What triggers a triggered email?

• A. A scheduled daily batch.
• B. A manual request to customer service.
• C. An action taken (or not) by a website visitor or a change in customer behavior.
• D. A random time-based trigger.

Answer: (C)

Triggered emails are messages that fire automatically in response to a customer’s action or a change in their behavior. This means the system watches for specific events on the site or in the customer’s profile—like a product page view, adding an item to the cart, starting checkout, or a lapse in engagement—and sends the email because that event occurred or the behavior shifted. The timing and content are driven by real activity, making the message highly relevant to the recipient.

This approach contrasts with sending on a fixed schedule (a daily batch) where emails go out regardless of individual actions, or with a manual request to customer service (which is initiated by a person rather than triggered by customer behavior), or with a random time-based send (which isn’t tied to any action).