an email response application by Extreme Messaging
Frequently Asked Questions About Email Response Handling
-
What is email response handling?
Response handling is the act of receiving returned messages, categorizing them,
and taking action accordingly.
-
Where do returned messages come from?
The returned messages can come from one of three places.
-
The sending email server bounces the message back to the sending address when
the destination email server rejects the message or when the sending server is
unable to connect to the destination server.
-
The user may reply to the message. This could be an auto-reply (such as an Out
of Office reply) or an actual reply from the person.
-
The destination mail servers may accept the message and send the bounce back to
the sender later.
-
Why should I care about categorizing returned messages?
When you know the category of the returned message, you can take effective
action. For example:
-
User replies can be either actual replies from the user, which you want to read
and answer, or automated replies, (such as read receipts and Out Of Office
responses), which you should discard.
-
Users frequently try to subscribe or unsubscribe to services and lists via
email. These requests should be passed to your back-end subscription system.
-
Bounces (undeliverable messages) are returned to the sender in a wide variety
of formats and for a wide variety of reasons. You need to treat the bounces
differently, depending on the reasons.
-
Permanent address errors occur when the user is not found on the system. You
should remove these bad addresses as soon as possible to avoid wasting
resources generating and sending messages to them.
-
Transitory errors occur when, for example, the user's mailbox is full. These
problems should be recorded; and if they persist for some time, you should
remove the address.
-
Restrictions occur, for example, when you've been blacklisted or when the
administrator has restricted the length of the email messages they accept.
Restrictions often indicate problems with the message-generation system. The
system administrator should correct the problem quickly. These addresses should not
be unsubscribed.
-
How do bad addresses get into my system?
Bad messages occur because of either mistakes or change.
-
Users make typos. Requiring them to enter the address twice on the subscription
interface can help remove this source of errors.
-
People quit their jobs. The Bureau of National Affairs has estimated the
turnover rate to be approximately 1.3% per month.
-
People change Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Turnover of 1.5% per month is
considered excellent for ISPs. Some ISPs experience as much as 5% per month.
-
Why is accurate response handling important?
It costs time and money to generate messages. Therefore, unsubscribing bad
addresses is an effective cost-saving measure. On the other hand, unsubscribing
valid accounts causes angry customers, so miscategorizing messages as bounces
must be avoided. Finally, it is important to be notified of problems with the
messaging system quickly for two reasons: to prevent users from missing their
messages and to avoid being "blacklisted." Some mail systems (including AOL)
start to refuse messages from senders if the sender sends too many
undeliverable messages
-
Why should I buy an email response handler instead of
building my own?
-
It isn't as easy as it looks. Standards exist, but less than half the mail
servers follow them. To address this, ResponseMaster has more than 300 rules
for categorizing messages.
-
It requires constant monitoring. The rules must be constantly updated to keep
up with new mail servers, new versions, and new message restrictions.
-
Determining what address the message was originally sent to is just as hard as
figuring out what category the message belongs to.
-
The Internet does not observe national boundaries, so foreign language replies
(some in foreign character sets) are common. Even if the subscriber to your
service knows English, the subscriber's mail server may not.
|
|
