Recovering a password is not usually something a customer does for fun. The process of recovery should therefore be painless and fast. The email you send to reset the password (the “password reset email”) should therefore end up in the inbox quickly and do its job without too much fuss. In these best practices, we’ll teach you how to create a password reset email as efficiently as possible.
Why a “password reset email”?
There are a number of reasons why someone might recover or change their password. Often it is because the password is forgotten. That is why it is also referred to as a forgotten password e-mail. The reason we are deliberately talking about a password reset email here is because a password is also often changed for security reasons.
For example, user accounts are sometimes hacked. Surely you are familiar with the warning emails about a “Suspicious activity on your account”. Because the internet is full of people hacking accounts for malicious purposes, it is not surprising that a password is (often) changed. Companies often have a protocol for this: change the passwords for your most important accounts every x number of weeks.
Painless password reset process
Resetting a password for any reason is not something a user likes to do. It is therefore important to leave your entire reset process as smooth and safe as possible. The following applies to password reset emails:
- Deliver your email quickly
- Provide clear sender information
- Keep your content short and to-the-point
- Avoid sloppy mistakes
Fast Email Delivery = Quick Reset
The password reset email is pre-eminently the email you want to deliver the fastest. Of course, that applies to almost all your transactional emails, but especially given the nature of the situation, you want a user to be able to reset their password as quickly as possible. The longer you have to wait, the faster the irritation grows. A lost password reset email is guaranteed to result in a phone call or email to customer service.
The best tip for getting your password reset email to your inbox as quickly as possible is to separate transactional email from your email marketing activities. Having your transactional emails delivered by a specialized platform, such as SendPro, has many benefits for your delivery speed and inbox placement.
Clear sender details (and other details)
Resetting a password can be a serious business. Although it is often due to forgetfulness, there are plenty of cases where a password needs to be reset for security reasons. It is therefore important that it is already clear in the inbox that it concerns your brand or product and that it concerns a password reset email.
Send & reply-to address
The shipping address you use depends on the brand or product for which a reset is requested. In the example above, it’s straight-forward: Flowmailer is our brand name and our product name. But of course there are also examples of organizations that offer multiple software products with different login portals. In that case, apply the name of the specific product to your shipping address.
The same applies to the reply-to address. Where can a recipient go if they have questions about the process or want to email about an issue? Clearly show where comments are going and indicate that contact can be made via a certain email address. A password reset e-mail with a no-reply address can be experienced as a nuisance.
Your name, your logo, your style
In addition to showing sender details, you can also gain the trust of your recipient in the styling of your email. Therefore, instead of a bare-bones email with a reset link, send an email in your style and with your logo. This way, you not only let them know with words that it’s a legitimate email, but also with your design, like this example from Netflix:
source: Netflix via reallygoodemails.com
Who requested the reset?
Another important aspect of password reset emails is addressing the recipient by their (user) name. This inspires the trust that is important when the recipient has not requested a password reset. When you send a generic email, it is more likely to be ignored (for fear of phishing links). Therefore, always address the recipient personally.
Only here to reset a password
Always remember that there is only one reason that your customers or users request a password reset email: to reset their password. While many transactional emails still leave room to cross-sell and upsell, a password reset email does not. There are therefore two things that you should definitely apply in the content of your password reset email:
- Keep your content short and to the point
- Make the next step clear
Short and concise text
Your recipient doesn’t want to have to scroll a bit before they get to the password reset button. Therefore, make your content as short and concise as possible. Make it clear in a few sentences what the email is all about. Of course, your design can be tailored to the situation, as in the example of GoDaddy below. Yet the message remains clear and the recipient does not have to scroll. It is immediately clear which brand it is, what the login address is and what the purpose of this e-mail is. That’s all that needs to be in a password reset email.
source: GoDaddy.com via reallygoodemails.com
Clear next step
To complete the process as quickly as possible, you’ll want to make it as clear as possible what the recipient needs to click on or what to do with this email: change the password, or contact your customer service.
Change Password
The easiest and most visual is a button in your email that directs the recipient to the reset page. It is therefore best practice to make it large and clear, immediately visible when opening the email. This way, the recipient can click through to the landing page even without reading the other content.
Some senders choose to only include a link in the email. That’s a great option, as long as this link is on a line that doesn’t have anything else around it. An unobtrusive link hinders the reset process and automatically leads to frustration. So, do you choose to only include a link? Then make sure there is white space around the link.
source: simplenote.com via reallygoodemails.com
Not requested?
It sometimes happens that your recipient has not requested the reset themselves. Sometimes a colleague who wants to log in to the same account does this, but sometimes it is also someone from outside. It is therefore always good to mention the location from which the reset was requested and to mention what someone should do, if they have not requested the reset themselves.
More emails in the password reset process
Many password reset processes only consist of the “forgot password?” button and the password reset email. However, there are more emails you can send in the process of setting up/resetting passwords. For example, you have:
The “suspicious login” email
Large companies such as DoorDash are a popular target for hackers. To protect accounts as well as possible, you can use Two-Factor authentication, but if a user does not have this enabled, you will have to have an alternative.
The “suspicious login” is a notification to the user that their account has been logged in from an unknown IP address or location. Was it the user himself? Then in some cases you can ‘whitelist’ an IP address. Was it someone else? Then you can request a password reset via this e-mail.
Inspiration for this type of emails can be found at Really Good Emails »
Your password has been changed!
After changing a password, you will often see a message on the reset page that changes have been saved. In addition, an additional confirmation is sometimes sent via email, for the same reason as the previous example: suppose it was not the user himself.
This email has the simple message that the password has been reset and that the user can now log in with it. It is often written underneath: “Wasn’t this you? Please contact us”.
Do you also want to create good ‘password reset’ emails?
With our software SendPro, we are happy to help you with this. Request a free trial or schedule a demo.
