Making email look trust worthy

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Shayd

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Hi guys.

My company is automatically sending out mails to recipients of shipments now, as we are having a hard time getting in touch with people via phone calls. This is causing us to clear shipments slower than we would like to.

I have made sure that the mails are structured in such a way that they look as legitimate as possible. They use the company logo and provide specific unique details about who we are contracting. They don't ask for any details to be mailed back to us but do ask for the recipients to give us a call and provide the details we need to clear the shipment.

How else can I make sure that the emails are taken seriously by recipients? What do you guys look out for to filter spam from legitimate mail? Your help would really be appreciate.

I hope I put this topic in the right place, if not, mods can you move it to the correct place please.
 
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The problem is likely not the "trustworthy" but rather the "automated" part...

e.g. I've got filters set up that move & store a bunch of automatic stuff without me ever seeing it.
 
It is quite possible that the mails never reach an inbox and is seen as junk. To avoid this make sure your mail server is whitelisted and trusted by the major relays. I'm not 100% how to do this as we use sendgrid and they do a lot of this for you, but it can be done.
 
HavocXphere said:
The problem is likely not the "trustworthy" but rather the "automated" part...

e.g. I've got filters set up that move & store a bunch of automatic stuff without me ever seeing it.
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hmm. so you would auto filter stuff with a noreply address etc?

what if this was information you needed? what do you recommend we do?

the trouble we are having is that it can take multiple phone calls or long periods of time to eventually get the person we need on the phone.

you will be surprised how often the contact details we have for a recipient is John and a switchboard number with the delivery address at a company like ABSA. email is pretty much the only reliable way to get a hold of the person in this situation.
 
Shayd said:
hmm. so you would auto filter stuff with a noreply address etc?
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ah no...I filter very specific mails that are of no use to me but I'm "required" to receive.

Shayd said:
what if this was information you needed? what do you recommend we do?
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If they really need the info but don't read it...well you can't fix stupid. If their spam folder catches it...that you can address but you can't make them read anything. People get a billion mails a day...not even all the 1:1 communication gets read let alone company mass mails.

Can you perhaps share a bit more as to what is being communicated here? Does it require a response?
 
Basically we are saying.

Good day X.

We have shipment y coming in for you. We need to get some info so we can clear it through customs for you.

Please give us a call with this info on 098641 or alternatively we will try call you later on.

The intention is really to get the person to give us a call so were can clear it ASAP. We recently calculated that the average shipment takes over 3 outbound calls before we are successful at getting the info we need. This is wildly inefficient but because of all the spammy call centres selling you stuff, nobody answers numbers they don't recognise.

Needless to say, if I can get the people to call me it will speed things up immensely.
 
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Shayd said:
Basically we are saying.

Good day X.

We have shipment y coming in for you. We need to get some info so we can clear it through customs for you.

Please give us a call with this info on 098641 or alternatively we will try call you later on.
Click to expand...

Quick question, why don't you allow them to just replay with the info?

Also how many of these do you send a day?
 
Frikkenator said:
Quick question, why don't you allow them to just replay with the info?

Also how many of these do you send a day?
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We don't want scammers catching on to the fact that clients send their ID numbers etc via email to us. So we are avoiding that avenue altogether. Plus very often customs wants other information and this is best relayed directly as it can be tricky getting the permits etc.

I am hoping that we can eventually point clients to our website and have some custom coding in there but that requires global approval and not easy to achieve.

We have only started sending the mails this evening. So at this point probably no more than 100. Will most likely be a few hundred by morning.
 
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Frikkenator said:
Another thing, if you offer to call me later on you can be 101% sure I'm going to ignore the mail and see if you do call.
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We will call. That I can promise, but I can assume you will be more likely to pick up and have the info I need in the first call if you have received a mail before hand. We are not trying to eliminate the outbound calls we just want them more effective and our overall turn around time to improve.

Still the mail makes no commitments on when that call will be so if you start getting antsy about your shipment you can call in :-)
 
Shayd said:
We will call. That I can promise, but I can assume you will be more likely to pick up and have the info I need in the first call if you have received a mail before hand. We are not trying to eliminate the outbound calls we just want them more effective and our overall turn around time to improve.

Still the mail makes no commitments on when that call will be so if you start getting antsy about your shipment you can call in :-)
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I don't doubt that, thing is I'm a lazy bastard, so if someone offers to do something for me I'm sure as hell going to let them.
 
Shayd said:
We don't want scammers catching on to the fact that clients send their ID numbers etc via email to us. So we are avoiding that avenue altogether. Plus very often customs wants other information and this is best relayed directly as it can be tricky getting the permits etc.

I am hoping that we can eventually point clients to our website and have some custom coding in there but that requires global approval and not easy to achieve.

We have only started sending the mails this evening. So at this point probably no more than 100. Will most likely be a few hundred by morning.
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If it is stuff like that then pointing them to a web site is even more dangerous. A few hundred are fine, but mail servers don't like a server sending more than a couple of thousand an hour.

All and all the email looks fine to me, but get yourself on the whitelists, never use the word free, never use ALL CAPS anywhere and you should be fine.

Oh, and perhaps add a signature of sorts, to make it look more personal, i.e.

Regards,

Real person's name
Company name
All contact details
 
Shayd said:
Basically we are saying.

Good day X.

We have shipment y coming in for you. We need to get some info so we can clear it through customs for you.

Please give us a call with this info on 098641 or alternatively we will try call you later on.

The intention is really to get the person to give us a call so were can clear it ASAP. We recently calculated that the average shipment takes over 3 outbound calls before we are successful at getting the info we need. This is wildly inefficient but because of all the spammy call centres selling you stuff, nobody answers numbers they don't recognise.

Needless to say, if I can get the people to call me it will speed things up immensely.
Click to expand...

You thought about sms instead?
 
Encrypted/secure certificate. Domain has spf/domainkey registration.

Though sms would me miles better imo
 
Hey guys. System went live today. I have been toying with the idea of removing the "we will call you" element to incentivise clients to rather phone in.

Thanks for the help. I have no doubt we will keep tweaking it as time goes by.

Anybody got some smart ideas on how to communicate with someone automatically when all we have is a landline number?
 
Shayd said:
Hey guys. System went live today. I have been toying with the idea of removing the "we will call you" element to incentivise clients to rather phone in.

Thanks for the help. I have no doubt we will keep tweaking it as time goes by.

Anybody got some smart ideas on how to communicate with someone automatically when all we have is a landline number?
Click to expand...

Sometimes your SMTP server may be labelled as a source of spam if you share the IP address with other companies or the address belongs to a host which is not very active at fighting spammers.

When it comes to customs contacts, FedEx, TNT and DHL usually call. They have the email or at least in each case the merchant has it yet they always call asking the stupid importer's code or ID number.

SA is one of the few countries in the world where the government is so nosy they want you to have a license to import more than 3 items per year. And this tyranny gets tolerated because the Racists set it up this way previously and it suits the govt. Police state.
 
Like psy said, dkim your domain. It essentially white lists it.
 
I might be a little late on this reply or given a stupid idea but, if you have all your clients contact details hopefully(cell numbers) why not get an sms system in place. Sending message to all clients that needs your attention and telling them you will contact them soon as you require immediate details from them to clear their freight or shipment.

I had the same issue a few years ago, and i got a sms system that tell clients that we haveba shipment and need info. 80% of my issues with getting holh of a client was gone as they expected my phone call.

Hope this makes sense.
 
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