Most of our conversations with customers don’t take place in person.
Instead, we talk to them over live chat, phone, SMS text, or, the most popular customer service channel: email. According to a 2018 Forester customer experience report, 54 percent of customers said they used email for customer service in the last year.
But using email for customer success means we don’t get the benefits of a face-to-face conversation. We can’t use facial expressions to show customers when we’re happy, concerned, or sorry. Email eliminates the 93 percent of communication that occurs through tone and body language.
That’s why well-written emails are so important for building strong customer relationships.
Below, we collected email copy for common situations customer success teams encounter. Use these templates as a starting point — they can serve as inspiration, or you can tweak them to fit your team’s unique voice and circumstances.
If you’re using Front to manage your customer success team’s email, you can easily save these as message templates, email templates that you can save and reuse with a single click.
Customer success email templates:
Handing off a new customer from the Sales to Customer Success team
Hi [customer first name],
Congratulations and thank you for choosing [your company name]! While I’ve been your go-to person during your trial period, I want to formally introduce you to your official customer success manager, [CSM name].
[CSM name]’s customers love working with [him/her] and [he/she] has extensive knowledge of our entire product. You’ll be in great hands.
[CSM name] will be reaching out to you about next steps, but I just wanted to say another thanks for working with me and being our customer.
When to use this customer success email:
Transitioning a customer from Sales is a delicate process. Use this email to make sure it goes smoothly.
Scheduling a Business Review
Hi [first name],
As the end of the year approaches, we’re beginning to plan for an exciting new year at [your company name]! To kick things off, we’d like to schedule a review of your past year. During this conversation, we’d love to get your feedback on how things are going on your end and have you share improvements you’d like us to make in the coming year.
Your feedback is going to be incredibly important as we plan for next year. What day and time would work best for a call next week?
When to use this customer success email:
Use this email when you’re reaching out to propose an annual or quarterly business review with a customer.
Reaching out to an unresponsive customer
Hi [first name],
It’s been a while since we chatted! I’d love to hear how things are going on your end and see how I can help make your experience better. Are you open to sharing some insights with me over email, or scheduling a call so I can share some of the things we’ve been working on for you at [company name]?
When to use this customer success email:
Sometimes, you reach out again and again with no luck. Use this email copy to engage your customers again.
CSM introduction
Hi [first name],
It’s nice to meet you! As [AE name] mentioned, I’ll be your success manager here at [your company name], which is just a fancy way of saying I’ll be your main point of contact moving forward.
Generally, I like to start off with an account kick-off call, but if you feel like you need more time to discover [your company name] that’s great too. When you’re ready to chat, please let me know and we can set up some time.
When to use this customer success email:
Got a new customer in your book of accounts? Use this email to say hello.
Threatened churn
Hey [first name],
I noticed that you haven’t been using [your company name] as much lately and wanted to reach out to offer a one-on-one review session with you. If you are interested in scheduling, please let me know by replying to me directly!
I look forward to hearing from you soon! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me for more assistance.
When to use this customer success email:
When your customers aren’t happy, see how you can help with this customer success email.
Want tips for the sales to customer success handoff? We collected advice from four customer success gurus. Check it out in our ebook on managing email for customer success teams.
Churn
Hi [customer name],
I noticed that you recently cancelled your account, and I wanted to reach out to see if there’s anything we could have done to make your experience better.
Would you be open to sharing why you decided to move away from [your company name]?
When to use this customer success email:
Churn happens. Use this email to reach out and get feedback on what worked and what you could improve.
Decreasing plan or users
Dear [customer name],
{{Ratio}} of our customers use [plan] and see [benefits of plan]. But it seems like it didn’t work out for you. We’d love to get feedback on your experience. Was there something specific you were looking for but weren’t able to find? If you’re interested in giving it another shot, we’d love to give you another week of [plan], on us! Just reply to this email to let us know.
When to use this customer success email:
When your customer downgrades, in their plan, in users, or in usage, send this email to see what’s up and if you can make it better.
Renewal introduction
Hi [first name],
It’s been [plan length] since you started using [your company name]! I wanted to reach out to say thanks for being our customer. I’d love to connect and see how you’re liking it, what we can improve, and how we can continue to help you meet your goals. Are you open to scheduling a chat to share these things with us and renew your contract?
When to use this customer success email:
Renewal is an important conversation. Send this email to make sure customers are happy and meeting their goals, so they sign on again.
Self-serve resources
Hey [first name],
I thought these might help with your question. Let me know if you want to talk it out further — I’m happy to hop on a call with you!
Community and Help Center [link]Introduction guide [link]Our 24-hour support line: [link]
When to use this customer success email:
Sending blog posts, linking to community pages, and attaching other resources in emails over and over is time-consuming. Instead, save this email so you can send resources quickly and accurately.
Want to share these with your team? Download a PDF of these templates.
Saving email templates in Front
With Front you can easily save messages as message templates with a single click, so you can easily send it again later. You can save message templates individually, and for your team, so if your teammate crafted a great message, everyone can use it, too.
Message templates can be a real game-changer for introduction emails, messages with links to resources, or customer issues you find yourself explaining often. Instead of grabbing attachments, formatting messages, and hyperlinking again and again, just type it once, save it, and grab it easily whenever you need it. If you think your teams could benefit from message templates, download some of our customer success email templates to make your customers happier!
Written by Emily Hackeling
Originally Published: 17 April 2020