Frequently small businesses use free email rather than an @yourdomain.com email. Examples of free services are @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @tds.net or @charter.net. While these services may be a quick easy solution they can come with some consequences. Here are some things to consider:
Trust
Email addresses that have a domain that matches a website such as @disarc.com and disarc.com are trusted because they can be verified.
disarc@gmail.com is from someone at Gmail, going to gmail.com won’t provide you any information about this person/business
john.doe@disarc.com is from someone at Disarc, going to disarc.com will provide you with business information
Professional
Businesses that use their domain name for email look more professional. Anyone can create a free email account in a few minutes, but only a domain owner can create email for their business.
jd1disarc@yahoo.com doesn’t look professional
john.doe@disarc.com looks much more professional
Managed
This is the big one. When a business has multiple employees that need access to email, it needs to be managed. When an employee is hired or terminated what happens to email? If the address is a free account, are the messages accessible by the employee and the employer? Who owns the email account?
john.doe@disarc.com email is managed by Disarc. If John Doe is terminated messages can be retrieved and email can be rerouted.
johndoe112@yahoo.com email isn’t managed. If John Doe is terminated there might be no way to access the emails or inform clients that John is no longer with the company.
ISP Provided Email
If an ISP’s email service is used such as @tds.net or @charter.net what happens if your business changes providers or moves to a location where the provider doesn’t offer service? Most providers delete email accounts when service is disconnected.
Groups and Aliases
It is common for business to have an address like info@disarc.com or sales, support, etc. These addresses are a great idea when the person receiving the messages might change or if more than one person should get the messages. Managed email is needed to setup these types of addresses correctly. Also, name changes often create issues. For example if Jane Smith with the email jane.smith@disarc.com gets married and changes her name to Jane Doe an alias can be used to allow both jane.smith@disarc.com and jane.doe@disarc.com emails to be delivered to the same mailbox.
It’s not too late, if your business is currently using free email services contact us. We can review your current setup and provide migration services to move to reliable business class email.
