Autorun code sent in an e-mail 1

[Shippwreck]

Hi everyone,

I have a "dangerous" question, as if i can do what i want to do, i imagine the same or similar code could be used maliciously. Anyway i'll get on with the problem and let you guys decide.

6 weekly i need to send an e-mail to around 40 people, with there bosses cc'd in. The e-mail is to inform them of a meeting that happens every month that is intended to help them do there job by giving them the chance to air views and discuss problems. These 40 people belong to 32 organisations so some go to more than one person in an organisation. We currently get roughly 20 responses and usually just over half that turn up to the meeting. This we consider to be extremely poor and wish to improve first the response rate and then the turn out.

Before anyone says it yes we have tried asking them for there opinions on the meeting anonymously and they tell us its worthwhile. We have tried changing times in case they are inconvenient, given them more warning (although it is a regular thing) tried asking them for input to the agenda of which we get very little response and tried changing the format at which we got the response "please go back to the old format as we get more out of it that way" Basically all the feedback we get is good but get no turn out.

So what i want to do is put some code in the e-mail that automatically reminds them to respond. Ideally it would stop them closing till they have, but i think that would be unacceptable. Is there a way to have a message pop up (similar to the one that tells you that a receipt will be sent to the sender saying you've read the mail) but that i can customize with my own message, and that preferably pops up on close not open.

Any ideas would be appreciated, however the solution would require no extra input from the user to run it other than the normal stuff you do to read an e-mail, ie open, read it close it. (so no buttons placed in the body of the mail saying press me or something similar.

Thanks for any help

Shippwreck

http://www.orlandoluxuryvilla-pool.com

 

[brd24gor]

To tell you the truth, I don't think it is possible to do what you want to do. If you wanted to do this internally, it could probably be done, but sending a message that executes code to other organizations would not be looked kindly upon by their respective IT departments. Imagine the havoc if spammers would be able to do this.

Any other opinions?

 

[TonyJollans]

Hi Shippwreck,

Part of your problem is that you are sending out e-mails 6-weekly for a monthly meeting - LOL.

I don't really think you can do what you want. You must remember that it is probable that out of 32 organizations not all are using the same e-mail client and any solution you come up with needs to use a common base, say Word. You could write some code that ran in an attached Word document which you might be able to sign and get agreement to run but that would involve recipients opening tha attachment at the very least.

FWIW, whilst I appreciate your plight, I'm not sure this kind of gimmick is the right approach. If people don't turn up to a regular meeting simply because of forgetfulness then a reminder (or two) close to the date ought to be sufficient - perhaps a 'phone call rather than an e-mail. If there is some other reason you need to know what it really is.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[Gavona]

If using outlook you can set a message flag before you send it. Enter a due date and a pop up will keep reminding them until they dismiss it. I think that this will work so long as they use outlook but haven't tested it outside our intranet.
Of course your customers may find such reminders really annoying - especially if they don't know how to deal with them!

Thanks,

Gavin

 

[Gavona]

If using outlook you can set a message flag before you send it. Enter a due date and a pop up will keep reminding them until they dismiss it. I think that this will work so long as they use outlook but haven't tested it outside our intranet.
Of course your customers may find such reminders really annoying - especially if they don't know how to deal with them!

Thanks,

Gavin

 

[Shippwreck]

Ah Gavin,

That sounds like an idea, i'm not particulary worried about annoying these people because they work for the same company, just different locations and they ALL use outlook so that cool too. Anyway i think these people need annoying because lets be honest if you had less than half the people reply to an e-mail asking if are they coming, (i don't even mind if they say no just any response is a start) you'd be unhappy

Thnaks for the solution

http://www.orlandoluxuryvilla-pool.com

 

[Gavona]

In which case...Meeting Request gives them a simpleway of responding with choices of accept, tentative, decline. And you can readily check their responses. Not sure if you can flag these in the same way but making it easier may be worthwhile. Also this puts the meeting in their electronic outlook diary. However if they decline then they don't end up with any record of the request if, for example a conflcting meeting is cancelled....

Thanks,

Gavin

 

[Shippwreck]

Yeah i have looked at these but i don't think they are strong enough alone, i think i'll try these and your first suggestion together.

Thnaks for all your help

Matt

http://www.orlandoluxuryvilla-pool.com