Eliminate “a_service_of@showroomexchange.com” from e-blasts

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If you’re not using a free web-based email service provider,* such as hotmail.com, outlook.com, gmail.com etc. (aol & yahoo are exceptions) i.e.; if you’re using your own domain similar to anyname.com, your_company_name.com or your_showroom_name.com, you can avoid sending e-blasts that say…

FROM: your_name@your_company_name.com (sent on behalf of a_service_of@showroomexchange.com)

and with a couple of steps, your e-blast recipients will see your YOUR address in the FROM field, without any mention of “a_service_of@showroomexchange.com”:

FROM: your_name@your_company_name.com

.

2 STEPS:

** The following instructions are technical. The person who maintains your registrar should be familiar with them. Alternatively, you can contact the registrar’s technical support team. **

STEP I:
Ask the person who maintains your domain name records to add the contents in the parenthesis #A to your zone file’s SPF record:

#A (include:mta.showroomexchange.com)
NOTE: (~all) is recommended instead of (-all)

If an SPF record does not already exist, one must be created.

If you’re not sure who your registrar is, visit www.godaddy.com/whois to look-up your domain name and look for the line identified with “Registrar“.

 

STEP II:

When the change is completed on your end, email help@readytoview.com. We will use the following tools/web-links to verify the same:

http://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html

Once verified, we’ll flip a switch on our end and ask you to logout/login once.
With your next login your e-blasts will originate from your company email address.

 

* related:

http://blog.showroomexchange.com/dmark-policy/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework

Manage Your Personalized Bulk Email Templates

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If you reuse the same content or design of a personalized-bulk-email (PBE) often, you can save it as a template.

Use the ‘Save’ option to recall your PBE for future campaigns.

To save your PBE for future reference, click the “Templates” button (as shown) after you have composed it. Choose “save as template” and enter a unique description (e.g.; Coterie Invitation) Next, click “submit” to save it.

 

pbe templates1

 

To retrieve a template you have saved, click “templates” and select “choose an existing template” as shown. From the next drop-down select the template you wish to re-use. Click “submit”. The content of the template will appear shortly thereafter.

pbe templates2

pbe templates 3

 

To delete a saved template, click “templates,” choose option “delete an existing template,” choose the template you wish to delete, and click “submit.”

pbe templates 4

pbe templates 3

Save Time with Shortcuts

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Check out these tips that will increase productivity

Search Symbols

Expand your filtering capabilities with just 3 symbols (e.g.; which of my customers in southern California have NOT booked a certain brand/mfr?)
Check out this other post to learn more…

Single Search for POs, Customers, Notes, etc.

With the search field at the very top-left of almost every page, you can search for your customers, contacts, order PO numbers, etc. all in one field
Check out this other post to learn more…

Mark Multiple Invoices as Paid

With this feature, mark multiple invoices with a pdate (paid date) at the same time instead of having to edit them individually.
Check out this other post to learn more…

Mark Multiple Invoices as Paid

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Some brands/mfrs often report their shipments and pay the showroom later.
You may enter the shipments as invoices and later update their pdate (paid date) with the check-date or the wire-transfer date.

With the “mark multi-invoices as paid” feature under the invoices tab, you can quickly enter in a single pdate for many invoices at one time, making update of these unpaid invoices quick and easy.

 

  • Click “mark multi-invoices as paid”

mark multiple invoices paid

 

  • Enter in the manufacturer at the top of the screen as well as the pay date (see below, 1)
  • Enter in the invoice PO #’s (2)
  • Click “save” to process the invoices you entered as paid (3)

mark multiple invoices paid2

You can also quickly copy a list of invoice POs from excel and paste it into the text field (see video below)

How to Block Exporting/Printing Reports and Other Information

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Admin users/reps can prevent regular users/reps from printing/exporting reports or other private information, such as commissions and customer information.

From “setup categories”, select “showroom users,” click on the name you wish to apply restrictions to, and confirm that certain check-boxes are selected/un-selected:

 

settings--- users

1) “Allow Print Report on Customer View” is unchecked (you might want to also consider the options below this one because they relate to exporting)
These options help prevent the user from printing information on the main tabs (e.g. orders, invoices, etc.)

block export_printing1

2) “Allow reports result to email” is unchecked.
This prevents the user from emailing report information.

block export_printing3

3) “Allow Export from Views” is unchecked.
This will prevent the user from exporting-to-excel on the main tabs

block export_printing2

4) “hide Print option on report result” and “hide Save As option on report result” are checked
This will hide the printer icon and the save icon for all reports.

block export_printing4

You can choose the options that best fit your showroom policy.

 

WE ALWAYS RECOMMEND THAT YOU SIGN-IN WITH THE NON-ADMIN — USER’S CREDENTIALS TO CONFIRM THE RESULTING PERMISSIONS MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

 

restrict printing customer info

Re-engaging Customers who have Unsubscribed from PBE

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The envelope (email icon) with a red dot under the manage column, denotes 1 or more contacts that have unsubscribed from your e-blasts (personalized bulk emails.)

unsubscribed

 

During your next contact with these customers, you can ask for feedback to reduce future unsubscribes. e.g.; What was the main reason for you to unsubscribe? Too many e-blasts from our showroom? Content was not right?

If they decide to subscribe again, send them the following link:

https://www.showroomexchange.com/MaintainSubscription.aspx

Once they submit their address, Showroom Exchange will send an email with their profile. They can then resubscribe to your e-blasts.

Map Customer Locations In Showroom Exchange

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There are two ways to show the locations of your clients on a map:

1) Google Maps is ideal for small pockets
2) Google Earth export works well with entire continents.

 

1) Google Maps

First, select the clients you wish to see on a map by filtering them on your customer page (e.g. by state or by zip). Once you have your selection, click one of the globe icons. A popup window of Google maps will then show the locations of all of your selections, their information, and even their latest purchases by mfr. Keep in mind, only customers with valid addresses (dark globe icon vs. light) are considered.

google maps

2) Google Earth

Similar to the first way, filter the customers you are trying to see on a map, then click on the Google Earth icon as shown.
You will be asked “include recent purchase summary?” If you intend to forward this to a brand/mfr, you should select No, otherwise, for internal use, it’s fine to select Yes. Doing so will download a file you can to open with the Google Earth app (a free, quick, and easy web download).

Though we like Google Earth, we have not found a way to turn off the graphical “terrain” which obscures the push-pins.

KML files are not limited to Google Earth, We recommend…

…alternate tools such as http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/
ANY tool that can import a Google KML file will work.

One helpful change for UMAP is to change the default push-pin icon to a Circle.

 

 

Reduce the Risk of e-balsts Getting Tagged as Spam

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When composing your Personalized Bulk Email [PBE], use the list of available fields on the right (see screenshot below) to personalize your email blast to reduce the chances of your email being marked as spam.

Spammers rarely personalize, as they do not have full customer details, so not personalizing shows a similar behavior and puts your e-blast in their category.

Related:

 

Personalizing Bulk Email