ARTICLE:
Technology Trends
Email Management & Defense Against
SPAM
We've all experienced it. Somebody,
somewhere in
the house or building plugs in a hair
dryer circuit overload and everything
goes black! Do you as an innkeeper,
ever feel that sometimes your technology
circuits are overloaded?
In other words, there are just too many
providers, software programs and computer
devices all vying to plug into your
business!
Many
times, our frustration with technology
perhaps stems from the underlying challenge
of managing these multiple circuits
of information. Probably one of the
most common and most irritating "overloaded
circuit" is the email inbox.
SPAM
Spam (unsolicited bulk, email advertising)
continues to flood our inboxes.What
is an innkeeper's defense against this
unwanted mail? Unfortunately, as reported
by Larry Seltzer in ZDNet Tech Update,
"The response to spam from the
software industry, ISPs and the government
gets a solid F." Which means innkeepers
need to use a combination of wise strategies
and tools available in anti-virus and
email programs to ward off unwanted
email.
ANTI-SPAM
TOOLS AVAILABLE
Norton and McAffee, distributors of
anti-virus software, both provide an
anti-spam program as well. This program
will scan mails before they reach your
email program and "kill" any
messages that match certain in-built
filters. These filters remove automatically
messages that contain certain headers
such as "Hot Deals" or received
from certain domains known to be "spamming"
web sites (e.g. winner.com). A tool
like this will likely reduce the amount
of spam you see, although not entirely
eliminate them. The tool is only as
good as its filters.
EMAIL
PROGRAM FILTERS
Most email programs include a Junk Mail
option that lets you mark any incoming
mail as junk mail. The program will
then add that particular sender to your
junk mail folder.
Any subsequent emails from that source
will be automatically dumped into a
Junk Mail folder.
SPAM
AND BUSINESS EMAILS
Another way to protect oneself from
spam is to create a separate email address
that is used very carefully and exclusively
for business use. This address should
NOT be
published on a web site, or ever used
when signing in to directory services,online
subscriptions etc. In other words, this
email address will only be given outon
a one-to-one basis to your guests and
colleagues.
A second
email address will be created exclusively
for purpose of logging into online subscriptions
as needed. But the innkeeper need not
activate this address in their email
program. MANAGING
EMAIL FROM YOUR WEB SITE
Encourage everyone to use a Check Availability
form to send you a message. If you use
online availability, the forms provided
are more than adequate to handle any
questions your guests may have. You
could still offer an email link and
simply redirect your guest to the availability
reservation request form.
Create
separate email address for reservation
inquiries. By creating a separate email
such as reservations@myinn.com, you
can also create a filter in your email
program that will automatically sort
all reservation emails into one folder.
This also helps improve response time.
MORE
RESOURCES
If you would like to learn more about
what is considered SPAM, and how to
defend yourself against it, visit http://spam.abuse.net.
This site includes information on what's
being done to reduce spam and how to
market responsibly via email.
