Monday, April 21, 2014

James Explains: No No-Reply


Whenever I start thinking about a no-reply from address, in any sort of email message, it gives me severe anxiety. My heart starts pounding and I swear, I can hear the Jaws theme song…Duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.

 

So, let me explain: No-Reply from address

Anyone with an inbox has seen this before. In fact, its commonplace. It usually looks something like this: no-reply@thebusinessname.com.

There are several sensible reasons to use a no-reply address when sending commercial messages. Some do it because they do not want to bombard one team member with hundreds of out-of-office replies. Common as this is, the practice is generally disliked by email recipients, myself included.

Why? No-replies feel impersonal and convey a certain arrogance. They also come across as uncaring to customers and limits your engagement with them. After all, you are asking them to take the time to read your messages, and with a no-reply email address, you are blocking any feedback from them

So, what can you do?  Set up a proper from address (click here to learn how) and respond quickly to any inquiries you receive. Good or bad, this is an extension of your customer service. Still, it’s important to use a real email address, if only for the sake of being personable and polite. If there is a better, more reliable way to contact your company, display that information prominently inside your message.

Special thanks to JangoSMTP Account Executive, Erica Melzer, for helping me with this post!

Cheers,

James The Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoSMTP






About James
James the Jangolope is our JangoSMTP mascot. Each month, look for our new “James Explains” emails and blog posts on transactional email advice, trends, and quick tips. James will offer insight on how to improve your SMTP plan and how to use your JangoSMTP account to the fullest  
We want to hear from you. Have a topic you would like James to cover? Email us at marketing@us.jangomail.com with the subject line: James Explains. Follow James on Facebook

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Protect Your Fleet with JangoSMTP



By: Erica Melzer
Account Executive
As the mother of three young children, I am already losing sleep over the thought of Cooper, Chase, and Amelia driving real cars on actual roads. Still, their coming adolescent years are very real things that I will eventually have to face. Like it, or not.

It's a well-known statistic, at this point, that car crashes are the leading cause of teen death in the United States. What you may not know is that, according to Geico, one in five 16 year-old drivers will be involved in an accident during their first year on the road and most of these, as with all types of accidents, will be speed-related.

When the time comes, I plan to monitor what my children do with their cars using GPS tracking. There are several in-vehicle monitoring devices and programs like OpenGTS that will send an email to my husband and I when one of our kids exceeds the speed limit or travels outside of their approved radius or “geofence.” These devices can also record and send a kid's exact routes, stop times, speeds, and more. A few of the tracking systems can even send us a warning message if our teen driver's seatbelt is left unbuckled.

Fortunately, I don't really have to start worrying about this for another 10 years or so (like that's going to stop me.) If you have a teen driver on the road already, you can use JangoSMTP to send alerts like these to your email address or smartphone today. Click here and find out how OpenGTS and JangoSMTP can help you keep an eye on your teen driver.

There is also huge potential for the commercial use of similar devices and programs. Trucking companies and businesses in service-related industries can keep track of their trucks and vans, keep their drivers safe, and lower their insurance premiums by installing devices into each of their fleet vehicles. Whether you plan to track your vehicles at home or keep an eye on your own fleet, JangoSMTP can provide the relay server you need to make the whole thing work and keep everyone safe.

JangoSMTP can be used with any device or program that requires an SMTP server to relay messages. If you have questions about setting something like this up, call 888-465-2646 between 7 AM and 7 PM (US/EST) Monday – Friday, and talk to one of our knowledgeable Support Reps. That's right, our free trial accounts get phone support, too!