In Part 1, we discussed POP3 accounts, aliases and the nobody account. In Part 2, we will continue the discussion on email for the Pro Shop, with info on Auto-responders, Vacation messages, and web-based access.
Auto-responders
An auto-responder is simply an email address that, when an email is
sent to it, it automatically sends a composed email back. One of the
best uses for an auto-responder is for an email newsletter list, such
as this. For those of you that subscribed from the website, you should
have received an email that said you were subscribed to the Online Golf
Solutions newsletter. (Actually, this is set up with a CGI script, but
it is also possible with an auto-responder). If you ever decide to create
a newsletter for your course (and I strongly suggest you do), you could
easily set it up so when a person subscribes, an email is automatically
sent to them, thanking them for subscribing, and an email is also sent
to you, alerting you that another person has subscribed.
Vacation
Messages
A vacation message is, actually, a temporary auto-responder. If you
are not going to be able to answer your email for a few days or so,
you can have a message automatically sent out that lets people know
that you will be away. These are invaluable. There's nothing worse than
sending someone an email, asking for an urgent response, and then not
receiving anything for a week. It makes the sender wonder if there original
email got through, or if it got lost somewhere in the process. Should
they send another, or will they then look like a pest? From a business
standpoint, email should be responded to by the next business day. A
vacation message will cover your back if you'll be at a conference,
trade show, or even when you're on vacation (Who has time for those?)
Web-based
access
Web-based access means that you can read and compose email from any
computer connected to the internet. The first thing that comes into
most peoples minds are the companies that boast about this, such as
Hotmail, or Yahoo mail. Actually, if your web host is up-to-date on
technology, this should be available to everyone. If you have Online
Golf Solutions host your site, this is available. As an example, for
this site, all users who have an email address that ends with @onlinegolfsolutions.com,
can retrieve (and compose) their email from anywhere in the world, by
going to http://mail.onlinegolfsolutions.com:8383/ and logging on. This
is another way to check your email while away from the office. With
web-based email, you may never have to compose a vacation message (but
it sure is nice knowing it's an option). All of these options should
be available to you.
If you don't know whether you have them or not, ask your site designer, or, more specifically, whoever is hosting your site. If they are not available and you can see the obvious advantages of having them, consider switching your hosting company to Online Golf Solutions.
Submitted
by,
Dan Perry
Online Golf Solutions
http://www.onlinegolfsolutions.com/
Providing Internet services for the golf community including site design,
hosting, and promotion.
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