what? What is the result? I think somewhere you should say that the tests have been successful.
I don't think you can say you are sure it is printable, there are still some manual checks afterwards, so perhaps the wording should be different.
OK, this time I am lost. We are back in the future: my model has been successfully uploaded? Didn't I already receive a message about that? that's past. It will be soon available in my designs. This is more future, right? But each time I receive this e-mail the model is already there (some kind of present for me in both senses of the term).
Then, you explain how to order it. OK.
Then some suggestions. Why not. But for me this closes the topic of ordering.
But then, you go back to the ordering topic with the delivery times...
Once again, if you want to be clear, try to keep the chronology consistent.
- we run some checks
- we finished the process (checks are part of it)
- the checks have been sucessful
- the model is now in "my design"
- to order it do that
- once ordered, the delivery will take this time
- then some suggestions if you want.

That's all for now...
I hope you do not hate me too much...


[EDIT] fixed some typos

don't worry. nobody actually reads this. they are way too busy with the important stuff...

@trompevenlo, I've actually been following this thread with a lot of interest, and feeding bits of it back to the CS team, but I really should have chimed in earlier.

@Magic please let me clarify, this isn't going to get anyone upset, this is fantastic and I really appreciate you taking the time to give feedback on this stuff.

Interestingly enough, this thread started right around the same time that Ralph started leading some conversations to rework our CS emails. In the coming weeks, I want to make sure we dig deep, and smooth a lot of these things out. If you guys want to provide direct input while we do it, that would be wonderful.

Great feedback Magic!

to be honest, i don't read any of the automatic mails from shapeways,,(well only the ones saying it's rejected)

i just read the "thanks for uploading" and the "became printable"
and then i just remove them in the trash-bin :blush:

I suspected that but I wanted to be sure

OK, let's go on with the rejections.
Basically you receive once again two e-mails (I guess that one would be enough).

First note that I am Vincent again, and that the model name is with no abbreviation: this will not last too long...
This e-mail is typically a standard e-mail, that does not really help you too much.
As you can see the problem is that my model could not been cleaned. But I don't know (from this e-mail) what material was ordered. The material should absolutely been mentionned. This is also true in case of wall thickness issue, which must be most frequent.
I also need to know which order number is concerned.

The attachement is this case is just a rendering of my model (that i know quite well since I did it ). So it is not really useful, but anyways, in this case the explanation is quite clear (by the way "can not" is normally spelled "cannot").
Then the text mentionned a tutorial about manifold issues and the list of the minimum wall thickness (standard e-mail).
I understand that the e-mail cannot be personalized for each kind of issues, but perhaps it should be written:
"If you have manifold issues then check this tutorial (...).
If you have wall thickness issues, here are the minimum wall thickness allowed per material. (...)"

Last thing: the material was in fact Black Detail. as a consequence Black Detail has been removed from the allowed materials. That's correct. But Shapeways should also have removed Transparent Detail and White Detail, right? No need to wait that someone order this model on those materials to reach the same conclusion...

Second email, with the credit note in attachement.
I am wondering if this e-mail and this credit note would be necessary if Shapeways could delay the invoice until the model is actually printed. For us, it does not change a lot, since we are paid a lot later, but this would avoid paying+refunding. But perhaps legally it is not possible.

Oops! I am John Doe again and the name of my model is truncated (Packed Sp... 3x3x3 D6). Please fix this bug (missing name) and always use the complete name (with material) when there is not space issues.
Once again, there is no reference to the invoice number.
For the rest, I do not have too much remarks.

Note that I received twice the first e-mail (two identiacal e-mail, with the very same attachement) and once the second one. As far as I know the model has been oredered only once in Detail Material, so I guess the double e-mail is a mistake.

That's all for today!





Your model cannot be cleaned: bwaaaaaaah!

Thanks for all your input,

We have been reviewing the emails recently and once we have them singing a little better you can look forward to some fresh correspondence to delete (Jetttuh)

With this
Second email, with the credit note in attachement.
I am wondering if this e-mail and this credit note would be necessary if Shapeways could delay the invoice until the model is actually printed. For us, it does not change a lot, since we are paid a lot later, but this would avoid paying+refunding. But perhaps legally it is not possible.

Could be problematic if funds do not clear when model is printed, or if someone in the US wants to cancel an order at midday when the printers in the Netherlands are getting their beauty sleep.

Thanks

We do take your comments into our decisions..

Kind regards

Glad to see this re-activated ....

Our wishlist:

- consistent order numbers in each and every message
ex. "Your model has been shipped" has no order number at all
ex. "Your order 36794 at Shapeways" and "Shapeways | Order 133629 was cancelled" have no apparent relation

- consistent, sortable subject lines in each and every message
ex. "Your order 36794 at Shapeways"and "Shapeways | Order 133629 was cancelled" cannot be sorted by any means

- a consistent information block in each and every message. Less blah-blah, more information
i.e. model number and names, order numbers, order dates, est. production dates, shipping dates, etc. etc.

- refrain from spamming (i.e. Thank you for uploading ...)

- for private models, on order rejection, do not fiddle with the materials list

Thanks,

I flagged this again with Customer Service..

Cheers

And one last e-mail:
Nothing special to say except that when I am the one answering to a first interaction or just commenting my own model, I do not need to be warned...

Any plan to improve the e-mails' content?
Hopefully this should quite safe to implement...