The Client-Annoying Spam Filter:
Though we all hate spam, there are systems out there that you just shouldn't use to control it in the real estate business. The ones that require the first-time emailer to go through a process of verification are going to cost you prospects, clients and money.It may be annoying and time-consuming, but you need a system that delivers your real estate email and allows you to determine what's spam and what's not. Don't make your customer do the job for you.
Not Knowing What's Being Stopped as Spam Can Cost You:
Another fairly common problem is the real estate agent who gives over control of their email to a spam filter, system or service and doesn't monitor what's being stopped.It may seem like double effort, but there isn't a perfect product or service out there. Good and important emails are sometimes stopped as suspected spam. It's critical that you look at all stopped emails on a regular basis in order to capture those that should have gotten through.
Attachment Limits and Non-Delivery are a Big Problem:
Especially with the free email services, bandwidth considerations cause the limitation of the types and size of attachments that will be delivered. In many cases you'll never even be notified that the email wasn't delivered.In a real estate business climate that is increasingly reliant on document delivery via email, you cannot afford to have your email system refuse to deliver documents from other agents, title companies, inspectors and others.
Storage Size Limitations are Stopping Real Estate Email:
This is a two-part problem. First, with systems that have size limits on the amount of email storage, exceeding those limits will cause your email receipt to cease. Be sure that your email is being removed from the server once you've received and dealt with it.Secondly, you simply cannot wait days or longer to check email. We are in a service business and the internet has caused people to expect a certain response in a very short time frame. The other risk is that letting it pile up could exceed your server storage limit and new emails will not be delivered.
Cost Should Not Dictate Your Email System and Practices:
Though we all need to watch our expenses in business, there are some areas in which we shouldn't be cutting costs. Today's world has made email absolutely critical to the real estate agent and broker. With possibly 20% of legitimate email not being delivered, it's imperative that we don't shoot ourselves in the foot and make the situation worse. Using a free email service usually imposes limitations on attachments, file and storage capacity. This will cost you business.The small amount you'll save using free email will likely cause much larger amounts of lost business in the future. Do everything in your power to select an email service or software that will deliver everything to you so that control of the process is in your hands.
