Why hard bounces hurt your reputation and what you can do about them

The intent of this article is to assist with email delivery by helping you clean up your contact list(s). You are reading this article because you either:

  1. Received a Hard Bounce Alert in your inbox stating your emails have experienced a high percentage of Hard Bounces for invalid email addresses or
  2. Found it while searching for help or it was linked to another help article.

If you received an Email Alert with the subject line "Important Customer Connect Message":

  • The email alert is sent when more than the industry standard of 5% of emails in an email submission were hard bounced. Note: Only one alert is sent per email submission.
  • The email is sent to the login email address associated with your Customer Connect account and includes the email name & the percentage of hard bounces. Note: The percentage of hard bounces on the Campaign Results page may increase by the time it's viewed.
  • Clicking on the links within the email navigates directly to the affected email in Campaign Results, if you are logged into NCR Customer Connect. If you log in after clicking the link(s), click on the email link again so it directs you to the correct Campaign Results. Note: Here are more details about bounced email data.

ISSUE - Too many hard bounces can hurt your reputation with ISPs.

COMMON CAUSES
  • Old contact lists which include contacts that no longer wish to receive your email or have forgotten subscribing to your business. Note: This also puts you at risk of sending to spam traps.
  • Frequent transcription/data entry errors at the Point of Sale or in import files.
  • Contacts that did not opt in, including improperly sourced lists (purchased, copied from directories, etc). This violates our terms of service, which may lead to account termination.
RESOLUTION
  • Send Reconfirm email for contacts that haven't interacted with any of your emails in 180 days
  • Inspect the source of your contacts for one of the common causes
  • Delete & unsubscribe contacts that haven't purchased in several years
  • Delete any lists that were purchased or copied from directories - Click here for instructions and review delete improperly sourced lists.
 
Note: If you have received an email alert for the Confirm or Reconfirm email campaign, these emails don't currently provide results. It's purpose is to inform you of a high number of hard bounces. Campaign Results for these emails will be provided in a future release.  
 
 
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