Clients don’t know their 'IFA' spam filters are on

In the world of communications it has been proven the text message is the first to be responded to, followed by email. Most people expect a response from an email within two working days.  

Email is now viewed as a legal form of communication and therefore it is important to respond to them even if it is just an acknowledgement of receipt.

However, this technology is letting some of the IFA industry down and it may be you!

As we have discovered, more and more of the internet service providers have put on in the last month additional spam filters on email systems with the word(s) ‘Financial’ in. Clients have not been informed of this addition.

So whilst you think you have given a prompt and efficient service to your client’s, please check, because some are not receiving them and they are going into the ‘junk’ file. Now this leaves us open to the usual jokes suggesting that this is all we produce anyway (Ha, ha). But this is becoming a big and serious issue especially when clients may be sitting there thinking we are not interested or too busy as they haven’t received a response to their requests.

We are usually (and sensibly) required by compliance to put on all our emails who our directors are, our registered offices, our company registration number, our FSA number, and finally that we are regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Unfortunately there is the problem; the word ‘Financial’ is the word that the spam filters are looking for.

You may well be in the clients “white list” but this does not seem to prevent your email either going straight to their ‘junk’ items or their deleted items, or not being delivered at all. At least with the non delivered email you will get an email saying that it has not been delivered. But when it is sitting in a junk file, spam file or deleted items file you and your client may be unaware of the issue.

So what should we do? Our only saviour in this is the read and delivery receipts that we can put on emails to check it has been delivered to the recipient and then read by them. But if you work in a busy office this may not be a good solution for you.

The reality is that we should now not rely on email alone. So ignore this message at your peril.

Keith Churchouse is director of Churchouse Financial Planning.

The views expressed are those of the author and not those of the company he represents.