Our email delivery platform sends millions of emails a month and has a 99.7% delivery success rate. If you're seeing this, we're sorry that you're in that 0.3% experiencing issues!
Historically email was simple system but as more bad actors starting using it for spam more systems had to be put in place to prevent spam. Email delivery today, especially as a 3rd party sending emails on your behalf, is a very complex issue.
We do everything we can on our end to ensure deliverability by allowing verification of our identity, including all the modern standards of domain authentication (DKIM, SPF), link branding, and more. It's impossible to achieve 100% delivery rate as a third-party sending on behalf of clients, so we take great pride in our high delivery rates.
For those that do not get delivered, here are a few reasons why:
Your email address
If you're using a Yahoo.com, AOL.com, or other antiquating email address, be aware that they do not allow other 3rd-party systems to send on your behalf (like Spectora!) You'll need to use another email address like Google Workspace and then update it in Settings->User Options.
Spam
If you are hearing from a client or an agent that emails aren't making it through, first ensure they aren't going to spam. While this still counts as a "delivered" email, it's not ideal. Here are some things you can do to prevent winding up in the spam box.
Bounces
Most bounced emails are a result of an incorrect email address. Usually once verified and corrected everything is fine!
Other reasons for bounced emails are generally due to the recipient's email provider settings or configuration.
People using cheaper or non-major email providers can be subject to rate limits, quotas, or full mailboxes, resulting in emails not being delivered.
We often see smaller agencies or old agencies using self-hosted email services. They might have contracted an IT guy or local company to set this up and they haven't kept up on the latest trends in email verification. Some reject any email sent by a 3rd party on your behalf outright. (Note they will still receive emails you send directly since that is different!)
Dropped
When emails are bounced, we add that email address to a suppression list to ensure we don't try sending to them again. This would reduce our reputation score and increase risk of future delivery issues. When you see "dropped" as an email status, this is due to that email being on a suppression list. Contact our chat support to get it removed once you've verified the recipient has resolved the issue!
What you can do
Because it's almost impossible to achieve 100% deliverability and you have no control over the recipient's email provider, the best question to ask is "How do you ensure you are reaching your clients in multiple ways?"
We encourage everyone to make use of our automated text messages that you can send to every client and agent.
*Note - this is only available for inspections, not for Mass Emails.
When you get notified of a bounced or dropped email, just copy-paste the content and email them directly from your email platform (like Google Workspace, formerly G Suite.) This will ensure they receive it. Next, you can alert them that their email system isn't set up to receive your emails.
If your recipient informs you that they have corrected the issue, let us know to remove that email address from a bounce/suppression list and we'll make sure we try to send to them again in the future!
