Where e-mails with "noreply" in the address sometimes end up....
Okay. You've taken the photos, you edited down the number to something reasonable, you've done your post processing and made them look incredible and then you put them in a folder and sent them off to your expectant client with your favorite transfer app. For me that application is WeTransfer.com. We use the service all the time. You can upload up to 2GB of files for free or you can upgrade to their Plus service for $120 a year. That gives you unlimited storage and 20 GB uploads instead of the 2GB limitation.
All good and well. You access the service and upload your stuff. Then you get an e-mail that makes you feel like you've done everything right and you're on your way to HappyClientVille. The e-mail confirms that you uploaded everything correctly and that the service has sent along notification to your client with a link that will allow them to download your treasures. You're home free....
You move on to your next project.
But then you hit the seven day mark and you realize that, if you are using the free version of the upload software and your client has not yet downloaded those beautiful files, then they have been deleted and you are back at square one. Yikes. That means your client; the one who has been expecting to hear from you for over a week, is probably wondering if you've forgotten them or just fallen off the face of the earth.
You re-upload all your work and send it again. But this time you also send a personal e-mail to the client, as well as a text, letting them know to expect the e-mail from WeTransfer.com and to remind them to download within seven days.
And you'll probably almost instantly get a response from the client who lets you know that neither the first volley of e-mails nor today's are anywhere near their mailbox and absolutely not in their spam folder or their junk mail folders. Now you have a conundrum on your hands.
The issue is the "noreply" word in the apps e-mail notifications. It can trigger a number of e-mail systems to prevent those addressed e-mails from even being presented to the mail box. The bigger and more I.T. intensive the company the more likely it is that this will be the cause of your issues.
The short term work around is to copy the download links from the confirmation e-mails that you get when the files are successfully uploaded and sent and then put those into an e-mail from you to your client. And then follow up with a text or a phone call.
The client should be able to use the download links just as they would if the links were coming directly from WeTransfer.com. The files get downloaded and everyone gets to move on with the project.
The larger fix is to put the "noreply@wetransfer.com" into your White List in your e-mail program. But after your client does that they may still not receive their e-mail notifications because the sender, Wetransfer.com will probably have complied with the law and placed the client's address in a "bounce list" which prevents them from continuing to "ping" the client's e-mail server.
If this has happened you need to walk your client through the process of getting off the bounce list as well. Here's what you need to do at Wetransfer.com https://wetransfer.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/208584016-I-don-t-receive-your-confirmation-email-anymore
I was traveling all of last week and didn't do my usual follow up so Murphy's Law was immediately invoked and now I'll spend time unraveling the consequences. But it's good to make sure your client got your stuff ---- otherwise you really aren't finished with the job and are in NO WAY ready to send an invoice. Clients are always happier to pay your invoice AFTER they are sure they got what they asked for....
That's what I've been up to today. No reflection on my client or their e-mail security but a ding on my own personal record for prompt follow ups and client service. Mea Culpa.
3 comments:
I thought you were just using smugmug? This method seems to have a whole host of problems.
I would love to use Smugmug for everything. But Smugmug doesn't support Tiff files. And my client wanted Jpegs AND tiff files. I have used Wetransfer.com to send thousands of files to dozens and dozens of clients and have never had a problem. There was only one problem here and that was a filter placed by the client's I.T. department on her e-mail. The support from the (free) Wetransfer.com service was almost immediately and in short order the client had her files. Any real fault lay with me not following up in a day or two after sending the first volley to make sure she could access them, or that she had seen the original e-mail. "A whole host of problems.." I think that's a wild exaggeration.
Plan B: Drop Box
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