Email metrics
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-09-20 06:18:43 - Graham EllisHow many emails do YOU get each day? How many of them are unsolicited bulk emails that you throw away without evening opening them, or have your server reject? A long time ago, I wrote a PHP script that gives me a quick traffic graph looking back a number of weeks so that I can spot a changing pattern / sudden spam flood at just a few clicks. See here. ((PHP Programmers - the page also give you the source code of how we do this if you want to adopt a similar tactic))
Our emails are filtered by "Spam Assassin" which is an open source product supported by our ISP. By using a shared server, updates that are applied to spam assassin (such as data tables to help it recognise new forms of spam) are automatically added in to our account and we don't have to employ a staff member to do regular updates. However, we have tailored a preference file so that certain people and certain words in the subject line are always allowed through - "White listed" in the jargon. We've also set the preference file up so that it errs on the side of caution - emails that it suspects to be unsolicited and bulk but if doubtful about still get forwarded to us.To give you an idea, around 1400 emails were received and rejected automatically by our server computer in the last 24 hours. An additional 900 or so were NOT rejected but were forwarded to one or more of us - that's the four of us, plus a couple of customer and family accounts. (The sample graph may show a different story as it's from the live site!) I'm guessing that in all that, I get a dozen or two emails a day from customers and contacts that I need to answer, plus about the same number of internal emails and perhaps 20 to 40 standard notifications and a handful of personal messages. That's why it's so easy to miss the odd important one and it will get worse as we start getting hotel booking enquiries in volume; I expect many people who are not "techies" to use very poor titles.
There's no easy way to avoid missing the odd important email - I nearly missed a quote request on Monday as the subject line was the name of the company who wanted training and at first glance I thought it was a suggestiion that I invest in their stock. So the headlined, non-personal email addresses on our main web site that people should use for a first contact send to four members of our team and everyone does a quick check - a series of saftey nets if you like.
But at the end of the day ... Dear Customer, dear contact ... if you email us and we don't reply within 24 hours, please write again. Your email and your business IS important to us.