Your Dolphin E-mail Caught In Spam Tuna Net?

Let me ask a couple of questions:

• If (potential) customers sends an e-mail to your company, do they want to receive an answer?

• If you, in return, e-mail your customer, do you expect that your e-mail is delivered to the customer?

Well, in my case, I answered "YES" on both questions. After all, the customer asks for an answer, so it's normal to expect that when you send an e-mail in return, that the customer receives it.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

It is highly important that you get this point, so let me rephrase that:

If you send an e-mail to a customer that the customer wants and expects, it may be that (s)he never receives it!

I've investigated this issue, and the cause of this is the filtering of e-mail by the ISP of the customer, to prevent unwanted SPAM (unsollicited e-mail) to make its way into their mailbox. But not only genuine SPAM is filtered out. Even e-mail that the customer wants (and often expects) to receive, may be caught up in this filter. It's happening so often, there's even a term for it: "false positives".

Sometimes this stays unnoticed, because the customer doesn't get a mail telling her that it was filtered out. Or you don't get a reply from the ISP/filter that your mail didn't pass.

Your "dolphin" e-mail can essentially be caught in SPAM filter "tuna nets".

This can impact businesses on many levels:

• Potential customers do not convert into real customers, because they never "heard from you".

• Unhappy customers as they "never get an answer on their support requests".

• Unhappy Customers that don't get the info / product they paid for (download instructions for digital products are often delivered by e-mail)

When this happens, the customer usually points the finger to the business...

...YOUR business was not responsive;

...YOUR business didn't resolve the customer's issues;

...YOUR business did not deliver!

But, of course, you are not to blame. You responded! You resolved! you delivered! It's the customer's ISP that didn't deliver. An e-mail your customer wanted, and expected.

Mistakes do happen. But sometimes, ISP's and mail service businesses have no interest in righting what went wrong. And since they are not blamed, they get away with doing nothing. But in the mean time, your and my business is hurt by this.

So, it is time to point customers in the right direction. If more and more customers know where to complain if they do not get the e-mail they wanted, chances are that the ISP and/or mail service are forced into action.

There's a lot an ISP or mail service can do. Customers should have the possibility to "whitelist" you. A "whitelist" is a list of e-mail addresses or domains from which the customer allows mail to continue, even when the filter thinks it's "junk". One option that's not an option is to ask customers to switch off the filter. SPAM is just too big a problem for this.

Another company that have taken the heat for filtered mail is SiteSell. They're blamed for not delivering as promissed, because their e-mail was filtered out. And they hit a wall of unresponsiveness when they tried to right this. Or was it that their requests were filtered out? ;-)

As they understood how this is hurting their business, and many other businesses around the globe, they decided to take action, and point customers in the right direction when wanted e-mail doesn't make it into their mailboxes. So they created the "Deliver my mail!" initiative, which I fully support.

I invite you to join them and me. Read more about "Deliver my Mail!" on: http://deliver-my-mail.sitesell.com/sls.html

Let's take a stand, and educate customers on what to do if they do not receive e-mail they really wanted to get. Let customers demand:

"DELIVER MY MAIL!"

About The Author

Erwin Steneker is a senior support consultant with over 13 years of experience in both sales and IT support. Check out his website at http://www.customerservicepoint.com/

When 'Viagra' Comments on Your Blog, and Other Spam Red Flags PCWorld Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, actually created a spam blocker for WordPress called Akismet in 2005, partially so his mom wouldn't be assaulted by Viagra ads while writing her blog. Today, spam blockers do a good job of nabbing most spam, ... and more »

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2012 review PC Advisor Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2012 starts out with traditional modules, including AV protection, an improved firewall, a spam blocker, parental control, a system tuner, protection against data theft and 10GB of online storage.

WatchGuard Breaks Quarterly Billings, Profit and Units Shipped Records MarketWatch (press release) Currently, WatchGuard offers seven add on security services for XTM appliances, including: Application Control, WebBlocker, Gateway Antivirus, Reputation Enabled Defense, spamBlocker, Intrusion Prevention and LiveSecurity. and more »

NEWS ROUND-UP: The latest from WatchGuard, Compuware, and Island Pacific ARNnet WatchGuard currently offers seven add-on security services for XTM appliances: Application Control, WebBlocker, Gateway Antivirus, Reputation Enabled Defence, spamBlocker, Intrusion Prevention, and LiveSecurity. Technology performance company ... and more »

Tucson victim stalked for nearly 2 decades Tucson Citizen ... in consequence of which she tells numerous falsehoods to create the illusion of danger, purely to get someone incarcerated for up to 10 years merely because she doesn't want to use the spam blocker of her e-mail address account,” Shepard wrote. and more »

When 'Viagra' comments on your blog, and other spam red flags Computerworld New Zealand Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, actually created a spam blocker for WordPress called Akismet in 2005, partially so his mom wouldn't be assaulted by Viagra ads while writing her blog. Today, spam blockers do a good job of nabbing most spam, ... and more »

Gothamist

After Stalking Woman For 18 Years, Man Faces Five Year Sentence Gothamist ... conscience or both, in consequence of which she tells numerous falsehoods to create the illusion of danger, purely to get someone incarcerated for up to 10 years merely because she doesn't want to use the spam blocker of her e-mail address account. and more »

Demand for business security 'at an all-time high' TechDay.co.nz ... core SMB market is 'solid', the company is experiencing 'accelerated demand' among mid-market and enterprise organisations, Robertson adds. Users are also increasingly taking up add-on services, such as Application Control, WebBlocker and spamBlocker.

ITespresso.fr

Sécurité IT : l'éditeur WatchGuard veut séduire les TPE et les PME ITespresso.fr ... sécurité spécifiques comme le WebBlocker de WatchGuard (blocage des sites Web malveillants et des contenus Web inappropriés), le spamBlocker ou encore le Reputation Enabledd Defense, un service cloud de protection contextuelle contre les menaces.

Anti-Spam-Lösung für Unternehmen erhält Update IT-Business ... das Reporting und Backups für geschützte Exchange-Cluster zentralisieren. Die Anti-Spam-Lösung ist Teil der Unternehmenslösung Kaspersky Open Space Security. Neben dem reinen Spam-Blocker gehören auch Antivirus-Funktionen mit zum Lieferumfang. and more »