Overview
Email Verification is an optional feature for loyalty programs that requires all members to take additional action to verify their email address during the sign-up process prior to their account becoming fully registered.
There are benefits and drawbacks to utilizing this feature that should be considered prior to making the decision to implement it as a part of your program. Review the contents of this article to help make the right decision around this feature for your brand.
What are the benefits of Email Verification?
This feature was designed to help the quality of the emails associated with your loyalty program, by ensuring that the member has a valid email address prior to giving them full access to the program. If the email provided by the registering member is invalid or incorrect, they will never receive the verification and will be unable to complete the registration process.
For those accounts that did verify, that immediately drops the likelihood of that email address hard bouncing, increasing your brand’s sender reputation with email service providers. You can also choose to limit marketing campaign eligibility to fully registered and verified members, which generally increases campaign result accuracy by removing members that would have never seen or received your communications in the first place.
What are the drawbacks of Email Verification?
There are also several drawbacks to consider with this implementation. One is that this generally slows down the process of creating or registering an account. With this enabled, every user is required to navigate to their email inbox to click a link as an additional step to creating an account in your program.
Most users will complete this extra step, however, it’s important to anticipate that there will be members that provide their valid email address but never open or click on the verification email that they received after completing registration. These accounts with valid email addresses are then stuck in an unvalidated state, preventing them from functioning as a registered member of your program. This can lead users to drop the program altogether or to a frustrating consumer experience if the member tries to use their new account and is then unable to earn points or redeem rewards. This case can lead to an uptick in customer service inquiries. Customer service should instruct the user to log in to their account from the guest website and resend the verification message, this resend of email verification functionality is not currently available for your customer service representatives to trigger on the users’ behalf.
Another potential case to consider is if users create temporary inboxes and email addresses to bypass email verification. There are many options online that offer this service for free. A temporary email account is still considered valid by Paytronix if that inbox can receive the email verification request, and the user can click on it. While the email and account become verified in this case, it defeats the purpose of requiring verification by allowing fake email addresses to create accounts in the program.
If you choose to turn off email verification at any point after having it enabled, those accounts that registered while it was enabled will still require verification to be considered fully registered. If you need Paytronix to bulk register these accounts that request could carry a cost to implement depending on the specific situation and the number of accounts impacted.
How do I configure a Verification Email?
You will need to create a Verification Email to get this feature configured. This email is sent from the system to the email address provided by the member on the sign-up form to verify their email address.
To create an email, navigate to the Marketing Tools > Email Tool > Create New Email
The email will require an Email Verification substitution parameter. You can add it by linking it via text box:
You will then need to mark this email as Saved and Approved.
The final step is creating a Campaign Message Template. You can get here by navigating from Marketing Tools > Campaign Message Templates.
You will need to name your campaign message template appropriately to help identify it, specify the Event Type of ‘Registration – Email Verification Required`, and select the Email Template you’ve created in Email Builder:
To finalize the configuration, you will need to submit a request to Paytronix by emailing[email protected]or opening a new case via the Help Center. You will need to provide a summary of your request in turning on Email Verification, and provide the name of the campaign message template you’ve created.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q-Email verification isn't currently turned on, will turning this feature on require all existing members to verify?
A-No, turning this feature on only requires new sign-ups to verify. Existing members are grand-fathered in as verified.
Q-What does an unverified account look like in the Customer Service view?
A-There is a note that the account is not email verified. You will see account information like email/first/last/etc., but the registration date will be set to None.
Q-Is it possible to override an email verification via Customer Service?
A-The only workaround available to Customer Service is to register accounts 1 by 1 via Customer Service tools. Find the account and click register. This will require an overwrite of the password on the account, but it will clear the unverified status.
Q-I need to turn off email verification and verify loyalty accounts in bulk, what is the process for this?
A-You will need to submit a request to Paytronix by emailing [email protected] or submitting a case through the Help Center. Turning off email verification does not carry a charge, but bulk verifying accounts may. This will be scoped by the configuration specialist assigned to your request and carry a one-time cost to implement.
Q-What does the email verification prompt look like on the guest website for unverified members?
A-See screenshot below.
For additional assistance, please contact your solutions consultant or customer success manager, or email [email protected].